The Great Global Warming Swindle: the aftermath...
I think it's important to be open minded about the causes of climate change, and we need to prepared to accept that some of the issues may be far more complex than they may first appear. But last night's Channel 4 documentary The Great Global Warming Swindle took the debate to another level, as it gave those on the extreme fringes of 'climate change' denial the opportunity to air their views.
Scanning the blogosphere today, the response from green bloggers has been as frosty as you might expect, and some important points have been raised. Gareth Kane in eco-living made the initial observation that there was no body of peer-reviewed scientific papers to back up the claims made in the show, a point that may not have been made obvious to impressionable viewers. In his blog today, Kane attacked some of the show's central claims, many of which were preoccupied with the idea of a global warming 'conspiracy'...
One such claim is that the 'myth' of human responsibility is kept alive to support a multi-million dollar industry based around it. As Kane rightly points out, "many, many more are dependent on a high carbon economy, so the idea that the establishment has a vested interest in global warming is laughable". Like many of the show's claims, the momentarily arresting points can be knocked down by another that seems to obvious to state.
But it was Kane's closing gambit that really underpinned what's wrong with the deniers' arguments, so neatly put that I reproduce it here in full:
"If 'we' are wrong we still end up with clean, secure, sustainable energy use with reduced congestion, better local air quality, improved community cohesion and we won't have world war III when we hit peak oil."
If 'they' are wrong, it IS the end of the world.
