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Right Climate for Discussion

News Clippings Senator Fielding, The Ballarat Courier, August 08 2009

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Climate change is no longer a topic of conversation only for scientists and radical green groups. Suddenly it’s an issue discussed around the family table. Climate change has hit centre stage and carbon dioxide is the new villain which needs to be caught and punished, or taxed if you’re talking about the Rudd Government’s Emissions Trading Scheme.

But throughout all the talk and hype over climate change, one thing has been missing from the public arena. Debate. Debate over whether the science behind human-induced climate change is even correct. So far the discussion has been grossly one-sided. To question the science means public ridicule. It carries a stigma and labels you a ‘sceptic’.

Scientists have been maligned in the media as fear mongers and backwards. Their views have been treated with contempt. Anyone who dares so much as even question the issue of human-induced climate change is shouted down and discredited. Free and fair debate, the very thing which we thrive on as a democracy, has been shut down.

Will Ballarat’s Climate Change Forum on August 8 be different? Will it explore both sides of the debate, both sides of the science and tell us the true economic and household cost of an ETS?  Will it feature a balanced array of presenters? Sadly, many forums are blatantly one-sided but I hope Ballarat’s Climate Change Forum will be an objective one. Far too often, these “forums” designed to inform our communities are hosted by companies which have a business interest in climate change, run by people who stand to profit from the carbon-cutting.

Until recently, I, like most Australians, simply accepted without question the notion that climate change was a result of increased carbon dioxide emissions. That was until someone asked a question of me that I could not answer.

When I was told that carbon dioxide emissions have gone up since 1995 but global temperatures have not gone up I was left dumbfounded. How could I, as a Federal Senator, vote for legislation that will carry with it such a high price yet not answer such a simple question? If carbon dioxide is a problem, why have global temperatures not been going up in recent years in correlation with escalating CO2 emissions?

To hear the other side of the argument I spoke to a cross-section of scientists in Australia and even went on a self-funded trip to Washington to investigate further the science and facts behind climate change. I quickly began to understand that the science on this issue was by no means conclusive. I heard views which challenged the Rudd Government’s set of ‘facts’. Views which could not be dismissed as mere conspiracy theories, but which were derived using proper scientific analysis.

I want to know why Climate Change Minister Penny Wong is so confident carbon emissions are driving global temperatures when over the last decade carbon emissions have been rapidly increasing, but according to some scientists global temperatures have not been rising. Has the government considered the question of whether climate change is a new phenomenon or something which is just part of the naturally occurring 1500-year climate cycle? It is these sorts of questions that I believe need to be answered before any emissions trading scheme can be properly considered.

I truly believe that if the government so desperately wants us to vote for its climate change legislation, a bill that could change Australia forever, it should at least be able to answer some simple questions that convince all of us that CO2-driven climate change is a reality and not a craze.

As a Federal Senator it is my job to question, explore and investigate and when I have done all that, to cast my vote based on an informed decision. As an engineer, I have been trained to listen to both sides of the debate in order to make an informed decision about any issue. I cannot make a decision based on popular opinion, emotion or hype.

What this ETS really is, is a multi-billion dollar tax on businesses and on Australian working families. This tax will need to be paid by someone and it will be millions of ordinary Australians who will end up footing the bill.

It will devastate industries across our entire economy and lead to thousands of hard-working Australians being sent to the growing dole queues.

I absolutely believe we should be taking better care of the planet we live in. I agree partly with organisations like forum host the Ballarat Renewable Energy and Zero Emissions group and think we should be changing the way we live and developing the use of renewable energy that is in abundance in our country.

I believe we need to adopt more efficient systems, like Family First’s Container Deposit Legislation for better recycling which would be equal to taking 350,000 cars off the road and save eight billion litres of water every year – enough to fill the Beijing Olympic swimming pool 20 times.

But I do not believe in putting Australian jobs, families and whole towns on the line without real debate on the science. I urge the people of Ballarat to decide for yourselves.

Don’t let celebrities, the media or radical green groups decide for you. Don’t let climate change activists intimidate you into believing something which they cannot prove. If the science supporting human-induced climate change was so conclusive, it wouldn’t require bullying tactics, it would speak for itself.