Chilling news for scientists

A new year brings new beginnings and fresh impetus. Unfortunately it also brings back the same old crap.

With a chill still biting in the morning air, environmentalists have come out with another gem. “2007 will be the warmest year on record”, they claim, due to the El Nino effect.

Change the record, I say. What next. Will this Tuesday be the warmest Tuesday since people cared how hot Tuesdays are? It’s just crazy.

If Michael Fish, legend that he is, or Suzanne Charlton, daughter of a World Cup hero, can’t figure out if it’s going to rain this week, how on earth do they know what the rest of the year is going to be like?

It’s popularist babble by the media and the attention-hungry professors who don’t get enough attention in the parochial world of the science lab.

We know the climate is changing. We don’t need more speculation. Here is a news story for you: climate is dynamic. It does change and there are natural feedbacks that check its progress and bring it round in cycles. You can’t fight nature because nature finds its own levels and its own way.

Man has always affected the world he inhabits. Who is to say that working to counter climate change will not do more harm than good?

Other human attempts to engineer and ambient environment have learned that lesson the hard way.