Eamonn Fitzgerald's Rainy Day

Have you seen the global warming herd charging by recently? Terrifying. We were nearly trampled to death. What is it about hysteria? Once it was witches, then it was Indian programmers who would take all our high-tech jobs, followed by Polish plumbers who would steal all our mid-tech jobs, followed by Turkish cleaners who would grab all our low-tech jobs … Now the hysterics are swarming around global warming. Today's hysterical Independent headline: Tsunami horror hits Britain.

Yes, the climate is changing. But it's always been changing. Go look out the window, OK? Yes, population growth, fossil fuel consumption, industrialization and mechanized transport are sources of pollution that endanger lives and the environment. But we've got the abilities and the technologies to combat these threats. How about switching to nuclear power as soon as possible? It would reduce lots of those dangerous emissions in quick time.

And now, a voice of sanity. Mike Hulme, Director, Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, contends that the language of chaos and catastrophe is out of hand. "I believe climate change is real, must be faced and action taken," he says. "But the discourse of catastrophe is in danger of tipping society onto a negative, depressive and reactionary trajectory." Well said, Mike! And then he asks the Big Question:

"Why is it not just campaigners, but politicians and scientists too, who are openly confusing the language of fear, terror and disaster with the observable physical reality of climate change, actively ignoring the careful hedging which surrounds science's predictions?"

Why? Because greedy academics see pots of research gold at the end of this rainbow; because craven politicians see a populist wave to be ridden; because crazed anti-globalization activist see an opportunity to attack economic growth, and because a whole retinue of cranks are lining up behind them for want of something better to do with their lives. That's why.

Alternative sources of energy by all means; conservation, recycling and innovation, as well, please. New thinking and new technologies are needed, but what's not needed is the ersatz religion of Global Warming with its hysterical language and utopian notions that border on totalitarianism. Rainy Day is not buying it. Never will.