John Faulkner (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

That was 97 per cent, Senator Carr, and I know you have a genuine—

Senator Bob Carr interjecting—

Yes, and I know you have a real interest in this. You may not be aware that I have said before in this chamber that the earth's climate has changed in the past but that the current rate of warming is unprecedented in human history. The principal reason for the warming climate is greenhouse gas emissions. The most significant of these is carbon dioxide. There is now more carbon dioxide in the air than there has been at any other point in the last 800,000 years. What were previously considered extreme weather events are now occurring with such regularity that it points towards a long-term trend in global climate. These events can no longer be written off as outliers, anomalies or accidents born of extraordinary circumstances. We should instead consider them signs of something more serious.

We must continue to make the argument that our planet is warming and we must act. We must continue to support the work of our leading climatologists, scientific academics and academies because we know that complex problems require expert advice. We must do so, aware that denialists rely on a kind of feckless relativism that equates all opinion in this area—sees it as all equally valid. That is the sort of postmodernist drivel that equates Madonna with Mozart or Danielle Steel with Shakespeare. It is a cynical politics that relies on a sneering anti-intellectualism that is ultimately anti-science and anti-enlightenment. I say that we must combat this with calm reasoned argument that restores people's belief that action is not only possible but effective and, indeed, essential—essential to creating the next economy and essential to ensuring our nation's future prosperity.