Warm words on hot air
21 December 2009
Last week’s column produced an unusually large response and rather than burden you with more of my own thoughts this week, I thought I would select a few snippets from last week’s responses.
Climate change, topical obviously because of the hot air being generated in Copenhagen, is a subject that most people have some opinion on and so when I dabbled in the subject last week (Has Copenhagen missed the point?) it was no surprise that the electronic mailbag bulged. Here is a quick representation of people’s thoughts. Clearly the over-riding sense is that global warming is something to be taken seriously.
“Interesting thing Global Warming,” commented Bruce Webster, “I suspect the earth has natural cycles it will follow without much regard for the human ants residing on its crust. But I do also believe the human race as a whole has been very poor stewards of the natural resources on this planet we live on.”
Ian Bell of National Instruments pointed out: "I think the weight of evidence shows that climate change is happening and that human activity is contributing to it. My point is that even if it wasn't - there are compelling reasons for investment in green engineering/clean technology."
While Dr. Chris Hunt of the NPL, in response to my views that the energy is all around us - it just needs to be harvested in a manageable way - alerted me to the views of one American scientist who apparently believes that because most energy ends up as heat, it we had effectively ‘free’ energy we would use far too much of it and thus create a new set of environmental problems.
To round off, one of our regular commentators, Rod Dalitz, highlighted the following Woody Allen quote: “More than at any time in history, mankind faces a crossroad. One path leads to despair and hopelessness. The other leads to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.”
And on that cheery note I will wish you all a happy holiday, hopefully you will all have the opportunity to take a break and return full of vigour and enthusiasm in the new year.
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