Although plenty of scientific evidence points towards global warming being a legitimate concern, some refuse to believe it, as is seen with the latest lawsuit against Al Gore and his fight to make the American people aware of this potential problem.

The reasons why some scientists don’t believe global warming to be a legitimate concern are three-fold:

1) they don’t believe that the data provided is significant enough to prove that Earth’s temperature is rising. This is due not only to past historical techniques, but also the available data on the subject;

2) they believe the statistics are not read correctly, and feel that the data is tampered. These critics are looking for evidence within the statistics as opposed to viewing the statistics objectively and trying to determine their meanings; and

3) critics of the global warming theory believe that the alleged increase in world temperatures are a natural phenomenon, and that the world’s climate is changing from natural green house gases, not our own.

It is important to point out that a vast majority of scientists believe in the global warming theory, and that have accused the critics of the theory for placating to the oil industry.

However, even some scientists who believe in global warming don’t believe that it is a catastrophic issue. These scientists believe that Earth is a resilient planet and has experienced catastrophic climate changes in the past and will continue to solve its own problems. This is indeed true; Earth will be here long after humans have gone extinct.

This debate may be pointless. The power to make changes to green house gas emissions does not lie with scientists and academics. It lies with the policy makers and politicians. They must be convinced – either way – of global warming’s legitimacy as a human concern.

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The climate change question seems to have polarised opinion as never before. In one camp are the climate scientists who insist that climate change is happening as a direct result of man’s actions and that it needs to be combatted immediately to stop catastrophic effects upon the environment. In the opposing camp are the climate sceptics, the so-called ’enviro-sceptics’ who say that climate change is an ongoing and natural phemonena without influence from man.

The main centre for climate science within the UK is at the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit. In the last few weeks the CRU has found itself embroiled in a succession of controversies over leaked emails, allegations of falsification and an ongoing investigation into the non release of information that had been legally requested from them. On the international stage Dr Rajendra Pachauri, head of the Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change and climate scientist-in-chief, is facing calls to stand down over false claims made by the IPCC that the Himalayan glaciers would be gone by 2035. Whilst the IPCC now acknowledges that this claim was made erroneously, they stand by their views of man made climate change.

It is against this background that the BBC conducted a large poll into the public’s opinion on climate change. A staggering 25% of the thousand-plus respondents said that they did not believe that climate change was happening and only 26% believed that climate change was happening and was largely man made. The worrying thing for climate scientists is that this shows a huge rise in scepticism from a similar poll carried out by The Times newspaper in November 2009. The figures taken as a whole show that there has been an increase in scepticism of over 10% in little more then two months.

Of those respondents who do believe that climate change is happening one in three, up from one in five in The Times, poll believe that the possible effects of climate change are being exaggerated. This polll indicates that for the first time, there are now more people who do not believe in man made climate change than those who do believe in it.

This poll is very bad news for governments and climate scientists who have been vigorously trying to spread their environmental message. “The fact that there has been a very significant drop in the number of people that believe that we humans are changing the Earth’s climate is serious”, said Professor Bob Watson the leading government advisor on climate change, “We need the public to understand that climate change is serious so they’ll change their habits and help us move towards a low carbon economy.”

With scepticism on the rise, and further questions being asked about climate change research across the globe, these are difficult times for those who would protect the globe’s environment from the ravages of man. If you are interested in reading about an industry who are battling the carbon footprint of large companies, then check out this Enigin employee blog!

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It has been a tumultuous two months for Professor Jones and his colleagues. Leaked emails hit the headlines in November and brought into question the central tenet of climate change theory. This was followed by revelations in The Guardian newspaper that Professor Jones was being investigated by the Information ombudsman for failing to disclose information made by climate-sceptic Douglas Keenan in a Freedom Of Information request. This allegation has been denied by Professor Jones but has seen him step down as Director of the CRU whilst an investigation continues. The latest allegations, however, could be the most serious of all.

The global climate data used by the UAE was obtained from weather stations around the world, including over 40 in China. It is now suggested that many of the so called ‘rural’ stations used in China were in fact located in large urban areas. Temperatures in cities are typically 1-2° C warmer than in rural areas and so if these urban figures had been represented as rural readings then it would have a significant upward effect on the average temperature used in the research.

Professor Jones has said that while a small number of Chinese stations may have been moved to warmer or cooler areas it would not affect the overall message of his research: that man-made influences are causing global warming. He further points out that several other key papers produced by universities in the USA have backed his findings.

Professor Jones expressed particular concern that the rapidity of attacks on the UAE’s findings was leading many people to question climate science altogether. This would be a dangerous path for the world to take, but the increasing pre-eminence of climate-sceptic thinking within the mass media surely means that Professor Jones is going to come under increasing scrutiny throughout the coming months.

Speaking of climate change, I just came across this amazing blog done by Paul Welton at Enigin, it is really worth looking at if you are interested in the innovative ways different companies are taking on thier responsiblity for the carbon footprint!

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Rajendra Pachauri, the beleagured chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, has responded to his critics by saying “I am not going to stand down, I am going to stand up.”

As head of the United Nation’s climate science body, Pachauri has been a controversial figure for enviro-sceptics due to his unflinching stance on the impact of man upon climate change. These enviro-sceptics claim that Pachauri is too reliant upon unsubstantiated reports from climate change pressure groups and manipulates scientific data to suit this agenda. A recent high profile mistake made by the IPCC has led to renewed calls for Pachauri to resign.

The IPCC’s Fourth Assessment Report had claimed that there was a ’very high likelihood’ of Himalayan glaciers disappearing by 2035. This finding has been hotly disputed by some scientists recently and the Indian government itself gave a very different opinion of what was happening to the Himalaya glaciers. Last week IPCC vice-chairman Jean-Pascal van Ypersele admitted that the panel had made a mistake in their assertion.

Some critics have claimed that the flawed evidence is taken from a 2005 report by climate change pressure group WWF. A 1996 Russian study, however, previously stated that the Himalaya glaciers will have disappeared by 2350 and it may be that a simple clerical error has led to this 1996 report being misinterpreted.

Criticism of Rajendra Pachauri has been vociferous, with claims that the mistake has severely damaged the credibility of any of the IPCC’s findings. The error has come at a bad time for the climate change campaign with leaked emails from the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit previously dealing a hammer blow to the perception of credibility within the field of climate science.

Pachauri however insists that while this one specific error was made within the report the overall message of the report remains as relevant and pressing as ever: the glaciers are melting due to human impact on the environment, and action needs to be taken now to reverse this trend.

A defiant Pachauri has come out with all guns blazing. In a defiant statement he said: “I want to tell the sceptics who see me as the face of the science of climate change, I am in no mood to oblige them (by resigning); I am going to remain as chairman of the IPCC for my entire term.”

Whilst an unfortunate error has been made with regards to the 2035 claim, it cannot be said that the report as a whole is flawed. Pachauri and the IPCC still have a very important role to play in educating the world about climate science and overcoming the baseless claims of the enviro-sceptic lobby.

Just before I go, I was talking to my brother who works in economics and he says that judging from the price of home heating oil recently there is a very real possibility of a large portion of society not being able to heat their homes throughout the cold snap. It is a genuinely scary thought!

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With the world moving towards green products, one area that has been making a lot of strides over the last ten years is green building. Some have deemed it to be one of the main keys to economic success. There have been a lot of changes and innovations in green building, and the future seems to be filled with great possibilities. Here are the top five green building trends.

Led Lights

These kinds of lights are now becoming more popular in homes and commercial buildings. With marked improvements in design these are likely to increase in life span and by extension use.

Living buildings

These represent the one of the greatest accomplishments in building sustainability that can be attained in the built environment. These kinds of buildings tend to function as self sufficient, natural, and complete systems. This kind of building and their progress was boosted by the Living Building Challenge announced in late 2009 by the International Living Building Institute which among other things seeks to encourage the construction of buildings that are green friendly.

Greener wall construction

It started out with green roofs but now there are green walls. These days the use of these kinds of walls in the design of many buildings, helps to create some more opportunities in the use of vegetative surfaces. Typically these walls are found on the outside of buildings and are usually filled with some form of growing plant life. Some are even incorporated in the air filtration system to help improve air circulation.

Green retrofits

This help to solve some of the inefficiencies present in the delivery and use energy both at home and work. By retrofitting buildings and home with proper products and accessories energy consumption and waste can be reduced. An energy audit is usually done to find out what needs to be done. The best part is that you may be able to get rid of that ugly diesel storage tank that has been kicking around your garden for as long as you can remember!

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Personally the thing I think that is great about this device is it gives you a historical data of your usage. Now you have a way of telling if your impact on the environment is getting better or worse.

Good work Google!

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