g

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.
————————————–
* 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.

While it is tempting to think that The Bears name derives from some amusing anecdote (e.g. the propensity for Tommo to hit balls into the wood, Dunc’s fondness for honey, my own long driving prowess; viz. “he hits it like a bear!” I wish!) the most accepted version is that it was an attempt by four impressionable young men to liken themselves to the great Man himself in the hope that just a little of His magic would rub off. It didn’t.

Tired Bears

Quite soon after the first Bears’ contest, any idea that we may have any similarity to the man we call Jack disappeared into the rough, much like Tommo’s Pinnacles, and, while we did later adopt golfing heroes, these were usually fallible, even tragic figures:  Barnes and his beer, Rocca and his valley of sin, Allez Jean and his upturned trousers, etc.

It’s so long ago now when it began, that, for those of us who participate, ‘The Bears” is just The Bears. And so it will continue to be. We are and always will be The Bears to each other and to our families and friends. Our annual sojourn is also The Bears; in fact for a week each year, everything is The Bears.

And when we meet, we always know just how Bears are, how they act and what they do. Few changes (apart from those brought about by age) and few excitements trouble us. For four would-be golfers, it is a fixture, an obligation, a delight.

Of course we are four Bears; Robbo of the historical fact, Tommo of the erratic drives, Dunc of the steady hand, and me, me of the past glories. I am Dave; not my real name actually. My Bears name. Nowhere else do I have a special name, not that I am aware of, at any rate.

Bears website, by Tommo at www.thebears.biz

Bears 2008 photos, by DB at http://fortypacesbackwards.com/photo-gallery/

Mika the Dog

I now have my own webpage (called The Mika Show) at http://fortypacesbackwards.com/?page_id=50

Please visit, there will be more photos and videos there shortly

Mika the Dog

Now, I’m (re-)converted. My MacBook is a truly wonderful machine, OSX is fantastic and iMovie, iTunes, iDVD and others are really good and encourage creativity. Need to get into GarageBand though. Quite a number of friends have transferred to Mac recently and that’s quite encouraging. Still, six month’s after getting my iBook, still no sign of it slowing dwon. Now, with Windows on on the other hand…

Finished ‘West Wing’ last March and have now bought series 1-4 of ‘The Wire’. Hope it lives up to my expectations.

Need to learn my third chord on the guitar (at least then I can rival the Quo)

Garden is a tip (I blame Mika the Dog.

So it goes…

Well, you never know…