Antinuclear

Doubters frustrate climate-change expert Canberra Times, November 3, 2012 Larissa Nicholson After more than two decades researching the health consequences of climate change, Tony McMichael admits it has been frustrating to see policy makers and even other scientists unable to comprehend the scale and scope of the looming human problem.

Professor McMichael is part of the group Climate Scientists Australia and has taken an active role in talking to parliamentarians and their staffers about the consequences of climate change. ”We’ve a particular civic and moral responsibility beyond our position as scientists, to find a way of getting this information more widely understood and acted upon,” he said…..

. Professor McMichael said with the many different factors influencing humans’ health it was often difficult to pinpoint blame for deaths on climate change, but patterns were becoming clearer as time went on. ”There has been an increase, year by year, decade by decade, in the number of deaths that are occurring in hot periods in summer, those periods are occurring a little more often and a little more severely, and that’s been widely reported in many countries,” he said.

But Professor McMichael said he was still optimistic that humankind
could rise to the challenge of dealing with the problem, firstly
because their large and complex brains enabled them to imagine the
future, and secondly because if scientists did good research and
communicated it, it would motivate people to pressure governments to
act. ”The things that are at stake here are the biological and, of
course, mental health of human populations; that ought to be a
compelling point,” he said. : http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/doubters-frustrate-climatechange-expert-20121102-28pug.html#ixzz2BCKqXf4g

November 3, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | General News