These days I listen to the radio a lot more than I used to. Steve Fielding has been interviewed many times this past week in regards to his questioning of climate science and asking whether CO2 is really the driver of global warming. He has been asking how temperature could be so flat over the last decade even as CO2 kept on rising. What has been painful to listen to has been Steve’s repeated introduction to such interviews with a deliberate statement that he is not a sceptic or an extremist. Painful because clearly he is a bit of a sceptic. And painful secondly because being a sceptic is somehow such a negative thing that Steve has to go into pre-emptive denial just to remain viable within the discussion. How did being a sceptic become so demonised?

What I also find notable is the media attention that a senator can attract. It is not as if the question he is asking has not been asked by others. In any case he seems to be handling the interviews with considerable ease. For those that have missed it here is a sample.