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Writing about the climate crisis My slow awakening to climate change Climate sceptics answered: | From author Tim Lloyd Wright I appreciate you writing in. A renewed opportunity to address this issue is welcome. You know, my column attempts to reflect things here in Europe and, compared to many Europeans, my 'wake-up' call to the acute importance of this issue came very late – at least a decade after the CEO of our largest gas producer, and 18 years after British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher BSc (Chemistry), first addressed the Royal Society to raise an alarm about Global Warming. One of my US colleagues traveling in Europe earlier this year was surprised to note that there is no longer a public debate here over whether man's activities are causing global warming, as he said there still is in the USA. Some here maintain that even the act of soliciting further debate as a prerequisite to taking action on climate change is reminiscent of the 'tobacco science' used to stave off cigarette regulation. In any case, I listened to Lord Ron Oxburgh, Shell's former Chairman, and to Professor Tim Flannery, author of The Weather Makers, and came to the conclusion that we face a disaster and must take action. I'm hardly on my own in this view. The concerns I wrote about I hold in common with my city council, the governments of the country I live in (Sweden) and of the UK where I was born – Tony Blair has written in praise of Prof Flannery. The view of the UK and Sweden – that climate change is a serious, man-made issue that demands urgent action – is a view shared by the European Parliament and Commission, signed up to by the G8+ nations last year in Scotland, promulgated by the OECD's International Energy Agency, and finally is the conclusion of what I understand is the largest scientific assessment of all time – the five-yearly reporting of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) of the United Nations. Employees of Statoil I spoke to recently now buy carbon credits to offset all corporate travel and the aggressive stance of Shell and BP, our major oil companies, on climate change is well known. Regarding points 1 and 2 in your letter, during the period 1800 to 1950 CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere rose by 30ppm. Then during the period 1950 to today they rose by 70ppm. This is a very big rise indeed in a very short period of time, reflecting the global increase in the use of fossil fuels. CO2 captures heat energy in the 12-18 micron wavelength, according to correspondence I've had with Professor Flannery. Were the Earth a simple black sphere, this fact would result in a rise in average surface temperature of the Earth by 1 Deg C were a doubling of CO2 concentration to occur, he writes. In the real world, however, complex positive feedbacks (including the water vapour, you mention) amplify the change, which is projected to be in the 3-4 Deg C range by 2100. I think you're right to note that the Kyoto Protocol has not been as successful as hoped, indeed Monaco, Liechtenstein, Australia and the USA have not ratified it. But the fact that the earlier Vienna Convention on ozone damaging gases was less than ideal does not today deflect from the critical contribution of the international agreements it led to, principally the Montreal Protocol to Reduce Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer and its later London amendment. Average surface temperatures have been remarkably stable during the last 8,000 years and that there were warmer times in a region including Greenland should not be confused with global average temperature changes (US NOAA data refers). There's now been plenty of time to think this through. By 2001, the national science academies of Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, the Caribbean, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Malaysia, New Zealand, Sweden and the UK had endorsed IPCC conclusions that CO2 emissions were warming the planet. Later that year, the US National Academy of Science joined them in stating: ""The IPCC's conclusion that most of the observed warming of the last 50 years is likely to have been due to the increase in greenhouse gas concentrations accurately reflects the current thinking of the scientific community on this issue." I'm not putting off action to reduce my family's greenhouse gas emissions while we debate this here. You may do so. I hope readers won't. TLW | ||||
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Wingo is the project we started here on the archipelago outside Gothenburg to create a model of winning sustainable local development. You can visit wingo's website here. The website of our wind park has only just been registered. | |||||
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