Tony Thomas... The Global Warming Controversy

One of the most debated and controversial issues world wide over recent years has been the issue of Climate Change,  the impact of mankind on that and specifically the role of Carbon Dioxide as a major element of the latter.    Another major interest of our speaker Tony Thomas has been the plight of Myanmar and Aung San Suu Kyi but that was not explored at our meeting.  

Not one to shy away from probing popular causes, Tony a Rotarian from Central Melbourne Sunrise and a life time journalist has published many articles on the history etc. of the Climate Change issue, including several in the Quadrant Monthly magazine.  Placed in that camp which questions the severity of the impact of raised CO2 levels he has a record of raising points and writing articles challenging various aspects of publications reporting on climate change.

Thus his address to our club was informative as to the various current points raised by those doubters of the significant impact of CO2 on the climate.  It seemed that there was always some focused statement in a broader report or comment that could be shown to be dubious, in isolation or viewed from another perspective  -- and Tony showed several.  This prompted some robust and passionate discussion as to the merits of his raised points and counterpoints and was a fascinating insight into how such an issue can polarise opinions..  In reality one could see the address and discussion as a micro-set of that which is still happening worldwide.  

It was left to the sage ex DG Dennis Shore to dampen the scene and thank Tony for his address with the concluding remarks that indeed there was a plethora of material/data on the matter, both objective and subjective.  Hence at present, and necessarily so, diverse conclusions are being made at the level of the individual.

Photo : At left Tony with Chair for the day Noel Halford.