magazine lambasts "armchair ecologists"

COMMENT Islands Business, the region's only news magazine has dismissed global warming fears in a "We Say" editorial. "While ‘think global act local’ is a mantra as valid today as ever, regional organisations like SPREP must proactively encourage local action. The ‘think global’ part may be left to armchair ecologists," concludes the editorial. This is an astonishingly ignorant position to take. In pleading for "dispassionate" research programmes that "do not favour one theory over another" Islands Business appears to be ignorant of the growing scientific consensus that warns climate variability is a lot more urgent than we were all first led to think. The point is not whether rising sea levels will swamp Pacific Islands - and other low-lying areas home to some 300 million people including, for example, London and New York. It is that extreme weather events in the Pacific have doubled in frequency and severity. Long before sea level rise becomes a real concern, most islands will lose linkages with the outside world for weeks or months at a time due to extreme weather events. Islands Business might like to compare websites belonging to sceptics and their frequent claims to be supported by "thousands" of opposing scientists - and then look for evidence that any of those thousands actually exist or are just figments of imagination from NGOs well funded by oil companies and other big corporates. And if we do not favour 'one theory over another' then what's the point? Do sceptics not remember mummy's advice? Better safe than sorry, anyone? It is way beyond time that we stopped arguing over best-case scenarios, and started preparing for the worst. Islands Business - We Say: THINK GLOBAL ACT LOCAL editor's note: how embarassing. left the ly off "astonishing." akama!