Farmer's Viewpoint

Interesting. Last night ABC (the Australian public broadcasting network) ran a movie called The Great Global Warming Swindle. It was a pretty shonky piece of non-science, and it was quite fun to try to unravel the various half-truths that were said in the piece. The ABC took too much of an "anti-skeptic" stance, in my opinion. It would have been better to show the fallicies and let the data speak for itself. But no matter. I am worried at the number of people who would be mislead by this film.

Nevertheless, I was reading some of the online comments and there were a few from the Australian farming community. I thought of my posting a while back, and thought I'd share one of them with you.



Author Backblock
Date/Time 12 Jul 2007 4:39:22pm
Subject A farmers viewpoint

As a farmer, climate change is not just an academic question. It affects my life, and the life of my associates. The question of whether global warming is real or imagined could mean the difference in whether our farm is viable or not.

For years we have watched on as academics fought it out over whether man-made global warming is real or not. We placed some hope in the possibility that climate change sceptics were right, but kept an open-mind to other climate experts.

As many people know, the current drought has had many of us worried because if it keeps going many farmers will go broke. While some areas are looking better with recent rains, our local district still has lower than average soil moisture levels and our dams are empty. But many of us have hung on with the hope that climate change has been exaggerated. Australia's climate can be highly variable naturally.

However, I noticed that the issue of increased solar activity has been recently ruled out by academics, and it seems that there is no other viable explanation for global warming other than greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide.

I now feel that the people who are saying man-made global warming is not real have hoodwinked many in the farming community. You sceptics seem more interested in saving face rather than finding out the truth. You gave farmers false hope, and have influenced many of us to keep going when this may be ill advised. One good year in 10 is not enough to maintain a viable farm in our area.

What you sceptics need to remember is that climate change also affects people’s lives. It’s not just an argument to win at all costs. And if everybody else thinks this will not affect them, think again. The current increase in vegetable prices is largely a result of an increasingly unstable climate.

In the end you sceptics will have to face your conscience and God.