David Cole-Hamilton: Emissions cut is win-win

Renewable energy technology can only benefit us, says David Cole-Hamilton. Picture: John Devlin.

In a recent Scotsman 200 article Climate Alarmists Have Little ­Evidence To Go On (13 April), The Rev. Dr. John Cameron argues that we shouldn't be ­concerned about global warming.

Analysis of polar ice cores shows warming events occur approximately every 100,000 years. After a while the earth cools again. Carbon dioxide levels follow a similar pattern but, since the rise in CO2 occurs after the onset of the rise in temperature, it’s not the cause. Temperature cycles can be explained, as Rev. Dr. Cameron points out, by changes in the tilt of the earth and distance from the sun. But the situation now is different.

We have been in a warm period for about 12,500 years but since 1900 the temperature has started an unprecedented rise, 2016 being the warmest year recorded and 14 of the hottest years since 1900 being since 2000.

On this occasion, CO2 in the atmosphere started to rise before the temperature. The rise (25 per cent) is attributable to burning fossil fuels and CO2 is known to be one the gases, along with water and methane, which causes most of the greenhouse effect. This is why most scientists attribute enhanced global warming to man-made emissions.

Already sea levels are rising, Pacific islands being abandoned, larger numbers of more destructive storms and ice caps receding. Further warming could lead to loss of rainfall in the breadbaskets of the world, the spread of tropical diseases and, most threatening of all, the release of huge amounts of methane.