COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE BY IAN JOHNSON IN THE INDEPENDENT
'It's like disputing
gravity'
No, I am sorry, it is not.
There are huge, valid questions in this tangle of issues.
And when anyone writes the expression 'climate science
denier' for me it a red flag, a warning of stupidity to follow.
If you were sincerely arguing only facts, there would be no
need for such a derogatory label.
That is a genuinely stupid expression used to silence people
who have legitimate doubts and questions.
Well, it doesn't work. This is a huge set of issues,
involving some of the costliest proposals one can imagine.
Even if we agree that the earth is getting warmer - and all
the models used have proved wrong in recent predictions and, the various
methods of measuring the entire globe in a meaningful way do not agree - that
still completely begs the question of human agency.
Human agency, no small point, not only when you are talking
of trillions of dollars of investment and greatly upsetting our lives, but also
immensely important because we may in fact be able to do nothing about it,
except adapt, all the investment on the matter of human agency proving perhaps
a waste.
