Time to be rational on climate change

Feb 17 2010 by Sarah Bull, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

I FEEL I must respond to the letter from Alan Starr (Mailbag, February 13) about climate change.

A greater understanding of the environmental movement might be helpful. In the late 1960s and early 1970s many groups were set up but the vast majority of the scientific community was sceptical. It took decades of hard, peer-reviewed science to turn that view around.

That could not possibly have happened if the evidence wasn’t overwhelming.

It is a myth to assume that the scientists manipulate evidence to further their careers or obtain research grants. There is little money in climate science and an awful lot of the scientists have turned down lucrative offers of work from big business and oil giants.

I always find it amazing that people choose to believe what they want to believe. After thousands of articles on the negative impact humans are having on our environment, people will choose to only take notice of a couple of stories that contradict this mass of evidence.

Maybe it’s convenient. That way they don’t have to take responsibility for their lifestyles and therefore don’t have to change the way they live.

If we put climate change/global warming to one side for a moment, human beings are still causing massive damage to our planet.

There is deforestation, soil erosion, collapsing fish stocks, acidification of the oceans, over-population, pollutants such as nitrous oxide etc being pumped into the atmosphere ... the list goes on. We are also causing a mass species extinction event which could also threaten our own survival.

It all boils down to the same thing. We need to change our habits and fast. Can we afford to wait to see if the sceptics are right on climate change when, meanwhile, in the real world we need to take action now on a whole raft of issues?

There are more than 2,000 climate change scientists around the world who have to co-ordinate hundreds of studies and pull that evidence together. So to get a couple of lines wrong in a couple of reports doesn’t alter the fact that the evidence is there, that we are doing great harm for ourselves and future generations.

To dismiss a whole body of evidence on the basis of a few mistakes is being even more guilty of what you are accusing them of. Now that truly is bad science.

Every working person on the planet has made mistakes in the workplace and will continue to do so. Climate scientists are no different. I wonder if Mr Starr is the exception to that rule?

Janet Rowland

Longwood

The evidence is there

WITH reference to Alan Starr’s letter, can it really be responsible to dismiss climate change science so casually?

We can all cherry-pick incidents from ancient history to back up half-baked theories.

After all, for years people and politicians dismissed the threat from Hitler and Nazi Germany. If they’d listened, maybe millions of lives could have been saved. People denied the Holocaust and look how they are viewed today.

But let’s look at more recent history. For decades people ignored and dismissed the evidence on tobacco smoking. Indeed, the tobacco companies briefed against the evidence and blocked policy changes for many years. Again, many millions of lives could have been saved if we had acted sooner.

There are many parallels between this issue and environmental issues. Could it be possible that oil giants are briefing against climate change scientists and trying to discredit them? A recent newspaper report suggests this is the case.

The parallels don’t end there. If polluting our bodies cause them to break down, doesn’t it stand to reason that if we pollute the world that will eventually break down also?

We have two choices. We can listen to a handful of eco-sceptics and act accordingly (that is, do nothing), bearing in mind that if they are wrong, billions may die.

Or we could listen to the scientists’ decades of evidence and act accordingly. If they are wrong what is the worst that could happen ? Answer, we end up living in a cleaner, better world. It’s a no-brainer. Can we afford the gamble? Are you feeling lucky, Mr Starr?

James Beattie

Kirkburton

Prudence and police

MICHAEL Hutchinson from Mirfield (Mailbag, February 12) sadly must be misinformed. Gordon Brown’s prudence never existed.

Mr Corcoran ( Mailbag, February 13), on the other hand, makes a good point on the absence of police and specials pounding the streets. The only time I see either is at Town home games.

John

Marsh

Cats just as naughty

ON the subject of naughty dog-owners, J Maddison (Mailbag, February 12) is right to complain about dog muck.

But what about my neighbourhood’s many cats roaming my property day and night, messing my garden and triggering my security lights every five minutes?

Are the owners responsible people? Evidently not. Cat owners, it seems, are above the law.

LAURA WACHTER

Fartown

Dogs’ dirty doings

I WONDER if other villages in Yorkshire are suffering the same as Denby Dale. We seem to be covered by a blanket of dog dirt!

It is now almost impossible to visit the excellent selection of local shops without having to negotiate heaps of poo.

A quick word with some of the proprietors and local residents confirmed that they too are finding the situation totally disgusting, especially when it gets accidentally taken into the shops on unsuspecting shoes.

Once you leave the shopping area and go for a stroll around the local streets the situation gets even worse. On my last walk I lost count of the piles of dirt I had to avoid.

When I take my grandson for an outing the last thing I want is to have to clean dog mess from the pushchair wheels.

Denby Dale is a lovely place to bring up a family, but now we appear to be at risk of developing a serious health hazard.

So can I put in a plea to the minority of dog owners in Denby Dale who do not pick up after their pet to take a plastic bag with them next time they go out and pick up the poo!

Judith Tappenden

Denby Dale

Reunion on the cards

DID you go to King James’ School, Almondbury, and leave between 1979 to 1982?

If so, it’s reunion time at the Rock Cafe, Ramsden Street, Huddersfield, on Friday, March 5.

It’s 30 years since the 1980 year group left. The reunions have been a tremendous success at the Rock Cafe in previous years. So if you know anyone from Lepton, Kirkheaton, Flockton or Grange Moor who attended King James’ and left in these years please spread the word around. Any enquiries phone 07980370993.

Denise Moulson

Golcar

The four minute mile

THE article on Derek Ibbotson (Examiner, February 15) is wrong.

You state that Derek Ibbotson was the first runner to run a mile in four minutes. That accolade fell to Roger Bannister on May 6, 1954.

Alan Earnshaw

Flockton

Roger did the first sub four minute mile. Derek ran the first dead-on four minute mile on September 3, 1958 – Editor.

Caring about town

IN last Friday’s Examiner I read the latest spin of the Huddersfield Town Centre Partnership, who, despite all the boarded up shop fronts in Huddersfield town centre, put their own spin on it by talking only of ‘floorspace’.

Its crazy to suggest there has been anything other than a negative impact of the recession in this country, yet the partnership seems to think we’re exempt from this because an extra bit of ‘floorspace’ has been taken.

If the figures are correct and one in 10 shops is empty, then what are they going to do about that? What is being done to fill them?

What’s being done to encourageŠ shopkeepers to take them over or to encourage new people to start up a business?

Our town centre looks a mess. You walk down New Street at the Wilkinsons end and it’s charity shop after pound shop after charity shop before you reach theŠ vacant shops.

Its hardly surprising new business are not attracted to our town when the council takes an age to remove its Christmas lights – it gives an impression of ‘we don’t care’ or ‘we forget about our town’ when that happens.

It also needs a good clean-up, but for this it’s the people of the town who give the ‘we don’t care’ impression.Š

I actually approve of people being fined for littering and only wish the council sent more wardens out at lunchtime to catch people throwing their lunch wrappers on the floor.

Much more needs to be done, but I believe it can be done if our council and the people who live and work here take some pride in it.

RH

Lepton