Prince Charles and Climate Change
Prince Charles has called those who disagree with the concept of serious man-made climate change “Headless Chickens”. To call scientists, with whom you disagree, names is disgraceful. Science thrives on dissent and argument and it is by this means it flourishes. For example, in 1976, at a conference in Madison, a plant scientist reported that he was unable to repeat results that I had presented a year earlier. We did not call each other names, but sat down and discussed our differences, over a beer. After more research, we did indeed resolve our differences which lead to some new insights into plant biochemistry. We remained friends throughout all this and have been friends ever since.
Higher than average concentrations of estradiol make the human body to restrict brand cialis australia testosterone output. Yoga To buy cialis pharmacy help make your body flexible and managing different creative positions, you should do yoga. Thus the cost of all these are the main reasons for it is to intake a lot of modern medicine that is successfully used for curing lots of diseases. canadian pharmacies tadalafil Also Bear in mind that It is illegal to sell prescription medicines without a prescription issued by a licensed therapist – purchase generic levitra a reputable practitioner that your main physician can recommend you a dose after examining your body.
Science is constantly evolving, and concepts that we thought were etched in stone have to be discarded. We must allow people to present their own ideas even when they seem to contradict the accepted wisdom of the times.
Prince Charles – Meet Some Headless Chickens
It is pertinent to ask if Prince Charles has ever met some of the scientists that he has called headless chickens. Perhaps he should arrange a meeting, at a neutral place like a good London pub. He might discover they are not headless chickens. (It is interesting to note that a recent article in Scientific American (February 2014) stated “chickens are smart and understand their world”). I assume while they still have their heads.
My View on Climate Change
I am not a climate scientist, but I try to keep informed about the possibility of climate change. I learned about the greenhouse effect of carbon dioxide in high school 60 years ago and it has always worried me to see so much effluent from industrial sites and motor vehicles. It seems to me that there must be an effect. However, there is a controversy about the extent of climate change. There are other factors effecting climate and the impact of each is still in dispute. The earth warmed substantially during the 1990’s but the warming has slowed since then. A climate proponent, I recently talked to, scorned those who said that climate change was not as severe as reported earlier and that climate change was still progressing but at varying rates as might well be anticipated. However, if the earth’s temperate was only affected by carbon dioxide, I would have expected a linear relationship between the two. Obviously, other factors, such as the sun’s activity, are having an effect and this clearly was not anticipated in the climate models.
Prince Charles – A Headless Chicken – GMO Crops
Prince Charles could well be classified himself as a headless chicken. He has always been opposed to GM crops even in the face of excellent scientific evidence from first rate plant scientists that these crops are safe and effective.
GM crops could well be essential if we have to deal with serious climate change. Herbicide resistance has been a very effective technology for removing weeds from crops. This technology has a major benefit in allowing carbon to increase in the soil thereby removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. These crops also require less tractor use and hence a smaller amount of carbon dioxide is released from them.
New crops resistant to heat, drought and cold are in the testing stage and could be available in the next few years. As I stated to the UN climate change conference in Poznan in 2008, if we have to develop new drought and heat resistant crop varieties to overcome changing growing conditions brought about by climate change, then GM technologies will be essential. New technologies have recently been developed that can quickly change genes in a plant to achieve these goals (New Scientist, 25th January 2014).
Climate Change -The Impact of Population Growth
One thing rarely mentioned by environmentalists is the impact of population growth during the 20th century when the world population went from 1.5 to 6.0 billion. The population is now over 7 billion and is estimated to be as high as 10.5 billion by mid-century. This is a huge number for a single large animal species on this planet. Without this population growth, we would not be worrying about climate change. It has been estimated that to feed a population of this size and provide an adequate diet for all people would require an almost doubling of food production. Hence, we must dramatically increase the yield per acre of all crops. GM technologies will be essential to achieve this. The alternative is that most natural land will have to be destroyed causing a major release of carbon dioxide and an environmental disaster.
Prince Charles – A Rational Initiative on Climate Change
Prince Charles in his address to the 2009 UN Conference on climate change held in Copenhagen did make a very rational and important plea for the preservation of tropical rain forest (his speech is available from the Guardian, see below). Destruction of forests of all types have been a major source of atmospheric carbon dioxide, not just from the burning of the forest waste but also from the oxidation of soil organic matter.
However, it is not just tropical forests that need preserving. In Canada, we have a large boreal forest stretching right across the country. At all costs it needs to be preserved. In fact, I would go further and suggest that all low quality farm land should be returned to its natural state wherever possible. This means we must do all we can to increase yields of good farm land as high as possible so that less productive land can revert to its natural state. Prince Charles supports organic farming which has lower yields than conventional crops. A wide scale conversion to organic farming would be an environmental disaster.
Climate Change
From what I have observed, there are three types of climate change scientist. There are those who believe that serious climate change is imminent and needs immediate drastic action involving at least the most developed nations. Then there those who believe that climate change is taking place but at a slower rate and action will be needed but there is time to develop alternate technologies. Finally, there are those who believe there is no problem.
There is no doubt in my mind that climate change is something to be concerned about, but I would place myself in the middle group. We must look at ways of curtailing carbon emissions, but there are also many other factors at play.
Does this make me a headless chicken?
Prince Charles Headless Chicken Talk
http://news.ca.msn.com/top-stories/prince-charles-finds-climate-change-denial-most-unbecoming
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jan/31/climate-change-sceptics-headless-chickens-prince-charles
Prince Charles Presentation to UN Climate Change Conference Copenhagen 2009
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2009/dec/15/prince-charles-speech-copenhagen-climate
