Global warming?

For many people, and I include myself, the environment is a very important, if not the most important issue that faces our world today. We live in a world of finite resources and a world that really needs to take a serious look at what is happening to this beautiful planet. On a week by week basis it seems we hear of some global catastrophe, I don't know if that is the reality but it does seem to be like that. Because of our greed and desire for wealth and power there seems to be an overwhelming drive to destroy so many beautiful parts of the Earth, whether it be the the cutting down of the rain forests or polluting of rivers or the destruction of indigenous tribal regions. Over recent times there has been a growth in environmental groups and I am pleased that this has happened, if we didn't have these we would probably see more and more destruction.

At the present time there is an obsession with 'climate change' and in particular 'man made global warming', for many years I would have agreed with the orthodox view that our world was warming up and this was going to bring about huge calamities upon us if we didn't start doing something about it. I have to say that I have changed my mind and I no longer believe in this theory. When I have stated this to some people I have been met with incredulity and an almost disdain for my views. The reason I have changed my mind is because I have started to look at the facts, rather than subjective emotional scientific theory. A lot of scientist would say that it is now proven that our world is warming up and it is all down to CO2 emissions, the reality is somewhat different to the theory. Currently carbon dioxide makes up a tiny percentage of the gases in our atmoshpere and is running at levels of roundabout 390 parts per million, if we look at core drilling samples from around the globe going back millennia there have been times when they have been as high as 7000 parts per million.

We have been told by so called experts that the sea levels are going to rise due to melting ice in the Arctic. The sea-ice of the Arctic had shrunk in September 2007 to its lowest level ever recorded, this prompted a rash of excitable predictions that possibly as soon as 2008 the summer ice might vanish altogether. Yet two winters running it returned so strongly that in the winter of 2008 it briefly reached an extent equal to that recorded 30 years before 1979. The Maldives, where the IPCC's tide gauge data showed sea levels to be rising, independent research based upon extensive field observations has shown levels to have fallen by between 20 and 30 centimetres in the 1970's, and since to have remained stable. In 2008 Polar bear numbers, far from diminishing towards extinction as predicted, were at their highest level ever recorded.

We have been told by scientists that the latter years of the 20th century were the warmest ever, but there is clear evidence that from 1000AD to 1400AD the Earth was warmer then than now, it is called the medieval warming period (Google it if you don't believe me).

Wind energy is the new thing, unfortunately the facts don't bare out the theory on this issue. For many people wind turbines should be built all over our beautiful countryside thus causing huge destruction to what is left of it. Again lets look at some facts; the wind industry only talk of turbines in terms of 'capacity'. In fact, of course, thanks to the wind's intermittency, the actual amount of power turbines produce , unreliably and unpredictably, amounts on average to only around a quarter of their 'capacity'. Denmark has been a great advocate for wind power, but in 2004 turbines nominally represented 20 per cent of their electricity production, the wind blew so inconsistently that it in fact provided only 6 per cent of the power the country consumed. Because at almost any given time it either had too little or too much. Denmark either had to import at considerable cost from other countries, or, worse export it at a loss to Norway because there is no way of storing it. Our government has decided to go ahead with building thousands of wind turbines without thinking of the consequences for our future energy needs, unfortunately for you and me this means in a very short period of time we will be totally reliant on other countries for our energy. Let me say this, this country led the world in nuclear energy in the 50's and 60's and we have over 200 years worth of coal sitting underneath us, it does seem rather shortsighted and stupid not to be using this resource.

Finally, in the last 10 years the earth has cooled down, the last 3 winters in this country have been the coldest in years, there has been no discernible increase in temperature since 1998. The Met office predicted in July 2009 that August 2009 was going to be exceptionally hot, it wasn't, the Met office predicted that this last winter was going to be very mild, on the 10th Dec they changed their mind and said there was a 50/50 chance of it being mild or cold, I think I could do their job and do it for free. How on earth do they expect us to believe that they can some how predict what the weather is going to be in 50 years time when they can't predict what is going to happen next month.

As I have said in my first paragraph, I am an environmentalist, but I think we are focusing on the wrong thing, politicians and scientists need to look at the destruction of our beautiful environment rather than focusing on some dubious science.

George Orwell said in the novel 1984 'everything faded into mist. The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became the truth'. I believe that we need to look at facts and not theory, we cannot change history but we can affect this world by our actions now by changing our policies and not allowing the myth of ' man made global warming ' to be all consuming and destructive.