The World Hasn't Stopped, The Climate Crisis Might Not Be Bad, Says Caller

20 September 2019, 17:26

“The world hasn’t all of a sudden stopped, the climate crisis might not be as bad as we thought," a caller tells the Green Party leader, saying climate change concerns may be a phase.

“The world hasn’t all of a sudden stopped and we’re not going to be extinct in 100 years. A lot of these kids are getting that sort of vibe from the teachers and it’s not like that," said Ian.

“Do you not think it’s right, though, that teachers tell the truth, and the scientists? The UN report, the Peer Review Journals, these are in-depth reorts produced by scientists that tell it how it is.

"Scientists don’t tell us what we have to do about it but they can lay out the facts.

"Surely education is about laying out those facts. And also asking the young people: ‘What do you want to happen? What shall we do? And allowing them to work through these issues because they are the ones who are going to have to live with the consequences much longer than we are."

The caller argued: “Let’s think about 10, 15 years ago. The evidence was that diesel engines are the best thing since sliced bread. It’s completely changed now. Back then it was fine, now it’s not fine.

Maybe now climate change is critical but in 15 years some other report will come out that says it’s not as bad as we thought. A bit like Brexit. We don’t know until it happens."

Jonathan Bartley clarified that, in the caller’s example of diesel, it wasn’t scientists promoting the merits of the fuel but politicians.

The Green Party leader said we need to be phasing out diesel and petrol in favour of electric for the conservation of our environment. He said: “We need to invest in public transport.”