A view from 'The Observator' as printed in the Curry Rivel News November 2009

This, I hope, will be an occasional series on the general subject of climate change and some wider points that are associated with it. 

Firstly, I want to separate out two aspects which consistently are rolled into one and treated in the same breath. These are the issues of what is happening to the climate and the over-reliance on fossil fuels. All too often we are told that we must reduce our carbon emissions to save the planet from potentially catastrophic global warming.

There is absolutely no doubt but that we must reduce our over-reliance on fossil fuels all of which are a finite resource. Technological advances have allowed us to find, develop and extract new sources of oil and gas reserves as well as being able to extract more from existing reserves at costs which were once deemed non-economic. That is due primarily to a combination of advancing technology and the increase in the price of oil. There is also the crucial issue of fuel security where we are having to import more of our oil and gas requirements than before. But that is another issue and all these resources are finite.

Much of what is bandied around by politicians and the media about the continuing rise in the world’s temperature is based upon the IPCC’s various reports. The Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change was established under UN auspices to provide supposedly non-partisan and expert opinion on what is happening. The original IPCC report was endorsed in a wave of publicity by a plethora of international scientists. The fact that so many scientists supported the findings lent credibility to the results. Unfortunately, what was not publicised was the disciplines in which most of these ‘scientists’ practised. Very few were climatologists with the vast majority having no relevance to or knowledge of this science. Those supporting the hypothesis expounded by the IPCC have been dubbed the ‘alarmists’ whilst those who question the validity of many of the IPCC’s arguments are accused of being the deniers – the ‘sceptics’. Should one have the temerity to argue against what the IPCC states as being proven, one is often immediately accused of being in denial.

This occasional series will try and set out some of the facts and developing scenarios for more widespread understanding of what may be happening to our precious and sometimes fragile world.

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