Good grief -- a sensible column by Simon Jenkins in the Times! He not only points out the humbug in the position taken by both the Prime Minister and Michael Howard over greenhouse gases, that if they intend to reduce them they will have to build many more nuclear power stations which of course they have no intention of doing. Jenkins also correctly expresses scepticism about the actual premise that both have accepted, that the planet is heating up to danger point and that this is all the fault of mankind.

Tony Blair's speech on global warming was simply nonsense on stilts from start to finish. This is what he said:

'What is now plain is that the emission of greenhouse gases, associated with industrialisation and strong economic growth from a world population that has increased sixfold in 200 years, is causing global warming at a rate that began as significant, has become alarming and is simply unsustainable in the long-term.'

Not true. It is unproven and highly unlikely.

'Apart from a diminishing handful of sceptics, there is a virtual worldwide scientific consensus on the scope of the problem.'

Not true. Most scientists who actually know about climate are sceptics. The whole debate has been hijacked by a few thousand ideologues and sycophants who, because of the intensely politicised nature of the claim (it fingers capitalism and particularly the US as the villains hell-bent on destroying the planet) have ensured that no-one gets a research grant unless they come up with conclusions that support the one true faith of man-made climate change and impending catastrophe.

'They have scrutinised the data and developed some of the world's most powerful computer models to describe and predict our climate.'

That's the problem. They have fed into those computers only partial data, and further failed to acknowledge that computer modelling simply cannot deal with the literally millions of feedback mechanisms involved in climate change. You put rubbish in, you get rubbish out. That's what they've given us.

'The 10 warmest years on record have all been since 1990. Over the last century average global temperatures have risen by 0.6 degrees Celsius: the most drastic temperature rise for over 1,000 years in the northern hemisphere.'

Per-leeeease! It was warmer in the 12th century, for heaven's sake, when they farmed in Iceland and grew grapes in Northumberland; it was warmer in the Antarctic in the Roman period, while 55 million years ago there was no ice in the Arctic at all... I mean, can you believe the ignorance in this speech?

'Extreme events are becoming more frequent. Glaciers are melting. Sea ice and snow cover is declining. Animals and plants are responding to an earlier spring. Sea levels are rising and are forecast to rise another 88cm by 2100 threatening 100m people globally who currently live below this level.'

Look, some glaciers are melting but others are thickening; some seas are rising but others are falling. Many contradictory things are happening. So what's new? Overall there's nothing going on to get excited about.

'This summer we have seen violent weather extremes in parts of the UK.'

Ye gods, can you believe this drivel? Heavy winds, storms and floods? Hello? We've had worse before. Bocastle in Devon may have been badly flooded recently, but nearby Lynmouth had far worse flooding half a century previously. And anyway, storms are driven more by ocean currents than by air temparature. To repeat: there's nothing going on to get excited about. Nil, nada, zip, zilch. Temperature rises or falls, hurricanes, ice melting, seas rising, all of it is within the normal fluctuations of climate over the millennia.

'There is good evidence that last year's European heat wave was influenced by global warming.'

The US has just had its coldest summer since 1992; was that influenced by global warming too? Oh, I can't be doing with any more of this. It is ludicrous, embarrassing, too silly for words. Every single such claim made by the global warming propagandists can be refuted by the actual science. Yes, I know the government's Chief Scientific Adviser has said global warming is a bigger threat than terrorism. He's probably where the PM got this nonsense from. He should start listening instead to people who actually know what they are talking about. As Simon Jenkins comments:

'Climate has always changed say Bjorn Lomborg, Philip Stott, John Etherington and the Max Planck Institute. The causes are mostly, if not entirely, natural and beyond our control. Each spell of erratic weather, such as El Niño or Hurricane Ivan, is no worse than the last worst. Hurricane “hits” in America are actually declining. Climate change is chaotic and any linear extrapolation can be used to scare people witless. We would do better, says this group, to mitigate the impact of weather on poor people rather than spend trillions of dollars trying to reverse ecological evolution. This is a disagreement with awesome implications. If the sceptics are right, we can relax. We can even relax if they are wrong in their prediction but right in saying we are powerless to turn the clock back. If the Sun is getting hotter, we are toast whichever way you slice it. Let us be charitable to each other in the interim and guard what is beautiful.'

Global warming is an enormous scam, the greatest scentific scandal of the latter part of the 20th century. Like many who may themselves even boast a string of letters after their name, the Prime Minister has made a complete ass of himself, as history will eventually record.

Posted by melanie at September 15, 2004