Sham or Scam

IT seems to me that there is still far too much confusion and controversy about what is causing climate change. Almost everyone is in agreement that it is happening. Indeed, it's taking place incredibly quickly. Even to the most uninitiated it must be obvious that our weather is different now to just a decade ago. The uncertainty then, lies in whether global warming is due to man's inconsiderate abuse of the environment or whether perhaps humanity is only partly to blame and that the main cause of greenhouse gases is to be found in nature itself.

Harm to the environment cannot be caused by just one phenomenon. It is the result of two or more events within nature impacting upon one another. Unfortunately, global warming as a concept is being driven by a most powerful machine, that of money. While we, the public, are encouraged to recycle our rubbish, walk to the shops instead of using the car and take no more than one holiday abroad a year, it is scientists who are pawns in the game of 'call my bluff'. Through research grants provided by governments they are persuaded to provide us with proof (as if we need it) that the environment, as we know it, is changing. The evidence is to put the blame squarely at our door. It is our actions, our overblown lifestyles which will forever alter the world if we don't mend our ways forthwith. Politicians are the marketeers who ultimately try to drive the message home to us honourable citizens of the world. They spout big words and threats hoping to scare us all into changing the way we live our lives. They allocate funds to specific target areas or projects where they believe the finance can be used most influentially. It is known, for example, that in her drive for nuclear power Margaret Thatcher allocated money to scientists to provide concrete proof that the burning of coal and oil was harmful.

It could be, however, that the first phase of what we are seeing today actually began around eight hundred years before a measurable rise in CO2 levels was first noticed. We already know there is evidence that over many millions of years the Earth’s temperature has fluctuated between markedly warmer and colder periods. It was one of the former which probably sparked the increase in CO2 levels while the Earth was heating up rather than being the cause of it.

The real truth about climate change is that we don’t yet know a great deal. We have a lot of facts, a lot of theories and much evidence that it is happening all around us, but we still have a long way to go before being able to fully explain it and consequently know how to effectively induce damage limitation. In the meantime it remains a topic of much controversy, debate and rhetoric, but worst of all it is a huge money spinner. Millions, which would be better spent on feeding the poor and looking after the old and the disadvantaged at home and abroad, are being spent on staging conventions in exotic locations, promoting foods and products which will allegedly save the environment and lining the pockets of politicians. It’s not news that it’s the innocent and the vulnerable which will be the worst off wherever they happen to live on this Earth.

07/04/07