Climate change is here

Over the past few weeks there have been various extreme weather events that are now being attributed to climate change, whereas once scientists were more cagey on the issue - saying that it's never possible to blame any one event on climate change. But the evidence is stacking up, and we see temperature records being broken - 2020 was one of the three warmest years on record.

The severity of the recent heat-wave in Canada and the western United States has been attributed to climate change. Record temperatures in Canada (coming close to 50°C) exacerbated wildfires and the town of Lytton burning to the ground.

Just this week we saw massive flooding in Germany, with the death toll currently sitting at 170 people. This is also attributed to climate change.

It seems that most people in our country “believe” in climate change, and that it is human-caused. ("Believe" is obviously a problematic word for skeptics - we accept the evidence - it doesn't require belief as such!) Research into public attitudes shows some fairly wide variations though - younger people are more accepting (and have the most to lose) whereas the older generations (who will likely die before the worst effects are seen) are less likely to believe.

Of course, climate change has been known about for many years. There's a popular claim on the internet that a NZ newspaper from 1912 - The Rodney and Otamatea Times, Waitemata and Kaipara Gazette was first to publish a dire warning:

But actually, that same text was also previously printed in an Australian newspaper, and prior to that, appeared in an issue of Popular Mechanics.

A group of researchers at the University of Waikato recently studied people's beliefs around sea level rise and how accurate they were. It found that a minority of people actually correctly knew the likely extent of sea level rise in the future. They point out that people both under- and over-estimate the effects of climate change. Over-estimating the effects might well lead to inaction based upon despair that there's nothing that can be done.

The article also points out that sea level rise isn't uniform - and that different areas of the country are rising and falling - the lower North Island falling at up to 8mm per year, and in other places rising at up to 10mm per year. Our planet is alive and ever changing!

Some years back the committee of the NZ Skeptics Society became concerned about the perceptions of the public with the use of the word “skeptics” to be associated with human-induced climate change denial. We issued the following statement:

The New Zealand Skeptics Society supports the scientific consensus on Climate Change. There is an abundance of evidence demonstrating global mean temperatures are rising, and that humans have had a considerable impact on the natural rate of change. The Society will adjust its position with the scientific consensus.