My own thoughts on global warming.

1. Having looked into the details, I accept that the scientific case for the reality of global warming produced mainly by humankind is now well established. 10 years ago the likelihood of this being the case was close to 50% and so I was naturally sceptical about the claims, but since then the scientific evidence has grown so much that I feel the likelihood is more than 90%.

2. This is now accepted by the vast majority of the world's experts on climate change and has been endorsed by the world's main scientific academies, including the Royal Society. This endorsement from the scientific community could not be stronger.

3. The reasons for some people not accepting this in my view are complex:
(i) Scientists are naturally sceptical and questioning and this is an important part of our philosphy, but in my view the evidence is so strong that we must act while at the same time continuing to question the details;
(ii) We all have belief systems and if our belief is that global warming does not exist, then we will tend to look for any evidence to support it and dismiss the evidence that does not [the same is of course true in reverse];
(iii) Many will be reluctant to accept global warming since it would imply potentially a change to their behaviour;
(iv) Some would refuse to accept it on the political grounds that it is likely to imply a coordinated intergovernmental response rather than leaving it up to the individual.

4. Many of the previous arguments against global warming have now been in my view convincingly refuted -- see 3a and 3b in the downloads http://www-solar.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/~eric/down2.html

5. If global warming is indeed so well established, then there is an urgent imperative for all nations to act together to minimise its future impact. In particular, this implies
(i) Halting deforestation
(ii) Having more efficient use of energy
(iii) Developing carbon capture and storage underground for all future coal-fired power stations
(iv) Developing a variety of renewable energy generation techniques including wind, wave, solar, nuclear, so that we rely on a range of different means of supply
(v) Sharing our technology with less developed countries
(vi) Helping poor regions of the world to minimise the impact.

6. At a personal level we could
(i) become more informed about the issues and practical solutions
(ii) mobilise opinion at a grass-roots level rather than rely purely on leadership from above
(iii) cut down on our own use of energy