Dr Jarrod Gilbert is a sociologist at the University of
Canterbury and the lead researcher at Independent Research Solutions. He
is an award-winning writer who specialises in research with practical
applications.
There is no greater crime being
perpetuated on future generations than that committed by those who deny
climate change. The scientific consensus is so overwhelming that to
argue against it is to perpetuate a dangerous fraud. Denial has become a
yardstick by which intelligence can be tested. The term climate sceptic
is now interchangeable with the term mindless fool.
Since the
1960s, it has been known that heat-trapping gasses were increasing in
the earth's atmosphere, but no one knew to what effect. In 1979, a study
found "no reason to doubt that climate changes will result and no
reason to believe that these changes will be negligible". Since then
scientists have been seeking to prove it, and the results are in.
Meta studies show that 97 per cent of published climate
scientists agree that global warming is occurring and that it is caused
by human activities. The American Association for the Advancement of
Science compared it to the consensus linking smoking to cancer. The
debate is over, yet doubt continues.
For decades, arguments
denying the harms caused by smoking were made. A tobacco executive once
said: "Doubt is our product since it is the best means of competing with
the 'body of fact' that exists in the minds of the general public. It
is also the means of establishing a controversy."
Such doubts can
be highly effective, particularly if they allow people to support
agendas that are politically or economically useful to them.
One
person who has managed to successfully merge expert and popular opinions
is English physicist Professor Brian Cox, whose books and television
programmes explain complex scientific phenomena in highly accessible
ways. He recently said that ignoring best evidence and turning against
experts is "the road back to the cave".
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/climate-change/news/article.cfm?c_id=26&objectid=11681154
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