17th March 2007

Craig Crompton in a colourful letter attacking liberals also called the recent TV programme 'The Great Global Warming Swindle' a 'very reasoned argument' (21/03/07).

In fact Channel 4 has done a massive public disservice. The programme was indeed convincing, but then strongly worded opinions often are when they are not subject to any verification or external challenge. To present alternative theories to human causation of global warming as 'the truth' without any counter-arguments is unacceptable.

Martin Durkin who made the film, has in the past been condemned by the Independent Television Commission, for editing interviewees in a way that "distorted or mispresented their known views". A scientist in this programme has already complained of being misrepresented, saying: "I am the one who has been swindled."

Indeed the film's arguments have been well and truly refuted in many places. No one is pretending that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is perfect or that the science around climate change is fully understood, but our role in causing climate change should be beyond dispute: not one of the 928 climate change-related articles published in peer-reviewed journals during the past ten years has doubted the cause of global warming.

Let us hope that this does not diminish enthusiasm for initiatives to tackle climate change. As Michael Meacher, former Environment Minister, says: "What we, and the government, need to get our minds around is that we are at war: at war against climate catastrophe, presenting us a far greater threat towards our survival than 1939."

Cllr Philip Booth,
Stroud District councillor for the Randwick, Ruscombe and Whiteshill ward,