On Snow and Climate Change
Posters on Political Betting have been chuckling at a ten year old article which one of them unearthed at the weekend, while the country was under a thick blanket of snow, entitled "Snowfalls are now just a thing of the past."
And certainly some of the predictions in Charles Onians' March 2000 article, such as "snow is starting to disappear from our lives" look pretty funny at the moment.
As we experience the second of two consecutive savage winters, at least relative to recent history, it is fairly obvious that the received wisdom of a few years ago, which the article represents, that the world is dramatically warming, is to put it mildly, a little overstated and oversimplistic.
As we learn more about the environment, we can expect previous theories and views will sometimes be shown to be inaccurate, and need to be amended. Hence we need to be open-minded in our attitude to climate change.
Genuinely open-minded: it is equally unhelpful to label anyone who asks awkward questions about global warming a "climate change denier" or to complacently assume that climate change is a myth and that we don't need to worry about the impact of man's activities on the environment.
Even without global warming, there is still strong scientific evidence that man's release of carbon into the atmosphere is starting to cause serious environmental damage - turning the oceans acid, for instance - and needs to be restricted.
Look back at the March 2000 article. The headline looks pretty silly today, but actually there are a few predictions in the body of the article that will strike a chord today. For example, one of the scientists quoted in the article said that heavy snow will return occasionally, but when it does we will be unprepared, adding
"We're really going to get caught out. Snow will probably cause chaos in 20 years time."
Don't think too many people would dispute that after only ten years it's done just that!
And certainly some of the predictions in Charles Onians' March 2000 article, such as "snow is starting to disappear from our lives" look pretty funny at the moment.
As we experience the second of two consecutive savage winters, at least relative to recent history, it is fairly obvious that the received wisdom of a few years ago, which the article represents, that the world is dramatically warming, is to put it mildly, a little overstated and oversimplistic.
As we learn more about the environment, we can expect previous theories and views will sometimes be shown to be inaccurate, and need to be amended. Hence we need to be open-minded in our attitude to climate change.
Genuinely open-minded: it is equally unhelpful to label anyone who asks awkward questions about global warming a "climate change denier" or to complacently assume that climate change is a myth and that we don't need to worry about the impact of man's activities on the environment.
Even without global warming, there is still strong scientific evidence that man's release of carbon into the atmosphere is starting to cause serious environmental damage - turning the oceans acid, for instance - and needs to be restricted.
Look back at the March 2000 article. The headline looks pretty silly today, but actually there are a few predictions in the body of the article that will strike a chord today. For example, one of the scientists quoted in the article said that heavy snow will return occasionally, but when it does we will be unprepared, adding
"We're really going to get caught out. Snow will probably cause chaos in 20 years time."
Don't think too many people would dispute that after only ten years it's done just that!
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