This Is Not A
BLOG!
Date: 13/10/07
Nature: Confused
Climate change deniers fall into three broad categories:
- The Ideological. Typified by the attitude of "It's all bad science done at the behest of ideological extremists who want to take us back to the Stone Age! Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to jump into my SUV and drive the 100 yards back to my six-bedroom house..."
- The Missing-The-Point Ostrich. Characterised by someone saying "We had three degrees of frost last night! That just goes to show that global warming doesn't exist!" (not wishing to remember that it's November 23rd).
- The Chip-On-The-Shoulder. Usually heard in the form of "It's all a myth made up by the Government so they can screw more taxes out of us!". (A sub-variant, called The-Chip-On-Both-Shoulders, takes the form of the above, plus the addition of "...and take even more money from us poor, oppressed motorists!").
Seldom in human history have so many sought refuge in denial about something so important, and by such ludicrous strategems as above.
When I was in primary school some thrity-five years ago, we had a superb teacher by the name of David Pritchard. In fact, I would go so far as to say he was the best teacher I ever had. One day, talking about the weather, he said something like, "You notice; the seasons are slowly moving around". OK, he was talking about the precession of the equinoxes, which is a very slow process. But the fact is that the seasons have moved, but due to our own heedlessness more than anything else.
I don't need long-range computer models to tell me that things are getting seriously out of whack. All I need to do is look, especially in my own garden. A couple of years ago, I had a rose in full bloom in my garden...in mid-January! My fuchsia bushes now bloom until Advent. My other rose bush has just brought forth another flower. And, coming out of the house to go to work the other morning, I found this:
Yep, a primrose. In mid-October.
You try and tell me that something major isn't happening, and that it's all got up by cranks. All I can say is, if you live below the 100ft contour line, teach your kids to swim - it's a skill they're going to need.
