Climate change

[Philip Harbour]

At our last zoom meeting I made some statements about climate change so in the context of the purpose of the Geek Squad I would like to clarify some of those statements.

I do not dismiss climate change because I do consider it a serious challenge to our planet.  However, in his presentation, DeGrasse stressed the necessity of believing in Science.  In doing so it must also include the law of physics that states "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction".  For instance, the windmills are and have been killing many endangered bird species.  The cleaning of solar panels is using up a great deal of water which is in short supply.  Those are just two examples but there could be many more.

Then there is the obvious one that China and India have a much greater output of carbon than any other country in the world.  But of course, even though charts showing climate change and the amount of carbon in the atmosphere parallel each other" I do not think it has been scientifically proven that carbon and methane are the only things causing the increase in the planet's temperature.  Some years ago some scientists, from the U of Pennsylvania I believe, were caught having cherry-picked their climate temperatures to prove what they wanted.  It was also discovered that in one conference on the subject, some of those attending were taking steps to not allow scientists of the opposite view to attend.

Even so, I do believe there are things that can be done in our world that are good things but in doing it we must consider the consequences of all our actions in, as DeGrasee says, a careful scientific manner rather than just crashing through like a bull in a china shop as some radical believers are want to do.

It is a reminder of another situation that is similar.  Many scientists accept that Quantum Physics is correct but the scientists do not know how or why it is occurring and are simply accepting it and going merrily along using it in many practical applications.  The well-known theoretical physicist Saun Carroll, takes great exception to this and I paraphrase "This is not what scientists do because we, as physicists, are obligated to find out how and why and we are not doing that."

So as I see it, in this country and others, there is a knee-jerk reaction and pilling huge amounts of funds into renewable energy without considering that law of physics reaction.  In doing so it is causing great harm to our economy and in other ways.

I hope this clarifies my position on climate change and I welcome the opinions of others even if they don't agree with mine.

Phil Harbour