A Christian Climate Change Believer Puts the Case for Australia’s Action on Climate Change
How do climate sceptics respond to the cloud of witnesses for global warming? By denying the full body of evidence…
A carbon price will mean a rise in household budgets but there will also be compensation in the form of tax cuts or payments. Ninety percent of Australians will actually see compensation higher than the price increases.
As a general rule of thumb, a household with a combined income of less than $100 000 will probably be better off under the carbon pricing scheme.
Eternity 16 Aug 11, John Cook a leading campaigner on climate change and, yes, a Christian too, puts the case for taking action.”…….Just as an Old Testament judge required multiple witnesses, scientists look for multiple sources of evidence. Our understanding is considered robust when scientists have found independent measurements all pointing to a single, consistent conclusion.
On the question of global warming, natural witnesses are found in our climate. Warming is directly measured by thermometers scattered across the globe, which find that the two hottest years on record were 2005 and 2010.
In addition, we have many natural thermometers painting a similar picture. Ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica are dissipating at an accelerating rate, shedding hundreds of billions of tonnes of ice every year. Scientists are observing tens of thousands of species shift towards cooler regions. Arctic sea ice is melting faster than even the worst- case predictions. Even tree-lines are shifting in response to warming temperatures.
How do climate sceptics respond to the cloud of witnesses for global warming? By denying the full body of evidence. A common claim is that we haven’t seen warming over the last 15 years. To do this, they ignore the witness of the ice sheets, the testimony of shrinking glaciers, the evidence of shifting seasons and the inarguable fact of rising sea levels.
Selective cherry-picking occurs in arguments against climate action. There are two important aspects to the price on carbon pollution. A carbon price will mean a rise in household budgets but there will also be compensation in the form of tax cuts or payments. Ninety percent of Australians will actually see compensation higher than the price increases.
As a general rule of thumb, a household with a combined income of less than $100 000 will probably be better off under the carbon pricing scheme.
So how is it some claim we’ll have to pay hundreds of dollars extra each year? By only giving half the picture – that is, by failing to mention the compensation. There’s a Yiddish proverb that states “a half-truth is a whole lie”. When someone only focuses on one aspect of the carbon price without mentioning compensation, they’re painting a misleading picture.
The chief argument against wind power is that wind at a single location is intermittent and unreliable. But this doesn’t give you the full picture. Wind power isn’t designed to come from a single location but from wind farms geographically distributed across regions with different wind regimes.
To say climate action in Australia won’t have a global impact underestimates our country’s significance. Australia is one of the top 20 carbon emitters in the world (we actually come 16th). While the world’s countries as a whole extract 19% of their electricity from clean energy, Australia is lagging behind with only 7% of our power coming from renewable sources. Consequently, Australians emit more carbon pollution per person than any other developed country.
The crux of climate change for Christians is the poorest, most vulnerable countries are those hardest hit by global warming.
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