Green brigade full of hot air
Are we not all fed up to the back teeth with the endless diatribe about "going green", "carbon footprints", "emissions" and "greenhouse gases"? Every news bulletin on radio or TV has to address this holy grail, together with our nation's press, day in, day out.
Are we not all fed up to the back teeth with the endless diatribe about "going green", "carbon footprints", "emissions" and "greenhouse gases"? Every news bulletin on radio or TV has to address this holy grail, together with our nation's press, day in, day out.
The political parties are jumping readily on a new source of stealth tax. They know a winner when they see it and compete to see who can be greener.
The one-sided publicity on all fronts reminds me in many ways of the attack on the evils of passive smoking. All evidence that doesn't support the cause is quietly discarded, while even the most outlandish claims in support not only get full publicity but, even worse, remain unchallenged.
For example, I read recently that the flatulence from bovines contributes more to global warming than all the power stations added together! How on earth can anybody possibly support such a claim? Were it to be authenticated it would take years of research and cost a small fortune. Why is it not exposed for the garbage it obviously is.
A famous red herring is the "computer model", supported by top-of-the-range computer graphics. I had some experience of computer models in the industry I was employed in and, believe me, they are very prone to the old error of "dodgy info in, dodgy results out". But of course, you keep that to yourself if you want to impress your eager audience.
There is also a psychological factor at work in that most people somehow treat the output from any computer simulation as tablets of stone from heaven. It must be right, the computer says so!
Nobody is denying the world's climate is getting warmer – but is it a natural cycle? It has happened numerous times before, so where is the evidence that this particular one (and no others) is man-made? The world's top scientists are by no means united on this issue, despite the claptrap from the doom-mongers to the contrary.
The warming mechanism is one of those physical phenomenon where the cause and effect are mutually interchangeable. If the planet gets warmer so the carbon dioxide level increases. But equally if the carbon dioxide level increases so the planet gets warmer. Quite a conundrum isn't it.
John Hickman, Warstones Road, Penn.
