Malcolm's English Pages

So, Global Warming, the hot news of the century, the great enemy from without, threatening the whole planet. I have balanced Green views, and I accept indeed that global warming is a fact. Did we humans start it? I think not. Can we stop it? I think not. However, I am fully in favour of reducing emissions, restoring clean air and clear water. If we don’t do these things, we will end up living in  a sewer. Whether reducing carbon emissions will actually help against global warming is a bit of an unknown, but it will clean up our air and probably reduce cancer and other diseases.

The main point of this blog is that we should spend our energies on preparing for rising sea levels, not being the typical King Canute and trying to stop it. We are definitely going through a warm period (for how long we do not know) and it is very likely that an awful lot of ice is going to melt and raise sea levels. The other scenario is that the Greenland ice sheet will melt, divert the Gulf Stream Drift and cause a rather speedy return to the next Ice Age (at least in northern climes).

This is not all negative at all! If the Greenland ice sheet melts, Greenland will become a new place to live. If the West Antarctic Ice Sheet melts, we will have new land to conquer Change is happening all the time. Ice ages have come and gone in the past without our help. Warm periods have done the same. I think that it is just a typical piece of human arrogance that we have the history and technology to notice and record change, and assume that because the change happened during our own Industrial Revolution that we did it! Just maybe we accelerated it a bit, but I’m damn sure we didn’t start it. I’m also damn sure that we can’t stop it either.

Get real people – Global Warming is the best thing yet that happened to Global Politics. We have a common enemy and, whilst we fight it, the less important issues escape our notice.