Angry. Furious. Livid. And a just little bit sad.
Well, I’m not pissed off with ‘climate change’ per se – that would be ridiculous. I am extremely pissed off with those who are doing their damnedest to prevent society from doing anything meaningful about it.
The reason I’m thinking and writing about this at the moment is because last week I was approached by Joe Duggan of The Australian National University who has put together a rather clever and engaging website. The point of the website is simple – demonstrate to people that those studying climate-change science are human beings with feelings; we are not autistic, empirical automatons that conspire to ruin your day. We measure, we model and we analyse, but we’re also very much affected personally by what we observe every day in our careers.
So I grabbed a pen (not something I do very often, and my finger joints complained bitterly as a result) and hand-wrote the following letter. You might be take aback a little by my sentiment, but I assure you it’s an honest representation of my emotional state at the moment:
Dear Joe,
My overwhelming emotion is anger; anger that is fuelled not so much by ignorance, but by greed and profiteering at the expense of future generations. I am not referring to some vague, existential bonding to the future human race; rather, I am speaking as a father of a seven year-old girl who loves animals and nature in general. As a biologist, I see irrefutable evidence every day that human-driven climate disruption will turn out to be one of the main drivers of the Anthropocene mass extinction event now well under way.
Public indifference and individual short-sightedness aside, I am furious that politicians like Abbott and his anti-environment henchman are stealing the future from my daughter, and laughing about it while they line their pockets with the figurative gold proffered by the fossil-fuel industry. Whether it is sheer stupidity, greed, deliberate dishonesty or all three, the outcome is the same – destruction of the environmental life-support system that keeps us all alive and prosperous. Climates change, but the rapidity with which we are disrupting the current climate on top of the already heavily compromised environmental health of the planet makes the situation dire.
My frustration with these greedy, lying bastards is personal. Human-caused climate disruption is not a belief – it is one of the best-studied phenomena on Earth. Even a half-wit can understand this. As any father would, anyone threatening my family will be on the receiving end of my ire and vengeance. This anger is the manifestation of my deep love for my daughter, and the sadness I feel in my core about how others are treating her future.
Mark my words, you plutocrats, denialists, fossil-fuel hacks and science charlatans – your time will come when you will be backed against the wall by the full wrath of billions who have suffered from your greed and stupidity, and I’ll be first in line to put you there.
Professor Corey Bradshaw Director of Ecological Modelling The University of Adelaide
ConservationBytes.com 
[…] Five years ago I was asked by a researcher at the Australia National University, Joe Duggan, how I ‘felt’ about climate change. […]
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[…] the economically responsible thing to do, and instead focus on the global implications of the move. Climate change is perhaps one of the biggest threats to life on the planet as we know it. Coupled with our already depleted ecosphere, we need to embrace every possible […]
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A great article by a psychologist on Abbott’s intellectualism.
https://newmatilda.com/2014/10/08/prime-minister-tony-abbott-scholar-or-sciolist
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http://grist.org/list/watch-kids-deliver-congressional-climate-deniers-greatest-hits/
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had they built a sall reliable nuclear reactor, like the French, The trees would be still there…
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Climate change…one main cause is simple…less trees in the tropics each year….less to absorb the suns radiation = tropical warming. Higher temperature around the tropics = more moisture evaporated from the oceans producing much warmer denser and increased cloud production (hence more flooding in tropics where trees now missing)…..then more and denser ‘tropical rainforest clouds’ carrying more moisture escape the tropics as intense heat on cleared land creates lift to allow these clouds to escape the tropics on trade winds…hence cooling effect away from the tropics as cloud cover increases and greater rain and snow fall away from the tropics, whilst extra cloud cover also traps the extra heat travelling up from the tropics…..Less trees in the tropics each year = less biomass to sequester the CO2’….As the ocean warms, the warmer seas travel north to the Arctic and south to the Antarctic…as the warmer air from the tropics travels north….warmer air in the Arctic and warmer air to the Antarctic….simples!’ The warmer air distorts the position of the jet stream pushing it north towards west Canada and north towards the UK but there is a counteractive force pushing the jet stream south at these points as a result of the increase in cloud cover escaping the Tropics which cools the ocean through reduced radiation from the sun.
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Hi Graeme, Great Point…” We are so like the Easter Islanders cutting down the last tree while worshiping false idols.”….just a global version of what happened on Easter Island!
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Reblogged this on GarryRogers Nature Conservation and commented:
Our free society has lost its footing. Bad things are happening and we can’t seem to right the wrongs. Let’s hope the frustration we feel doesn’t drive Dr. Bradshaw to an antisocial solution like his double on “Breaking Bad.”
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Fight back with divestment from fossil fuels. Check out fossilfreeuniversitiessa.blogspot.com.au We are a group of alumni of SA Universities asking our old alma maters to divest from fossil fuels hoping it will spread to the wider university community.
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Applause please! To angry, furious, and livid add passionate, brave, courageous,and fearless. Many feel like you Corey, and I am one of them. Thanks for setting them straight.
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Cory, with 3 grandchildren 5,4,3 years of age, I share your anger, sadness and frustration. Abbott’s rush to war is hiding the other war, the War Against Nature. We are so like the Easter Islanders cutting down the last tree while worshiping false idols.
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(Nit-picky I know) but in your passion you may not have made it clear enough that “Dear Joe” is not in fact one of the plutocrats or denialists – just someone who asked a rhetorical question.
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Hi Cory
I share your sentiments exactly. It is not as if things aren’t bad enough as they are – before you throw in climate change. I spend ages trying to understand what it is that stops these, presumably intelligent people from seeing what is blindingly obvious to millions of people, and not just biologists. I would go even further than you and describe our PM and his band of fools as treasonous in respect of the wilful damage that they are inflicting on our nation and our people. But how come the populous is not up in arms over it? That is probably what depresses me the most. Where are the red hot student protests?
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