He said, she said on global warming - Sydney Morning Herald

He said, she said on global warming

Deborah Snow April 26, 2012

SOME wags have already dubbed it Beauty and the Beast meets the climate change debate.

It's ABC TV's latest attempt to convert political controversy into mass entertainment and it pits climate change sceptic and former Liberal senator Nick Minchin against 29-year old global warming believer and campaigner Anna Rose, the founder of the Australian Youth Climate Coalition.

In the one-hour documentary screening tonight the camera follows the unlikely pair on a month-long odyssey around Australia and the world, as each introduces the other to hand-picked experts or advocates in order to shake the opposing point of view.

Dubbed I Can Change Your Mind About Climate, the result is an absorbing but ultimately futile exercise if the chief goal was to achieve conversion by one of the protagonists.

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However, the pair do reach a consensus of sorts about the value of renewable energy, albeit getting there by different routes.

Ms Rose kept a diary during the trip and has used it as the basis for a book, Madlands, which will be released later this week.

She says she hopes the documentary will be ''used as a starting point for Australians to re-engage with the science of climate change''.

However, she was disappointed over what she says was the producers' decision to use fewer of her nominated advocates than Mr Minchin's.

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In particular, she says the claims of right-wing US blogger and anti- global warming campaigner Marc Morano (who denies any sea-level rise) were demolished by Rear Admiral David Titley, the chief oceanographer of the US Navy, but Admiral Titley's segment did not make it to air.

The producer Simon Nasht defended the balance of the program, and said it was ''not a discussion [just] about the science, it's about why people believe what they believe''.

Mr Minchin said he remained ''unconvinced that the human emissions of carbon dioxide are driving dangerous global warming'' despite his odyssey with Ms Rose.

He said it was a '' terrific opportunity to convey to an ABC audience that there remains a significant debate''.

The ABC will follow tonight's documentary with a special edition of Q&A, with Ms Rose and Mr Minchin on the panel. It surveyed audience attitudes to global warming at the start of April and intends to re-survey opinion after the screening.

Some scientists have already expressed unease about whether the notion of ''balance'' is appropriate for the topic, given the huge weight of international scientific consensus behind man-made global warming.