On climate change policy, neither time nor Trump are on Turnbull’s side
Lenore Taylor (The Guardian,15.12.16) reports on Senator Malcolm Roberts’ visit to the US:
‘A key figure picked to prepare the US federal environment agency for life under a Donald Trump administration has met in Washington DC with some of the world’s most notorious and longest-serving climate science deniers, including One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts.
‘Myron Ebell, of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), was picked by the now president-elect to lead the Environmental Protection Agency “transition team” back in September. Trump has pledged to strip many powers from the EPA to boost fossil fuel production. Ebell has spent two decades trying to undermine the science linking dangerous climate change to fossil fuel burning.
‘E&E News reported that Ebell was at one meeting hosted by the CEI and held in the hearing room of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee. The EPW committee is chaired by Senator James Inhofe who, like Trump, has described human-caused climate change as a hoax.
‘The meeting was not open to the public or the press, E&E News reported, with Ebell refusing to give any details.
‘But details of the gatherings have been made public by some of the climate science denialists who attended. The attendee list reads like a who’s who of the climate science denial world.
‘Australian senator Malcolm Roberts, of the far-right One Nation party, who is in the US, revealed (see link) that he had given a speech at a CEI meeting with Ebell. Roberts wrote that the meeting was a gathering of the Cooler Heads Coalition and then listed some of the participants.
‘… The views of most of the attendees are in direct contradiction to the overwhelming majority of scientific research published over decades, as well as the positions of the world’s major scientific academies.’
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