One of the benefits of using the health frame is that it makes the issues more tangible – here and now and about people, not just polar bears.
Roderick Eime/AAP
Climate change is a complex problem but appears to many people as lacking immediate impact on their lives. Reconceptualising it as a health issue may allow for both better understanding of the issue and…
Australians think they know what other Australians are thinking, but they're often wrong.
Callum Alden
The ABC recently ran the documentary I Can Change Your Mind About … Climate Change, exposing Nick Minchin, former conservative politician, and youth activist Anna Rose, to science and argument in favour…
What's next, Hitler was a vegetarian?
Heartland Institute
The inversion of reality and morality has been a long-standing attribute of the climate “debate,” which reached a new watershed low a few days ago with the latest travesty from the Heartland Institute…
People put up all kinds of psychological barriers to changing their minds.
Thomas Galvez
By Ullrich Ecker, University of Western Australia and John Cook, University of Queensland
Last night’s ABC documentary I Can Change Your Mind About Climate was about two people — conservative former politician Nick Minchin and youth activist Anna Rose — exposing themselves to information that…
Choose your experts carefully, lest they make you look foolish.
Pete Prodoehl
Last night the ABC premiered the fascinating documentary “I can change your mind about climate”, in which Nick Minchin, the recently retired Liberal senator, and Anna Rose, the co-founder of the Australian…
Philosophers talk about the "dirty hands" problem: are lies OK in the pursuit of truth?
Le Mast/Flickr
“Truth is so precious that she should be attended by a bodyguard of lies.”
Winston Churchill’s famous words were uttered during the war against the Nazis and referred to Operation Bodyguard, a deception…
Uncertainty exists – but that's no excuse for a lack of action.
@Doug88888
These are painful times for those hoping to see an international consensus and substantive action on global warming.
In the US, Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney said in June 2011: “The…
Valiant sceptics have taken on the evil dragon of climate change conspiracy.
magia e/Flickr
The trouble with words is that you never know whose mouths they’ve been in.
— Dennis Potter
Readers following the Australian news media’s coverage of climate change will probably have detected the conspiracy…
There's not much money in newspapers, but plenty of chances to promote your views.
AAP
News that Gina Rinehart has reportedly attained a 12.8% stake in Fairfax Media (and is seeking just under 15%) is bad for the Australian media environment: it potentially puts yet another billionaire in…
'Concerned scientists' say, relax, climate change not so bad after all.
Yukon White Light/Flickr
On Friday, the Wall Street Journal published a letter from “16 concerned scientists”, telling the world we don’t need to worry so much about climate change. Unsurprisingly, the opinion piece has been picked…
Ian Plimer says kids are being taught activism, not science.
woodleywonderworks
The forces of climate science denial have geared down a level. Having failed in their attempt to confuse adults and stop the parliament adopting a timid first step in response to climate change, they are…
Eleven FA Cups is good news for the Red Devils, but is it bad news for the climate?
freefoto.com
DURBAN CLIMATE CHANGE CONFERENCE: With the UN Climate Conference underway in Durban, climate “sceptics” have been particularly active in the media and blogs.
Many climate “sceptics” claim that alternate…
Australian newspapers took a largely negative view of carbon pricing.
avlxyz/Flickr
While corporate media often criticise the poor communication of others, they are reluctant to critique their own power to influence public opinion and debate. Today the Australian Centre for Independent…
The scandal isn't the emails, it's the hacking.
UN Climate Change
Emails from the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit have once again been hacked and released on the internet. The timing is similar to the “climategate” scandal of 2009, with emails published…
The climate change "debate" bears the stains of Orwellian interference.
Truthout.org
“Everyone is entitled to his own opinions, but not to his own facts” – Senator Daniel Moynihan
Science is a systematic, evidence-based, testable and self-correcting way of investigating the world. This…
Sections of the Australian media are tipping the debate in the wrong direction.
Digitalnative
MEDIA & DEMOCRACY – Natalie Latter wonders if there are some subjects that don’t really require balance.
There’s a principle of balance that applies to news reporting.
It’s important for journalists…
The media does the public a disservice when it misrepresents climate change.
danny birchall
MEDIA & DEMOCRACY – Today, The Conversation launches a week-long series, looking at how the media influences the way our representatives develop policy. To kick off, Stephan Lewandowsky asks how media…
Evolution was put on trial: let's get climate change in the dock.
On the weekend of 12-13 August the Western Australian branch of the Liberal Party passed a resolution calling for a Royal Commission into the science of climate change. Apparently the party members are…
Are these the sorts of speakers you go to a university to hear? AAP
The most important issue raised by Lord Monckton’s controversial appearance on two Western Australian campuses is not the limit of free speech or Monckton’s scientific competence. Rather it is whether…
Monckton is leading the public on a merry dance with his claims.
Jeff Hardcastle
It is a thankless task to track the frequent mistakes Christopher Monckton makes as he misinterprets science, as his statements are frequently at odds with the very scientists whose work he cites.
It…
Data from satellites have fuelled debate over climate science.
NASA via Wikimedia Commons
If you’ve followed climate contrarian talking points over the years, you’ll be familiar with the argument over satellite observations of global warming.
In 1990 it was reported that the satellite record…
Is stopping someone speaking ever the right approach?
sjgibbs80/Flickr
Is it wise to try to block a speech by Christopher Monckton? Are there other options?
Monckton, a well known climate change sceptic, was invited to speak at Notre Dame University in Fremantle on 30 June…
Lord Monckton will appear at two Western Australian universities over the coming days.
AAP
The Vice Chancellor of the University of Western Australia has distanced himself from climate change sceptic Lord Christopher Monckton, who will appear on campus next Monday.
Professor Alan Robson today…
While the debate rages, the planet is changing.
AAP
The majority of the world’s climate scientists agree: climate change is real, we are causing it and it’s happening right now. Despite the scientific consensus, Australia is still deeply divided about what…
The Conversation wraps up Clearing up the Climate Debate with a statement from our authors: the debate is over. Let’s get on with it.
Over the past two weeks The Conversation has highlighted the consensus…
Bob Carter sees the world a little differently to the rest of the scientific community.
AAP
CLEARING UP THE CLIMATE DEBATE: Professor David Karoly goes down the rabbit hole of Bob Carter’s climate theories.
In his book Climate: The Counter-consensus, Bob Carter describes three different realities…
We're putting Christopher Monckton's scientific claims to the test.
Don Irvine/flickr
Christoper Monckton has returned to Australia where his unique brand of climate contrarianism is expected to get another good run in the media.
At The Conversation, we’re giving him a run too, but of…
The Galileo Movement co-opts the father of science's name to pursue an anti-science agenda.
CLEARING UP THE CLIMATE DEBATE: Professor Ian Enting takes a look at the front groups and published texts of Australia’s climate sceptics.
The “name-calling” in what passes for public debate on climate…
Just some of the people and organisations climate deniers think are coming to get them.
-(Jonathan)-/flickr, scottgun/flickr, Kew Gardens/fickr
CLEARING UP THE CLIMATE DEBATE: Professors Stephan Lewandowsky and Michael Ashley step into the twilight zone of climate change scepticism: where the sun is made of iron and the royals are out to get you…
China says Australia has a crucial role in reducing global emissions.
AAP
CLEARING UP THE CLIMATE DEBATE: Professor Ross Garnaut explains why Australia’s action on climate change policy is important.
There is a line of argument about international action that is used by those…
Scientists have begun to make more noise about climate change.
afagen/flickr
CLEARING UP THE CLIMATE DEBATE: Dr Michael Brown exposes the tactics used by purveyors of “non-science” to attack climate change research.
It takes a lot to get scientists out of their offices and marching…
People can get pretty riled up about hockey sticks.
AAP
CLEARING UP THE CLIMATE DEBATE: Professor Stephan Lewandowsky holds “sceptics” accountable for their subversion of the peer review process.
On 20 April 2010, a BP oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico…
A jury of one's peers should assess scientific claims.
CLEARING UP THE CLIMATE DEBATE: Director of the Global Change Institute, Ove Hoegh-Guldberg submits some climate “sceptics” to peer-review and finds them wanting.
Peer review is the basis of modern scientific…
Sound the alarm. It's a scientist's job to alert the public to the threats of climate change.
AAP
CLEARING UP THE CLIMATE DEBATE: CSIRO’s James Risbey explains why it’s not “alarmist” to describe the threat of climate change to the public and how the climate system will respond to half measures.
With…
Today, The Conversation launches a two-week series from the nation’s top minds on the science behind climate change and the efforts of “sceptics” to cloud the debate.
The overwhelming scientific evidence…
Their voices may be loud, but climate change sceptics are in the minority.
AAP
Do you believe in climate change? It’s seemingly a simple question.
But there are many reasons why it is not. Who is asking, why, and who is being asked?
This is why we read such widely varying reports…
The tone of public debate sets the stage for threats to scientists.
AAP
The death threats received by Australian climate scientists such as Will Steffen, Andy Pitman and David Karoly haven’t come out of the blue.
They are an extension of the vicious attacks on climate science…
