A NIELSEN poll released on November 25 shows that 87 per cent of people want to see Australia take stronger action on climate change than the target proposed by the Coalition.
Sixty thousand people out on the streets demonstrating for effective climate action is a good indication of how Australians feel about the most important issue facing the world.
And yet there are those who would deny the reality of climate change and go to great lengths to manipulate the debate.
The biggest climate change denier in Australia is the Institute of Public Affairs, the right-wing think tank with very close links to the Liberal Party.
The Institute of Public Affairs in turn has close links with the Heartland Institute, also a right-wing think tank, in the USA.
The Heartland Institute publishes four out of every five climate change denying books released in the United States.
Documents leaked from the Heartland Institute showed that climate change denial was funded by wealthy individuals who wanted to cast doubt on international climate science and make the issue seem dogged by controversy.
The Institute of Public Affairs and the Heartland Institute have co-sponsored two conferences.
Bob Carter, an adjunct professor at James Cook University has a long record of denying climate science.
Now it has been revealed that he is on the payroll of the Heartland Institute to the tune of $1667 per month for non-specified services.
He is also a “fellow” of the Institute of Public Affairs.
The Institute of Public Affairs never answers questions about who funds their research.
They keep saying that “soon” they will release this information, but they never do.
Although they are set up to mirror a university, the Institute of Public Affairs is not connected to a university.
Their research has no weight.
It isn’t even peer reviewed.
John Howard in a recent address a Thatcherite think tank in London said he instinctively felt that the whole business of climate change was an exaggeration.
So the man with no science background has no qualms about dismissing international scientific opinion.
Whose interests are being served? The electorate? The planet? Whose?