Debunking Climate Change Denial

I am not a climate change denier. My beliefs in this matter are quite straightforward: I have seen the climate of my country change over the last ten to fifteen years with warmer summers every year, there is considerable peer-reviewed evidence to back this up and we need to take concerted, sustained global action to prevent such changes resulting in large areas of the planet becoming uninhabitable and the ecosystem becoming unsustainable due to the deaths of key species.

My favourite argument against climate change is: Well, look at acid rain and the Ozone hole – we thought they’d wipe us out and they haven’t. That’s entirely because global action was taken – limits were placed on the emissions of sulphur and lead, while use of CFCs was banned globally. So far, we haven’t done the same as regards climate change.

Part of this is down to people like Christopher Monckton, a heredity peer who has taken on the mantle of champion of climate change denial. His mission, is effectively the opposite of that of Al Gore – he seeks to reassure people that there is no real change to the climate, that the planet can sort itself out and that generally we should stop worrying so much. While Gore espouses that we can’t afford to be wrong on this, Monckton simply states we are wrong on this, with both men using considerable bodies of statistics to back their arguments up. The climate change deniers are often quick to jump on Gore’s statistics, citing things such as changing technology and increased numbers of monitoring devices in poorly placed areas as a core reason for the higher temperature readings (despite visual evidence such as decrease in the size of both ice caps).

Help is at hand however, because now a scientist from the University of St Thomas has published an eighty-minute long review of a presentation by Monckton. In this presentation, Professor Abraham goes back to the evidence cited by Monckton, reviews it as regards Monckton’s use of the source and in some cases contacting the authors of the work in question to see if they agree with the assertions made by Monckton. I strongly recommend viewing it, as it serves to disprove many of the arguments used by Monckton, proving a number to be absolute fictions.

Sadly, the audience who need to see it most, those who would allow us to walk drive our Humvees into oblivion, likely won’t. Given the links between the Global Government conspiracy theorists and the climate change deniers and the apparent willingness to overlook all peer-reviewed evidence on the basis of mistakes made by one university and an employee of the UN who is a social scientist, not a scientist, it will likely be dismissed by deniers as another piece of propaganda which will allow those devious scientists/government/illumanati to destroy our way of life.

Has Environmentalism Become Embedded In British Politics?

This can be illustrated through a number of examples. Chief amongst these are British environmental policy before and after both the ‘Montreal Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer’ and the ‘Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change’. Also relevant are the environmental policy decisions surrounding the 2000 fuel tax protests and the reaction to environmental protests by the Thatcher and Major governments. The sources of environmental policy will also be discussed.

It should also be noted that while policy does not seem to be embedded within British government or any of the mainstream parties, it remains a consistent issue with the British population. Thus, it can be said to be embedded as a policy in Britain in general. The persistence of the Green Party – in particular in Scotland post-devolution – is particularly telling.

The origin of contemporary environmental policy can be traced to the London’s smog crisis of 1952, in a pollution-thickened fog descended on the city, lasting nearly a week and resulting in more then 4,000 deaths. Four years later, the Clean Air Act 1956 was passed. This placed restrictions on the amount of smoke emitted by new furnaces and factories, the emission of solid pollutants and types of fuel which could be burnt both in commercial and domestic facilities (United Kingdom 1956, pp3-9). A Clean Air Council was also established to monitor the effectiveness of the this early environmental policy (United Kingdom 1956, pp26).
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