The View | Climate systems are beyond human control – someone should tell the global warming activists
- Historical data shows global warming and extreme weather are nothing new
- Climate activists are fighting the wrong battle by focusing on temperature targets – much better to reduce human impact on the environment by cleaning up after ourselves better
Pressure is quite rightly increasing on big business to finance the transition to a greener future. France’s finance minister Bruno Le Maire said: “The key question is not China first, US first, or Europe first. The key question for all of us is climate first.”
How to pay for “climate first” during a time of cost pressures, however, was not addressed. A stalemate exists between global businesses, which dig in their heels, not knowing what they will be blamed for next, and the greens who are becoming extremist to the extent of violent action.
Climate change activists believe with an arrogance that they are right, even as much of their thinking is based on a poor understanding of science and realpolitik. They are barking up the wrong sustainable trees, focusing on climate change targets based on criteria such as keeping global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius of current levels, or buzz words like “net zero”. Well, good luck with that.
As a professional geologist back in the 1970s, I would like to think that I was an environmentalist before Greta’s dad could spell “environmentalist”. But I am also aware that the human population on Earth is living on the tiny crust of a molten ball of magma, travelling through space at over 100,000 km/h – and spinning on its axis.
If this is not a fine example of a steady state in dynamic equilibrium, then I’m a climate change denier. The clue is in the word “dynamic”; today’s extreme weather is not extreme – it is the norm. And looking at the swings in the Earth’s long history, a few generations will not tell us what “extreme” temperatures actually are. This should give pause to the current shouty narrative.
