Jim Murphy

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Wednesday 09 July, 2008

I thought I should post a second blog on my visit to Utah. I had lunch with the Mayor of Salt Lake City and the President of the Senate as well as other senior politicians. It was fascinating. I was in a minority in believing that climate change was indeed man made. Some of the politicians cited the various reports which claim that climate change is not new, and is simply the earth's natural cycle which repeats itself over time. These reports seem to have a real influence on them.

There were also concerns because Utah is more than 80% reliant on coal for its fuel. I explained that fossil fuel has an important future as long as we invest to make coal cleaner.

So in Britain the conversation has largely moved beyond the question of "is this a man made problem?" to trying to find the answer to "what do we do to repair our environment?"

But despite the strong leadership of Governor Huntsman some senior people in Utah are still sincerely and passionately debating the first question. While it is easy to criticise these views, it is more important to try to convince them of ours. Happy to hear your ideas on how it can be done.

Posted at 08:12 09 July 2008 by Jim Murphy | Comments[7]

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America is so out of step with the rest of the world sometimes. It's a shame beacause America is such a great country and has probably contributed more to the advancement of mankind than any other nation bar Great Britain. Of course, climate change is not solely man made. There is a natural cycle which occurs every few thousand years but the point is we as human beings are speeding up the effets of climate change with the amount of shit we release into the atmosphere. We do need to change. Not only because of climate change and the environment but because we cannot let our future energy supply lie in the hands of rogue nations such as Saudi Arabia and the Russian Federation. We need to get a grip and change. And change now. We should start building thousands of windmills everywhere. We need to be more like Holland. And then we need to consider what resource we can use to replace plastic which comes from oil so we can build computers and stuff without relying on fossilised fuels.

Posted by Justin on July 10, 2008 at 01:57 PM BST #

I think the best way to influence our US friends is to bring them to the UK to show them how we are doing things. Explaining the science of such a politicised subject is always going to be difficult.

Posted by David Turnbull on July 10, 2008 at 04:32 PM BST #

there actually isn't any evidence that climate change is man-made. i challenge anybody to produce any such evidence, from the internet or elsewhere. what we are witnessing is one of the most brilliant propaganda campaigns in recent history, started up in the 1990s by maggie thatcher who was the first to set up a governmental body to investigate whether climate change was caused by carbon dioxide. her agenda was to use new scientific theory to justify her attacks against the coal industry and push forward nuclear power as a alternative. maggie's legacy is still with us. suggest cynics out there check out the 'great climate change hoax', the documentary made few years ago by channel 4. i think climate change is being used as a moral stick to try and stop the developing nations from industrializing and challenging the west. the poor old environmental movement is being conned into this massive hoax.

Posted by Stu on July 12, 2008 at 10:04 AM BST #

The radio personality Rush Limbaugh has a huge influence on conservative opinion, especially in states like Utah. In the NY Times magazine interview last week, he laid out his priorities. Number six out of six was: "6. Abandon all government policies based on the hoax of man-made global warming." Convince Limbaugh that man-made climate change is not a hoax, and half of the United States will follow. Good luck with that! Not all of us Americans agree with Rush and Stu, above, as I'm sure you all know. I wonder if folks in the UK realize how politically polarized the US is these days? Enjoyed your bloggingheads appearance, Jim.

Posted by Dave Pier on July 13, 2008 at 06:49 PM BST #

I think it is important to understand the different forces in American environmental policy. In western states there has long been very heated disagreements between local interests and the federal government. This is especially true on issues such as management of public lands. Since management of public lands is heavily connected to environmental issues it is easy for climate change to get mixed into those disputes. Also the noticeable effects of pollution are stronger in densely populated areas. The less densely populated areas have greater voting power in the Senate and the electoral college, so people in rural areas have to be convinced that wind and solar power will benefit them economically.

Posted by Craig McGillivary on July 14, 2008 at 08:38 AM BST #

I came across the following website recently when investigating arguments in favor of climate change:brbra href="http://gristmill.grist.org/skeptics" rel="nofollow"How to Talk to a Climate Skeptic/abrbrI also recommend the Discovery Channel website for well-researched, science-based information.

Posted by Heather on July 14, 2008 at 05:44 PM BST #

I can remember not so long ago the majority of mainland Europe was agonising over the UK’s similar attitude to climate change. Fortunately, the UK woke up, hopefully the USA will also.

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