A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.
Opinion
Hi Terry, I haven't read the books you list or any like them. I follow the news closely and specifically try to keep up to date with developments in climate science because I have taken a position in denying space on this page to attempted “science”-based arguments against the fact
that human activity is the key driver of climate change (unless the writer can point to peer-reviewed science, published in a reputable journal, to back their claims). I have often sought expert response or taken soundings from leading New Zealand climate scientists when dealing with correspondence on the topic. I am particularly indebted, due to regular denialist commentary some years ago, to Professor James Renwick.
Terry, you are not referring to “eminent climate scientists” but to some people who have chosen, for whatever reason, to join what is a well-funded and politically-motivated campaign to undermine and question the science of climate change. Two reasons this can be persuasive are that it sometimes pits the right of politics against the left, and the cost of quickly cutting greenhouse gas emissions is vast.
Bob Hughes is a vocal supporter of climate action and deserves commendation for it. There is a spectrum of how you can approach needed mitigation and adaptation with regard to what the science of climate change tells us; I am at the more optimistic end, while Bob is pessimistic. He might be right.
Average global sea level rose by 16-21cm between 1900 and 2016; since 1993 it has been rising at a rate of about 30cm per century and climate scientists expect that to accelerate this century. This is due mostly to human-caused global warming, which is driving thermal expansion of seawater and the melting of land-based ice sheets and glaciers — with the great fear being feedback loops with cascading impacts that significantly accelerate and lock in large sea level rise.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) provides an internationally-accepted authority on climate change. Thousands of scientists and other experts contribute on a voluntary basis to writing and reviewing IPCC reports, which are then reviewed by the more than 120 participating governments.
