There was no mention of sustainability, or of scarce resources. No mention of China or the USA. Then they gave a false impression of the green views on development. They said greens want them to only use renewable energy, so in effect as this is expensive they will stay undeveloped. Green don’t want to see them stay undeveloped, but want to encourage them to plan more carefully than us, reducing the damage to their environment. Read about contraction and convergence, the way all economies can be sustainable, at www.gci.org.uk/contconv/cc.html.
They showed temperature rising and falling over the years, but every climate scientist knows this, nothing new. They said the green lobby is all-powerful and everyone must agree or their research won’t get funding. As if the vested interests of industry aren’t a far more powerful lobby. They claimed not to be paid by the oil lobby, but may have been in the pay of other interests like nuclear power, car manufacturing etc.
In the unlikely event that those thousands of scientists have got it wrong, the net result of going green would be a more efficient use of resources, which will run out one day so we should be using them carefully anyway. Greens also support social justice and want a more equitable balance of resources, instead of the rich few owning more than the poorest billions. What a terrible thing it would be if we became a more just and efficient society.
After the TV program last night they showed a program about a newsnight reporter living as an 'ethical man' for a year (on BBC2), he did quite well, very informative. Then later on a dispatches (back to Channel4) program called 'greenwash' by George Monbiot, about how Blair and big business are pretending to do things to make the world greener but the reality is different, with new houses not energy efficient and Blair building roads. Both were effective counters to the title program.
They would like us to accelerate the use of scarce resources so we run out more quickly. I know what I would rather do.
www.channel4.com/science/microsites/G/great_global_warming_swindle/vote.html
has a vote on the subject. They clearly didn’t convince that many viewers.
1. Is global warming caused by human carbon emissions?
No 14%
Yes 86%
2. Should we use the precautionary principle until we know for certain whether carbon dioxide causes global warming? This means we must cut our carbon emissions for the moment.
No 34%
Yes 66%
Channel 4 have a site full of good info and links about global warming.
www.channel4.com/science/microsites/G/global_warming/
1 comment:
After it was broadcast, several people wrote about it.
see one response to the program at http://ocean.mit.edu/~cwunsch/papersonline/channel4response
Also refuted by Sir John Houghton;
He says 'That carbon dioxide content and temperature correlate so closely during the last ice age is not evidence of carbon dioxide driving the temperature but rather the other way round - TRUE. The programme went on to state that this correlation has been presented as the main evidence for global warming by the IPCC – NOT TRUE. For instance, I often show that diagram in my lectures on climate change but always make the point that it gives no proof of global warming due to increased carbon dioxide.'
For the best and latest statement of the science, you are referred to the Summary for Policymakers of the IPCC 4th Assessment Report published in February 2007 (see: www.ipcc.ch).
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