The Earth is an evolving dynamic system. Current changes in climate, sea level and ice are within variability. Atmospheric CO2 is the lowest for 500 million years. Climate has always been driven by the Sun, the Earth’s orbit and plate tectonics and the oceans, atmosphere and life respond. Humans have made their mark on the planet, thrived in warm times and struggled in cool times.
The hypothesis that humans can actually change climate is unsupported by evidence from geology, archaeology, history and astronomy. The hypothesis is rejected.
A new ignorance fills the yawning spiritual gap in Western society. Climate change politics is religious fundamentalism masquerading as science. Its triumph is computer models unrelated to observations in nature. There has been no critical due diligence of the science of climate change, dogma dominates, sceptics are pilloried and 17th Century thinking promotes prophets of doom, guilt and penance.
So says Professor Ian Plimer in an important new book, flagged over on what I suppose is our sister site, Australian Conservative. I do recommend a thorough purusal of that page and the links thereon.
I suppose the next question is, even if that is right, and that global warming and climate change etcetera are a crock of the proverbial, isn't the sensible thing (as a politician) to toe the line, at least in a lip service sense, given that the orthodoxy is so established? You will get hissed at most public meetings if you express doubt on whether man is driving change in our climate - it's simply accepted without question by so many people and it puts you on the wrong side of a morality divide if you question that. Such a position was very harmful for the Howard government in Oz. So... perhaps "heads down" is the right approach on "climate change", even if one thinks the whole thing's a myth.
[Coda I love the countryside. I strongly dislike pollution and litter and the waste of energy / anything else. I just have grave doubts about whether mankind is affecting our climate, and in fact I think there's a strange bit of vanity in the notion that we are doing so / that turning the TV off from standby or driving a smaller car makes any difference. Why can't the indoctrinated priests of climate change understand that?]