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An Appeal to Reason

No need to panic — probably

Nigel Lawson
Duckworth, 149pp, £9.99,

Graham Stewart

Tuesday, 8th April 2008

When there is so much data suggesting the world’s climate is heating up, some may find it presumptuous of Nigel Lawson, who is not a scientist and has undertaken no original research, to hope to challenge the prevailing orthodoxy. Would we take seriously an appraisal of his time as Chancellor of Exchequer written by someone whose only expertise was in oceanography?

For some, this will be reason enough to rubbish his new book on global warming. Ironically those most keen to deride him may also be those who were first in the queue to embrace Al Gore, the Nobel prize-winning climate change campaigner. This would be the same Al Gore whose not very scientific qualifications amount to five F-grades from Vanderbilt Divinity School and a Harvard thesis on the impact of television on the American presidency.

In truth, pugilists on both side of the argument need to recognise that while expertise is always paramount, it is not out of place for other leading public figures to pose intelligent questions. After all, scientists and activists are demanding a political, not an academic, response to their findings. In this short and tightly argued book, Nigel Lawson successfully unravels some of the lazy assumptions upon which the current debate has been framed.

Of course, for many there are no two sides of the argument. Not only is global warming established, its man-made cause is proven and unless we radically reverse carbon emission growth, we are all doomed. Lawson is not an outright denier of either the first or second of these propositions, although he does throw in some qualifications to the sweeping generalisations that are often made in establishing cause and effect. It is on the subject of how we respond to the climate challenge that his book really deserves attention.

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James Petrie

April 18th, 2008 1:19pm

"When there is so much data suggesting the world’s climate is heating up"

"So much data"
What Data?

Richard

April 21st, 2008 10:37am

Would that Lawson's Appeal to Reason replace Al Gore's 'scientific' obscenity as the required environmental reference in schools, if there must be one. This whole Global Warming abomination is the pure malevolent product of ecoactivists, duplicitous politics and journalistic sensationalism. It has grossly warped genuine research into Earth Processes, and has visited immense harm and corruption to science.

Simon Marquis

April 24th, 2008 6:37pm

Lawson's book is that rare thing in the global warming issue - a healthy dose of common sense and scepticism. I hope it gets the attention it deserves and makes the alarmists think twice about pedalling propaganda instead of known facts. What Lawson reveals is not just the absurdity of most of the political responses to the global warming threat but the out and out dangerousness of them to generations present and future.

Graham Young

April 27th, 2008 11:27am

You may be interested to know that a paragraph from this article has been taken out of context and used by an Australian Broadcasting Commission presenter to suggest that people without science qualifications should not comment on global warming. You can read about it at http://ambit-gambit.nationalforum.com.au/archives/002975.html. I'm happy if you don't publish this comment, but I'd like the writer of the article to know.