Friday 18 December 2009

In The Hot Seat

Let's take a quick look at a letter into last night's Sloppy Star. It's from regular writer, Allan Tucker from Oswestry, and it attempts to tackle an interesting topic:

There has been some controversy about whether global warming is taking place.

Correct. I watched an interesting debate about this a few days ago, and I found myself in agreement with Michael Portillo.

Yes, you read that right. I'm as shocked/surprised/angered as you are. But "Bear With!" as that woman in 'Miranda' says.

Global warming is certainly an interesting debate. I would reckon about 80% of scientists say it's happening, but not ALL are in agreement. At this moment in time, I am sceptical. There is a good argument that Earth has gone through radical temperature differences before, and this is simply happening again and is nothing to do with human hand. That does appeal to my belief that Mother Nature knows what's it doing, I'll admit. And Dennis Miller made a good point the other night, albeit in a humorous way - how accurate were the findings 100 years ago? Accurate enough to really pay attention to them?

However I certainly keep an open mind on this, and would be happy to lose my cynical side. If the clever bods can conclusively prove that we're fucking up the globe, then it's time to act, and act bloody quickly. It won't be nice, but necessary. Whatever your opinion though, an interesting discussion can be had. Let's see what Allan can bring to the table.

PricewaterhouseCoopers says that its research highlighted the need for carbon reduction.

Interesting, what were their findings?

That, together with the fact that most scientists and governments agree, is enough for me. Global warming is taking place.


Oh, that's that then? Fair enough. Let me just go and get some solar panels eh?

1 comment:

  1. Even a stopped clock can be right twice a day.
    Climate scientists: 97% agree that climate change is anthropogenic
    Other scientists: agreement drops to around 90%.
    A large majority of the others are funded by transport and fossil fuel industries. The 'debate' is stirred up by fossil fuel interests in the same way that cigarette manufacturers tried to spread doubt about the link between smoking and cancer in the 1960s.

    http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/01/19/eco.globalwarmingsurvey/

    Petroleum geologists and meteorologists were among the biggest doubters, with only 47 percent and 64 percent, respectively, believing in human involvement.

    However, Doran was not surprised by the near-unanimous agreement by climatologists.

    "They're the ones who study and publish on climate science. So I guess the take-home message is, the more you know about the field of climate science, the more you're likely to believe in global warming and humankind's contribution to it.

    "The debate on the authenticity of global warming and the role played by human activity is largely nonexistent among those who understand the nuances and scientific basis of long-term climate processes," (Professor Peter Doran, professor of earth sciences).

    Happy Christmas!

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