Cold, Dead Hands

Where to start with the extraordinary amount of heat and light generated in the blogosphere over the issue of man-made global warming – most of it from sources sceptical of its existence? Without claiming expert knowledge my understanding is that climate is shaped by the position of the Earth/Sun, variations in sunspot activity, debris in the atmosphere, both natural (volcanic) and man-made (industrial pollutants) which cools the earth, ocean currents which both cool and warm and greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that raise the earth’s temperature by around 33 degrees from a chilly -18 degrees to a hospitable 15. We know that CO2 in the atmosphere has risen by almost 40% since the onset of the industrial revolution, and there is now more CO2 in the atmosphere than at anytime for at least 600,000 years.

Knowing this, and also that there is reliable evidence to suggest that the earth is warming (and the trend has increased since the 1970s), why in the wide, wide world of sports try to explain recent rises without including artificially enhanced greenhouse gases in one’s reasoning?

Simply applying the precautionary principle suggests it’s a sensible thing to do. If we de-carbonise our economy and it turns out the view of the scientists is wrong we have slowed the onrushing locomotive that is Peak Oil, increased our fuel security and reduced acidification of the oceans. If we do nothing and the man-made global warming sceptics are wrong we exacerbate all those problems, and add large-scale environmental destruction with massive increases in immigration of environmental refugees.

You would imagine that any reasonable human being would at least consider this option. But of course scepticism to man-made global warming isn’t about reason, it’s about ideology. The free market libertarian orthodoxy that has held sway over the global economy since the end of the Second World War that came crashing down with the quasi-nationalisation of the banks during the credit crunch. It is a primal scream, a 500-lb gorilla howl of rage at seeing everything change around them. The unsustainability that western society is built on is no longer an option, and frankly they’re agin this whole idea.

Of course these are dangerous times. The last time an Empire allowed its power to drift away was in 1945 when an exhausted Britain was mostly glad to see the back of its imperial adventure. America is likely to be a different proposition. A wiser fella than me once said that fascism will arrive in America wrapped in the flag and holding a cross – to paraphrase a much less wise fella (and speaking metaphorically), they will have to prise power from its cold ideologically dead hand!

Peace & love