Leave the science of climate change to scientists

I saw on television that Prince Charles has just brought out a booklet on climate change, designed to teach people about the issue.

The book is written by him and two academics, supposedly. No doubt, that means that the other two wrote it and he put his name on the top of the author list.

I saw him on TV talking about the new booklet and I was highly irritated. In his typical style, he lectured people and talked bunk. He said that deforestation had to be stopped. Think about it. What that means is that the wealthy First World countries will bully countries such as Brazil to not exploit their wood products.

Who does Charlie think he is? Is he planning to send the UK Air Force there to bomb the Brazilians if they do not do what he wants.
As it happens, I also agree that we must try to conserve the forests of the planet, but one does not do it by threatening the countries that have forests to do as they are instructed. Remember that Charlie upset British businesspeople when he stood up and, with wagging finger, lectured them on how to run their businesses correctly. That is the attitude that we see now. He has never run a business. He has only used millions of taxpayers’ money, but he wants to lecture businesses on how to do it properly. He knows nothing about science either. I really am tired of people who know nothing about science just posturing in public as authorities on climate change.

Then I read an article in one of the local newspapers, written by a ‘visiting professor of international relations at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits)’. He was highly insulting about ‘climate deniers’. As it happens, I am a ‘climate denier’, in his terminology.

The evidence for man-induced climate change is negligible to zero. This story of the carbon dioxide (CO2) greenhouse effect is incorrect. There is a basic greenhouse effect, which keeps the planet warm enough to ensure that all life does not freeze to death. But this belief in a simple mathematically linear function in which ‘more CO2 means more heat’ is wrong.

There are infrared absorption bands, which are very well understood by the scientists and engineers who build infrared-guided missiles. There are infrared ‘windows’ in the atmosphere and the detectors of the missiles have to ‘look’ through these windows to see their target and to distinguish a jet engine exhaust from the sun.

There is a mechanism of how infrared photons of light interact with molecules such as water (H2O), CO2 and methane (CH4), besides others. There are saturation levels at which the effect stops.

The Wits ‘visiting professor’ talks of President Donald Trump and his climate deniers. In a most insulting fashion, he also advises South African scientists to collaborate with US ‘environmental activists’ to stop Trump and his climate policies. But we South African scientists know very well what we are doing. We do not need advice from totally unqualified US environmental activists, thank you.

He also exhibits his abysmal lack of understanding of economies by recommending that South Africans support a carbon tax, “with the cash generated assisting climate adaption”. All a carbon tax does is to take money away from businesses, which would use it very sensibly, if government just left it in their hands. A carbon tax does not generate cash.

The Wits visiting professor also repeats the lie that the prices of wind and solar power have fallen dramatically. They have not. Right now, in South Africa, nuclear power from Koeberg is far cheaper than any solar or wind power. Far cheaper.

The nuclear guys are not idiots. They did not study complex maths and science for years to end up as fools. South African scientists and engineers rate with the world’s best, and do not make unreasonable short-sighted decisions.

People like Charlie and the Wits visiting professor should stick with something they actually know about and leave science to people who know about it. The worst is when these two gentlemen use insulting, patronising language associated with an air of moral and intellectual superiority.