Sydney Morning Herald
Tuesday 15/6/2010 Page: 6
REPRESENTATIVES of scientific organisations, including the CSIRO and the Bureau Of Meteorology, will meet today to discuss better communication of the science behind man-made climate change as the political and public consensus on global warming crumbles. The conference in Sydney, organised by the Federation of Australian Scientific and Technological Societies, is part of a long-term effort to develop a "national communication charter" for major scientific organisations and universities to better disseminate the evidence for climate change. Australia's chief scientist, Penny Sackett, will address the conference, and those attending will include representatives of the CSIRO, the Bureau of Meteorology, Australian Academy of Science, the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency.
Public scepticism of and apathy towards climate change has risen in Australia in recent years. A Lowy Institute poll showed that the number of Australians who wanted action on climate change immediately had dropped from 68% in 2006 to 46% this year. The president of the Federation of Australian Scientific and Technological Societies, Cathy Foley, said that while scepticism was rising, the scientific evidence of man-made climate change had not changed and it was sad people were less trusting of scientists.
Dr Foley said a well organised and funded climate sceptics movement had increasingly captured public's attention: "We are concerned the debate around climate change has become a left-wing versus right-wing debate, or a kind of religious argument, when it should really be about the strength of the scientific evidence." Dr Foley said the conference was not about politics or "brainwashing" the public. Many scientists have expressed frustration about the shift in public mood on climate change after the failed Copenhagen climate change summit last year.
The failure came as damaging emails between scientists at the Climatic Research Unit of the University of East Anglia were leaked and the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change admitted it had wrongly stated most of the Himalayan glaciers would melt by 2035 because of global warming. In response, in March the CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology published a snapshot report on climate change showing Australia had warmed significantly in the past 50 years and saying that, "Climate change is real." The government - which has postponed its emissions trading scheme until at least 2013 - committed $30 million for a "national campaign to educate the community on climate change, including on climate change science, in the budget last month.
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