Like Senator Steve Fielding, I am a lapsed engineer. Like Steve, I have attempted to understand the science of climate change. Unlike Steve, I eventually understood that the task is beyond ordinary mortals. In fact it is even beyond the intellect of a single engineer. I realised that we should be leaving it to the experts with the broadest possible exposure to the issue.
For a while late last year, I spent many hours trying to draw my own conclusions about climate change. I grazed on books, chewed through reports and fed on the ever-expanding harvest of internet articles. I even snacked on the rants of blog commenters with names like “treeman” and “thingadonta” and “havequestions”. I was careful to keep my diet balanced, ensuring that I was consuming equally from the tables of both the believers and the sceptics.
But it was all to no avail. I felt like I was trying to do brain surgery without having done the training. In the end the same arguments and counter-arguments tied me up like a rope from which I could not escape. I had to conclude that the intricacy of the science and the sheer volume of material were beyond me.
It was comforting to have Nobel laureate Peter Doherty‘s reassurance that climate change “is an enormously complex area and it’s difficult for people outside the area to understand the science” when he spoke at the recent University of Melbourne Festival of Ideas. Doherty includes himself as one of those challenged by this complexity.
I can sympathise when Steve Fielding says that he would “be letting down the Australian people if I didn’t properly research the issues”. But he is misguided in thinking that he’ll be able to do so. Steve needs to stick to his job, which is contributing to policy, and leave the scientific debate to the scientists.
The rest of this article is available on NewMatilda.com. Click here to read it.
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Steve Fielding won’t be doing his job of contributing to policy if he doesn’t understand the issues, hence the importance of proper research. Whether or not he personally can come up with a solution, at least he’ll have sufficient background knowledge to evaluate proposed solutions to make policy.