Chuck Bird: Replace and shrink the Climate Change Commission

I was an active member of the National Party for years.  I travelled to AGMs and was a voting delegate several times.  I reluctantly joined the Blue Greens having been assured that National’s climate change policy was based on science.

After a meeting Rod Carr, Chairperson of the Climate Change Commission I found that was not the case.  That was now few years ago so I cannot quote him word for word.  I asked if he thought that life on earth would end if we did not drastically reduce emissions quickly.  He said no but the planet would be in a very bad way.  The alarmist view about global warming changing to global boiling had not been suggested at the time.

Sadly, according to our new PM, there are two types of people.  Firstly, those who care about the planet.  Secondly, deniers or even minimalists.  There are of course many in between.

I am not an economist.  However, I know this country is in a bad way financially.  There are two things we can do to make things better.  Firstly, reduce wasteful spending.  Secondly, increase export earnings.  Obviously, the sensible thing would be to do both.

One of the export earnings I am looking at is farm income.  The present policy is to take the advice of the unqualified Rod Carr.  Carr has business qualifications but no science degree.  One of the other Commissioners is a disciple of Al Gore.

I do not have a degree myself but I have bought and read books by real experts.  Three of the best are Dr Patrick Moore, former CEO of Greenpeace International, Dr Judith Curry and Dr Steven Koonin, author of “Unsettled”. 

Those climate scientists I mentioned and many others agree with Dr Koonin that the science is unsettled.  They accept that human emissions cause an increase in global temperature and sea level rise.  They also agree that while solar and wind may be part of the solution, nuclear power must be part of the mix to reduce global emissions.  Where they differ is that they do not accept the hysterical claim that there is a climate emergency.  They argue that climate models cannot accurately predict what the temperature will be decades in the future. 

They point out that modest warming has benefits as well as drawbacks.  At present of the people who die from extreme weather, many more die from extreme cold than extreme heat.  Therefore if the temperature increases by one degree more people will die from extreme heat but fewer people will die from extreme cold.  That means fewer people will die from extreme temperatures.

I could go on forever about climate change in general but I must focus on the main point of the Climate Change Commision.  The new government is considering whether to replace the Governor of the Reserve Bank and the Police Commissioner although they have excellent qualifications.  However, they are happy to continue with the Chairperson of the Climate Change Commission who does not have a science degree.  While I do not think it is absolutely necessary for one to have a science degree to know a lot about climate change, Carr’s placement should have the relevant qualifications to support their opinions.

I hope that Carr’s replacement will not be selective in what opinions of COP28 they support.  COP28 recommended tripling the use of nuclear power.  What would happen if bigger container ships were nuclear powered, would the Greens and Labour say they should not be allowed in our ports?

I can think of some replacements for Rod and also other commissioners.  I hope the readers of this article may have other recommendations.  I would also be interested if the readers support nuclear power as part of the solution.  The role of chairperson and commissioners should ideally be advertised.  Hopefully, those applying would not treat climate change as a quasi religion.

Chuck Bird is a self-educated expert on climate change having read books from many qualified climate change scientists.