What is it about global warming that turns sane men into ranting alarmists?

Neil Collins

The science of climate change is far from settled, but one thing’s for sure: energy bills are set to rise. So why don’t Labour’s gurus offer practical policy ideas instead of doom-laden prophecies?

You might have guessed, too, that I am not entirely convinced by either of these eminent speakers. It’s an uncomfortable truth that the science here is far from settled, despite the claims of those on the warmer side of the climate-change debate. (Incidentally, if Barack Obama becomes president and gives a substantial role to Al Gore, then we really are all doomed.) The David who is confronting these Goliaths is called Benny Peiser, a social anthropologist from Liverpool John Moores University. The smooth, round pebbles he is using for ammunition are fired from a website called CCNet.

Peiser trawls the internet, and any other sources that take his fancy, to send research, comments and feedback to the 6,000 similarly sceptical recipients who have signed up (free) for his emails. Each one is carefully sourced, so readers can click through and assess it for themselves. This is proper scientific publishing for the Internet age, providing a track back to verify such embarrassing (to the warmers) facts that sea levels are not rising, that Antarctica is not melting, and that the 1990s were not the warmest decade of the last century.

You would think a fine public service, disseminating scientific knowledge, would be welcomed. Yet to true believers, man-made global warming is the new religion. Few would go quite as far as the Bishop of Stafford, who claimed that by refusing to ‘face the truth’ about climate change, we’re collectively as guilty as Josef Fritzl, who locked his daughter in the basement for 24 years and fathered seven children by her. The bishop’s analogy is that our behaviour locks our children into a world with no future and ‘throws away the key’.

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Kit

July 4th, 2008 12:41pm Report this comment

I assume Abby Taubin's "little financial encouragement" will mean higher taxes and energy bills for the rest of us. No thanks.
If micro-generation was financially viable or an efficient method of generating energy we would all be doing it.

Amelie

August 7th, 2008 2:47pm Report this comment

Over the last few years I have read/watched with interest all the coverage on Global Warming and would like some straight answers.
Who are the main greenhouse polluters, I've read that 20% come from cows, and that 20% actually comes from the leaf degredation in the forests around the world, so my question is what percentage of the harmful gases are actually created by man, industry and driving cars ?
My impression is that we can actually have little affect overall, since we account for very little of the greenhouse gas creation.
Therefore is this just over hyped ? Is the Global warming industry too big for us to have a good look at the real facts and get back to reality ?

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