Climate change - a load of hot air?
Much has been made in the press of Professor David Bellamy's unorthodox views on climate change. The man is standing his ground. "I have not changed my stance,"he says, but adds: "Am I worried about climate change? I certainly am having researched and taught the subject at University for longer than I care to remember."
The president and co-founder of the Conservation Foundation claims that the global temperature is well within life's limits. "Indeed the present-day is cooler than much of previous geological time. There is one circumstantial conclusion and one only. Earth's climate has enormous capacity to self regulate."
Far from thinking nothing should be done in tackling climate change, Bellamy considers money spent on warning systems for 'natural' disasters well spent. " The development and marketing of that technology will provide a lot of worthwhile jobs."
He adds: "Climate change is happening spiced some say by the carbon dioxide released by the profligate use of fossil fuels. If we all do our bit to save as much fossil fuel as we can we are certainly helping on two counts. We are helping to make them last longer and slowing the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere."
Bellamy is not alone in his scepticism. He joins in his lack of faith in mainstream climate change perception.
"Yes in some peoples eyes I am regarded as a global warming heretic, whatever that means," adds Professor Bellamy. "I am worried about the burning of all our fossil fuel because it is the only raw material for our future, plasto-chemical lifestyles. Yes I am worried about the continued destruction of every type of habitat from mountain-tops down to the deepest coral reefs.
"But," he states, "I know that the main reasons for soil erosion, salination, floods, droughts, famines, the collapse of coral reefs and the extinction of species are habitat destruction, overgrazing and over-fishing over the past 10 decades.
"What really worries me most is that over the past 15 years many climatologists backed by the media have latched on to a 0.6 of a degree Celsius rise in temperature as the cause of all this trouble.
"I still put my faith in Mother Nature to balance our most important books."
Dr Hollingworth clearly does not agree: "I think that sceptics are burying their head in the sand," he says ". I think that the evidence is overwhelming, that the climate is changing. Originally, when I looked at it from a geological perspective, (Hollingworth originally trained as a geologist) thought that, well, the climate’s changed, what’s different?"
"Well the difference isn’t that the climate’s changing, it’s the speed at which the climate’s changing. That’s caused by the effects of man, in terms of the pollutants, what’s gone into the atmosphere. It’s changing the climate, it’s clearly evident that that is happening - at a pace which will be beyond the time scale by which plants and animals can adapt, and people, of course.
" So we do need to do something about it, and we need to do something fairly soon. And the time that we have to deal with it is getting less."
Lancaster colleague Dr David Howard agrees. Listen to his opinion below (0'16").
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