Climate Tasmania

A Tasmanian take on the thorniest global issue since the dinosaurs. Based on Peter Boyer’s newspaper column in the Hobart Mercury.

What do the floods tell us about climate change?

The big floods have roused a hornets’ nest over their link to climate change and the potential culpability of coal miners. [1 February | Peter Boyer]
We all know that one swallow doesn’t make a summer, any more than one flood makes a climate catastrophe. Senator Eric Abetz was quick to point this out in a [...]

Don’t judge a year by a cold snap

Dealing with a counter-intuitive reality [11 January 2011 | Peter Boyer]
Walking the dog on Fern Tree’s Pipeline Track, every so often I encounter our local weatherman, Bradley Hudson. We chat about this and that, including of course the weather — and there’s always plenty of that on Mount Wellington.
Bradley isn’t a professional weatherman, but he [...]

Trust the cautious scientist ahead of the carbon lobbyist

The meticulous work of thousands of climate scientists is being challenged by a well-resourced misinformation campaign, says the Government’s scientific adviser on climate change. Should we believe him, or put our trust in the carbon lobby? [19 October 2010 | Peter Boyer]
Here are a couple of questions that anyone with an opinion about whether humans affect [...]