I recently received a letter from a sceptic who claimed that the link between carbon emissions and climate change was a hoax, and that warming and cooling were part of a natural cycle that had always occurred throughout the Earth’s history. The scientific research linking the change in global temperatures to man-made emissions was apparently bogus and ‘most people’ intuitively knew that.

This is not a lone voice. Speaking to people generally, my experience is that of a stubborn and persistent belief that climate change is a cyclical phenomenon unrelated to human activity. For example, I have frequently heard stories that the Earth has had ice ages and very warm spells in the distant past long before humans had evolved, and that solar and volcanic activity have more impact on the climate than man. Often, these views are not backed up by scientific evidence, but instead are perpetuated by word of mouth almost to the point that they are regarded as established fact.

Whilst it is certainly true that all the preceding phenomena affect the climate and that there are natural variations in the Earth’s climate over time, these views are misleading and dangerous for several reasons.

Firstly, it gives intuition precedence over scientific evidence. This situation is made deliberately worse by large corporations with vested interests in encouraging doubt and disagreement surrounding the debate on made-made climate change. In actuality, there is now a widespread consensus amongst the scientific community and environmental researchers that human activity is the chief cause of current global warming. The climate is changing much faster than the very long timeframes over which previous changes occurred and there is a strong correlation between the recent changes and man-made emissions.

I have often seen a parallel between this situation and that of the tobacco industry when research first suggested that smoking may cause lung cancer. The tobacco industry dismissed the claims as erroneous and suppressed its own research, while smokers themselves reassured each other that the scientific evidence was wrong. It was only after the scientific evidence became overwhelming that the link between smoking and lung cancer came to be accepted, but the intuitive misconception that smoking does not damage health still persists amongst some people today. In tandem, the tobacco industry still seeks to deny that its products are addictive and injurious to health. The oil industry is pursuing a similar strategy with respect to climate change.

Secondly, what happens when the oil runs out? There is no ‘plan B’. Many experts believe that we have passed the point of peak oil production and that steadily increasing oil prices are inevitable as demand from the Chinese and Indian economies grows. Fundamentally, oil is a finite commodity and whether you accept that climate change is linked to man-made emissions or not, alternative energy sources are going to be needed at some point in the future if we are to sustain our economies.

Finally, is it not also intuitive to believe that pumping out billions of tons of carbon into the atmosphere and clearing millions of hectares of rainforest each year might just be causing some damage to the planet? It seems to me that denial and apathy must be overcome before there can be widespread acceptance that human actions are having a harmful effect on the planet. It could well be a slow process.

Dr Gary Robertshaw – The Green Providers Directory