That’s very good, Vitruvious. It’s great to see you contributing in your own way.

Well then my dear Vitruvius you are to be congratulated, yea, even thanked, for making said refineries all over the world both safer and cleaner. Refineries, for example, that provided the fuel for the bus which will move dozens of people from here to Montreal in a far more economical, fuel efficient, and less polluting, manner per individual than say the government bureaucrats and lobbyists who went there in their gas guzzling, fuel inefficient, air polluting, private jets and executive SUVs to give lip services to a concept they would really rather avoid.

On the one hand, gentlemen, I agree with you on the matter of waste. If I could snap my fingers and cut consumerism in half I would, if it weren’t for the matter that it would cause a global economic collapse, wide-scale depression, and the outbreak of civil war in a number of currently marginal countries. Still, it’s a good long term goal. Limiting modern consumption to the point that we would have to switch from cotton underwear back to sisal isn’t a good long term goal.

On the other hand, my postgraduate work is in computing science, and I build computer models for a living (well, for the last 35 years, at least). I don’t trust them any farther than I can throw them: they only model what you think you know; they are ignorant of what you don’t know. When you layer thick gobs of greedy bureaucrats on top of that, you don’t get science any more. I don’t believe in anthropogenic global warming. But I’ve been wrong before.

The environment is one of the most important things to humans, in the sense that we can’t survive if it stops working. It is not something to be trivialized by anyone simply because it serves their political agenda.

It’s also important that we don’t squash simple joy or effective systems in our efforts to improve things. For example, I only drive two or three thousand kilometers per year, and that in an MG Midget, which is remarkably enjoyable and underpowered. Now if we took that away, then every hour I did have to spend on a bus (over and above driving time, of course), would cost the Canadian treasury about fifty dollars in lost taxes (and it’s foreign exchange). So that might be less than optimal too.

Sometimes, when you folks are driven to disgust by conservatives in general (perhaps due to the ramblings of random idiots in the comments of some web logs, for example, rather than, say, real people you actually know), remember to ask yourself, “Don’t I Want To Conserve The Environment?” I mean, I’m not sure, since I’m not technically a conservative, but it does seem to make sense.

I say I believe, because I think that any claim to the effect that “I Know” involves dangerous risks from hubris.

I am, indeed, well aware of the reports of the IPCC, and I have read many well-reasoned essays both in favour of their conclusions, and against. Moreover, I have noticed that their conclusions are not consistent across essays, which is normal, and which means that I would be a fool to consider any particular paper to be gospel.

As far as I can tell, it pretty much looks like the hockey stick model is right out. It’s been shown to be an inappropriate model of reality. I also note that there has also been no shortage of people who have disclaimed their founding positions in some of these organizations, as they have watched with horror while the fruit of their noble efforts have been overtaken by greedy activists. At this point, I don’t trust the IPCC.

Always remeber that, unfortunately, there is no end of people who want to play you for the stooge, on the left, the right, the front, the back, the up, and the down. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to muddle through the valley of snake-oil corruption, and make a positive contibution net net.

Always remember to leave the campsite cleaner than you found it.

Ya know I don’t have computer models or degrees in this that, or the other thing, to back up my thoughts on the matter… all I have is the experience of seeing climate change taking place with my own two eyes.

I have seen new species of southern wildlife in the Canadian High Arctic, and I have seen the sea ice form later, and later, and get thinner and thinner, each year, and I have seen the summers get longer and warmer. I have also heard the multi-generational experiences of people in the Canadian Arctic who have seen all this, and more.

The environment will not stop working, it will however change, and, IMO, seek balance - and those changes may not be to the advantage of the human species as whole. To say that the earths climate is not changing is to deny the shrinking ice cover at the poles, to say that human activity is not a factor in the process is to be, again IMO, irresponsible in the extreme, not to make concrete efforts to mitigate a problem that has such potential to have such nasty consequences is, IMO, stupid.

This just in…

“We keep crying wolf and we keep overstating the doomsday scenario,” said Ong Keng Yong, the Secretary General of the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean). “It will not serve the cause of protecting the environment.”

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4486848.stm