Defeating Global Poverty

If climate change is happening and if these changes result in impact on humans, then most people agree that the poor will be inproportionately burdened with the negative impact of climate change. So, this is my interest in this blog.

I say "if" because there is disagreement on climate change ... particularly on how much of it is caused by humans and how to predict both future changes and their consequences. Al Gore is clearly angling for people's fears with his An Inconvenient Truth movie. Others are "fighting back" with other facts (conveniently left out?) like this article published in Car & Driver magazine (conflict of interest?). Climatologist, Richard Lindzen argues in his testimony to congress that there are some agreements on a few facts, but there are huge differences in the interpretations of those facts.

Why is it that people are so eager to share selected facts, but not those which are in contradiction to their conclusions (and interests)?

Last week's issue of The Economist published a pretty indepth survey on the topic of climate change. Their conclusion is that there are enough indicators that climate change might be happening and that it is worth some investment as "insurance" against the possible implications. But they are clear to say that in reality very little is known about climate change and talking in terms of certainty of where things are going and what the results are is intellectually dishonest.

What frustrates me the most is that there appear to be very few people who are willing to tell you the "whole story" about what is known about climate change and to OWN their own biases (which everyone has). So, I encourage you to get smarter about this topic by reading the range of opinions ... not just the ones that you're inclined towards.

If you are going to refer to other links in comments, PLEASE don't refer to one-sided, simplistic, I-know-everything-and-here's-what-you-do arguments on this very complex, nuanced and potentially very important topic.

Labels: climate change, poverty