As of 2009, Australia has no shortage of global warming deniers.

Posted by scott bilby | Filed under:
Jun 15 2009

Will they still be denying in 2010?

The State of Play in Australia

Because of the undue influence of the fossil fuel industry in Australia, many government ministers, bureaucrats, union leaders, journalists, and so-called 'independent' organisations and institutes openly deny any link between human activities and global warming.

Individuals and organisations

As of 2009, the following individuals and organisations in Australia still openly deny that humanity and other species face any threat from human-induced global warming.The majority of these deniers have direct links to the coal, gas, oil, aluminium and steel industries, collectively known as the fossil fuel sector.

Companies from the fossil fuel sector publicly accept the science on human-induced global warming, yet they continue to fund so-called 'skeptic' organisations to create uncertainty in the minds of the public. In this way, they hope to undermine the scientific consensus on global warming. The longer there is uncertainty, the longer they can pollute.1

*A special note for the scientists in this list - if you want to have any credibility, produce at least one peer-reviewed, scientific paper on a subject related to global warming and get it published in a respected journal!

Australia's Deniers

  • Australian APEC Study Centre, connections with Western Mining Corporation (WMC), the IPA, the Lavoisier Group.
  • Andrew Bolt, newspaper columnist, speaker at IPA events, regularly presents 'skeptic' disinformation as fact.2
  • Robert (Bob) Carter, a marine geologist funded by the petroleum industry. Also on the so-called 'research committee' of the IPA.3
  • Ian Castles, connections with IPA and Lavoisier Group.
  • Michael Duffy, presenter of ABC Radio's Counterpoint, a program that supports global warming deniers.
  • David Evans, has close links with the fossil fuel-funded Lavoisier Group, has never published any peer-reviewed research papers on the subject of climate change and falsely claims to be a 'rocket scientist'4
  • Ray Evans, former Executive Officer for Western Mining Corporation, President of the HR Nicholls Society, an organisation whose primary aim is to undermine workers rights, and main contact for the Lavoisier Group.
  • Stephen Fielding, ('Family First' Senator)
  • Institute of Public Affairs, (IPA) consistently downplay the link between human activity and global warming, as well as the link between cigarette smoking and lung cancer. Have a look at their funding source to see why.5
  • Dennis Jensen, Liberal MP, member for Tangney, Western Australia.6
  • Barnaby Joyce.7
  • William Kininmonth, connections with the Lavoisier Group.
  • The Lavoisier Group
  • Ian MacFarlane, formerly Australia's Federal Minister for Energy and Resources for the the Coalition Liberal/National government under Prime Minister John Howard. I personally recall him, when pinned down on the science during an interview, acknowledge human-caused global warming with one breath, only to repudiate it with the next! Worked tirelessly to undermine climate change policy. He's now the Liberal Party's Shadow Minister for Energy and Resources.
  • Jennifer Marohasy, formerly of the IPA, and currently chair of the sad and irrelevant little anti-environment group, the Australian Environment Foundation which is, coincidentally, an IPA spin-off. The AEF's members include climate deniers from this list as well as apologists for the tax-payer subsidised, climate and job destroying woodchipping industry.
  • Alan Moran (IPA)
  • Ian Plimer
  • Wilson Tuckey, Liberal MP, member for O'Connor, Western Australia.8
  • more to come...