To blame for what? Well, pretty much everything. Latest on the list, predictably, is hurricane Katrina. Sir David King, never one to miss an opportunity to push home the message, is quoted from an interview on Channel 4 News in yesterday’s Independent (King: global warming may be to blame):
"The increased intensity of hurricanes is associated with global warming," Professor King told Channel 4 News yesterday. "We have known since 1987 the intensity of hurricanes is related to surface sea temperature and we know that, over the last 15 to 20 years, surface sea temperatures in these regions have increased by half a degree centigrade.
"So it is easy to conclude that the increased intensity of hurricanes is associated with global warming."
Yes, but perhaps Sir David draws the conclusion too easily, because it supports a political agenda. Looking at longer-term evidence suggests that neither the intensity nor frequency of hurricanes is currently out of the ordinary. Looking back over the last century, it seems that Atlantic hurricanes were more frequent in the 1930s, and that the end of the 20th Century was a relatively quiet time. In the last few years, we seem to have experienced a cyclical increase in activity. At the same time, the populations and property values in vulnerable areas have increased, meaning that landfall by hurricanes can cause greater damage and loss of life.
Klaus Topfer, head of the UN’s environment programme, and another serial offender, has similarly placed the blame for this year’s floods in Northern Europe and drought and forest fires in Southern Europe on global warming (that is, manmade climate change). His interview with FT Germany was also reported on the Euractiv website (UN director links natural disasters and climate change).
Climate changes, however they are induced, are bound to affect local weather patterns. But, rather than engage in gloom-mongering in a vain attempt to force down emissions of carbon dioxide, we should be putting our efforts into adapting. It’s pretty certain that a high proportion of our energy needs in 2050 will be generated other than from fossil fuels. These changes will be driven by economics and Mankind’s inventiveness. In the meantime, cherry picking the facts and spinning them to meet a politically correct agenda is unscientific and benefits no-one.
So reads the BBC headline. Oh dear, what are we going to worry about now? Fortunately, help is at hand, as the Cancer Research UK study reported “only” looked at the people using mobile phones for ten years. And look at the following quotes:
Senior investigator Professor Anthony Swedlow said: "Whether there are longer-term risks remains unknown, reflecting the fact that this is a relatively recent technology."
Dr Michael Clark from the Health Protection Agency said: "This is good news but we still need to be a bit cautious."
Dr Julie Sharp, senior science information officer at Cancer Research UK, said: "This study provides further evidence that using mobile phones does not increase the risk of brain tumours.
"However, it is important that researchers continue to monitor phone users over the coming years as mobiles are still a relatively new invention."
In other words, still feel free to worry. It seems that, despite the mounting evidence, there will always be room for caution. In the case of mobile phones, the vast majority of people will continue to use theirs as normal and not worry, because they enjoy the benefits. However, similar concerns are also expressed about mobile phone masts, even though there is still no evidence of harm. The BBC1 “Should I worry” series covered both phones and masts last year, and did an interesting piece of research, reported as follows:
The Should I Worry About team decided to carry out a test. We put ten students in a house for ten days and erected a mobile mast in the garden. We weren't entirely honest with them though; we told the students the mast was on at the start of the experiment and off at the end. In fact it was off at the start and on at the end. What's interesting is that the only time any of the students felt ill was when the mast was OFF but they thought it was ON.
Our small experiment suggests that people's fear of phone masts can be a factor in making them feel unwell. There are some people though who might be affected by phone masts and a large study is just beginning at Essex University to try to spot these hypersensitive people.
Say no more?
