The Real Climate Change Sellout - from Engineer to Fear
17 June 2009
Greg Combet the government's former parliamentary secretary on climate change has been a vocal supporter of the theory of human induced climate change and has recently come out saying he is 'determined' to see the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) pass through the senate as quickly as possible.
It is interesting the divergent paths Greg Combet a mining engineer, who was raised in the NSW Hunter Valley and another engineer Steve Fielding have taken. Fielding, an independent senator who holds the balance of power in federal parliament, like myself, is neither a climate sceptic or extremist, he is however - like all good engineers - open minded. Fielding is taking a risk based approach to his viewpoint and making himself aware of all the facts, not simply media driven hype. It is interesting how journalists are now openly coming out saying that a majority journalist a dangerously partisan on this issue and are essentially negligent in their duties. The media's berating of Steve Fielding upon his questioning of the science behind the CPRS is totally appalling and verges on defamatory. All he has done is ask for answers to questions which journalists are too ideologically blinded to ask.
Both Greg Combet and I grew up in the wine industry and both of us completed a degree in mining engineering at UNSW. His electorate of Newcastle will be affected greater then perhaps any other in Australia when Carbon becomes taxed, as profit margins in the collieries of NSW are generally smaller compared to the collieries of Queensland. With his training as an engineer and a constituency which is at the coal face of this debate it defies logic that Combet has not availed himself of all the facts in this debate. Combet continually refers to the UN inter-governmental panel on climate change (IPCC) as irrefutable evidence that man is inducing climate change. Yet the world is cooling, there is more ice in the Antarctic than ever, whilst even the arctic is now well within its median ice thicknesses. In fact this northern summer has just seen the 3rd slowest ice melt since satellite recording commenced in 1979. Contrast this irrefutable evidence with the IPCC and their 'scientific models'. Every model the IPCC has ever produced has been horribly inaccurate and yet this is the information government use to substantiate their argument?
Other members of the labour and liberal party I do not blame for believing in man induced climate change as they do not have the scientific training, are in electorates which believe in climate change and they know it is a politically popular position to hold. Yet Greg Combet has no such excuse. He needs to make himself fully aware of all the facts as all good engineers should. If he has forgotten what makes a good engineer he should speak to Steve Fielding.