6 November 2012
St Helens Reporter, 17th October 2012
According to H J Gibbons (10th October), “many top scientists” still question the assumption that climate change is man-made.
Really? Which ones?
For a long time now the consensus within the international climate science community is that climate change is undoubtedly occurring and it is definitely man-made.
A 2004 ‘study of studies’ by Dr Naomi Oreskes of the University of California revealed that, between 1993 and 2003, not a single published and peer-reviewed scientific paper contradicted this consensus. The consensus remains.
And there isn’t a single national or major scientific institution anywhere in the world that disputes the close correlation between atmospheric carbon dioxide and global temperature. Not one.
The world can’t wait for action on climate change. It’s the biggest threat facing all seven billion of us and, as the likes of Oxfam know only too well, it’s already here. We see it in the record Arctic ice-melt, record temperatures, food shortages and famine, the ongoing extinction of species, and in the increasing numbers of climate refugees struggling to cope with environmental disasters such as floods, droughts and storms.
Leading climate scientists, from the world’s great educational institutions to NASA and the United Nations, are focusing their efforts on how to deal with climate change. Yet our governments do nothing. Instead of acting urgently on our behalf, they pander to an invisible network of lobbyists representing the interests of the world’s major polluting corporations.
Britain has an opportunity to take the lead on climate change – and to create jobs along the way. A transition to a fairer and greener economy will cut our carbon footprint and create up to one million jobs through investment in housing, transport and renewable energy.
There is no time to waste.
Andrew Donnelly
St Helens Green Party
St Helens Reporter, 31st October 2012
It would appear that climate change sceptic H F Gibbons (24th October) is trying to pull the wool over the eyes of Reporter readers.
Challenged to name any of the “many top scientists” who supposedly dispute the international consensus that climate change is man-made, he states that 500 of them attended a conference on climate change in 2008.
What readers aren’t told is that the conference in question was a sceptics’ event organised by the Heartland Institute (an ultra-conservative ‘think tank’ that uses oil company donations to discredit climate science) and sponsored by, among others, a body called the ‘Carbon Sense Coalition’ whose chairman, Viv Forbes, is a director at Australian fossil fuel giant Stanmore Coal.
Nor were there anything like 500 scientists in attendance. According to the New York Times, when organisers requested the scientists among those present in the large hall to move to the front for a group picture, only 19 men came forward. Perhaps the other 481 were crammed into the small hall?
Reporter readers will draw their own conclusions.
The fact remains that there isn’t a single national or major scientific institution anywhere in the world that disputes the close correlation between atmospheric carbon dioxide and global temperature.
The debate over climate change is over. It is the biggest threat facing all seven billion of us and the world can’t wait for action.
The Green Party would like to see Britain take the lead – and create jobs along the way. A transition to a fairer and greener economy will cut our carbon footprint and create up to one million jobs through investment in housing, transport and renewable energy.
Here’s to a Green New Deal.
Andrew Donnelly
St Helens Green Party
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