'Loose Talk'
By Benjamin Benedict

Climate Change

Some make a case for Climate Change and some are determined to demonstrate that the world has not been warming and that the fluctuations in its temperature are not to do with carbon emissions.

Both groups seem prepared to ignore or even suppress information that does not suit them. They are extremely selective with the facts they use and this is not doing us any favours and has prompted me to re-visit the subject.

The first question must be DOES IT MATTER? In the past fifty years, the number of humans on the planet has tripled. That matters. It is the perfect scenario for a global pandemic. That matters. It is also no longer possible for us to contemplate a world in which all the people can be housed, watered and fed, and taught the so-called three r’s (reading, riting and rithmetic). That matters.

Now we come to the most pertinent consideration. If we were all to agree that Climate Change is a long way down our list of priorities, would this in any way change the necessity for stopping the rape of the world’s tropical forests, for curbing our use of non-renewable resources, or for stopping the pollution of the planet and ourselves? I hope not because in fact, those things really matter.

Tropical forests are the lungs of the world and also look like providing the basis for many if not most of the medical advances to be made in the foreseeable future. And as far as the ‘foreseeable future’ is concerned, oil and eventually coal will run out, as will many of the metals and minerals that we presently take for granted. We have to switch, like it or not. It is simply a question of whether we get on with it or be led up a cul-de-sac by those who see profit in scarcity. Then there is the pollution issue; toxins in the air, in the earth, in the water in our lungs, in our guts, in our blood, everywhere. And this is NOW, not in twenty or thirty year’s time. Yes, that matters.

Whatever side of the Climate Change debate you take, the argument is unwinnable. What cannot be denied is that our climate has always changed, and that there are many ‘blips’ in this gradual process. Some of these ‘blips’ last for a generation or two, others for a few thousand years. We had a mini-ice age about three hundred years ago, but even the last ice age which ended about twelve thousand years ago was a ‘blip’ in itself. Then there are volcanoes and asteroids throwing their climate changing potential into the mix.

If the world was to suddenly show signs of cooling then would we abandon the ‘Climate Change’ measures?  No, whatever the climate we would have to keep our priorities straight.

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