Pamela Anderson reaches ‘peak Hollywood hypocrisy’ on climate change
Sky News Digital Editor Jack Houghton Hollywood hypocrisy reached new levels of absurdity this week when Pamela Anderson who is in town to film motoring industry commercials thought it appropriate to lecture Australians about climate change and their diets. Activists rejoiced when the Baywatch star pressured the Queensland Government to ban meat at official functions and linked the latest deadly bushfires directly to climate change. As youve already noted, the science is clear: climate change has played a key role in the severity of this years bushfires, Anderson said. Just as your government is surely working on emissions-saving energy and transport policies, you could lead by example by implementing a climate-friendly vegan food policy for government functions, along with transitioning the menu at Sometimes Strangers Restaurant at Parliament House to an all-vegan one. Australia thanks you for your insights Professor Anderson. Now could you please cash your check from Ultra Tune and hop back home on your fuel-guzzling plane. While in the air perhaps think about the hypocrisy of accepting money from a motoring company while flying around the world on carbon-producing planes. The discourse on this topic has already been perverted by activists who are using the deaths and tragedy of bushfires to propagate their political goals. We dont need washed up Hollywood hacks to profit from virtue signalling while we are still mourning as a nation. Not that Australias activists mind. They happily promote Professor Anderson and requote her flawed science and inaccurate data to call for absurd notions like zero carbon emissions by 2030. Extremist group PETA was one organisation to cash-in on the professors comments. It penned an article saying governments should heed her advice to save lives in the future. Yes, not listening to Professor Anderson equates to murder. These are the same activists who get their scientific advice from the 11,000 scientists who declared a climate emergency in an online petition recently. The decorated list of scientists included the names Micky Mouse, Harry Potter and his old headmaster, Albus Dumbledore. Suddenly Pamela Andersons thoughts on science seem comparatively not as absurd. So what does the science say about bushfires? Does research exist directly linking previous emissions policies to contemporary bushfires? No. There has not been a release of any scientific report analysing the cause of these specific bushfires yet. There is a very vague mention in the most recent IPCC report of the potential window for hazard reduction burns shrinking in the Asia-Pacific region but there is, as of yet, no Australian specific research directly linking this to climate change. In fact, we know a large portion of the fires were caused by arsonists so the entire argument becomes moot if people are driving around bushland starting fires on purpose. But lets look at what the actual science says and what is says specifically about Australia. In the latest IPCC report analysing bushfires authors do indeed suggest changing climate could shorten the number of days hazard reduction burns can take place. However, even if this happens, the authors only go as far to declare that it could potentially impact mitigation efforts. In Australia, fire management will become increasingly challenging under climate change, potentially exacerbating conflicting management objectives for biodiversity conservation versus protection of property, IPCC scientists wrote. The authors also note that the phenomenon of shortening timeframes is only expected to occur. This means the line being trotted out by The Greens and eco-activists is only a prediction of what might happen in the future. It is certainly not proof that CO2 emissions are linked to anything influencing fire season preparation right now. Climate change is expected to increase the number of days with very high and extreme fire weather with greater changes where fire is weather-constrained (most of southern Australia; many, in particular eastern and northern, parts of New Zealand) than where it is constrained by fuel load and ignitions (tropical savannahs in Australia), the authors wrote. So when people, including former Hollywood superstars, lecture you about the science make sure you ask for their sources. Often they simply do not exist. Read More Our Apps