Global Campaign for Climate Action pushing ‘spin’
Posted on March 31, 2012 by Editor | 1 Comment
A GLOBAL lobby group has distributed a “spin sheet” encouraging its 300 member organisations to emphasise the link between climate change and extreme weather events, despite uncertainties acknowledged by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
An “action pack” distributed by Global Campaign for Climate Action said members “shouldn’t be afraid to make the connection”, despite the sometimes low level of confidence in the official documents of the IPCC. The action pack, which was produced to coincide with the release of the latest full IPCC report into the link between climate change and extreme weather events, rekindled claims that overstating the case damaged the credibility of the science.
“What this leaked document shows is again we have groups out there promoting more extreme situations than the report actually warrants because the latest report shows there are degrees of uncertainty,” said Institute of Public Affairs climate spokesman Tim Wilson.
“When the claims don’t correlate it undermines the confidence that people can actually have in climate science.”
But Climate Institute chief executive John Connor said the evidence of a link was growing.
An executive summary, released ahead of the UN climate change conference in Durban in November, listed the low level of scientific certainty in many areas regarding what climate meant for future weather events.
The full report also presented a cautious appraisal and said it was unable to answer confidently whether climate was becoming more extreme.
But GCCA told its member organisations to “use the precautionary principle to argue that we must take potential risks seriously even if the science doesn’t offer high confidence”.
“Generally, all weather events are now connected to climate change, because we have altered the fundamental condition of the climate, that is, the background environment that gives rise to all weather,” the action plan said.
GCCA has about 300 members worldwide including Greenpeace, Oxfam, WWF, Environment America, the Union of Concerned Scientists, Amnesty International and Pew Environment Group.
The group highlights its direct action campaigns in the US, Canada and China.
The action pack suggests “sample tweets” for member groups.
They include “New #IPCC report finds links between global warming and extreme weather events”. And “current measures not enough to protect ANY countries from extreme weather driven by global warming. Time to act is now!”
The document gives examples of how to respond to criticisms about the IPCC’s links to non-government organisations, its poor track record in scientific predictions and claims that the response to the IPCC findings was alarmist.
The Australian
http://junkscience.com/2012/03/31/global-campaign-for-climate-action-pushing-spin/ |
