Climategate

[John Costella]

If you'd asked me a year ago, I would've agreed with that sentiment. I hope to be alive in 2050, and my children will be a little older than I am now by then.

But if the evidence is fraudulent, the costs to my children of bogus taxes and restrictions paint a fare bleaker future.

Right now I'm much more concerned about an exponentially increasing world population exhausting all the planet's resources than I am in us returning carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. Where's the world crisis summit on that?

John

[Norman Pratt]

Transparency and honesty are vital whatever the issue, and it is unfortunate that the scientists concerned contributed neither. (And not having any statistical background I can't comment on that aspect.) I found this a useful summary, pending further reading:

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=9319400

The 'menace of overpopulation' could also be described as the 'menace of over-consumption'. There was an interesting series of articles about overpopulation in 'New Scientist' in September which pointed out that, among other things, that the age balance of a population was as significant as overall numbers:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg2032...n-delusion.html

In my own main area of interest, Africa, there is no doubt that an overpopulation myth that was believed by many Rwandese in 1994 was a major cause of the Rwanda genocide. Shortly after this event it was pointed out that there was no actual scientific evidence, surprisingly, that increasing population leads to diminishing availibility of food. (Rwanda, death, despair and defiance' pub. African Rights 1994)

My own candidate as the biggest threat to world security after Copenhagen is undoubtedly the nation state. As they say on Star Wars at moments of stress: 'There are too many of them!!' But however many of them there are they have failed in their primary function which is to provide security for their citizens.

Edited December 21, 2009 by Norman Pratt