Don’t worry The Age, I’ve rewritten your badly written poll for you.
Poor The Age, the printed version went Tabloid, just like the Web…
So The Age has a poll in regards to the just slightly changing weather in Melbourne. By slightly changing I mean, 157 years of records have never produced more than 6 days in a row over 32c, we just had 9 of them.
March days in a row over 30c was previously 7, yep, just had 9 of them. The longest run of days over 30c was 8 in any month, we just had 9. Hottest March night on record and most nights over 20c in March as well. So it is not like we haven’t broken a whole pile more “Climate Records” as well.
Of course, this is just the end of the 123 extreme weather records (+) broken during Australia’s “angry summer”. Long term records for everything from hottest day ever in Australia, to rainfall rates and flood levels.
My beef isn’t with the weather though; I am just annoyed at The Age.
Poll: Has the current heatwave changed your opinion of climate change? (Yes/No)
Now, how do I answer a question like this.
Unlike most of the Liberal and National Parties and mining magnates, I don’t think Climate change is a global conspiracy to put scientists into fast sports cars with expense accounts. I do think Climate Change is real, based on something called evidence. So do I answer this question NO, because that is the logical answer, or do I answer YES. If I answer No, am I not seen as supporting a fundamentally flawed argument that extreme weather is not part of climate change, or belonging to the “we have had hot weather before” brigade. If I answer “YES”, then oh suddenly I am on-board with Climate Change being real, which isn’t the case either.
What about a different option for the question “Do you think the current heatwave is due to climate change”, see not that hard, please where do I send the bill.
