Two Orkney councillors who challenged the need for action on climate change during the election campaign period have been appointed to a climate emergency working group.
Owen Tierney and Duncan Tullock both accepted their nominations during a meeting of the council on Thursday.
They won’t be the only two councillors joining the working group, with six other councillors appointed. This includes Kristopher Leask and John Ross Scott from the Orkney Greens.
Councillors Tullock and Tierney were both put forward by councillor Stephen Clackson.
There was audible amusement at the nominations in the council chamber at the special policy and resources committee – the second public meeting of Orkney’s new council.
‘His face says it all’
While accepting the post, Mr Tierney must have appeared bemused, as the council leader James Stockan remarked “his face says it all”.
Neither councillor denied that climate change is happening, but they have challenged the need for action.
During a hustings event held by BBC Radio Orkney last month, the candidates for Orkney’s West Mainland ward were asked if Orkney council should be helping to avert a climate change disaster or if it should concentrate on providing local services.
Mr Tullock made his views on the issue clear. As part of his answer, he said: “The word emergency to me means something that’s imminent.
“The types of words used are there to frighten people – they’re there to terrify them into things.
“Sea level is always rising but it only rises very slightly every year. It’s a steady climb and has been since the last ice age.”
He called projections that put sea level rises at around three to four feet within the next decade “absolutely laughable”.
He said it annoyed him that “we’re living on the knife-edge of an emergency” which he said has cost the council “thousands and thousands of pounds”.
Councillor Tullock concluded that he is “in the firm boat of not thinking it’s an emergency”.
‘The types of words used are there to frighten people – they’re there to terrify them into things’
During the same event, Mr Tierney said he has lived near Finstown School all his life.
He said incidents of spring tides affecting the roads in his area has lessened since he was young.
He said: “If anything sea levels are dropping.”
“The idea that in another 30 years time all these islands are going to be underwater, I honestly don’t think that’s the case based on my own life experience.”
The other councillors appointed to the working group are Heather Woodbridge, Jean Stevenson, Graham Bevan, and Leslie Manson.
The council’s climate emergency working group will review what the council is doing to reduce its carbon footprint.
The group will also recommend targets and priorities to be included in a climate adaptation plan and a council plan.
Conversation