Whilst it is of course important to prevent the deforestation of the Amazon rain forest and the destruction of any habitat which supports our wildlife and indigenous people, the view that such human activities will cause global warming and climate change is based on the false premise that human actions are responsible for global warming.
Moreover the proposition that global warming may destroy the world is alarmist.
The reputable Nature Magazine has bought into the Greens’ propaganda. It published an article warning us that the future of our planet depends on whether or not we reduce global warming.
The title of this article is 'Earth Is Warmer Than It’s Been in 125,000 Years.' This isn’t true and Nature Magazine should be ashamed for publishing this untruth.
Professor Dr Jan Esper of Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany, headed a group of scientists looking into the history of global temperatures.
Using tree-ring density methods from sub-fossil pine trees he discovered that in the past during the Middle Ages and the Roman epoch people enjoyed temperatures higher than today and that over the last 2,000 years the earth has been cooling not getting warmer.
The recent rise in global warming still hasn’t reached temperatures achieved then.
During these two periods of higher temperatures, according to historians and archaeologists at Stanford University, people lived longer, enjoyed better nutrition and multiplied more rapidly than during epochs of colder weather. It seems global warming is healthier. Whilst excessively high temperatures can cause deaths from heat stroke for example, it is the cold that kills most people.
Thomas Moore, the Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution Stanford University, studied more recent effects of different climates on humans which supported this view.
He stated that while advocates of the theory that global warming would be catastrophic and result in an increase in disease and deaths worldwide, in fact a warmer world would be a world with fewer deaths.
Professor Moore’s evidence comes from monthly death rates in Washington DC from 1987 to 1989 and an analysis of deaths in 89 large counties across the US.
Those statistical evaluations showed that warmer weather cuts death rates, not only in Washington but throughout the US. Taking into account variables this was shown to be likely worldwide. Similar studies in the UK support his viewpoint. It would appear that the Green Party’s “prophets of doom and gloom” may have got it wrong.
The Green Party’s take on global warming is now an accepted fact. To deny their theory is to risk social ostracism. Even cows don’t escape the moral condemnation of these zealots. Cows are unwittingly guilty because methane gas is emitted from their burps and manure and these emissions are said to increase the greenhouse effect.
The Green movement states “the science is clear, we cannot continue burning coal, oil and gas if we are to avoid the worst impacts of global warming.”
However scientific evidence would suggest that their science is at the very least questionable. We are continually told by the western media and by the BBC in particular that “fossil fuels (such as natural gas and petroleum) are unethical because their pollution contaminates the cleanliness of the natural environment” and further that “in using fossil fuels we are violating a common moral principle by harming innocent people.”
It is therefore with some trepidation and with the risk of social ostracism that I put forward the argument that the Green movement’s alarmist statements in relation to global warming should be ignored.
Perhaps those who use morality to promote the idea that using fossil fuel harms innocent people should consider the following. The World Health Organisation estimates that around a third of people worldwide cook using open fires or inefficient stoves fueled by biomass (energy from burning dead animals and plants), wood, animal dung, and crop waste.
The use of these “sustainable “ fuels generates harmful household air pollution and was responsible for an estimated 3.2 million deaths in 2020, including over 237,000 deaths of children under the age of 5. These deaths could be avoided by using electricity generated by cheap fossil fuels. The Greens on their high horses demand that everyone switches to using power sources such as wind power, solar power and tidal energy. Offshore wind turbines create noise pollution affecting marine life such as whales, dolphins and seals that rely on sounds to communicate for navigation. They also cause the displacement and destruction of marine life habitation.
Sea birds are amongst our most endangered species and wind turbines are displacing them from their usual feeding areas. Solar energy is expensive and highly inefficient compared to electricity produced by cheap fossil fuels. I won’t insult you by explaining why energy produced by sea tides is not a serious contender to produce sufficient energy for the world’s needs.
The Green Party’s drive to reduce the supply of fossil fuels harms the poorest people. A reduction in supply, based on the economic principle of supply and demand, has increased the price of oil and gas.
Consequently the hike in oil prices has massively increased the profits of oil companies causing hardship for ordinary people in the West and especially Africa. The least able to afford it are obliged to pay exorbitant prices for their energy needs. The oil companies, on the back of the largest profits in their history are expanding their business activities rather than decreasing them.
The theory that global warming is caused by human actions rather than Nature is a fiction. Equally fictional is the proposition that a hotter world will catastrophically impact us. The historical periods of global warming must have resulted from natural causes including the real possibility of a shift in the earth’s rotation. Unless of course I missed that part of my school history lesson which talked about Romans driving Lamborghinis and Ferraris. You can fill up your cars with petrol comfortable in the knowledge that you are on the right side of history.
Karim Easterbrook
The writer is a former school principal Cambridge UK
k.easterbrook@yahoo.com
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