Climate Change Denier Craig Kelly Called This Meteorologist A “Weather Girl”. Then She Hit Back
Kelly is still trying to backpedal from a disastrous 'Good Morning Britain' interview.
Earlier this week, Liberal MP Craig Kelly went on BBC’s Good Morning in an attempt to downplay the very real link between climate change and the Australian bushfires. It didn’t go so well.
Grilled by noted conservative mouthpiece Piers Morgan, Kelly blubbered and spluttered his way through an increasingly addled response. Limping from talking point to talking point, blaming fire reduction strategies and half-heartedly defending Prime Minister Scott Morrison from his critics, he managed to make a weak argument look even weaker.
Perhaps realising how badly he’d been stung, Kelly later took to Facebook and the media in an attempt to do some damage control. In the process, the MP lashed out at one of the Good Morning Britain regulars, weather person Laura Tobin. As reported by News.com.au, he called her a “pommy weather girl” in a now deleted Facebook post, and told the ABC that she had no idea what she was talking about.
But Tobin wasn’t going to take any of that lying down.
When news of Kelly’s insults began spreading on Twitter, Tobin made it clear that she wasn’t going to stand for such mudslinging.
“Yes, I’m a meteorologist,” she wrote, before listing her credentials, and topping the whole thing off with a nice succinct hashtag: #NotAWeatherGirl.
Yes I’m a Meteorologist
-A degree in Physics & Meteorology
-4 yrs as an aviation forecaster at the RAF
-12 yrs as a broadcast meteorologist
-Attended a @WMO Climate course last year & upto date with all the science #NotAWeatherGirl #IKnowWhatImTalkingAbout#DoYou?#ClimateChange https://t.co/fvwTpzftTI— Laura Tobin (@Lauratobin1) January 6, 2020
Moments after the Tweet was sent, it began to go viral, with other users hopping onto the hashtag and sharing messages of solidarity and support.
That's not thunder you're hearing. It's the sound of thousands of angry meteorologists pounding keyboards and throwing remotes at televisions. #notaweathergirl
— Corporal Paul Vandal (@TheDancingSlug) January 7, 2020
Craig Kelly is a misogynistic ignorant twit, please don’t think he represents Australian ideologies and beliefs.
He is typical though of climate change deniers, regurgitating the same BS without intelligent thought.#ClimateCrisis #ScottMorrisonPM #NotAWeatherGirl— Varinia (@Varinia45810478) January 7, 2020
In the aftermath of the fracas, Tobin appeared on the Project to discuss Kelly’s dismissal of her expertise.
“I think everybody just needs to be informed,” Tobin said. “If he’s not informed and he’s setting these policies — or these lack of policies — then that has a massive effect not just across Australia, but across the whole world. It really, really does.”
Watch the whole interview below.
After a heated exchange on UK TV, MP Craig Kelly tweeted “oh no some ignorant Pommie weather girl calls me a climate denier’. A post he later deleted. We caught up the "Weather Girl" @Lauratobin1 and it turns out, she's #NotAWeatherGirl pic.twitter.com/iz3tGnL8ca
— The Project (@theprojecttv) January 7, 2020