First stop San Francisco, which is known for its cool foggy climate in the summer. After walking both ways across the iconic Golden Gate Bridge I felt right at home, as cold and damp as if I had just done a hike up Knoch Bui in West Cork!

Quintessential San Francisco: the flamboyant Gay Pride march took place in the city a couple of days after I arrived.

Even the cops joined in

Funky Graffiti in The Haight

City Lights Bookshop, Jack Kerouac Alley, home of the Beat Generation poets:

The City from Telegraph Hill:

Moving on from San Francisco I hire a car and drive to Davis where I meet Raoul Adamchuk and Pamela Ronald, authors of Tomorrow’s Table, who kindly hosted me at their home and showed me their farm and laboratory.

The day I left San Francisco there was unseasonal rain. I imagined Raoul would be delighted for his organic farm, but actually seemed dismayed: he said they were not generally short of water and an the inch of rain they had that day- exceptional for the time of year- would make the ground much harder to work of course, but more than that cause massive increase in weed growth.

Above: Raoul Adamchuk on his organic farm in Davis University, CA.

Above: Professor of plant pathology at Davis, Pamela Ronald, showing me transgenic rice seeds developed in her lab on campus.

Pamela is involved in basic research on transgenic (genetically engineered) crops the results of which will be available to benefit farmers wherever needed. Contrary to popular belief most of such basic research conducted in American universities is entirely independent from corporations such as Monsanto.

One of Raoul’s main concerns as a farmer is plant diseases, and developing disease-resistant varieties is where he sees some of the main benefits that can come from GE technology.

Next stop Yosemite National Park.

Above: View of the high Sierra and Half Dome from Glacier Point, Yosemite National Park

Spot the Bear:

On first arriving in the main car park in the unfeasibly crowded Yosemite Valley, I was surprised to see this young bear-cub hop out from in front of my car as I got out, and scurry away with a very human look of “I know I shouldn’t really be here but don’t tell anyone” look on its face. He had a conspicuous large yellow tag on his ear: the Ranger told me this shows he has been caught near cars before and would probably have to be destroyed as he clearly has a taste for human’s food. This unfortunate situation arises because despite constant pleas and warnings, some of the 5million annual visitors still end up leaving food in their vehicles. The most common cause of bear death in Yosemite is however being hit by cars.

Navarra Falls. A week after I hiked up here it was reported three tourists had been swept to their deaths after ignoring the warning signs, climbing over the barrier and standing on slippery rocks amongst the racing water for a photo opportunity.

Sequoiadendron giganteum My shadow provides a scale: the rings go back 2000 years.

Roots of giant fallen tree, Mariposa Grove.

Below: The Grizzly Giant, Mariposa Grove, one of the largest trees by mass in the world:

Ok, so it’s hard to photgraoh huge trees with a tiny camera. Here is the top of Grizzly:

Setting off on a hike in Tuolumne Meadows in the higher elevations in the north of the park:

Due to exceptionally late snow – almost unprecedented apparently in July- the campsites were still closed; I was prepared to hike on snow-pack but unprepared to negotiate the multiple channels of fast-flowing icy melt-water, and had to abandon my treck after the firstnight. Stil beautiful to be up there though.

Leaving Yosemite I headed west again crossing California’s Central Valley. Amazing experience to drive all day through vineyards and orchards of peaches, apricots, almonds. California produces most of America’s horticultural produce of fruit and vegetables.

I called into the Solar Living Institute in Hopland, which has some cool renewable energy installations, organic gardens, natural buildings and a huge bookshop.

I was told that the US could easily provide all its electricity needs from solar, the only reason it does not is on account of political lobbying from the fossil fuel lobby- I am skeptical!

Wine tasting in Monteverdi vineyards, Hopland:

Heading over to the Redwood Coast- the Redwood Tree Service Station, Ukiah:

Sequoia Sempervirens Coastal redwoods in the Montgomery Grove between Ukiah and Mendocino:

“Wurt” (woden yurt) at the Orr Springs Resort, great place to stay near the Montgomery Grove, where you have full use of hot springs and natural spring-fed swimming pools. Lovely!

Had to be done: driving through the “Chandelier Tree”:

Avenue of the Giants

At over 350ft Coastal Redwoods are the tallest trees in the world. They only grow on the California coast, and a few into southern Oregon. They are so tall they need to be able to absorb moisture to the higher branches straight from the frequent mist and fog found here.

An absolute must-read if you are interested in the redwoods is The tall Trees by Richard Preston. Incredible story of the maverick characters and scientists who go in search of the world’s tallest trees and climb them, exploring one of the last hidden eco-systems on earth.

The very tallest trees may be over 370ft but are in unknown locations inaccessible to tourists.

The Famous One-Log House!

The photo is dated November 14th 1949:

California coast, heading back to San Francisco:

Botanic Gardens, Fort Bragg:

Near a town called Elk:

Back in SF, living mushrooms for sale in the Ferry Terminal Building:

Part 2: Permaculture in the Pacific North West to Follow soon.

For cancer, I daresay chemotherapy or radiotherapy may offer better outcomes than extract of belladonna. For piles — I speak from experience — surgery on the NHS is just the ticket. And if I were going to the tropics, I still think I’d personally place more faith in malaria pills and hep B jabs than I would in the ‘natural’ alternative. But as a general principle, when it comes to complementary medicine my sympathies are with the Prince of Wales (unusually) and with another, more famous prince: ‘There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.’

There seem to be multiple layers of confusion one over another at work in JD’s brain here. Maybe a good place to start would be Tim Minchin’s classic Storm which also makes good use of the “heaven and earth” quote.

Delingpole basically repeats many of the logical fallacies that quacks use all the time to defend their malpractice: science has been wrong before, science deosnt know everything, science is involved in witchhunts, what’s the harm?, science should keep an open mind etc etc..

James should be reminded that anecdotes are not evidence, and it might be pointed out to him that if we are not to trust the scientific methods employed in drug testing, then anyone could market absolutely any”cure” regardless of the evidence and sell it to the unsuspecting public- which is pretty much what does happen in “alternative” medicine. (And we might remind him that there is no such thing as “alternative medicine”, just medicine that works.)

What is so surprising about this stance is when we think back to the BBC interview in which Sir Paul Nurse used the analogy of trusting the science in cancer cures compared to trusting the “consensus” in climate science. Granted, Delingpole accepts that homeopathy doesnt work for more serious conditions, which does
rather undermine his position of “keeping an open mind”; but had he wanted to he could have made the case that medical research on the efficacy of treatments is surely far more robust than climate science if only because it is far more straightforward: for each treatment and condition there is in principle only one variable, does it work or not? Find a representative group of people with similar symptoms, randomly divide them including a control group, blind and double-blind, count the results and there you are.

This is especially easy to do with homeopathy as it involves taking a pill and has been done hundreds of times and if there was a positive result to be had from homeopathy it is reasonable to assume it would have been found by now, just as some herbs have indeed been found to be useful using just such a method.

In addition, belief in homeopathy requires the suspension of the laws of physics, because as sure as eggs is eggs homeopathy is just water, just like water that I wave my hands over going “yabba-dabba-do” is still just water.

So we really can be pretty sure that homeopathy doesn’t work;

Climate science on the other hand involves many variables and many different scientific disciplines, and the results can only be compared over the long-term, with no easy way to run a repeatable experiment with controls. Then you are confronted with the risk assessment and the tricky process of trying to predict the future.

So Delingpole really does undermine his protestations after that show that there is no “war on science” because if there was, climate skeptics would also be attacking medical science etc. and now here he is doing just that himself, aligning himself with Prince Charles no less whom he has previously said would be the one person you would not want on your side.

The comparison with medical science is relevant also because some skeptics argue that the rigor of medical research far exceeds that in climate science. Michael Crichton wrote on the subject

It’s 1991, I am flying home from Germany, sitting next to a man who is almost in tears, he is so upset. He’s a physician involved in an FDA study of a new drug. It’s a double-blind study involving four separate teams – one plans the study, another administers the drug to patients, a third assess the effect on patients, and a fourth analyzes results. The teams do not know each other, and are prohibited from personal contact of any sort, on peril of contaminating the results. This man had been sitting in the Frankfurt airport, innocently chatting with another man, when they discovered to their mutual horror they are on two different teams studying the same drug. They were required to report their encounter to the FDA. And my companion was now waiting to see if the FDA would declare their multi-year, multi-million-dollar study invalid because of this contact. [bold added] For a person with a medical background, accustomed to this degree of rigor in research, the protocols of climate science appear considerably more relaxed. A striking feature of climate science is that it’s permissible for raw data to be “touched,” or modified, by many hands. Gaps in temperature and proxy records are filled in. Suspect values are deleted because a scientist deems them erroneous. A researcher may elect to use parts of existing records, ignoring other parts. Sometimes these adjustments are necessary, sometimes they are questionable. Sometimes the adjustments are documented, sometimes not. But the fact that the data has been modified in so many ways inevitably raises the question of whether the results of a given study are wholly or partially caused by the modifications themselves.

At the end of the day, James should really have to admit if homeopathy works, ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE. Hell, even catastrophic man-made climate change could be true!

Bacon and ham 4 oz (ounces)

Butter 2 oz

Cheese 2 oz (could rise to 4 oz, or even 8 oz sometimes)

Margarine 4 oz (often dropping to 2 oz)

Milk 3 pints (dried skimmed powdered milk also available, one packet every 4 weeks)

Sugar 8 oz

Jam or similar 1lb every 2 months

Tea 2 oz

Eggs One a week, sometimes down to one a fortnight.

Dried egg One packet every 4 weeks

Sweets 2 oz every 4 weeks.

He comments:

"Of course  many people were able to supplement these rations with their 

own-grown produce or knew people who could help them out, and I remember having wonderful tinned pork sausages from, I think, Canada or the USA.

I see now meat is mentioned here except bacon and ham. This list is copied from the programme to a musical we saw recently so is, I am sure, incomplete. No doubt all you could want to know is somewhere on the Web.”

2oz tea might be enough for 2-3 cups a day; the butter and eggs would be very tight. I can easily eat more than 2oz cheese in a day (or even in one sandwich!!).

But that’s all people had in those days- and they did ok didnt they? So there you go then- what have you got to worry about?

One-day workshop June 5th 2010 10.30am -4.30pm

with Graham Strouts Derryduff Mor, Coomhola, Bantry

Come and enjoy a day at Graham’s Permaculture Plot in the beautiful Coomhola valley, near Bantry, to learn how to design an edible permaculture food forest with perennial vegetables and ground covers, trees, bamboos and fruit bushes, and get hands on experience of no-dig, no-weed methods.

Cost: €40 waged, €25 unwaged. Places limited, please book early: Contact: Graham Strouts email: graham@zone5.org graham@zone5.org

Phone 086 8539900 or 027 66931

Please bring outdoor work clothes and boots and packed lunch. Tea and coffee provided

So far the main routes are being kept open and food supplies are getting through to all but the most remote households, but with ice storms on their way in the next few days from the east expected to worsen conditions in Europe and here over the weekend, shortages could become an issue. Already potato crops have been affected with thousands of tons of unharvested spuds destroyed in farms a round the country.

Water is also an issue in many towns and cities, with increased demand apparently caused by people staying at home more, and losses due to frozen pipes.

Some homes have also been without electricity as storms and snow damage lines and maintenance vehicles find it hard to reach them.

Already the schools have been closed for next week, and this includes my own college so Ill be grounded for the moment. Martin, who is from Chicago, thinks it is a joke the country is coming to a standstill. Hasn’t anyone here heard of snow tyres? Apparently not, Ive never heard mention of them.

It is 30-50 year events like these that test our mettle and preparedness- as a nation we are failing miserably, such disruption interferes with the Great Plan of Keep on Growing the Economy. We are just not set up for hunkering down and doing as little as possible- sledging and snowball flinging excepted.

What might have seemed fun for some up till now has been a real hardship for others, but the real question is, how long will it last? If they are already closing the schools it hardly looks like the authorities will be able to be more organised than they already are.

It looks highly likely to remain unchanged for the next two weeks but seemingly the last Big Freeze, sometime in the 1960s, lasted well into March, even April in some parts. Another 6-8 weeks of this is surely not something this country is ready for.

I’m someone who is supposed to be more prepared than most, but in truth I am only half way there. Ive spent some of the time coppiceing next winter’s wood supply, the perfect activity for this time of year and weather, the first warming from the cutting of the wood being very welcome.

I have left the van over the bridge because the steep hill up here has been so icy, so it is possible to drive carefully and slowly into town, but I have only been out once this week and am keeping journeys to a minimum.

The cabin really comes into its own with the low winter sun warming the interior to a cosy 18 degrees most days by 11am. I don’t really need to light the range until the evening. Current wood supplies are probably OK for another three weeks; I could stretch it out longer if need be.

Water will be the first to go. It currently freezes each night but thaws out by lunch time. However, my main supply is currently rain water off a shed roof in a 1300L tank. With careful use I only have another maybe 8 or 10 days if there is no precipitation. I havnt investigated the well yet but presumably can break the ice and carry buckets.

One thing I have ample of is solar electricity. The sun is warm on the rocks and dazzling each day. No SAD this year! The electric chainsaw is getting some use, but otherwise apart from the computer I have far more power than I can use- not a situation I ever envisaged at this time of year.

I had made no special preparations for food but have a stock that would see me through a couple of weeks at least if I couldn’t get out at all, including two sacks of Bantry CSA spuds, and a supply of rice and pulses. There is still a couple of large squashes in the store and a few shallots left, but very little in the garden- just some leeks and a little kale. Oh, and some artichokes for when all else fails!

Contact with the immediate neighbours has been more frequent which has been nice, otherwise very quiet, leaving one to dwell on what real survival conditions would feel like, and whether, if the weather continues for long, it will come to that, and if it will be anything like the scenes from Cormac Mccarthy’s novel, now just released as a film, The Road.

From the Irish Times Dec. 24th 2009. Full text below.

Seasonal salute to those making a difference

A mix of new voices and seasoned campaigners – here is a list of people at the front line of the ecological crunch, writes JOHN GIBBONS

THE YEAR ending was to have been the one when the world finally got to grips with climate change. Instead, post-Copenhagen, the global community “is left resembling an alcoholic who has decided to save up for a liver transplant rather than give up drink”, as a recent editorial in the Guardian newspaper put it dryly.

However, it’s Christmas Eve, and even this column has to take one week off every year to look on the positive side. And since my editor is probably off wrapping my present, this is the perfect opportunity to sneak in a non-peer-reviewed and entirely unscientific list of people who helped make a difference in 2009. Some will be offended at being omitted; others may well be offended at being included; apologies all round in advance.

Former president Mary Robinson is a significant new voice in the field. Her particular focus is on climate justice, meaning redressing the gross inequity whereby the world’s poor, who have contributed almost nothing to greenhouse gas emissions, are now bearing the brunt of the impacts.

As Ireland’s foremost climate expert and contributor to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s 2007 Fourth Assessment Report, Prof John Sweeney was entitled to a modest share of that year’s Nobel Peace Prize. Modest is a good description, too, of this self-effacing, committed scientist.

Prof Frank Convery, chairman of Comhar, Ireland’s sustainable development council, wants to know why are we still not subjecting all government policy to sustainability impact assessment. It’s a damn good question.

Friends of the Earth director Oisín Coghlan is one of the most effective environmental advocates and communicators, while for many, Duncan Stewart is the public face of environmentalism. His RTÉ programmes have raised awareness about energy efficiency and ecology. He is shocked and baffled at the misinformation being spread by a growing band of Irish so-called “climate sceptics”.

In the realm of domestic politics, the Greens, including Ministers John Gormley and Eamon Ryan and transport spokesman Ciarán Cuffe, have helped alter our disastrously unsustainable trajectory. While the electorate is unlikely to thank them for it, they have in fact succeeded in shifting environmentalism from the fringes to the very heart of the political process. A carbon tax and forthcoming climate legislation are among their stand-out achievements.

After a shaky start, the Labour Party has also found its voice, with Liz McManus proving an effective rapporteur for the Oireachtas Climate Change Committee and the party’s new MEP Nessa Childers engaged at a European level. While there are few signs of the environmental penny having dropped with either of our two main parties, Fine Gael’s Simon Coveney and Seán Barrett have distinguished themselves in this arena.

Author and economist David McWilliams underwent an epiphany of sorts this year as his television series brought him into direct contact with the ecological wreckage that, as he puts it, makes the global financial crisis look like small beer. Another notable Irish-based economist and author is Richard Douthwaite, co-founder of Feasta. He figured out years ahead of McWilliams that the economic model of relentless growth at all costs is a one-way ticket to collapse.

Contrast this with the recent statement from an ESRI economist explaining the economic “silver lining” of the disastrous November floods. Applying this parody of logic, Hurricane Katrina must have been a welcome economic boost to the builders and undertakers of Louisiana.

The Spirit of Ireland project, led by Graham O’Donnell and Prof Igor Shvets, this year offered an intriguing glimpse as to how our huge wind energy resources might best be harnessed. Its viability is uncertain, but hats off for their chutzpah.

Author and retired cardiologist, Prof Risteard Mulcahy, has an acute grasp of the approaching ecological crunch. He sees runaway population growth as the overarching crisis. “As long as our religious fundamentalists continue to oppose population control, I see no prospect of avoiding nemesis,” he told me.

While religious environmental leadership has been almost non-existent, Columban Fr Seán McDonagh is a notable exception, having witnessed devastating deforestation at first hand. Tom Roche of Just Forests has been campaigning for two decades against forest destruction, and to highlight the use of illegally logged timber in Ireland.

Talking about life in a low-energy future is one thing, living it is quite another. Graham Strouts is among the pioneers in a new field known as permaculture who is now living “off grid” in rural Cork. Snigger if you wish; the skills he and others are developing may one day save many lives.

Coming to terms with rapidly unfolding change and overcoming inertia are some of our greatest challenges; Paula Downey and David Youell (dya.ie) are among an Irish vanguard of thinkers preparing in the broadest sense for the unfolding new realities.

Stop Climate Chaos, a broad coalition of NGOs, has battled to try to get public mobilisation; their recent march in Dublin attracted perhaps 400 people who are prepared to stand up and be counted in demanding a safer future. We can all do a lot better next year.

Sincere thanks to the many people who have helped in more ways than I can repay throughout 2009, and particularly to my wife and daughters, who have borne with uncommon grace the many demands this column places on family life.

John Gibbons blogs at www.thinkorswim.ie

The Atheist blogroll is a community building service provided free of charge to Atheist bloggers from around the world. If you would like to join, visit Mojoey at Deep Thoughts for more information. Ill add in the blogroll to my sidebar once i figure out how to do it.

That seems the most appropriate way to start the new year given that I want to announce that Zone5 is now officially listed on the Atheist Blogroll while  Ireland sees the instigation of its  new Blasphemy Law. The 25 Blaspemous quotes quoted here by   Atheist Ireland make for hilarious reading, but especially dont miss No 25:

Dermot Ahern, Irish Minister for Justice, introducing his blasphemy law at an Oireachtas Justice Committee meeting, 2009, and referring to comments made about him personally: “They are blasphemous.” Deputy Pat Rabbitte replied: “Given the Minister’s self-image, it could very well be that we are blaspheming,” and Minister Ahern replied: “Deputy Rabbitte says that I am close to the baby Jesus, I am so pure.” So here we have an Irish Justice Minister joking about himself being blasphemed, at a parliamentary Justice Committee discussing his own blasphemy law, that could make his own jokes illegal.

Blasphemy is certainly a bizarre concept in the modern world where we prefer to operate within frameworks such as “democracy” and “freedom of speech”.

The Irish government’s excuse for this appears to be that because ireland is becoming more multicultural these days, there are now lots more ways that people might take offence, so we need laws to protect them. There will be a widespread suspicion though that this law has been sponsored by the Catholic Church perhaps to deflect critisism of its apparent true function of  instituionalised of child rape.

The whole thing begs the question of what is a religion of course, and indeed atheism as well as “science” and “rationality” are themselves often called a religion- by the religious, or by religious apologists- as a way of denigrating reason and skepticism, which is odd since you would think that, if religions are “true” then atheism should, to the religious, gain in stature should they take on the religious mantel… paradox upon paradox…

Another interesting case of this was that of Tim Nicholson who was sacked for contesting some of his companies’ policies on environmental grounds:

The case involved Tim Nicholson, 42, who was laid off last year from his job as head of sustainability at Grainger Plc, Britain’s largest residential-property company. Nicholson contended he was laid off because his views on the environment were not shared by Grainger executives, and he sued the company for unfair dismissal under Britain’s six-year-old Religion and Belief Regulations, which make it unlawful to discriminate against a person on the grounds of their religious or philosophical beliefs. Grainger argued that Nicholson’s climate-change convictions did not qualify for protection under the law. But in a landmark ruling on Nov. 3, Justice Michael Burton found that “a belief in man-made climate change, and the alleged resulting moral imperatives, is capable, if genuinely held, of being a philosophical belief for the purpose of [the 2003 law].”

This might be good for Mr. Nicholson but is a disaster for the environmental movement, which must promote itself as being based on science and reason if it is to retain any credibility at all. Many aspects of environmentalism, from Biodynamics to Fairy-worship, the naturalistic fallacies of the organic Movement and the de-la-la land of quack medicine could indeed be properly seen as faith-based and therefore religious, and should be rejected by self-respecting environmentalists, but climate change does not come into that category, despite being frequently critisised as such by climate deniers.

This whole issue is all the more relevant and disturbing given another story from this very young year of 2010, of a near fatal attack on the Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard who has been living under police protection since his 2006 cartoon of the prophet Mohammed with a bomb under his turban produced death threats from sections of the Mulsim community.

It seems horrific that the government of Ireland should pass laws to appease groups like this: “Say anything that makes our religion look anything but peace-loving and we’ll kill you!”

Perhaps there are however some cases in which blaspemy does indeed go too far, and some kind of legal restraints may need to be invoked to protect those who, like myself,  follow The One True Faith:

Although I dreamed of Grandmasterdom and did achieve some local success and did well in a few junior competitions, I was never a serious contender, which was just as well because it would probably have lead to a narrower and less richly fulfilled life than the one I have been blessed with.

I hardly play at all these days, not being anywhere near a chess club, and not inspired to play  chess online (yet) but still regularly follow the top matches with great interest.  Some of the players still competing at the highest levels are familiar to me still- the UK no. 1 Nigel Short is my contemporary and I remember seeing him play when still a teenager at the Britsh Championships in Brighton some 30 years ago.

As it happens Short is playing in a major event in London this week, the London Chess Classic where he is up against among others two of the top players in the world, ex-world champion Vladimir Kramnik and the Norwegian phenomenon Magnus Carlsen who at just 18years of age is currently the world number 1.

I was gratified and surprised then to read a story on Chess Vibes by Arne Moll in which the author weaves together the themes of his early skepticism about chess computers with… climate change skepticism:

During the last few days, with the eyes of the entire world on the Copenhagen Climate Summit while climate ‘skeptics’ demand equal time in the debate and attempt to confuse public opinion with misinformation and politically motivated arguments, I was often reminded of how I myself used to look at chess computers in the 90s. As aggravated as I am now about the lowly tactics of today’s climate skeptics, I’m afraid back in the days I was a kind of computer-skeptic, too, in the sense that I found it very, very hard to believe chess engines could ever replace or imitate the best of human chess thinking. I simply couldn’t imagine a lifeless machine suggesting a subtle long-term positional exchange sacrifice.

He goes onto give a very good definition of a skeptic as being someone who will change their view if new evidence comes along but points out rather astutely that -from the point of view of a climate change denier- “Being a skeptic is only useful if the evidence is on your side”. It is worth reading down through the comments on the Chess Vibes article and comparing them with discussions on climate change sites- I am gratified that most of the chess fans there seem very rational and well able to handle the nuanced arguments about the science of climate change, and the nature of science in general.

While the likes of Carlsen and Short battle it out over the 64 black and white squares in London a much more serious challenge is taking place inside and out of the conference halls in Copenhagen.  Though the chances may be slim, lets hope a strategy can be found that doesnt involve too many unsound sacrifices, and the professional climate change deniers, working so hard around the clock to misrepresent the science, can be once and for all checkmated.

Brilliant debunking of the leaked emails by Unity here.

He claimed the next day that only one comment was received by the show in support of John- is that in any way credible?! I couldnt listen on the day but heard the archived version of the show today and sent in my response to the pat Kenny show:

Dear Pat I just listened to the “debate” between Ian Pilmer and John Gibbons which was broadcast on your show on Wednesday December 2nd. At this stage in the game, with the evidence for anthropogenic climate change so clear and the predictions form the climate models that Pilmer dismisses coming in right on time- viz the recent flooding due to increased sea surface temperature in the this country- it is truly shocking to have the national broadcaster be involved with such a misrepresentation of the science. The climate is changing right under our very noses, destroying lives and livelihoods not just for the poor in far away places but our very own friends and neighbors here at home. Pilmer is indeed a charlatan and John was very brave to call him that on air; he has already been completely discredited by George Monbiot whose criticisms of his book have not been in any way addressed by Pilmer; you are surely aware of this. While it is completely obvious that many in the mining industry have clear vested interests, and the evidence for an orchestrated climate denial industry has been clear since before Kyoto, the suggestion that Gibbons and other journalists have a vested interest in fear-mongering is outrageous and absurd. Your stance of “showing both sides of the argument” is completely corrupt ; you may as well ask respectable scientists and journalists to debate the flat earth society for “balance”. The damage you are doing as a climate change denier to the public understanding of the most important scientific issue of our time is severe; in my opinion you have forfeited your right to play the role you have and wiled the influence you you. You should resign from your position on RTE and retire to your home where you at least will be presumably sufficiently well healed to survive the coming catastrophe.

Sincerely Graham Strouts

The charge of a religious faith-based approach on the side of the established science is one we are familiar with whenever debating quackery or pseudo-science; an excellent overview of how science actually works is found here on RealClimate.