Source : Perth Now news
One of Australia’s best-known science communicators plans to bring ”irrational optimism” to the United Nations’ climate summit in Turkey, hoping to encourage a shift away from fossil fuels.
Social media platform TikTok on Thursday named Karl Kruszelnicki as one of four global creators it will send to Antalya, Turkey, to attend COP31 during November talks as part of its Climate Action campaign.
The author, doctor, physicist and television and radio presenter said his appearance at the event would occur 45 years since he first reported on global warming and in a very different context.
Back then, scientists were still investigating the causes of rising temperatures and looking to clues from sources including insurance companies, Dr Kruszelnicki said.
By the early 2000s, evidence humans were driving global warming had become stronger – a message he is still passionate about explaining to the public.
”Even if you can’t do everything, you’ve got to do something and this is my something, beginning in 1981,” he told AAP.
”It’d be nice if I didn’t have to do it but I’m working on the hope that irrational optimism will do better for you than realistic pessimism.”
It was an approach he learned from his father, Dr Kruszelnicki said, and one he would apply to climate ambitions at the international event.
Renewable energy technology allowed the scientist to generate more energy than his household needed in the past four months, with solar panels and a battery fuelling his electric car and letting him sell electricity back to the grid.
Greater investments in electrification and clean energy sources would help nations reduce their use of fossil fuels and should be prioritised at the summit, along with a plan to phase out fossil fuels, he said.
”Why I’m going to COP31 is for two things: one, I want them to actually put as a resolution that the goal is to keep fossil carbon in the ground, that’s coal, gas and oil,” Dr Kruszelnicki said.
”Secondly, that they’ll go full-speed ahead on the alternatives. I want to go to COP to (hear) the latest things they’re saying.”
Dr Kruszelnicki will hold a live question-and-answer session on TikTok during COP31 and post videos alongside three other creators – Mexican physicist Fernanda Torres, French visual artist Marlene Diard, and Turkish singer Goktug Tavacı.
The social network will also fund $200,000 in advertising to support climate organisations spreading factual information on its platform, including the Australian Conservation Foundation, WWF Australia, and Doctors for the Environment.
COP31 runs from Monday to November 20.
