Peter Bromhead: Anthropogenic global warming issues

Cartoon / Peter Bromhead

On yet another dreary commuting foray to North America, I had the opportunity to converse at length with an eminent climate scientist over anthropogenic global warming issues.

My flight companion was part of an international climate change panel, and was homeward bound to New York after consultations with the Australian Government.

Obviously, it was pointless for a bewildered old cartoonist to try to verbally outrun somebody professionally clued up on his subject - even when my companion's viewpoint appeared disturbingly contaminated with doctrine that leaned heavily on ideology rather than absolute fact.

Climate alarmists appear to be re-emerging in strength, after licking their wounds following the debacle of the Copenhagen Climate Summit.

This is most noticeable in the resurgence of doomsday news releases, with carefully managed media darkly recording that wobbles in the world's temperature are solely due to man's folly.

Much of this propaganda has been directed across the Tasman, no doubt to help Julia Gillard's struggle to seduce Australians into swallowing a carbon tax.

Unlike New Zealanders - who appear more malleable when it comes to accepting vaporous concepts - Australians appear sceptical about their Government's proposals to hijack what many believe is an expensive fiction.

Possibly the reason Aussies don't buy into carbon tax is because they have all read their fellow countryman's admirably comprehensive book, Heaven and Earth: Global Warming, the Missing Science, by Professor Ian Plimer.

This volume, with thousands of scientific references on every aspect of climate change - through the history of the planet - is a must-read for those bewildered by climate contradictions.

Global warming is factual, but is more about our solar system's normal progression than man's infinitesimal contribution, according to Plimer's rationale. His evidence is buried in the planet's geology, which clearly demonstrates that climate change is an ongoing natural phenomenon. One of the startling facts is how few times Earth has had ice caps.

Grapes grew as far north as Scotland during the "Roman warming period", followed by the "Little Ice Age" lasting from 1300 until the early 19th century. Now we're warming up again, it's as simple as that.

Yes, the climate will change and affect the environment. But don't be fooled by irrational guilt-fed ideology that appears to be closer to wacky religious beliefs than scientific reality.