Ian Plimer book signing

Professor Ian Plimer signing copies of his new book on the science of global warming, Heaven And Earth, at Abbeys Books in Sydney. He was also tickled to sign my old first edition of Telling Lies For God. Apparently it is going for US$118 on Amazon. He laughed and said, "This is my first book on fundamentalism", and gestured towards some bloke out the front of the shop.

That bloke had a one man protest going on out the front of the shop. I chatted to the him for a while as I was leaving. He was stopping passers-by and customers and asking them to read the latest Quarterly Essay, Quarterly Essay 33, Quarry Vision, Coal, Climate Change and the End of the Resources Boom by Guy Pearse, as an antithesis to Heaven + Earth. This bloke was suggesting that Professor Plimer is nothing but a shill for the mining industry because Plimer is on the board of a mining company. He also suggested that the book I'd bought was just paying for trip Plimer is taking to Paris next year(?). I asked the protester a few questions but he essentially said that he wasn't a scientist and did know all the science behind climate change but we are destroying our children's future. When I brought up the IPCC he claimed that it was comprised of industry stooges as well. 80% he reckoned.
I said I was mostly convinced that global warming was man-made but I am willing to see what someone like Ian Plimer has to say. The dude suggested that people shouldn't buy the book because it would only confuse them and may lead them change their minds. Unfortunately he was coming across as an environmental fundamentalists and didn't appear to be able to speak to the substance or science of the debate.