I saw conservationist David Bellamy speak earlier this week at Auckland University.  If you've never heard him deliver a talk before, he wanders a bit.  Okay more than a bit.  He delved into the mating habits of turtles and wandered across other highlights/stories from his extensive career in the field for nearly an hour.

Props to the guy, it certainly sounds like an interesting career filled with a wide range of conservation activities: from helping farmers in Australia to guiding the children of Nauru recover parts of their stripped island in foliage.  Restoring the wildflowers in England was the bit that gave me the warm fuzzies. 

He spoke quite strongly about the conservation ethic here in New Zealand and how over 4500 organisations in the country are "stitching their bit of the world back in order," restoring biodiversity.  Aww shucks. 

I was nodding along to everything I'd expect the guy to talk about.  Then came the bombshell.  "Climate change is poppycock."  I sat up in my chair blinking, wondering if the accent had gotten me, or if the man was talking through his beard a bit much.  No, he definitely said poppycock.

Well, that was my WTF?! moment of the day.  Now, I'm not going to go all Elizabeth Kolbert on the guy, but what is a patriarch of environmentalism doing spouting such drivel?  I'm not going to go on about the guy for 4 pages like Dr. Kolbert did towards Colin Beavan, (there's far better candidates for that sort of effort) but baby I've got an issue with this.

I'd expect this line of drivel from Rodney Hyde or a less than forward-thinking government.  I'd expect excuses like this from a coal company, or industry lobby group astroturfing their way around the place.  I would not expect this from a man who restores wildflowers in Britain.

And Mr. Bellamy's rationale for climate change being "poppycock", a problem not associated with human behaviour? 

Well he mumbled on another two minutes about volcano eruptions correlated to CO2 and temperature drop historically over time, and oh wait, he's got a graph somewhere he could show us, but he's not going to show us.  Plop back in chair, next question from the youth panel. 

Sorry buddy, that's just not on.  You do not stand on a otherwise legitimate career of doing good things to drop some misleading, unsubstantiated comment on a generation of people who is going to have to deal with the mess of global warming long after you've checked out.  It's bloody irresponsible and an insult to the people in developing countries already feeling the brunt of these shifts.

You can discuss the rate at which it's happening, explore the different consequences of human behaviour and the degree to which it might be affecting the bigger picture, but the reality is still the same: humans have a role in our current swing of the climate. 

Saying anything else but puts you not in the echelon of the people working to change things for the better, but in the dingy with the naysayers.  Check your conservation credentials at the door please.

I'm afraid I've lost much respect for a man with an otherwise noble career.  I can only hope it was early onset Alzheimer's doing the talking.

Also appears on Celsias.co.nz