Godfrey Bloom MEP bemoans the fact that:
"There appears to be a woeful lack of candour and commonsense in modern day politicians."
Godfrey Bloom runs TBO Investments Ltd., a small1 tax advice outfit. In order to boost his business by raising his media profile, he writes a lot about taxes. Mostly, he is against any proposal that would increase his clients' tax liabilities. He is also totally against such 21st century technological innovations as windmills and much prefers the "conventional methods, coal, oil, gas, nuclear."
He also moonlights as an MEP - a Member of the European Parliament for Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire, areas at great risk of flooding due to global warming.
Should Godfrey Bloom advise the ordinary people who voted for him of the need for action, or should he advise his business clients how to avoid paying the taxes that are essential to flood mitigation in his constituency? Of course, it is quite obvious from his past performance that Godfrey Bloom requires no lectures on ethics.
I mention Godfrey Bloom only because he is the first tax adviser to comment on a new report on climate change. I do not doubt that other tax advisers will hasten to endorse his views.
A new report, Detection and attribution of climate change: a regional perspective, has been published in Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews Climate Change. It is a re-assessment and follow up of some of the findings in the IPCC's 4th report. The 4th report concluded that it is "likely that there has been significant anthropogenic warming over the past 50 years averaged over each continent except Antarctica."
... Since then, warming over Antarctica has also been attributed to human influence, and further evidence has accumulated attributing a much wider range of climate changes to human activities.
The study, by six IPCC scientists from around the world, looked at 101 papers including evidence that was not in the earlier report. This included some of the first evidence of rising temperatures in Antarctic and new analysis of changing rainfall patterns across the world. There have also been fresh studies of humidity and salinity in the oceans, that increases with global warming because water is evaporating faster.
...
Dr Peter Stott, from the Met Office Hadley Centre in Exeter, who co-led the study, said all the new evidence on melting sea ice in the Arctic and rising global temperatures point to man made global warming....
"It shows that evidence has strengthened over the last two or three years that human influence is changing the climate," he said....
Dr Stott hoped the study would add to the ongoing debate about whether mankindis to blame for global warming.
..."I just hope people look at the evidence," he said. "This is really what it is up to scientists to do - to show the climate is changing in such a systematic way it is consistent with understanding and with the expected response to human activities. I just hope people will look at that evidence and make up their minds informed by the scientific evidence."
Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk.
The paper refered to by the Telegraph is Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change 5 Mar 2010 Detection and attribution of climate change: a regional perspective.
The following cited text is from the abstract:
Since then, warming over Antarctica has also been attributed to human influence, and further evidence has accumulated attributing a much wider range of climate changes to human activities.
...
We review the evidence showing significant human-induced changes in regional temperatures, and for the effects of external forcings on changes in the hydrological cycle, the cryosphere, circulation changes, oceanic changes, and changes in extremes. We then discuss future challenges for the science of attribution. To better assess the pace of change, and to understand more about the regional changes to which societies need to adapt, we will need to refine our understanding of the effects of external forcing and internal variability.
The Telegraph quotes Godfrey Bloom's response to the cited report on global warming:
"I have seen no published evidence that goes beyond a rather unlikely hypothesis that man caused global warming and it is getting thinner by the day," he said. "So before we disturb the global economy we need to take a step back and re-evaluate."
Discussion:
Is there such a thing as re-re-evaluation? Will it be included in the new tax laws? Will we all be re-re-subjected to re-re-evalution of our re-evaluated tax returns.
Are the voters likely re-re-evaluate the merits of re-voting for this man?
Footnotes:
[1] - a small business is defined by Companies House as:
A small company must meet at least two of the following conditions:
* annual turnover must be not more than £6.5 million;
* the balance sheet total must be not more than £3.26 million;
* the average number of employees must be not more than 50.
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