The Clean Industrial Revolution

I just got back from a ‘debate’ on climate change with Ian Plimer on the Kerri-ann show.  Although they are never helpful to the way we should move forward in Australia, I had some useful reflections on where we are at. 

On Plimer: My mother always used to tell me never trust a person who can’t look you in the eye.  When meeting Plimer pre-interview, or throughout the 30 minute discussion on or off air, he never ever looked me in the eye.  Maybe I had something offensive on my face, but I was deeply skeptical of the denialist even before I heard his dangerously backward views.  I guess if you trying to claim that thousands of climate scientists (in a totally different scientific area than Plimers) are engaging in global ‘fraud’, you’d never want to look at one of those people in the eye right?

On Hope: If you watch the interview I got the distinct feeling Kerri-Anne was on the side of Plimers which is totally her right in a liberal democracy.  I couldn’t help but realise however, this debate is really a generational one, just like civil liberties, smoking or womens rights in the 60′s and 70′s.  I do talk about this in the book, but every time I do an interview or speak to the public, this generational dichotomy is confirmed.  After the interview today a 30ish crew-member of Kerri-Ann came up to me and said along the lines of ‘Keep going, there is a new generation that simply gets it!’ The new generation in the 1970s (like Kerri-Anne) understood the importance of womens rights and civil liberties to which we now live  today : the new generation understand the move to low carbon future and how it’s a far better way of growing an economy than the old polluting way. Thanks to the comments that have come in and to that crew-member at Nine:: thats where my hope comes from.