It's feared that the wildfires currently wreaking havoc through Russia could worsen global warming.
Credit: AFP
SYDNEY: Trying to set the record straight on climate change in the middle of a hotly contested national election, the Australian Academy of Science has taken a stance and produced a report that tackles the critics of the science.
“Climate change is not science fiction,” said Suzanne Cory, president of the academy at a press conference in Canberra announcing the launch of their publication The Science of Climate Change: Questions and Answers.
It was written and reviewed by 16 of the country’s foremost scientists across a range of disciplines, including oceanography, climatology, geology and physics.
Knowns and unknowns
In the booklet, the scientists highlight what is known with certainty, while “including a frank discussion on the uncertainty,” added Cory.
The document, one of the clearest statements on climate change yet produced, is designed to be scientifically rigorous but aimed at general audience.
According to a statement by the academy, the document aims to “address confusion created by contradictory information in the public domain.”
Politicians don’t know what’s safe
During the current election campaign, both the Labor government and the Liberal-National conservative coalition have sparred over climate change, with some politicians expressing doubts about the science.
A University of Queensland survey of more than 300 federal, state and local government politicians in Australia released in early August 2010 found that almost 70% of politicians believe human-induced climate change was occurring.
But it also found more than 40% thought a increase of 4˚C was ‘safe’ - despite scientific warnings that a global temperature increase of just 2˚C or more could be dangerous.
Widespread confusion
It also found widespread confusion about what climate change really meant: 75% believed the Great Barrier Reef is threatened by global warming, but only 55% agreed that ocean ecosystems were also threatened – even though the Great Barrier Reef is part of the ocean's ecosystems.
Written and produced over seven months, the booklet was scheduled to be launched today as part of Australia’s National Science Week – which now just happens to coincide with the last week of a federal election where climate has become a hot-button political issue.
It is based on extensive research into the records of the Earth’s distant and recent past, climate models and the known physical principles of greenhouse gas, the document intends to explain the current situation, and outline where the questions and certainties lie in the scientific community.
Ignorance
The ignorance of our politicians is exceeded only by their egos.