Really, I thought our Maurice did a great job of slamming himself but Fairfax has made sure of it:
The Abbott government’s chief business adviser Maurice Newman’s latest contribution to the national debate urges us to prepare for global cooling. Global warming has supposedly paused for the past 18 years and Newman’s preferred scientific advisers believe we are now entering a long-term cooling phase. His argument neatly highlights a fundamental failure in our national governance.
All the evidence indicates that the world is warming far faster than previously expected, the major cause almost certainly being human carbon emissions from fossil fuel combustion. Warming has not paused for the last 18 years. The oceans, where the bulk of the energy entering the Earth’s system is stored, have continued warming at an accelerating rate. That is the view of the vast majority of informed climate scientists, virtually all competent scientific institutions such as the British Royal Society, the US National Academy of Sciences, the Australian Academy of Science and supranational bodies such as the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, International Energy Agency, as well as the United Nations itself, through the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which has conducted probably the most extensive scientific investigation ever undertaken.
…Contrary to Newman’s view, successful campaigns by the denialist lobby and fossil fuel vested interests have ensured that we are ill-prepared to handle the global warming that is already a major economic burden to Australia. It’s time our response was managed by an independent national security body independent of party politics and its acolytes. Global cooling – if only!
Ian Dunlop was formerly an international oil, gas and coal industry executive, chairman of the Australian Coal Association and chief executive of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. He is a member of the Club of Rome.
