Content by UTS

Trust in science is part of life in a technologically advanced society. We accept that we can’t suddenly acquire expertise that takes decades of education, research and experience to develop, so we base many decisions on science produced by qualified experts and reviewed by their peers. We expect scientific research to be undertaken in the public interest – in our interest.

A free-market think tank has been heavily pushing climate change scepticism. Credit:ThinkStock

We’d hope that, should the scientific community identify a threat to all of humanity, we’d pull together and “do what it takes” to avoid disaster.

But that’s not what has happened with climate change. What began as an almost universal acceptance of the science and the need for action has become a false debate between climate change scientists and ideologically driven climate change “sceptics”.

On one side, we have 97 per cent of climate scientists who endorse the empirically based reality that Earth has been warming since the mid-20th century, that human-induced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are the main cause, and that deep and rapid reductions in global emissions are necessary to avoid the worst impacts.