(Update 02/04/2008: Please note the date when this was posted!)

This is the last post that I will be making at Harmless Sky. It is very difficult to admit that you are wrong, but there are times when overwhelming evidence makes it impossible to do otherwise.

I started this blog after much research had led me to believe that some activists and scientists were exaggerating the evidence for human caused global warming and misleading perfectly harmless and respectable people about the effects that CO₂ emissions were having on the climate. How wrong could I be?

Now I realise that I have been the victim of disinformation in the media spread by oil companies and tobacco salesmen. Their sceptical claims, backed up by plausible sounding but feeble and distorted scientific research seemed so convincing.

This ‘Damacus moment’ happened just before Easter, after reading a front-page story in The Independent. It was headlined, ‘How blurring of the seasons is a harbinger of climate calamity’. No other newspaper could have made such a profound impression on me, and instantly I knew that what they were saying was a blinding revelation of the truth.

To hammer the point home, the editor had thoughtfully provided a picture of a red admiral butterfly contentedly feeding on snowdrops. Yes really, snowdrops!

Martin Warren

Now we all know that a picture is worth a thousand words, and that the camera never lies, so it was almost superfluous for the author to add, “Although many people see the changes as quaint or charming – butterflies certainly brighten up a January day – they are actually among the first concrete signs that the world is indeed set on a global warming course which is likely to prove disastrous if not checked. … It is undeniable confirmation that a profound alteration to the environment, the consequences of which are likely to prove catastrophic, is under way.” Continue reading »