Essay by Eric Worrall

According to Professor Michelle Baddeley, even voters who support openly climate skeptic parties believe politicians should invest in renewables and CO2 emissions reduction.

Almost 90% of us now believe climate change is a problem – across all political persuasions

Published: May 17, 2022 5.59am AEST

Michelle Baddeley
Associate Dean Research/Professor in Economics, UTS Business School, University of Technology Sydney

If a week is a long time in politics, three years is an eternity. Since the 2019 election, Australia has endured devastating megafires and unprecedented floods. Meanwhile, news of extreme weather such as India and Pakistan’s horrific heatwaves has poured in. And international pressure to act on climate change is growing.

Perhaps in response, Australian views of climate change have become less partisan. A new poll my colleagues and I organised of around 1,100 Australians found almost 90% now believe climate change is a problem. That’s an average across the political spectrum, from the Greens to One Nation. 

Not only that, but almost 80% of us are optimistic, believing it’s possible for Australia to halve its emissions by 2030. 

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In our 2022 poll, views converged. Now, similar proportions of left- and right-leaning voters rate highly the need for government action on environmental damage and climate change.

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In short, we found concern for the environment is nearly universal. Fully 94% of all voters believe environmental damage is a problem and 89% believe climate change is a problem. 

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Read more: https://theconversation.com/almost-90-of-us-now-believe-climate-change-is-a-problem-across-all-political-persuasions-183038

I highlighted One Nation in the quote above. To give you an idea of the absurdity of the claim that even One Nation voters prioritise climate action, check out One Nation’s climate policy;

Climate

One Nation believes Australia should withdraw from the United Nations Paris Agreement signed in 2016.

Australia has committed to the deepest and most savage carbon emission cuts in the world on a per person basis. This commitment is predicted to slow the Australian economy with enormous job losses. In our view, this economic suicide cannot be justified on the evidence put forward by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

We know that the majority of people believe in man-made global warming caused by carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. This belief is reinforced by media coverage of events like forest fires and droughts, but government policy needs to rest on the evidence and there is a growing concern about the evidence on which the claims of man-made global warming rests.

It is just too easy to allow our memories, often unreliable, to accept the often repeated claims that it has never been hotter. Given the economic costs, we believe we need to listen to the evidence.

It is the evidence we should take regard of when making policy. The history of science is that it’s the evidence that counts.

We have confidence in evidence when the experiment can be repeated and the same results are achieved.

We have confidence in science when the evidence is consistent with the theory and that theory predicts events in the future.

Scientists predicted global warming would lead to extremes of weather, which would be more intense and more frequent, but despite media reports extreme weather events were more common prior to 1960 than at any time since.

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Read more: https://www.onenation.org.au/climate

How about One Nation’s views on Net Zero?

Net Zero Common Sense

 Pauline Hanson  December 03, 2021

Labor never learns… 

Labor has doubled down on its threats to destroy jobs and the Australian economy by taking yet another radical emission reduction target to the next Federal election.

Those who fail to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat it.

In pledging to reduce emissions by 43% by 2030, it’s abundantly clear that Anthony Albanese has obviously learned nothing from the 2019 Federal election, when Queensland voters played the decisive role in delivering a stunning defeat to Bill Shorten in a contest Labor stupidly thought it could not lose.

With the Morrison-Joyce government caving in to international pressure aiming for net-zero emissions by 2050, the choices for Queensland and Australian voters at the next election are narrowing.

Only Pauline Hanson’s One Nation is working to protect Australian jobs, mining, manufacturing, and agriculture from the predations of green-left international climate zealots who attack easy targets like Australia while letting the world’s largest emitter by far—communist China—get away with increasing emissions at an annual rate greater than our entire national total.

One Nation needs your support at the next Federal election to win the balance of power and prevent Labor, the Coalition and the Greens from sacrificing our jobs and the Australian economy on the altar of climate change.

When will Australia wake up to the fact that climate change is pseudo-speak for global wealth transfer? And it’s not to our benefit.

Source: https://www.onenation.org.au/net_zero_common_sense

How do these unequivocally climate skeptic party policy positions reconcile with Professor Baddeley’s claim of strong support for climate action, even amongst One Nation voters?

It is possible Professor Michelle Baddeley believes One Nation voters are so dumb they don’t understand that One Nation are hardline climate skeptics.

But doesn’t it seem more likely that Professor Baddeley’s poll somehow failed to capture the genuine views of voters? At the very least it seems likely One Nation voters at least do not think climate action is a priority, compared to other issues.

We have all seen a series of increasingly absurd claims about popular demand for climate action, especially in the leadup to Australia’s federal election this Saturday, but in my opinion Professor Baddeley’s claim of near universal strong support for climate action truly jumps the shark.