Media Releases | 28th Sep, 2004

Bellamy marginalised as global warming skeptic

Wednesday, 29 September 2004

Botanist David Bellamy should retract his denial of global warming or lose environmental credibility, said Victoria’s peak conservation group.

“Bellamy’s views on global warming are contrary to the overwhelming consensus of scientists. Not one credible scientist supports his claims,” said Environment Victoria’s Global Warming Campaign Director Darren Gladman.

“Bellamy has isolated himself, taking a position akin to such vested interests as the oil industry. He risks becoming an object of ridicule if he continues to claim there is no link between the burning fossil fuels and global warming.”

In an article published in the Daily Mail (9 July 2004) Bellamy – who is currently visiting Australia – claimed:

  • “The link between the burning of fossil fuels and global warming is a myth”;
  • “… climate change is an entirely natural phenomenon, nothing to do with the burning of fossil fuels”;
  • “Increase the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, double it even, and this would produce a rise in plant productivity. Call me a biased old plant lover but that doesn’t sound like much of a killer gas to me. Hooray for global warming is what I say, and so do a lot of my fellow scientists.”

The link between global warming and the burning of fossil fuels is well established and is fully accepted by scientific bodies including the CSIRO and the 2,000 top scientists who sit on the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

“The evidence for global warming is not subtle. Greenland’s cover of ice is melting ten times quicker than previously thought, Antarctica’s glaciers are thinning at twice the rate of the 1990s, while fires, drought, floods, and extreme weather events are at record levels across the world. The fact is we are putting more emissions into the atmosphere than nature can take out,” said Mr Gladman.

“Everyone from Shell to the Pentagon, John Howard to the Australian Medical Association, the National Farmers Federation and the coal industry acknowledge that climate change is a real and present danger. We have no choice but to reduce our dependency on fossil fuels and introduce renewable energy because ignoring climate change won’t make it go away.”