Why Do People Listen to Andrew Bolt?

by Fraser Orr
(Sydney)

Conservative columnist Andrew Bolt is one of Australia’s strongest voices supporting climate change denial. His Herald Sun blog is one of the most popular Australian sites, and is full of rants against "warmist conspiracy theorists" who have been fooling the public into believing that climate change is real.

One of the best, and silliest, arguments often made by Bolt is that the temperature in some places in the world are actually experiencing cooler temperatures than is usual. So then global warming can’t be real, right? Well, not really. These changing temperatures are also indications of climate change. As the balance of nature has been disturbed by human activity, both the highest and lowest temperatures of the seasons will be altered. Of course, you don’t need to trust me to believe this, a little bit of research into what scientists are saying (rather than columnists) will show that this is the case.

So while he’s going against what the majority of educated scientists are saying about climate change, why does he still have a job? And why are people taking him seriously?

The reason he has a job should be simple enough. The Herald Sun is owned by Rupert Murdoch, who also owns America’s Fox News, and has a great deal of investment against climate change being real. Of course, this little conflict of interest goes unreported in any of his newspapers.

Why do people still believe him? Bolt is a master of debating skills. Despite being totally wrong, he’s able to argue his point in such a way that his opponents get flustered, and reality gets forgotten. Take a look at the video below for an example. It would be nice to see Bolt debating an actual scientist for a change!



Can you believe this...what do you think?

Thank you,
Fraser


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