RDN on BBC R4 on climate change
Posted by RDN under Climate change on 8 February 2010
On the radio today (BBC Radio 4′s You and Yours) I made a fair fist of describing my position on the trustworthiness of climate change science and the IPCC. I did slightly mispeak…
I said, what I believe, that there seems to be a solid and sound consensus amongst most scientists that man has warmed his planet. I then said, what I believe, that much of what follows from that remains quite uncertain, especially as to the details of who will suffer what and where as a consequence of global warming. I said (and this is the bit where I let myself down) that there was – within the “consensus” – quite a wide range of predictions of likely temperature rise. They ranged, I said, from the comparatively mild to the very dire. Actually (now I check the IPCC website) I think the consensus is that a doubling of CO2 from pre-industrial levels (due quite soon) will likely lead to a 3 degree Celsius temperature rise.
Now. I am pretty sure that is also the kind of rise which is postulated by the consensus as being truly dreadful for the planet. It seems also that a doubling of CO2 is pretty well inevitable. All in all, hang on to your hat.
