Wallace Churchill

Today I spent a great deal of time reading anything I could find by critics of climate change and anthropogenic causes of global warming. I'm ashamed to say that up until today I had pretty much taken everything I read in the Guardian or Independent for granted. I took everything I read at face value not really allowing for the chance that climate change might be caused by something else. Not the most objective of stances.

So what did I learn? Well not surprisingly I learnt that there is a small group of scientists and lay-people who think that man isn't responsible for climate change. One of them, the very vocal Viscount Monckton of Brenchley published his 'findings' in The Telegraph last year. To a layman like myself they are quite persuasive - largely because he uses lots of complex terms and whilst they're incomprehensible to me, it has the feel of learned scientific investigation. Later I found myself asking why it was that a Viscount, a product of the lazy landed gentry, had chosen a career in science. On a little bit more tinternet sifting it turns out that Monckton has no scientific training. The scientific community has largely laughed him out of the laboratory and to add insult to injury there are questions over his 'sponsors'. This is not to say that there aren't real scientists who do think man has a direct link to climate change. The IPCC and hundreds of eminent scientists just could be wrong, so what do we do?

I kept thinking of Neville Chamberlain waving his piece of paper and later the thin smile that quickly broke as Mr Hitler carried on with his plans for Czechoslovakia. Its not such a terrible analogy (maybe it is but sod it) - we are faced with similar circumstances. We can take the gamble and trust those few voices that say we have no part to play in climate change and carry on as before; or we can rise from what is largely our own apathy and try and clean up some of the mess around us. Is this the way we want to leave the world? I am of the opinion that as gambles go it is better to be forewarned and forearmed - we don't have to give up a great deal, just look at ways we can minimise the damage we do now and in the future. How hard can it be?

I make these changes now and there is still a small chance that future generations of Wallace's can bound over hill and dale - happy in the knowledge that a fat ancestor didn't sit on his laurels because he couldn't run the risk of being wrong.