It seems I am a climate change sceptic. Thus is puzzling because I seem to fit the profile of the kind of person who ought to be ‘a believer’. To be honest, I see myself as a kind of liberal and find it uncomfortable to be aligned with the far right, oil companies and 43%* of Americans.

So, first things first. A ‘sceptic’ is  someone who ‘doubts accepted opinion’. And I have always been a doubter – because I was brought up to be suspicious of politicians, the media, big business and opinion based on faith or speculation, rather than on fact.

Here’s the first thing – I believe that climate change is happening. I believe it happens all the time. I accept scientific evidence that, since the mid 18th century ‘the average temperature of the earth’  has increased by 0.7º, although, if I’m honest, I’m not really certain what ‘average temperature’ means in this context.
What am I sceptical about?

•    The ability of human activity to have an adverse affect on the environment?  No, I believe in that.
•    The dangers inherent in our reliance on fossil fuels? No, I believe in that.
•    The catastrophe which awaits us if we do not address population growth? I believe in that too.
•    The effects of the urbanisation of the countryside and the resultant flooding and reduction in air quality? That too.
To get to my scepticism, you have to look at not what, but who I have misgivings about.
•    I do not believe politicians. Well, sometimes I do – but I always question their motives (climate change bandwagon – OK guys, let’s jump on!). I also believe that history tells us politicians need to have some kind of hold over the people they represent (and, through the ages, fear seems to be the method most commonly used).
•    I do not trust the media (driven by the views of their owners, their governments and their revenue streams). Goodness, I’ve even stopped ‘believing’ the BBC, whose news and other programmes have veered away from reporting facts to finding more and more ways of telling us what to think.
•    I question some of the climate change research (because researchers also have agendas – keeping themselves in work, finding more evidence to back up things which can and will be funded – e.g. ‘man causes climate change’ – as opposed to research which is unlikely to be funded – e.g. ‘ everything is OK – human activity has no impact ‘)
•    I do not understand much of the climate change research. This is my fault, I know; but the vast majority of the people who ‘believe’ in man-made climate change do not really understand it either. They take it on trust. If you don’t believe me, do you own research – Ask random people in the street to name three things which cause global warming and you’ll see what I mean.)

Here’s what I do believe:

Climate change is happening. Whether or not human activity is contributing to that is, I believe, still open to question (and I have the right question it without my prime minister insulting me by calling me a ‘flat-earther’**)

However, even if human activity is not contributing to climate change, there are massive issues facing the world; over-reliance on fossil fuels, over-fishing, de-forestation, plastics and other chemicals polluting oceans, power stations pumping coal dust into the Himalayas, etc.

The biggest issue facing us in the 21st century is population growth. Addressing that successfully will have a more lasting effect on the environment than any patchwork of measures taken to combat climate change.

There are, also, overwhelming reasons to support ‘green’ initiatives and the benefits that they deliver. Many of these benefits have effects greater than those intended, and also greater than those proposed by governments wishing top address climate change***.

Finally, sceptics are a good thing and, in a free-thinking society should be cherished and not vilified.
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* 43% of Americans ‘do not believe in global warming’, according to Pew Research Centre .
**The way in which some climate change ‘believers’ now talk about ‘non believers’ is getting closer and closer to the language used and attitudes held by believers in fundamentalist religions.
***An example would be banning plastic water bottles because of the pollution caused to the world’s oceans having the added benefit of shutting down plastics factories which waste energy, pollute the air  and pump chemicals into the atmosphere.