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Why is there so much scepticism around climate change? And why does it continue to cause controversy among scientists? In 2009 the ‘Climategate’ news story, regarding stolen emails from the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit, became symbolic of public mistrust in climate science. In this audio, in the form of an open letter, The Open University’s Dr Joe Smith defends the science behind climate change and argues that “climate change is one of the challenges of the age. One that we will all be judged for”.
Track 1: Letter to a Climate Sceptic
Why are people so sceptical about the truth of climate change science? Dr Joe Smith, Senior Lecturer in Environment addresses this issue in a letter to a sceptical friend.
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Tracks in this podcast:
| Track | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Letter to a Climate Sceptic | Why are people so sceptical about the truth of climate change science? Dr Joe Smith, Senior Lecturer in Environment addresses this issue in a letter to a sceptical friend. Play now Letter to a Climate Sceptic |
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Audio reviews
Yet the observational evidence is that fewer storms will occur. That's both recent warming and historically. Storms happen when the Earth is getting colder.
Droughts have a huge ammount to do with human behaviour such as cutting down forests. And so on.
As for the poorest people, they'll be suffering from lack of fossil fuel transport and heat rather sooner than the temp rises noticably.
One degree in 90 years is insignificantly different to the 300 year average of 0.85 degrees per century. No-one knows why the oldest 250 years of that warming occurred. Maybe the same thing's happening now? In which case cutting down on carbon dioxide emissions won't stop it, and is far too expensive for all concerned - but particularly for poor people.