Global warming ‘deniers’ still abound far and wide. Why is that you might wonder? Could it be perhaps that they have a vested interest in themselves benefiting from the ongoing use of fossil fuels, and their emissions into our environment of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxides, the so called greenhouse gases?

Others, are possibly cynically & politically motivated people in power, because moving away from the increase use of oil & coal (which has happened over the past two hundred years), requires a major alteration of priorities and a dramatic slowdown of industrialisation in the developing countries and diligent restraint in growth by the big boys.

What is the problem here then? It is simply that there is no ‘proof’ that man is causing global warming, is there? You see it cannot be scientifically proved yet, can it? The disbelievers say that the changes in the Earth’s temperature are simply cyclic over millions of years and that our input over a relatively short period of time is therefore pretty insignificant. Are they right?

The bulk (nearly a hundred percent) of knowledgeable scientists who have assessed the available evidence say it is overwhelming, and that we are steadily sending our World into the abyss. Substantial melting of the Arctic ice fields is causing they say a significant increase in the absorption of solar radiation there – so more ice melts! Are they right?

Does it really matter who is right? If we DO take action on global warming and it didn’t actually make a difference or matter, then no harm done then, surely (it is a risk free deed)? If we DON’T take action and as a consequence we then destroy our whole Planet, isn’t that a big high stake gamble (it is a risk-adverse agenda).

There have always been things in life that couldn’t be ‘proved’ in their time – did the Sun go round the Earth, was the Earth round, what was the Moon made of, is there life on Mars, are there other creatures in another Universe, and not least is there a god? As mankind has acquired knowledge, expertise, and technology, some questions can get answered (but not necessarily all).

Some nearly forty years ago the scientists got worried about depletion & then massive holes above the Poles appearing & developing in the ozone layer, which is a reflective shield of gas high in our atmosphere (the stratosphere), which prevents harmful Sun ultraviolet rays reaching the surface. They concluded that it was being destroyed by man’s use of halocarbons and the like in fridges, aerosols, foam, and solvents. The usual self opinionated sceptics crawled out from under their rocks to try to stop any coordinated action – but they failed and CFCs were banned (and subsequently replaced with non-destructive alternatives). You will be pleased to know that after twenty-five years the ozone layer is now slowly recovering?

Oh yes, there is an abundance of global resistance to taking effective action on global warming. There are of course complex political factors involved, particularly involving wealth, industrialisation, vulnerability, responsibility, who pays, and primarily vested interests, no less. We have had major players who have rocked the boat and that includes our dear cousins in America who were reluctantly dragged to the table (they refused for vested ‘economic setbacks’ interests to accept the Kyoto Protocol of 1997 – USA together with China are the biggest polluters), and then also in our family, the Aussies who didn’t want to help the poorer countries in the quest [Australia is now ranked the worst industrial country in the world on climate action]. All a bit sad wouldn’t you say?

Here in Britain we had last week the new kid on the block UKIP telling us it was all  ‘climate alarmism’  – they are appealing to the hedge funds you see!

Ah, we might have predicted it, and nevertheless hoped for salvation, but last month’s Lima (Peru) talks on climate change proved fruitless and that outcome gives little hope of counties reaching formal agreements next year either, does it?

[Indisputably, the human race have been directly & indirectly responsible for the ‘extinction’ of millions of life forms in our World already (and that process is continuing at a pace, don’t you know?). The final ‘proof’ about global warming may well only be apparent when our own species is finally ‘annihilated’ as well – how long have our decedents got, we might ponder?]

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