The Spectator

Letters to the Editor | 24 October 2013

issue 26 October 2013

Ridley’s wrong

Sir: In last week’s issue the former Northern Rock chairman rejoiced in the ‘good news’ that climate change would not start to damage our planet for another 57 years (‘Carry on warming’, 19 October).

I am not a scientist. As a minister, I rely on the opinion of experts including the government chief scientist, the Meteorological Office and the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). They do not share Lord Ridley’s views.

The latest IPCC scientific analysis from 259 climate experts in 39 countries, reviewed by another 659 experts who dealt with 53,000 individual comments, is clear about the very real threat that dangerous man-made climate change poses to humankind. But if we followed Lord Ridley’s logic, presumably we wouldn’t just stop investing in clean energy but we would also slam the brakes on investing in long-term infrastructure, maybe stop preserving historic monuments, eat up the world’s resources, deplete oceans and hack down forests.

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