There are some that are so emotionally attached to alternative view as punted Ian Palmer’s Book: Heaven and Earth, I decided to look at what I could find about this alternative view on climate change. After a lot of reading (hence my delayed response), I have come to the conclusion there are two main aspects of the people who punt it is conspiracy theory what environmentalists are singing. The first thing all these people agree (including Ian Palmer, one of the new voices to this sect) is that the climate is changing, what caused it is the debate. The second point they seem to make is that is politically correct to punt this.
Firstly let us look at the climate change aspect of the argument; all scientists agree it is changing. Whether it is caused by a natural processes, an ancient volcanic eruption, alignment of the sun to the gravitational centre of the milky way, or the fact that industrial growth has spawned 5 million extra people in just over a millennium, who each have their effect on the climate, is not really that significant . The significance is that there is climate change and there is something every one of us can do, to reduce our effect on it, and that has the main premise of my post above.
On that point, lets look at the theory that Ian Palmer pushes on his site, and on You tube namely believe is climate change is a kin to a “fundamentalist religion adopted by urban atheists looking to fill a yawning spiritual gap plaguing the West”. The main problem I have with this is that, if this is the case, why is it that the majority of the population are still doing nothing besides shaking their heads at the problem.
Religion is about followers converting to a particular practice, this has not happened. There are at least 2 major nations that will not acknowledge the scientific findings in the 928 articles, that I have mentioned, and numerous books published. By the way I found 5 different books stating that climate change is not caused by mankind, besides Ian Palmer’s book.
As far as politics is concerned, let us look local. One party (the green party) even mentioned the environment in their election manifestoes in this year’s election, so as far as political correctness is concerned the politicians in this country are similar to those in Australia and in fact the USA, environmentalism, is NOT a ticket to get elected.
While I agree that looking at alternative views is always a good thing, I also believe you need to consider more than one view, and draw your own conclusions.
Personally I have come to the belief that what man is doing is not good for an environment that is sustainable for human life. Whatever the cause, for me there is one conclusion, if the environment is changing, then we need to try and act in our own lives to make a change. In a sampling of the people you know, see .not. who believes there is an environmental problem, but who is changing their lifestyle because of it. Mankind has the ability to react to the findings of climate change, reducing carbon foot print may not solve the problem, but I believe it will make a difference to me, and the people how live in my locality, by me supporting the locals before those further afield.
Seem as I am sure a response to this will be “read the book”. My response is read the articles published on the book, read WIKI, and other blogs. The keenest punters of this view of climate change are the press, politicians, and religious figures.
I will end with a quote from another geologist Dr Iain Stewart:
“The rise and fall of the Mayan empire might seem momentous (to us), but it is nothing compared to what has happened here over earth’s life time.
When the dinosaurs where wiped out 65 million years ago, the earth was the scene of one of the greatest cataclysm in earth’s history, there is not much sign of it today.
This ability to deal with catastrophe is perhaps the truly special thing about earth.
Our planet is rarely tough, and that is not about to change.
In the long run earth can cope with anything we throw at it.
We can clear all the jungles, but a jungle can regrow over a few thousand years
We can burn all earth’s fossil fuels flooding the atmosphere with carbon dioxide, but even then, it would take only a million years for the atmosphere to recover.
Even the creatures we are wiping out, will be replaced with others as evolution works its magic, it is only a question of time
The earth will be just fine
But that is not to say the rapid changes we are forcing on earth do not matter, we humans operate on a different timescale. We have evolved to occupy the world as it is. Now we are changing this world, and in doing so altering the very environment that has allowed our species and civilization to thrive.
We are certainly more advanced than the dinosaurs, but that does not means that we are much better at coping with sudden change on a global scale.
It is often suggested that the planet needs saving, but it is not earth that is in peril, it is us.”
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