For several years now we have been told that mankind faces no bigger challenge than global warming. Indeed, some scientists have gone so far as to say that the global warming poses a greater threat than terrorism.
It’s freezing out there and for once, the term is properly used to describe precisely the weather conditions. The temperature gauge is showing zero degrees centigrade. It might edge up a degree or two in the middle of the day for a couple of hours but since the New Year, daytime temperatures have been a good four or five degrees lower than the norm for this time of year in temperate Britain.In fact, the weathermen say we are on course to beat the record-breaking winter of 1962-63, which was the coldest winter on record in England and Wales since 1740. So this is how global warming manifests itself is it? With the coldest winter for 268 years? With Siberian tiger cubs, which are purpose built for the cold, refusing to come out of their shelters at Banham Zoo in Norfolk because it was too chilly for them? Or, since we are talking about global WARMING, perhaps we should think back to the last few summers we have been lucky enough to enjoy in Britain. Wet they most certainly were; ditto cloudy, overcast, stormy and dull, not to mention cool verging on downright parky at times. But warm? Absolutely not. If summer were a product, we would have asked for our money back and sued the manufacturer under the trade descriptions act. Yet still we are urged to believe that the planet is on a slow simmer to oblivion. Not only that but anyone dissenting from that view is dismissed as irresponsible or dangerously mad. Dr David Bellamy has felt the chill wind of derision for more than a decade, ever since he declared that he did not believe the planet was warming up.
Rather, he argues that the Earth has been heating and cooling for 13,000 years and that carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions have nothing to do with it.“Climate change is happening and it has been happening all the time there has been a climate. The Earth is always going through cycles of change. Ten thousand years ago, this country was under ice. Two thousand years ago after the Romans conquered Britain, they grew red grapes on the Scottish border."
"They were not putting out carbon dioxide on the modern scale. The Middle Ages were warm too, and then it got cold again for about 400 years. In that period, the Thames would freeze over so solidly that they held markets on it. We came out of that mini-Ice Age in around 1850, and now we heading for another cool-down. "
“There is official data available showing that world temperatures have been getting colder every year since 1998. In 2002, Arctic ice actually increased. The ice-caps are getting bigger. Why don’t we hear about that?” “Carbon dioxide levels were much lower in previous centuries yet the climate still changed, so how can CO2 be the driver of climate change now?”
Besides, he adds, carbon dioxide - the principal greenhouse gas - is not the killer gas demonized at the Earth Summits of Rio and Kyoto but one of the most beneficial and necessary things on the planet.
It is the most important airborne fertiliser in the world. Plants breathe it in and exhale oxygen, which is vital to us humans. When plants combine CO2 with water and sunshine, they produce complex carbon compounds which we either eat or feed to our livestock or build with or simply admire for their beauty. Without CO2 the world would have no greenery.
“Increase the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, double it even, and this would produce a rise in plant productivity,” says Dr Bellamy. That doesn’t sound like much of a killer gas to me. “Indeed, if carbon dioxide were removed from the atmosphere, the temperature would be likely to fall by only 0.3 per cent."
"There is no proof that carbon dioxide is anything to do with any impending catastrophe. The science has, quite simply, gone awry. In fact, it’s not science - it’s anti-science. “ Dr Bellamy accuses supposed experts such as the former US vice-president Al Gore, of “cherry-picking“ the models which help to substantiate their argument.
“Yes, the lakes in Africa are drying up, but that’s not global warming. They’re drying up for the very simple reason that most of them have dams around them. So the water that used to be used by local people is now used in the production of cut flowers and vegetables for the supermarkets of Europe. Any noticeable warming is more likely to be linked to sun spot activity on the sun, which is getting hotter as it ages.”
