A quick note on climate skeptics

Anyone who's spent any time on the internet reading and writing about anything to do with climate change has run into some members of the really committed climate skeptics.  Reading the comment threads of some of the more popular climate-related blogs, like DotEarth or the Guardian, can be a strange descent into the minutiae about a) whether the climate is changing, b) whether humans are responsible for it, and c) how fat Al Gore is.  They marshal a lot of scientific-sounding evidence that they claim disproves climate change. The intention, however, is not to educate, but to confuse.  They want to sow doubt about what is admitadly a complicated subject.  You will hear a lot about the  Paleocene\ Eocene Thermal Maximum, or the Medieval warm period, but you won't really be any more certain.

I bring this up because of an article, "Playing Politics with Climate Change" on Atlantic-community.org, by Jean Pierre Schaeken Willemaers of the Thomas More Institute that questions the science behind climate change.

The truth is that the earth is warming- undeniably. We're pretty sure that we're doing it. We don't kow how much it is going to keep warming, but we what we do know should worry us.

That puts climate change as a clear and present "threat". Does that mean it will cause mass disruption? No- but it might. Just because we don't have certainty does not mean that we should not act. I would direct everyone to the recently released report from E3G about risk management planning for climate change. Find it here.

We should not allow uncertainty to preclude action. In fact, uncertainty should be the central reason for action.

Also- the canards that Mr. Schaeken Willemaers puts in there about polls and public opinion are immaterial. The public is reactionary- but it is government's job to be proactive. A government that does not take rational, foresighted action on preventing the dangerous effects of climate change will be held to account by it's citizens in the future.

I hope that this will be my last post about climate skeptics. Whether or not you believe that the climate is warming, you should at least acknowledge that it is a threat that demands prudent action.