The second Festival of Dangerous Ideas was held at the Sydney Opera House over the October 2010 long weekend featuring an array of topics in 24 separate panel debates and individual presentations. From a climate change perspective, the message remained clear with a projected grim outlook for the planet from 2020 onwards. Of note, the session titled 'We are all Climate Change Deniers' presented by Clive Hamilton, Professor of Public Ethcis at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics demonstrated the stark reality that global warming is occuring and is on a trajectory for a major impact within this century. Even the 2 degree C target would still result in Artic summer ice, Himalayan Tibetan glaciers and the Greenland ice sheet melting. The evidence now shows a temperature rise of between 2 and 4 degrees C which will result in the loss of Amazon rainforest (one of the World's main oxygen generators) and the West Antartic ice sheet as well as many other effects. Yet despite the evidence, there remains vocal and powerful interests that seek to deny there is any risk as well as nullify any debate.
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