In response, a Southland regional councillor says both the advocacy group and touring physicist are guilty of gaslighting and misinformation.
Groundswell NZ is asking supporters to help fund 86-year-old Dr William Happer’s coming New Zealand tour.
Dr Happer has long been critical of the idea climate change is caused by humans, arguing that higher carbon dioxide levels are beneficial and global warming is naturally occurring.
Environment Southland (ES) deputy chairman Phil Morrison said there was an element of "gaslighting" in Dr Happer’s approach.
"The idea that we need not worry at all about greenhouse gases and the effect that they are ... imposing upon our climate ... I think there is risk inherent in that," he said.
Dr Happer was appointed senior director of the US National Security Council office for emerging technologies in 2018, but resigned the following year.
Though quick to stress he was not a climate scientist himself, Mr Morrison formerly co-chaired the Regional Climate Change Working Group.
The ES climate action initiative was endorsed by the Invercargill City, Gore District and Southland councils and has been running for three years.
From a survey the group did in 2023, he understood 13% of Southland participants did not believe in climate change or planning action in response.
With the wide breadth of information available on the subject, he said people needed to be discerning in what they accepted as fact.
Bringing Dr Happer to New Zealand is part of Groundswell’s campaign for New Zealand to exit international climate action treaty The Paris Agreement. They pointed to the Act Party and New Zealand First as supporters of this movement, but Prime Minister Christopher Luxon rejected it, saying it would only hurt farmers. Federated Farmers have also rejected the call to leave the global pact.
Despite these divisions, the 2050 animal-produced methane target was reduced by the government last month to be less ambitious.
Mr Morrison said there were different levels of "good and less good" behaviour in advocacy groups that engaged with local and central government. From what he had seen, not everybody played a clean game in the advocacy space.
"I have a real reaction to disinformation ... and I think we need to call it disinformation and misinformation more often."A FARMING activist group is fundraising to bring a former member of the Trump administration and climate change sceptic to New Zealand.
In response, a Southland regional councillor says both the advocacy group and touring physicist are guilty of gaslighting and misinformation.
Groundswell NZ is asking supporters to help fund 86-year-old Dr William Happer’s coming New Zealand tour.
Dr Happer has long been critical of the idea climate change is caused by humans, arguing that higher carbon dioxide levels are beneficial and global warming is naturally occurring.
Environment Southland (ES) deputy chairman Phil Morrison said there was an element of "gaslighting" in Dr Happer’s approach.
"The idea that we need not worry at all about greenhouse gases and the effect that they are ... imposing upon our climate ... I think there is risk inherent in that," he said.
Dr Happer was appointed senior director of the US National Security Council office for emerging technologies in 2018, but resigned the following year.
Though quick to stress he was not a climate scientist himself, Mr Morrison formerly co-chaired the Regional Climate Change Working Group.
The ES climate action initiative was endorsed by the Invercargill City, Gore District and Southland councils and has been running for three years.
From a survey the group did in 2023, he understood 13% of Southland participants did not believe in climate change or planning action in response.
With the wide breadth of information available on the subject, he said people needed to be discerning in what they accepted as fact.
Bringing Dr Happer to New Zealand is part of Groundswell’s campaign for New Zealand to exit international climate action treaty The Paris Agreement. They pointed to the Act Party and New Zealand First as supporters of this movement, but Prime Minister Christopher Luxon rejected it, saying it would only hurt farmers. Federated Farmers have also rejected the call to leave the global pact.
Despite these divisions, the 2050 animal-produced methane target was reduced by the government last month to be less ambitious.
Mr Morrison said there were different levels of "good and less good" behaviour in advocacy groups that engaged with local and central government. From what he had seen, not everybody played a clean game in the advocacy space.
"I have a real reaction to disinformation ... and I think we need to call it disinformation and misinformation more often."
