An interesting column by Matt Ridley in today’s Times.
Here is my little contribution to the debate:
“I am a scientist. What is more I am a climate scientist who studied under Professor Sir Nick Shackleton FRS for a PhD at Cambridge. One thing I can tell you is that the ONLY thing that is sure is that the Earth’s climate varies and always has.
For example, 100 million years ago (not long in the 4.5 thousand million year history of our planet) temperatures were at least 4 degrees C higher than today. There were no ice-caps and sea-levels were much higher than today. Much of the USA was under water, covered by an ocean known as the Western Interior Seaway. The dinosaurs thrived under these conditions.
We have as much chance of stopping man-made (that is to say, anthropogenic) or natural climate change as we have of walking naked to Mars. The answer is not to try and stop it but put in place measures by which we can survive it.
There are ways of doing this. Directed adaptation using our hard-won knowledge (by which I mean engineering, including biological engineering) is the only answer.”