How to deal with Climate Change Denialists (aka Climate Change Sceptics) .
In dealing with climate change denialists (or indeed with people advocating smoking, drinking and obesity or opposing safe sex, vaccination, antibiotics, cancer screening and blood transfusions etc) we need to resort to extraordinarily well-credentialled scientific authority. Thus, for example, the umpteen-Nobel-Laureate UK Royal Society has been associated with the following 3 key documents relating to the urgent need for action on man-made climate change.
1. “Climate change controversies: a simple guide” (2007): http://royalsociety.org/Climate-change-controversies/ , quote: “This is not intended to provide exhaustive answers to every contentious argument that has been put forward by those who seek to distort and undermine the science of climate change and deny the seriousness of the potential consequences of global warming. Instead, the Society - as the UK's national academy of science - responds here to eight key arguments that are currently in circulation by setting out, in simple terms, where the weight of scientific evidence lies.” [In short, we as individuals can’t all re-invent the wheel, go back to university, do Honours Physics, a PhD, postdoctoral research, and decades of further cutting edge research on climate change – we must rely on the expertise of top climate science experts].
2. J.E.N. Veron, O. Hoegh-Guldberg, T.M. Lenton, J.M. Lough, D.O. Obura, P. Pearce-Kelly, C.R.C. Sheppard, M. Spalding, M.G. Stafford-Smith and A.D. Rogers Royal Society Working Party on Coral) , “The coral reef crisis: the critical importance of <350 ppm CO2”, Marine Pollution Bulletin, vol. 58, (10), October 2009, 1428-1436: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6V6N-4X9NKG7-3&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=1072337698&_rerunOrigin=google&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=6858c5ff7172f9355068393496a5b35d , quote: “The coral reef crisis: the critical importance of <350 ppm CO2”, Marine Pollution Bulletin, October 2009: “Temperature-induced mass coral bleaching causing mortality on a wide geographic scale started when atmospheric CO2 levels exceeded about 320 ppm. When CO2 levels reached about 340 ppm, sporadic but highly destructive mass bleaching occurred in most reefs world-wide, often associated with El Niño events. Recovery was dependent on the vulnerability of individual reef areas and on the reef’s previous history and resilience. At today’s level of about 387 ppm, allowing a lag-time of 10 years for sea temperatures to respond, most reefs world-wide are committed to an irreversible decline. Mass bleaching will in future become annual, departing from the 4 to 7 years return-time of El Niño events. Bleaching will be exacerbated by the effects of degraded water-quality and increased severe weather events. In addition, the progressive onset of ocean acidification will cause reduction of coral growth and retardation of the growth of high magnesium calcite-secreting coralline algae.” [In short, atmospheric CO2 is currently about 390 ppm and increasing at about 2.5 ppm per year. We cannot destroy what we cannot replace; extinction, let alone mass extinction, of species is totally unacceptable. According to Levin & Levin (2002) the current animal species extinction rate is 100-1,000 times above normal: http://www.soc.duke.edu/~pmorgan/levin&levin.2002.the_real_biodiversity_crisis.html].
3. Royal Society Statement on Climate Change, 15 February 2010: http://royalsociety.org/Climate-Change/ , quote: “International scientific consensus agrees that increasing levels of man-made greenhouse gases are leading to global climate change. Possible consequences of climate change include rising temperatures, changing sea levels, and impacts on global weather. These changes could have serious impacts on the world's organisms and on the lives of millions of people, especially those living in areas vulnerable to extreme natural conditions such as flooding and drought.
Please use this information in dealing with climate change denialists - simply refer them or their audience to these 3 Royal Society-related documents.
You should also make a point of establishing the scientific credibility and, specifically, the climate science credentials of the Climate Change Denialists with whom you are dealing .
The World is running out of time for dealing with man-made global warming - and uncredentialled Climate Change Denialists should be efficiently sidelined as suggested above.
Please tell everyone you can.
Dr Gideon Polya. Melbourne, Australia (Convenor 300.org: http://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/Home ; for detailed, referenced articles on the Climate Emergency also see the following websites: “Climate Crisis Articles”: http://sites.google.com/site/climatecrisisarticles/ , “Biofuel Genocide”: http://sites.google.com/site/biofuelgenocide/ , Yarra Valley Climate Action Group”: http://sites.google.com/site/yarravalleyclimateactiongroup/Home , “100% renewable energy by 2020”: http://sites.google.com/site/100renewableenergyby2020/ , “Cut Carbon Emissions 80% by 2020”: http://sites.google.com/site/cutcarbonemissions80by2020/ and “Climate Genocide”: http://sites.google.com/site/climategenocide/ ).