G P McDonagh (Letters 24/11) cites 50 years as a scientist presumably as some authority for his opinions. His approach though is anything but scientific. Mr McDonagh makes a number of vague and unsubstantiated assertions which warrant rebuttal but which, for reasons of space, I shall address just one – the assertion that renowned botanist and environmental campaigner David Bellamy “cannot obtain media time since he spoke out against the UN sponsored scare campaign”.
David Bellamy is best known to Australians for his active role in blockading the site of the proposed Franklin River dam in 1983, his subsequent arrest and gaoling. He was for many years an outspoken advocate for action on climate change. In 1989 he wrote the forward to “The Greenhouse Effect”, saying, “The profligate demands of humankind are causing far reaching changes to the atmosphere of planet Earth, of this there is no doubt. Earth’s temperature is showing an upward swing, the so-called greenhouse effect, now a subject of international concern.”
In 1992, he signed an open letter, published in the Guardian, urging George Bush Snr “to fight global warming … We are convinced that the continued emission of carbon dioxide at current rates could result in dramatic and devastating climate change in all regions of the world.” In 1996 he signed a letter to the Times, arguing: “Continued increases in the global emissions of carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels are likely to lead to climate change at a rate greater than the Earth has experienced at any time during the last 10,000 years.” In the same year he called for the replacement of fossil fuels with wind power. In 2000 he announced that he was supporting a plan to sue climate change “criminals” – governments and industries that blocked attempts to stop global warming.
Bellamy’s change of heart was first evidenced in a letter to the Daily Mail on 9 July 2004 where he referred to human induced climate change as “poppycock”. The first time he complained that his dissent from global warming was the reason for the rejection by the BBC of his programming ideas, was in an opinion piece he penned for The Australian of 25 November 2008.
Bellamy though, had not made a TV program since 1994 – fully 10 years before he first publicly voiced doubts on global warming. Bellamy had earlier given an entirely different explanation for the decline in his career. He told Simon Hattenstone for a Guardian article (30 September 2002), that his decision to stand against British Prime Minister John Major in the 1997 election “was probably the most stupid thing I ever did because I’m sure that if I have been banned from television, that’s why.”
Bellamy is now 78. The evidence does not support the conclusion that he has been “muzzled”. Like many others in society he is seen, fairly or not, as past his use-by-date. His media career had ground to a halt long before his change of opinion and it is disingenuous to claim it had anything to do with his climate change denialism.
David Stewart,
Warwick
