Climate anger dangerous, says German physicist
ANGER against scientists involved in the climate debate is reaching dangerous levels and it's only a matter of time before one is murdered, says leading German physicist Hans Schellnhuber.
Professor Schellnhuber, the director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change member, said he was amazed by the intensity of the political uproar in Australia over a relatively soft carbon-pricing policy.
While he was opening a recent climate conference in Melbourne, a man in the front row waved a noose at him. "I was confronted with a death threat when I gave my public lecture," Professor Schellnhuber said.
"Somebody got to his feet and showed me a rope with a noose.
"He showed me this hangman's rope and he said: 'Mr Schellnhuber, welcome to Australia.' "
The man and three friends went on to interject during the lecture.
"As I tell my colleagues from time to time, 'Some day some madman will draw a pistol and shoot you.'
"It will happen -- to me or somebody else. I'm pretty sure about that."
Professor Schellnhuber said the intolerance of science was much worse in the US, but he was surprised by the intensity of the debate in Australia.
He felt the Gillard government's carbon pricing policy would encourage innovation and investment in research to find effective sources of renewable energy.
Australia was likely to be among the nations hardest hit by global warming, Professor Schellnhuber said, but no country was better placed to harness solar energy.
Meanwhile, the British government has called a parliamentary inquiry on the capacity of the EU's emissions trading scheme to deliver its environmental objectives.
The House of Commons launched the inquiry to assess whether the EU's trail-blazing scheme will deliver on its climate goals in the absence of a legally binding international emissions reduction system.
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