This letter was published in the NST not too long ago. It is interesting. So read at your own pleasure.
HEALTH WARNING: Those suffering from easily-bored-disorder(EBD) or those who sleep off easily after reading a blog-post by Yap Wooi Hong are discouraged from reading this.
Science versus Earth Hour
As the lights went out for Earth Hour at 8.30pm on Saturday 28 March to protest against man-made global warming, our scientist family did exactly the opposite. We switched on every single light in our energy efficient bungalow in Bandar Baru Bangi. By holding this mini festival of light we were saying that mankind’s increasing use of electricity has nothing to do with global warming.
My wife, a retired scientist, had been complaining all week about the unrelenting Earth Hour campaign on TV, radio and the newspapers to get one billion worldwide to ‘vote’ in this way against global warming. She pointed out that it is mainly youth that are getting sucked into this campaign. “This is immoral and an insult to everything we have achieved. I studied under oil lamps until I was 16. Electricity got us out of poverty and built Malaysia. It transformed society. If anyone messes up our electricity supply its back to oil lamps and paddy farming. That’s what our youth don’t realise. People are so ungrateful. Allah gave us the unique ability to make important discoveries like electricity to develop mankind. But now the WWF is trying to convince youth to feel guilty about consuming electricity. The earth needs more and more electricity. That is how we measure our improving standard of living.”
My objection to the Earth Hour campaign is also fundamental. Man-made global warming is simply not true; it is a man-made fraud. Thirty one thousand scientists so far, including me, have felt it necessary to protest against this fraud by publishing our names and qualifications in a properly conducted internet poll.
There is nothing new or to fear about global warming. It is not caused by man’s industrialisation, by over-development or ‘over-population’ as long claimed by Prince Philip, the founder of WWF and the iconic leader of the green environmental movement. Global warming is a perfectly natural phenomenon. Ten thousand year Global Warming periods followed by 100,000 year Ice Ages have occurred with some regularity for the last 2 million years and probably throughout much of the 4.5 billion years of life on earth. What causes climate change is the earth’s varying tilt and elliptical orbit around the sun and our solar system’s long journey through the Milky Way together with cosmic radiation from exploding stars. Most of this basic science has been known for 100 years. Carbon dioxide is not an environmental poison but has been named by 10 generations of scientists as ‘the gas of life’ which by photosynthesis in green plants gets converted to organic matter, as taught to our standard 6 students. The small additional carbon dioxide produced by industrial man is a bonus, not a threat to life on earth. Our Malaysian rainforest climate is the earth’s best example of the tremendous benefits of global warming and higher levels of CO2. Malaysia’s constantly warm climate, high rainfall, plenty of sunlight and high natural carbon dioxide levels, caused by plentiful rotting vegetation, all combine to produce the highest rate of biomass production in the world. The Kenaf tree in Malaysia can grow to 5 meters in 4 months. A new Malaysian grass plantation is producing sustainable one meter cut grass for climate housed cows every 30 days. This Malaysian invention, Deep Tropical agriculture, can transform food production in Malaysia and, with cheap desalinated water and electricity produced by the new ‘inherently safe’ 4thgeneration nuclear power stations, can spread throughout the dry tropical regions of the world, even deserts. Scientist now know in principle how to feed the population during the next ice age which leading climatologists say will begin with a mini-ice age by 2050, within the lifespan of half of the world’s population. We must therefore urgently get back to the big science of my youth, like Atoms for Peace, the Green Revolution and the Man on the Moon mission. The very best investment from Malaysia’s economic stimulus packages is a great increase in science and engineering scholarships at all levels for the best generation of youth in our history.
Mohd Peter Davis
Bandar Baru Bangi