Global Warming
The quote from Winston Churchill referred to the gathering clouds of war over Europe. Al Gore used it to support his documentary " An Inconvenient Truth" - an interesting choice. A powerful statement from one of the world's greates orators equally applicable to a percieved Global Warming scenario as it was to a war.
Frankly, we as a Foundation don't focus too much on Global warming - in spite of our rather altruistic and CO2 Neutral approach to the production of Biofuels - but concern about Global Warming is the driving force behind the demand for Biofuels - and the demand for Biofuels is the driving force giving the opportunity to get some industrial and economic development into Sub Saharan Africa. The fear of a "global meltdown" is also driving some to support us in projects that many western "traditional" economists would not approve of - simply because the advantage of CO2 Neutral outweighs some initial inefficiencies.
We do therefore need to keep up to date with, and try to have some understanding for, what is going on in the environmental business. One (for us) rather intriguing factor about the whole environmental lobby is in trying to figure what is the truth and which side are the "rationalists" and which side are the "fundamentalists".
Some of us are old enough to recall James Watt - Ronald Reagans Secretary of the interior - the position responsible for environmental policy - saying to a senate hearing “We don't have to protect the environment, the Second Coming is at hand” - he also described environmentalists as "A left-wing cult dedicated to bringing down the type of government I believe in."
OK... thats one point of view. Not one we suscribe to though - maybe best described as "religous fundamental" - we have to look a little further.
Then we have the "Inconvenient Truth" angle. Good, quite entertaining, stuff that is well worth watching. One does need to see past the "spin" and the occasional "missed truth" - but I guess Al Gore is a politician - as was Churchill who also said once "Politics is the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn’t happen".
Then we have the group now being labelled as "denialists" - the ones who claim it is either not happening or a result of solar activity or just part of natures cycle. "First we had cooling - now we have warming - cooling didn't happen so warming won't either."
Frankly none of the predictions or claims seem yet based on solid science - most are based on "computer models" and almost every month we hear of unforseen variables popping up. Few of the "scientists" commenting are actually climate scientists - mostly because climate scientists are the only ones who actually know they don't yet know the answers. What everybody does seem to agree on is that CO2 levels are unaturally high and that mostly does come from fossil fuels - and that could maybe have deleterious effects on the climate to a degree yet unknown.
Fossil fuel - whether it be truly fossil in origin or in fact a natural product of the planets methane cycle - is in short supply and is more and more expensive. It also produces CO2 as part of a cycle that is far too long to be in balance with nature - so it is time we replaced it - or at least supplemented it extensively - with a fuel that is in balance with nature and does the job well. In the process it can balance out some of the poverty and famine that besets hundreds of millions of people who are far too busy trying to survive to have time to worry about "Global Warming" - in spite of the fact they will be the first victims of it if it does turn out to be so.
We will add links on the left to as many sensible, and opposing, points of view as we can - when we find some!
