First, let me make it clear that I am not a climate change “denier”.

As an outdoor sort of person, I have identified changes in the weather taking place over at least the last ten years, and associated phenomena like the lengthening the season in the activity of flora and fauna.  Not that changes in the weather mean climate change.  I leave the more detailed study of climate change to others better placed than me to measure it.

I do, however, have questions about the responsibility of human activity in this matter.

When somebody explains satisfactorily to me how we have such a dramatic impact on a climate which has changed much more significantly over long periods of time without our intervention I will be more happy to accept our role.

Until that time, I will continue to work on the assumption that, as the planet has been warming up gradually for the last 10,000 years – if it hadn’t, the bulk of our little bit of it would still be covered in ice – it will probably go on warming up whatever we do.

The planet is not threatened, nor is life on the planet.  Earth, and life upon it, has been adapting to climate change for time immemorial.  What is threatened is modern human society.  What we have to concentrate on is to continue to do what we have been doing for the last 10,000 years – adapting to change in the climate to accommodate it.

That is not to say that we should not try to mitigate our contribution as far as is possible.  Personally, I have been “green” for many years, saving energy where possible and recycling if for no other reason than the resources we use are finite and should be conserved as much as possible. 

It is insane to go on using fossil fuels and dangerous nuclear processes to generate our energy when there are boundless alternative sources available. 

It takes only political will to tap them.  If we can summon up the technology and resources to create hugely expensive weapons of mass destruction, to take men to the Moon and wage endless unecessary wars, we can surely apply that same inventiveness and resouce to developing alternative sources of energy. 

And while we are about it, we could find a better way of organising agriculture to feed the starving instead of stuffing our own faces.

But the issue here is not to pussy-foot around the edges of the problem of pollution – which we will do, vested interest will ensure that nothing significant is done – but to recognise that whatever we do the planet will continue to warm up, and to address the problem of how we adapt to it.

If the sea level rises, as it surely will do; it has done so often enough in the past, most of our major cities will become untenable, huge swathes of currently occupied land will be under water.

To even slightly lessen the impact of this aspect of climate change alone will need solutions to be sought right now.   All the other ramifications of climate change on human society will also, of course, have to be addressed.   Now.  Later will be too late.

It seems absurd arrogance to me to believe that we can stem the tide.  The most likely scenario is that the climate will continue to warm up no matter what we do.  By all means take whatever steps we can to slow down the process, but it will not be denied.

The effort must be concentrated on how to mitigate the effects of climate change, not wasted on how to prevent it.

When you have people like Elliot Morley telling you climate change is man made then asking for all of your money to fix it you know there's something fishy going on. Our whole public sector seems to be corrupt, from politicians and peers, the EU, right down to the traffic wardens who issue fraudulent tickets. The scientists have been fiddling the figures. I don't trust any of them. Their money grabbing agenda is on a par with the Westminster Crime Wave which MP's have recently participated in. Scammers, the lot of them.

PS Is it absolutely neccessary to have those convoluted word guessing things at the bottom of the page? They are very irritating. I doubt that you will be plagued with automated spammers if you get rid of them, you might get a few more comments though.

 

In brief reply to the climate change blog  may I point the writer to articles on how man has influenced climate change especially over the last 200 years of industrialisation, to p[rof Fred Pearce for a start  via

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Pearce 

Further the latest edition of BBC Focus magazine has an article by him about cvlimate change.   He also wrote a piece in New Scentist mag, but 2008 I think, on the effect of the sun and man-made emissions.  The man-made emissions of greenhouse gases dwarfed the sun's effects. and we are not in a period of natural change anyway.    (See also info on Prof James Hanson, the 'grandfather of climate science)

I agree we can largely only mitigate the effects of the warming, which are clearly our own fault; as is what's being termed the 6th great species extinction in history.   However we must as the blogger says turn our technologies to this end, keeping thew warming to about 2 deg C.  If we don't it could be as bad as 6 deg C. (Recent report via IPCC - Mid November 09) In which case the planet will survive but we and many other current species may not...

Your comment is confusing because you cover, and appear to support,  a lot of the things we should be doing to reduce the impact of rapid climate change and its effect on the global environment. I think you may be caught up in semantics.  I don't think anybody is trying to stop climate change - I think that is impossible especially with 6+ billion people and growing rapidly. It is all about making changes and adopting new technologies to minimalise our drain on finite respources and our impact on the planet for future generations.

It concerns me when somebody such as yourself, who is "green" and do your bit, is confused by what the politicians and others are stating. Because there are many who just think it's a big con and won't consider doing anything to help in the fight against climate change.

There is considerable material available on the web for you to review on the subject. Like with all things, you have to read with an open mind, and pick through the various viewpoints and their biases. However, I believe you will find considerable evidence from a wealth of respected scientists from around the world to support the case that our current path will create massive problems in 20 to 50 years for the billions who will be trying to live on this planet. 

Air pollution is destroying everything on this Planet, animals, trees, insects, plants , people and the Ozone Layer.

Pollution is causing Nitrogen Dioxide this is a reddish/brown gas which has a pungeant irritating odour.  It transforms in the air to  for gaseous nitrict acid and toxic organic nitrates.  Nitrogen Oxide plays an important role in atmosperic reactions which causes ground level Ozone damage, this is a major component of smog.  This is also a precurser to nitrates which contribute to an increase to respirable particle levels in the atmosphere.  This in itself causes carcinogen which is the biggest contributary factor of the high increase of cancer in the world.  It is found in our water, food and the air we breathe.

The biggest contributer to the pollution from transportation, 28% from our cars another 40% from all other forms of transport, this gives us 68% which is caused by us travelling.

The Government has done nothing to curb the transport on the roads, or boycotting Countries who refuse to conform and cut pollution down to 2% , instead we have encouraged the Chinese to open businesses in GB, with their appalling Pollution levels this is the last Couintry we should encourage over here, what is this country doing?  More People means more houses, more houses mean more cars.  Cut down the people allowed to live in GB not an open door to create more pollution.

Thanet where I live was termed as the healthiest place to live 30 years ago, now many places have extreme high pollution levels eg St Lawrence Westwood and if the Chinese convert Manston into this HGV infested area and the exspansion of the Airport danger levels will cover the whole of Thanet, health risks to all and many deaths will be caused by the increase of lung cancer, asthema, all chest problems and maybe deformity in births.

If we do not fight for a cleaner GB we will become a contributary factor to the destruction of the world.

No mention of climategate eh?

Come on face facts the Earth warming is far better than the Earth cooling. It's a giant myth. It's so last year talking abou climate change.

Next subject!

Its all very well trying to adapt, if you have the money.  The problem is that those who are being worst affected have very little and scratch a living in the dust or from the sea.  Of course sea level change is is not a problem for us in Britain, we can always drive to higher ground, or better still get a jet.

  

There are so many un-informed people who tend to follow the crowd.

Climate change IS a reality and it will affect you all much sooner than you expect:

http://cugerbrant.co.uk/

There will be sceptics even when you are suffering from 45 degree summers. A bit of snow in winter is NOT a sign that it is not happening. You just do not understand the dynamics of our planet. Burying your head in the sand makes no difference.