The New Zealand
Climate Science Coalition

Media release (immediate) 12 April 2007

CTU president challenged to produce evidence of greenhouse gas harm

The president of the Council of Trade Unions (CTU), Ross Wilson has been challenged to produce what he described yesterday as “the overwhelming evidence that greenhouse-gas emissions are having a harmful effect on the environment”. The challenge comes from Owen McShane, chair of the policy panel of the New Zealand Climate Science Coalition.

“If Mr Wilson can produce this overwhelming evidence, he will have achieved something that so far has escaped the many scientists throughout the world who have so far addressed the issue. No one, anywhere in the world, has yet been able to produce valid, verifiable scientific proof that greenhouse gas emissions will have any serious effect on the Earth’s climate and its natural rhythms. There are computer generated scenarios and projections, but as yet no solid scientific proof. It is strange that a New Zealand union leader has failed to notice that this country has been cooling since the El Nino of 1998.

“Unionists like Mr Wilson should realise that workers and their families are the most likely to suffer from ill-conceived penalties, charges and taxes imposed in response to unproven theories of climate change. If our economy is made less internationally competitive than those of our neighbours, and business and jobs are relocated to other more competitive environments, it will be workers and their families who will bear the brunt of the ensuing economic dislocation.

“Mr Wilson would be better advised to use his influence on the present Government to withdraw New Zealand from the Kyoto Protocol, which we can do, without penalty, provided we so notify by February 2008.” said Mr McShane.

ENDS

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