HONG KONG: Astrophysicist and Nobel laureate in physics Brian Schmidt says says scientists need to better defend themselves against attacks by politicians in relation to climate change, saying the world was “struggling” to tackle the global warming issue.
The US-born Australian dual-national, in an opinion piece in Fairfax newspapers, said attacks on scientists angered him but that a “measured” response was required.
“It hurts me when I see science not doing a good job defending itself on the basis of scientific argument. I feel science is empowered to defend itself but we need to do it in a way that is measured and reflects our scientific values,” Prof Schmidt wrote. “When we are attacked by politicians – this isn’t happening so much in Australia but in certain pockets of America – that makes me angry.
“Largely, here in Australia, we have argued our case to politicians and they have reacted, moderated by the election process and the people who were voting.”
Prof Schmidt said “at this point humans are struggling to deal with the issue,” saying Australia needed to be involved in world discussions to limit warming to less than 2 degrees by 2100.
“My concern is that if we fail to tackle climate change it will potentially lead to destabilisation of the world as we know it. That’s the big downside if we get it wrong,” he wrote.
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