I AM glad my esteemed former colleague David Goldney is challenging Rusty Marsh to an open debate on the vital issue of climate change ("Let's debate climate for all to see", Letters, June 4).
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Science is not just a massive body of impressive knowledge which has been crucial in building the civilisation we take for granted, it is a way of thinking - a candle in the dark, as the great scientist Carl Sagan so eloquently put it.
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Facts are collected to form hypotheses which are rigorously tested and always open to modification as new evidence - not mere opinion - emerges.
The evidence for human-induced climate change is overwhelming: greenhouse gases are increasing (mainly from burning fossil fuels), the rate at which oceans are warming has doubled since the early 1990s, extreme weather events have increased, coral reefs are bleaching with deleterious effects on aquacultures, sea levels are rising and the ice caps are beginning to melt.
There is much, much more.
It would be a mistake to think the sort of witchcraft Rusty Marsh spouts went out with the Dark Ages.
This vulnerable country has lost more than a decade in dithering. Unless we act now, future generations will pay dearly for our irresponsibility.
