There has been a lot of hoo har in the last few years over the threatened climate change, but nothing compared to the kerfuffle in the last few weeks over the British Chanel 4 documentary attempting to refute the whole climate change hypothesis.
Who is right? Are we being swindled? What is the man in the street who knows little of these weighty matters to think? How can we decide intelligently when so many knowledgeable scientists are apparently in violent disagreement?
Whether man’s activity is causing climate change one thing they all agree on is that there is climate change. I can remember a time when the gainsayers were even dismissing the evidence indicating climate change, however the evidence is now too compelling. What they do say however is that the changes are a part of the ever occurring cycle and point to changes in the recent past (100 – 1000 years) for support.
So the only common ground is that climate change exists, but that is where it ends. Caused by man or part of the periodic cycle?
There are two possible scenarios. It is naturally occurring. If this is the case and the “greenhousers” have their way what is the outcome. More effective methods of generating energy. Less dependence on fossil fuels. Far more efficient tools. By tool I mean mechanisms to make our life easier. Transport, houses, etc…. In short we will begin to live in a far more green manner. And how is this a bad thing? There are many reasons for doing this even taking climate change out of the equation completely. And what have we lost? Well…nothing from what I can see. We will live far cleaner and more efficiently and have gained some significant advances in technology. And as for the scientists who supported the theory? Well they will be hailed for the advances in whatever field in which they worked and all will be forgiven because they would have contributed significantly to research and technology. So they made a mistake – we all make mistakes and they did their best.
What if it does transpire that climate change is man made? Then those supporting the swindle scenario are going to look pretty stupid, as well as appearing churlish. And it will be universally agreed that we were right not to listen to them.
Quite frankly – although I do have a background in science – I am not enough of a scientist to pick through the minefield, although at this stage the man made scenario has the weightier arguments and the magazine style doco with half expressed and emotive arguments is unlikely to score high on my credibility scale.
So given all of that I think I will stick to the majority opinion for several reasons. We do have clear evidence of climate change. The majority of scientists adhere to the view that it is the result of human activity (BTW this is not a new phenomenon but just on a new scale). I do not find the arguments of the gainsayers at all compelling (or perhaps just poorly presented). But finally I would rather be safe (appear a fool) than sorry (be proven to be both willfully ignorant and stupid and in the event commit to an irreversible global change).