Carbon Cutters - Climate Change Denial

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Running on Empty

Required reading:

Chris Goodall "How to Live a Low-Carbon Life"

Richard Heinberg "The Party's Over"

George Monbiot "Heat"

Required watching:

The Power of Community - How Cuba Survived Peak Oil - DVD

The End of Suburbia - Oil Depletion & the Collapse of the American Dream - DVD

The Revolution

This is a revolution. If you want to shut an airport then stop flying. Want an end to factory farming? Grow your own. An end to pollution? Change to renewables. An end to war & poverty? Microgenerate. Life for your childen? Stop needing oil. YOU have THIS Power. You do not need Government. Seize the initiative. Bring democracy to your community. Be an example to your children. Take responsibility. Change for good today.

Climate Change Denial

US Climate Scientist Prof Daniel Schrag made an interesting comment about Climate Change Deniers. He said that there were only three types: honest skeptics unsure about the science, ignorant bystanders.... And liars. Skeptics are a very small number of genuine scientists that invoke useful debate whilst the 'ignorant' often represent the non-scientific community in their believe that if you wish hard enough a problem will just go away. And then there are the liars...

In truth we would ALL like to believe that Climate Change isn't going to happen, or it won't effect us or that it isn't our fault. This is the reason why Climate Change Denial is such a prosperous Industry. It tells us what we want to believe - like children and Santa Clause. Then there are the vested interests. The Fossil Fuel Industry is enormously wealthy and can pay for any truth it wants......

Scientific Uncertainty

Often the phrase "scientific uncertainty" is used as if it represents an argument in its own right. The public has been lead to believe (deliberately) that this means that Climate Scientists don't know for sure whether Climate Change was happening or not. This is completely untrue. The 'uncertainty' mentioned concerns how bad it will be.

The established scientific facts are simple: climate change is real and it is happening now. No natural cause has been found to account for all the changes happening but man-made causes match closely what has been observed. Period. We may be a little unsure about the eventual temperature rise or how mankind can effect a solution but Climate Change is not some theory. It is as uncertain as Gravity.

How the Climate works is so extremely complicated that it takes massive computers crunching numbers through sophisticated climate models to work anything out. Even these models are so open to chaos and the 'butterfly' effect that they have to be several times with only subtle changes in base assumptions. Hence the prediction of future climate offer a range of possibilities with a statistical probability of each coming true. It is similar to the precipitation forecast on the nightly news. We might not know exactly where it is going to rain tomorrow but we know it WILL rain. That is certain.

It's a Plot Against Development

This accusation ranks right up there with "it's a hoax" as an obvious absurdity. In truth Climate Change will effect those at the edge of existence first. They will be the least equipped to handle ecological disaster. Those in the developing world living on less than a dollar a day have the most to lose. All of the developed world's help will come to nothing if we don't arrest climate chaos. War and starvation will ravage the very people that the deniers claim they are helping with development.

This, of course, ignores the obvious fact that Climate Scientists have NOTHING to gain by arresting third world development! Third World countries have much bigger problems already through their burden of debt. Then there are the problems created by the WTO and World Bank through enforced neo-liberal economic models upon other countries. The dogma of market theology is a tool of the powerful nations used to open the markets of weak nations to exploitation. This profits the developed world. Free markets are meant to benefit the developing nations but Trade Agreements have generally failed in this area.

So, there may be a 'plot' to undermine development in the third world. However, if you believe such things, it is not Climate Science that is to blame, it is the trans-national Corporations, Financial and Governmental Institutions of the Industrial Nations. If you need to look for blame....

What is more, the scientists have recognised the threat of Climate Change for all the peoples of the Earth which is why "Contract & Converge" was proposed. This is answer enough.

It's a Hoax

In his "Carbon Counter" Book Mark Lynas comments on the idea that Climate Change has dreamt up for malignant political reasons with the comment 'what drugs are you taking?' Indeed this idea is so ridiculous that it hardly merits serious discussion. However, this accusation is still being made.

The idea that scientists just made it all up as a work creation scheme is a bizarre inversion of the truth. No one enters a scientific career in order to 'make stuff up' because they are bored or out of work. The street corners are not littered with Climate Scientists begging for food. This lines up against other fantasy conspiracy theories such as 'doctors create new diseases to keep themselves in work'. The truth is that the natural disasters and extreme weather already kill plenty of people. Enough destruction is wrought across the face of mankind by mother nature to keep every climate scientist on the planet busy for three lifetimes. There is an entire industry setup by concerned Governments just to try and predict and prevent disaster. What would motivate them to add imaginary dangers?

To make money? That is funny. Dr Rajendra K Pachauri Chairman of the IPCC is quoted as saying that the Scientists have been creating these Climate Change Reports as a "labour of love". If you want to make money in science you enter the pharmaceuticals or weapons business. There is no money in preventing catastrophe. Indeed, all the money and power is actually stacked up against the science. Few Industries out there are wiling to dig into their pockets to fund Climate Change research. This has to be publicly funded because there is no profit in it. However, it certainly unsettles the Oil, Gas & Coal Industries enough for them to throw plenty of money at the denial cause.

The bottom-line in all of this is that the Climate Scientists love their children too. They would really like to be proven wrong. Anyone with a conscience cannot remain silence knowing what they now know.

Climate Change is not caused by Man

Thousands of Climate Scientists have been studying every possible cause of Global Warming for thirty or more years. The figures for CO2 rise go back millions of years. The models are complicated and there is healthy debate about how much each factor contributes to the model. However, everyone agrees that NO factor, other than mankind, can be shown to be causing the measurable effects.

There are scientists who proudly claim to have found other causes for Global Warming. They may gain brief fame or infamy. They may sell a few books but their work is subject to peer review. None have stood up to scrutiny. Hence THE main cause is still man and nothing has yet disproved this. Once again, let us not kid ourselves, Climate Scientists would love to be wrong about this. However, if they are, and there is nothing mankind can do about this, would it make everyone happier? Would it really change anything? The Oil will still run out all the same.

Resources

I'm not taking it any more!

Low Carbon Man Post-Carbon Man has had enough and he isn't taking it any more. Today he is sharing his opinion about Cap and Trade plus Contract and Converge. He calls this the great leveller. He has no time for Climate Change Denial.

Learn what he has to say by clicking on this popup

References:	Comments of Professor Daniel Schrag as reported in the May 2007 issue of "The Ecologist" magazine. Information on the impacts of Climate Change on the World's poor come from an interview with the Chairman of the IPCC featured in "The Ecologist" magazine May 2007

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