Setting the pace on climate change 
Tony Blair used his opening speech to the World Economic Forum to talk about the dangers posed to the world by climate change. The UK’s chairmanship of the G8 this year is planned to have two main concerns: climate change and Africa (Blair speaks about Africa in Davos today).
The UK has taken a leading position in speaking out on climate change. Notably, the government’s chief scientist David King said in a speech last year that global warming was a bigger threat than terrorism.
Unsurprisingly, the climate change deniers have targeted the UK for their disinformation. Royal Society president Bob May has an excellent piece in today’s Guardian making clear where the overwhelming preponderance of scientific opinion lies:
| So there we have it. On one hand we have the IPCC, the rest of the world’s major scientific organisations, and the government’s chief scientific adviser, all pointing to the need to cut emissions. On the other we have a small band of sceptics, including lobbyists funded by the US oil industry, a sci-fi writer, and the Daily Mail, who deny the scientists are right. It is reminiscent of the tobacco lobby’s attempts to persuade us that smoking does not cause lung cancer. There is no danger this lobby will influence the scientists. But they don’t need to. It is the influence on the media that is so poisonous. |