STOP SCARING US SILLY

Environmental activists sabotage climate change solutions

NO one can fault economist Clive Hamilton for frankness in the way he gave the green game away on ABC TV's Lateline on Monday night. He dismissed the Rudd government's interest in developing clean coal as a way to reduce global warming as a "delusion", adding that "the only way to get people to take the neces­sary actions is to scare the pants off them". It says a lot about the ABC that an activist with no scientific credentials is allowed to lay down the law when a real scientist, climate change, sceptic Ian Plimer, was recently sharply challenged by compare Tony Jones on Lateline. And it says more about the green extreme's fury that people wonder why we must take severe steps now, given the disasters they warn about are so far in the future

. In the absence of present evidence, Professor Hamilton suggests scaring us all silly. It will not work, which is why "third way" theorist Anthony Giddens, who also appeared on Monday's Lateline, wants activists out of the argument. Instead of scare tactics, Lord Giddens suggests encouraging government and industry to develop technology to create new industries - to turn the problem into an economic opportun­ity. This means replacing warnings of catastrophe with investment and re­search. He is right. London's air pollution problem ended when people abandoned burning low-grade coal in the 1950s. Smog was reduced by better engineered vehicles. And new technol­ogies will reduce greenhouse emis­sions. The debate needs more engi­neers interested in clean coal and fewer eco-catastrophists.