Letter: Climate change denial shameful

READING Gerald Warner’s column is like viewing a Victorian freak show. Although the bizarre always intrigues, by the time you’ve made it to the last grotesque you feel ashamed.

His recent broadside against wind power contained a modicum of truth. Wind power does need understudy capacity if we ever have to rely upon it during peak winter demand. On the other hand, tidal power requires no such back-up, but no doubt Warner will then rail against the ruination of our beautiful seabeds.

As a climate change sceptic he trots out all the tired nonsense perpetuated by the US fossil fuel lobby, who have spent millions sowing such confusion and bewilderment. Water vapour is, of course, a “global warming” gas but any increase in concentrations at various layers in the atmosphere require a “heat engine”. Our climate is chaotic, not random. Just as atmospheric air pollution has produced a global dimming effect, increasing ocean surface temperatures have driven changes in water vapour levels, some of which may have a beneficial short-term effect. Denying global warming is the get-out of those who are uneasy with a social obligation that requires them to act in the short term. They prefer to claim ignorance of the horrors unfolding and, make no mistake, global warming will kill millions, mainly in the vulnerable groups he now claims to champion.

By the time these “shameless manipulator” climate scientists are proven correct, beyond all reasonable doubt, Warner will be long dead and our grandchildren will be picking up a much larger tab for such wanton complacency.

The only sensible course of action is to adopt the precautionary principle and act now. Wind power is a short-term palliative. Scotland has a predicted 200 gigawatt potential from tidal streams and this can deliver a zero carbon UK if we are prepared to invest in the transmission infrastructure.

Dr Stirling Howison, Faculty of Engineering, University of Strathclyde