A recent article caught my eye which highlights just how badly the business community (in this case in the USA) wants to deny reality in a last ditch effort to obviate the need to be come responsible in its actions and become more focused on the energy issue.

The US Chamber of Commerce is reported to be trying to force a public hearing into the scientific evidence for man-made climate change in an effort to block the issue of any future legislation that may harm its business interests (read: lower its profit margins). Now, I can understand the timing; after all, in the midst of global economic upheaval, it is understandable that the business community might feel itself backed into a corner and needing to fight for its very survival. But to pick climate change as the weapon of choice speaks volumes about our cousins across the pond.

Having been more responsible than most in effecting the global financial meltdown a little over a year ago, the financial sector has done next to nothing to make amends either in its strategy going forward or in its actions to mitigate the burden to the taxpayer. Having surrendered little to no profits/bonuses, it now sees the approach of legislation which it cannot avoid and which will, without doubt, cost it money.

The problem is, they’re questioning an issue for which there has been hard, practical scientific data ever since the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued its first report back in 2001. Here are a few facts that the US Chamber of Commerce might want to be reminded of before they make complete idiots of themselves.

1. Climate change occurs with the increase or decrease in the concentration of various gases in the atmosphere. There has been a marked increase in the rate of concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, gases whose levels have been relatively stable for the last 10,000 years. The reason we know it’s down to us is that the highest concentrations are in the Northern Hemisphere… and over land. The occurrence of the fourth climate change gas, halocarbons, cannot be attributed to anything other than human sources… since it is a man-made gas!

2. Observational records indicate that 11 of the past 12 years are the warmest since reliable records began around 1850; the odds of such warm years happening in sequence purely by chance are statistically low.

The climate change agnostics and deniers will question whether human activities are primarily responsible for observed climate changes, however. Is it possible they result from some other cause, such as some natural variability within the climate system?

The 2001 IPCC report concluded it was likely (more than 66 percent probable) that most of the warming since the mid-20th century was attributable to humans. The 2007 report (the latest full report to be publicly available) goes significantly further, upping this to very likely (more than 90 percent probable).

The IPCC is not so arrogant as to dismiss any doubts about the wealth of hard scientific data that comprises the substance of its report; they are scientists, after all, and have an open mind. The US Chamber of Commerce, on the other hand, comprises scientifically ignorant business people who will use any means necessary to safeguard their wealth, even at the expense of their credibility and their future ability to conduct business if even half of what is in the IPCC report comes to pass.

Let’s be a little more discriminating over this side of the pond before we make a similarly ridiculous noise. Read the report (don’t skim it), then prepare either a measured response or take appropriate mitigating action(s).

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