Climate change denial is misguided and dangerous - Yorkshire Post Letters

Two horrifying letters in The YP 8 May from William Loneskie and Neil Bryce display staggering ignorance from both men. Loneskie points to Prof Ian Pilmer as a credible authority. Pilmer has been criticised heavily by many climate scientists for publishing false information. The Australian Press Council found that one of his op-eds printed in ‘The Australian’ (a News Corp Rupert Murdoch paper) had breached its standards. The newspaper was forced to print that the op-ed was not based on fact.

Prof Katrin Meissner, Uni S Wales, described Pilmer’s writing as ‘utter nonsense’. Pilmer has also served as a director of several mining companies.

Loneskie also describes net zero as ‘staggeringly expensive’. Everyone, even the Conservative Party, agree that net zero is a huge economic opportunity and that not taking it will lead to vastly more expense as we have to clear up the damage that extreme weather causes. ‘Utter nonsense’ from Loneskie too.

Let me next bring Neil Bryce up to date with his facts. On May 5, 2022, the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere was 424.76, not 414 as he says. We passed the safe level (350ppm) in 1986 and it has been rising steadily for decades.

Global impacts of that have been floods, wildfires, extreme weather, heatwaves, droughts, crop failures, food shortages and famine - indeed creating much death and misery. As the temperature rises this will get worse.

To have anxiety as a result is a rational response - especially as there is no coordinated world effort in place to stop this rise. We face extreme danger ahead.

Also has Bryce not noticed that global temperatures have actually risen in a similar way to Mann’s ‘hockey stick’?

Both men are guilty of ignorant and dangerous disinformation. Please stop.