The following letters were published in the Bairnsdale Advertiser on 16 August and are re-published here with some small editorial changes.
1.Under the headline ‘Wake up to Madness’ in last week’s Advertiser Have Your Say section, the author denies that climate change is happening. I heartily endorse the headline, but not the letter’s content. Mary Robinson, former Prime Minister of Ireland recently wrote “I believe that climate change denial is not just ignorant, it is malign, it is evil…The evidence about the effects of climate change is incontrovertible, and the moral case for urgent action indisputable”.
Local action groups, like East Gippsland Climate Action Network and the Extinction Rebellion are working to ensure that government policies change to reflect the emergency of global warming. I for one will be supporting the students and others participating in the Schools Strike 4 Climate protest planned for September 20 in Bairnsdale as one step in advocating for effective policies. Tony Peck Bairnsdale
2.I am writing to respond to the recent letter denying the role of CO2 in global warming. While I am sure the author has strong opinions… I wonder what he understands about science and the scientific method.
When I want medical advice I see a GP who draws on hundreds of years of scientific knowledge to advise me. Some people choose to ignore this accumulated knowledge and believe that vaccinations are a conspiracy by governments and the United Nations and cause autism. They believe this despite all scientific evidence to the contrary.
Climate science relies on the advice of meteorologists, physicists, glaciologists, geologists, oceanographers and many other sciences to reach their conclusions and they use the same scientific method which informs our GPs. Have all those thousands of scientists around the world and across many disciplines got it wrong? Or does the writer believe that there is a worldwide conspiracy involving NASA, the Bureau of Meteorology, the United Nations and every major scientific organisation in the world?
If I get a pain in my chest I have a choice. I can rely on medical science to investigate and treat a potentially life threatening condition, or I can ask some bloke with strong opinions but not much scientific training. Mark Kilpatrick Bairnsdale
3.In response to J*** M*********’s letter published on August 8 – we have no time for climate debate. Our efforts are best devoted to working together to create the safest planet using the smartest solutions – and to do it in a way that avoids economic chaos as well as environmental chaos in the challenge we all face. Robyn Hermans Clifton Creek