Posts by James Bassett

C of E blasts 'sacrilegious' Sony shoot-'em-up

Special Case

Once again, the Church acts as if it has some strange right that the rest of us aren't entitled to. Why does it matter that Sony chose to use a church without asking permission? Would it be less wrong if Sony had chosen a School, a Sports Centre? What about my house?

And what is it that they consider to be scariligious? Why is it wrong to depict a church? I've heard a lot of hot air from the Church on this one, but they all seem to assume that everyone will understand why they are getting so upset. So go on, what has Sony actually done to upset you?

NASA chief regrets having unpopular opinion

Two questions not one (and the one people are arguing over doesn't matter)

I think the problem is that the masses (and politicians) are getting two questions confused as one.

The first question is "Is the world climate getting warmer on average" to which the answer, based on the evidence available, is yes. Over the last 40-50 years the average temperature accross the planet has gone up by just over a degree.

The second question is "Are humans causing the average temperature of the planet to go up by releasing relatively small quantities of Co2 and other greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere?". Now, I'll admit to not having read every paper on this subject. I have a life. However, I've tried to keep a pretty close eye on things and, as yet, I've seen very little evidence to suggest the answer to the second question is a definitive yes. That doesn't mean the answer is no. Just that I haven't seen anything to prove it is yes.

As others have mentioned (and I believe the answer to the Thames question is 1823 - though I may be a couple of years out) the earths climate has endured huge swings over (geologically) small periods of time in very recent history. The story to which the "thames" question alludes is that, at the end of the 18th and the begining of the 19th century, the Thames would freeze over to a depth of over 1 meter. This occured EVERY year and there was an annual fair on the frozen Thames for a few decades, before things warmed up a bit. Indeed, the North Sea, at this time, would regularly freeze as far south as Aberdeen. Today, it would never freeze as far South as the artic circle.

The problem is that peope are mixing these two questions up. It all gets confused into a single "is climate change a reality?" question. When people hear "Climate change" they think of humans burning oil etc. If we could separate the two questions out and accept the first, we could have a much simpler, more reasoned debate about the role of humans in making the earth warmer.

At the moment, as mentioned above, anyone who dares question the, apparntly accepted, wisdom is shot down in flames.

Of course, whether or not humans are responsible could be argued as irrelevant. The climate appears to be changing. We will probably have run out of fossil fuels within a couple of hundred years in any case. So, saving energy, looking for alternative energy sources and preparing for a warmer climate and increased Sea Levels are separate issues from Whether or not the release of CO2 into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels is making the earth warmer.