Posted 27th March 2010
Does Climate Change Mean the World is Cooling, and If So What Should We Do About It?
Peter Taylor gave a talk at the Energy Institute in London on 16th February 2010.: “Peter Taylor is an ecologist with a long history of environmental activism and science policy analysis at all levels of government, the EU and the UN. During the 1980s he was a leading advocate for Greenpeace on issues of marine pollution. In recent years he has sat on the UK National Advisory Group for Community Renewable Energy Initiatives and his communications consultancy Ethos pioneered landscape visualisation techniques for integrating renewable energy projects with other elements of sustainability. During his work on renewable energy strategies, Peter became concerned with the impact of the rush into renewable power supplies on community and biodiversity, and decided to review the science base for ‘global warming’.
In this free evening lecture Peter will outline that behind the science at the UN, there is an undisclosed lack of consensus on the causes of late 20th century warming, with natural factors having been poorly understood and inadequately modelled. He will outline why some specialists hold that a new ‘Little Ice Age’ is possible, as the Sun’s magnetic field drops to unprecedented levels and how the past warming correlates with changes in the solar magnetic field. He then discusses a ‘no regrets’ energy strategy in the light of this uncertain science, as well as adaptations to unpredictable changes in the climate.”
During the evening it became clear that scientists in the audience shared Taylor’s scepticism of the politicised climate science. His book, Chill, is a must read.
There is an interview on Red Ice Creations in which Peter Taylor talks about how he came to understand the flaws in the science and the threat that the carbon agenda poses to the environmental movement. It is a refreshing viewpoint from someone who can hardly be claimed to be an advocate for the oil industry.
See Peter Taylor’s submission to the UK Parliament Science & Technology Committee.