First, I should briefly state my position on the theory of Anthropogenic Global Warming.
Climate change is natural and has been going on since the earth was first formed. Rapid change in climate represents a genuine threat along with pandemics, nuclear war, tsunamis and the like. However, the case for anthropogenic CO2 forced global warming remains uncertain, and the Kyoto protocol is a wrong response anyhow.
This is a crude summation of a much more complex set of views. Therein lies a problem. We sceptics have different degrees of skepticism, based on widely differing critiques. The climate catastrophists share a single common conviction.
Victoria University’s recent conference on Climate Change and Governance provided a platform for the single-minded catastrophists, and was a huge success – probably beyond the organizers’ wildest dreams.
The organizers selected their speakers to be sure they would all sing the same tune from the same hymn book. They forthrightly refused to invite any speakers who might challenge the claim that human induced climate change is the biggest threat facing the planet – or maybe even us. It’s hard to tell from the loose terminology.)
Because of this near unanimous chorus of doom, our news media and other commentators took the bait and declared that there is now absolute consensus or unanimity that “the science is settled” and that the only remaining debate is what to do about “it” and when. If only life were that simple.
