Friday, October 30, 2009

Before and After   [Greg Pollowitz]

Some choice quotes of Sir David King, former chief scientific advisor to prime ministers Blair and Brown, from Benny Peiser at CCNet.

Today, alarmism is out:

When people overstate happenings that aren’t necessarily climate change-related, or set up as almost certainties things that are difficult to establish scientifically, it distracts from the science we do understand. The danger is they can be accused of scaremongering. Also, we can all become described as kind of left-wing greens.
    —Sir David King, The Times, 30 October 2009

But back when alarmism was all the rage:

If all the ice on Greenland were to melt, sea level would rise by seven metres. Is that likely to happen? Well I was saying six years ago unlikely [but] I'm afraid that that's having to be revised... 80 percent of our human population lives within less than a one metre rise of sea level so imagine the destabilisation of our geopolitical system with a sea level rise of the order of one or two metres. And that is on the cards I'm afraid.
   —Sir David King, London, 19 June 2008

10/30 11:00 AMShare