From Watts Up With That?

Essay by Eric Worrall

“… We need to take the politics out of the debate and get the people to demand that governments take action to minimise the climate threat …”

Ken Russell

Climate change should be depoliticised

July 14, 2026

Fossil fuel interests have politicised climate action and slowed the transition. A trusted, science-led expert group could help galvanise public demand for change.

Temperature records continue to be broken, and governments continue to approve new fossil fuel projects. Politicians are failing the people; it’s time for change. We need to take the politics out of the debate and get the people to demand that governments take action to minimise the climate threat. For this to happen will first require a major communications campaign.

Politicisation of climate change has become a major impediment to the world successfully addressing the climate crisis. To address this, I propose the formation of an apolitical science-based expert group to obtain community support for calls on the Australian government to align its climate and energy policies with the science. To succeed in getting effective climate action, this strategy would have to be replicated in other countries. The Australian expert group could engage globally and aim to evolve into an international organisation.

….

But there still is major support for fossil fuels. A Banking on Climate Chaos report, published in June this year, reported that the world’s largest banks pledged $906 billion to fossil fuel companies in 2025, an increase of $64 billion from 2024. This financial information adds significantly to the already strong evidence that renewable energy is not replacing fossil fuels, it is supplementing them.

…

The group’s first task would be a major communications campaign to present the community with the evidence about the climate crisis. People have been denied by politicians the facts about fossil fuels and are being fed disinformation by the fossil fuel lobby. This false information is being further promoted by the predominately right-wing media.

…Read more: https://johnmenadue.com/post/2026/07/climate-change-should-be-depoliticised/

Ken, perhaps you haven’t kept up with latest developments. The evidence is that climate scientists were recently forced to admit their worst doomsday scenarios have been falsified.

Michael Mann: Cancelling RCP 8.5 has only Bought us 50 Years

RCP 8.5 is not alone. All the other climate doomsday scenarios which have been “communicated” over the years have also failed to manifest.

30 Year Anniversary of the UN 1989 “10 years to save the world” Climate Warning

Your “apolitical science-based expert group” would have to do far more than communicate the same tired claims we’ve been hearing since the late 80s, when the UN issued their “10 years to save the world” warning. For starters, they’d have to dig up some convince evidence that climate change is actually a problem. Evidence more compelling than discredited computer fantasies like RCP 8.5, whose exaggerations are the basis of oh so many of the now falsified climate warnings we’ve been badgered with over the years.

As for banks pledging more for fossil fuel, that’s easy to explain. The gulf crisis has highlighted how much the world needs fossil fuel resiliency. Wind turbine or solar panel resiliency not so much.