Peter Garrett MP
Shadow Minister for Climate Change and
Environment
Prime Minister John Howard must publicly reject Deputy Prime
Minister Mark Vaile’s extraordinary admission that he still has doubts about the
existence of man-made climate change.
Only the Prime Minister can
credibly do this, given Mr Vaile is the country’s second most senior political
leader.
In an extraordinary admission on the ABC’s PM program, and
following the Cabinet’s recent decision to reject the Kyoto Protocol yet again,
Mr Vaile said:
“There is conflicting scientific evidence on it – on that whole
concept - and we need to continue to analyse that”.
This statement is completely incorrect and it is embarrassing that
our second most senior political leader could hold such views.
Mr
Vaile’s scepticism is out of touch with both Australian public opinion and
global scientific consensus.
Mr Vaile’s views are in complete
contradiction to series of reports by the Nobel award-winning Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). These reports are the most comprehensive global
scientific assessment involving 1200 of the world’s leading climate scientists.
The IPCC found temperatures on Earth rose in the 20th century and will rise at
an even faster rate in the 21st century.
The list of eminent
organisations that disagree with Deputy Prime Minister Mark Vaile is long, and
includes:
-
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
-
CSIRO
-
Bureau of Meteorology
-
National Farmers Federation
-
Australian Business Roundtable on Climate Change; and
-
Agricultural Alliance on Climate Change (which includes AgForce,
the Country Womens Association, the South Australian Farmers Federation and the
Western Australian Farmers federation)
-
Group of Eight Leading Industrialised Nations (G8)
-
European Union
A Government full of climate change sceptics cannot deliver
climate change solutions.
For further information please contact Ryan Heath 0449 141 398