Stop
Climate Change
Ian Plimer
If
we humans want to stop climate change, then we have a huge task ahead of us.
We
need to stop continents moving, stop the shape of the sea floor changing, stop
pulling apart the ocean floors, stop building mountains, stop volcanoes
belching out greenhouse gases and dust, stop hot flushes of gas rising from the
Earth's core, stop earthquakes, stop comets breaking up in the upper
atmosphere, stop the changes in the Earth's orbit, stop the cycles of solar changes
and stop radiation hitting Earth from deep space. Our generation did not
discover climate change, the Earth's climate has
always changed.
If
we Australians stopped burning fossil fuels, this would make not one iota of
difference to the global climate. The forces of Nature are far greater than the
motor car. Previous climate changes have been cyclical and sudden. Previous
changes have been in the order of decades and temperature changes have been far
greater than recent temperature changes. Because of lags resulting from the
large volume of seawater and ice, any sea level rise or changes in the ice
sheets result from events that took place hundreds to thousands of years
earlier.
Over
time, humans have endured great climate changes. Periods of cold climate,
especially combined with decreased sunspot activity, volcanicity
and pandemics, have greatly depopulated the Earth. Humans and other organisms
have thrived in times of warm climate. We humans live on ice sheets, on
mountains, at the tropics, at sea level and in deserts. We are adaptable.
If
we moved from
The
main greenhouse gas is water vapour. Without water vapour, planet Earth would enjoy an average temperature of
a balmy minus 18 degrees Celsius. Other greenhouse gases are trace gases,
including carbon dioxide. Only 0.117% of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere
is of human origin and carbon dioxide is not a pollutant. It is plant food. The
addition of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere has been taking place for 4,600
million years. It is still taking place. Balancing the books on where carbon
dioxide comes from and where it goes is hopelessly inadequate showing how
little we know about how big natural systems on planet Earth work.
The
climate change cacophony demonstrates that the community knows little about how
our dynamic evolving planet works. A little bit of basic geology would be a
good start. An understanding of the processes of science would be another good
start. Science is married to evidence that derives from observation,
calculation, measurement and experiment. Scientists argue about the validity of
this evidence and whether the evidence is in accord with everything else that
has been validated. Science then tries to explain the evidence with a theory.
Theories are refuted with new thinking and new evidence. Science is
evolutionary, self-adjusting, anarchistic and bows to
no authority. Science has no moral, political or religious view about anything.
The
current President of the Royal Society told us that the science on
human-induced global warming is settled. A previous President of the Royal Society
also used his authority, this time to inform us that it is impossible for
heavier than air machines to fly!
Science
is not about consensus or belief, these words are
those of politics and religion. Science is a celebration of uncertainty. Scepticism and criticism are valued and information from
all different disciplines is integrated in an attempt to understand the world
around us. Because the current theory on human-induced climate change is not in
accord with validated geology and astronomy, then the theory must be rejected.
However, the idea that wealthy western humans change global climate is an
attractive ascientific idealistic political idea and
this idea is currently promoted with great missionary zeal.
The
tail has wagged the dog and squeaky wheels and a sensationalist media have
forced both major political parties, against their better judgment, to make
political comments about climate change. These comments have nothing to do with
science. They are pragmatic political survival.
What
is interesting is that the squeaky wheels are in affluent western countries
that have lost the religious structure to society. Climate change has become
the new dogmatic religion and woe betide heretics,
sinners and the wealthy. We are all now to pay papal carbon indulgences to the
Archbishops of climate change (on the condition that such payments only hurt a
little).
My
concerns are that the great gains made in the Renaissance regarding logic,
argument, challenges to authority, rationality, the use of evidence and an
understanding of the world around us have been lost in the space of a decade.
This was an incredible politically driven social change. The word sceptic is now a pejorative word and criticism, questioning
and the integration of a broad spectrum of science is either dismissed or
regarded as evil. There is no climate change debate, only dangerous dogma, the
constriction of thinking processes and a negative view of the future.
Any
future great environmental problems can only be solved by science and if the
weapons of science are removed, then we place society at risk. Children now
have a negative view of the future rather than equipping themselves with the
tools to make the Earth a better place. We are now starting to reap the rewards
of dumbing down science education. The real message
from the politics of climate change is that science education in
The
only good news is that those who have only known the good times are reminded to
be frugal with energy and resources and not to throw waste into our waterways
and atmosphere. But we knew this anyway, didn't we?
Ian
Plimer is the Professor of Mining Geology at The
University of Adelaide and Emeritus Professor of Earth Sciences at The