The letters page of The Canberra Times of Saturday 4 January 2014 was ripe with the stench of climate denial.
I replied with this:
What a fine festival of facepalmworthy foolishness on climate (Letters, 4 January). H. Ronald of Jerrabombera led the pack with a re-run of the well-worn myth that there has been a “pause” in warming. This was repeated by Stephen Jones of Bonython, with a confused side reference to another long-debunked myth on tropospheric temperature anomalies, before wheeling out another deniers’ favourite, the claim that climate models “cannot reproduce observed changes”. Both referred with approval to Maurice Newman’s ludicrous spray earlier in the week, as did Owen Reid of Dunlop, who weighed in with a one-liner on the “mythology” of global warming.
There is no pause in warming. Climate models are remarkably effective at their job. If you rely on the climate-denial blogosphere as your trusted source of information (in which case, more fool you), try reading http://bit.ly/tempjigsaw for a glimpse of what’s really happening out there.
By all means, weigh in on the climate debate, but be aware that among people who have bothered to inform themselves to a basic level, the debate is about the most effective and efficient ways of dealing with climate change. That the current crisis in climate is real, human-caused and serious is very old news.
Matt Andrews