 Temperature by time series (right to left from past to present) source: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/ncdc.html An interesting perspective on these metrics: http://www.theoildrum.com/story/2006/2/3/0394/97545 |
Everybody
has an opinion about climate change. From a common sense
point of
view, it would appear to be very important to put resources into
determining the measurable effects of the level of carbon
dioxide
in
the atmosphere. And if we do not have any carbon metrics, nor any data
to find another scientifically verifiable hypothesis for the changes in
climate being experienced all around the globe, then surely it is
sensible to make a global, collaborative effort to find out .
From a risk management perspective, surely it is much
safer to hypothesise that carbon emissions are at critical levels, and
urgently set about gathering the data that will either prove or
disprove the
hypothesis?
The risk of doing nothing, and assuming that there are natural causes for climate change that have nothing to do with CO2 emissions, seems to be a very chancy position indeed. Do we really want to gamble on our future existence? As a species we need to fund carbon emission reductions to mitigate risk, while we are conducting studies to find conclusive proof. Waiting for proof appears to have a high probability of being the wrong thing to do. Interesting information about climate change: http://climate.nasa.gov/ |
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