Dear Editor:
It is with dismay and anger that I read yet another climate denier letter in the Wellington Advertiser.
At a time when the latest IPCC warnings have become absolutely dire, giving us less than 12 years to get our emissions under control to prevent catastrophic climate impacts, publishing climate denier letters with long discredited talking points is irresponsible and a disservice to future generations, including my two young grandchildren.
They deserve a future, and in publishing this drivel, the Advertiser is helping contribute to the destruction of their future.
Roy Spencer is a well known part of the 3% of scientists that dispute the 97% global consensus on climate change, and his scientific papers can’t even get published anymore because they can’t pass peer review. No reputable climate scientist takes his views seriously, and all of his arguments have been debunked.
Publishing this disinformation is irresponsible because it leads to the incorrect impression that it is a valid viewpoint, and that there is a real debate about the facts of climate science. There isn’t; 97% of climate scientists and the national academies of science of every developed country on the planet agree with the IPCC that man made climate change is an existential threat to mankind, and reducing emissions of greenhouse gases like CO2 is absolutely urgent.
Given this, publishing any discredited denialist material is destructive, but certainly it should comprise no more than 3% of articles or letters on the subject. What is the “balanced” percentage in the Advertiser? Come on, Advertiser, our grandchildren deserve better.
Doug Prest,
Kenilworth
