Cardiff’s student paper Gair Rhydd refuses to retract article presenting climate change as a ‘debate’

Cardiff University's official student newspaper Gair Rhydd published an article in their weekly comment section named 'The Great Climate Debate'.

The piece featured two writers, one of whom said that climate change was a serious issue we need to address, and one who said that man-made climate change is a fabrication based on 'unreliable evidence'.

A brief snippet of the article in Gair Rhydd

The article stated that the current climate movement is a front to overturn capitalism and that current changes in our weather are no different to 'the Medieval warm period'.

There is a scientific consensus of over 99% that climate change is occurring, and is caused by human actions. In 2019, over 11,000 scientists made 'a clear and unequivocal declaration that a climate emergency exists on planet Earth.' The Intergovernmental panel on climate change has said it is impossible to argue against the evidence for climate change.

Some argue it is dangerous to present climate change as a debate, as it should be treated as fact.

Nia Jones, a former contributor to Gair Rhydd, told the Cardiff Tab:

"These kind of articles spread highly believed inaccuracies about climate change and do nothing to add to the necessary discussions around the topic. Journalists are more than encouraged to start discussions around the solutions to climate change, and how people are acting upon it, but the climate science is fact and should be presented as such.

"I felt disheartened after just graduating from Cardiff this year and feeling like the student body was progressive in it's thinking and held scientific evidence in high regard. It's important to call out this misinformation."

When Nia asked Gair Rhydd to retract the article they responded:

"We believe the Comment section should not be limited to the point where contributors feel unable to write freely their opinion on global matters."

The Cardiff Tab reached out to Gair Rhydd for comment but has not received a response.