For the past couple of years, I have been using this image of a polar bear riding a small iceberg to illustrate climate change in the talk I give to a local(ish) school about studying biological sciences at University - it's just one of the important areas to which biological sciences graduates can contribute. Sadly, according to a Guardian article earlier this week, it is an image that might go out of date sooner than I thought. The title of the article says it all, really: "Arctic expert predicts final collapse of sea ice within four years".
As the expert in question (Prof Peter Wadhams of Cambridge University) is quoted to suggest in the article, surely it is time to start throwing everything at this problem, including the kitchen sink of geoengineering. With a catastrophe of this magnitude so close, it is hard to see how such attempts could possibly make things worse.
People who deny AGW have the same mentality as those who deny evolution - a desire to adhere to a presupposition no matter the epistemic cost. It pisses me off that people can be so fancy-free and footloose about science and empirically-based consensus conclusions. Sheesh.
ReplyDeleteThanks for updating my blogroll link! I'll have to return the favour!
Actually, I think you may have a redirect link on your blogroll so it will not update new posts. Is there any possibility of updating it?
ReplyDeletehttp://skepticink.com/tippling/
Do you have any dealings with the Soton Atheist Soc? I will be doing a talk there on the Nativity at the beginning of Dec.
Link changed! I don't have any dealings with the Soton Atheist Soc but will be happy to help spread the word about your talk. Might even attend if I'm free (and they don't mind staff turning up)!
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