Great is the Truth and it will Prevail

The masthead of the Shetland News proclaims, “Great is the Truth and it will Prevail” and the ‘letters’ section is where this calmly plays out as locals (or ex-locals) of this most Northern place discuss many things including the whole Climate Change stuff.  What is good is that not only do they discuss things sensibly and without the need to scream and shout, but they are also extremely well informed on the subject and the corruption of the ‘science’, the role of the IPCC, and the reality of the whole situation.  A case in point being the following letter recently published. It is from David Sutherland and I quote:

I have been reading the Shetlanders’ views on climate change for a few years now and would like to throw my thoughts into the current debate.

I have spent the last ten years questioning and trying to deduce the rationale behind the science on the global warming/climate change debate. What makes the task difficult is the presence of information and misinformation, which can both be used to justify any specific viewpoint.

During my first degree at the beginning of this century I was taught about how we were causing the planet’s temperature to rise and how we were heading for an apocalyptic demise. When looking at the combination of the information presented to me, the slight temperature rise in the nineties, and the rise in carbon over the last hundred years, everything seemed to fit together quite nicely.

Nevertheless, looking back, the ‘fit’ was only there if you wanted to see it. During the global warming boom, I never once saw solar activity compared to temperature or indeed any scientifically solid evidence that CO2 caused temperature to rise.

The global warming myth was pedalled by people who had a vested interest in gaining funding for this ever lucrative developing marketplace and ‘the fight against global warming’.

If the public receive enough misinformation through the media, internet and word of mouth then eventually the public will start to believe it. This is sometimes called “paraphrenia”, where large volumes of a population can be severely deluded, but due to the fact that so many people subscribe to the delusion then they cannot be diagnosed as crazy.

In fact many of the readers will have delusions of their own, whether it is religious or a belief in little green men on Mars, which actually defy all logic and scientific reasoning. When delusional views become part of a wider social belief, the tendency is for this false belief to propagate within society and become accepted as fact.

With a loud enough voice, and a media outlet from which to deliver a message, a group or person can push misinformation out into the world, with a view to fulfilling their own goals, and the believing populace become no more than tools in an agenda they do not fully understand.

Western societies have been getting away with it for years, whether it be weapons of mass destruction in Iraq or when we inevitably save the day in Iran. The huge oil deposits in those countries or the large arms contracts available when we enter into these immoral and illegal wars never seem to get a mention on the news – I wonder why?

So this brings me onto the ‘goals’ of global warming and more latterly climate change. Firstly, the government have successfully vilified drivers and energy users; this ingenious ploy has resulted in people trying to use less energy while at the same time energy prices have shot up.

From a corporate point of view this is great – selling less for more – the shareholders can get even richer! At the same time, the public do not revolt against any additional green taxes because they believe that their actions are destroying the planet – victory for the government.

Secondly, the funding that companies can get from ‘green projects’ can be very lucrative indeed, without which some of the companies would not survive. This results in more people, companies, government agencies and government departments who rely on this funding, absorbing the misinformation and spreading the delusion further.

I am all for alternatives and renewable energy while at the same time I realise that oil and gas have a huge part to play in the next 50 years at least. In that time there will be a slow transition towards batteries and tidal power solutions.

I like all types of energy, and welcome anything that will make us energy secure without having to invade, dictate or destroy other nations. My advice to anyone planning and promoting large scale renewables would be to avoid the subject of the fight against climate change or global warming because it gets less credible by the day.

All in all, the Viking Energy project isn’t about saving the planet or providing a moral obligation, it is about money. So as Shetlanders we need to ask ourselves, what’s in it for me? If it will make you rich, then support it. If not, then oppose it.

I have worked for three of the biggest oil companies on the planet and believe me when I say there are no thoughts of slowing down in fossil fuel exploration and production. High oil prices encourage more drilling and the offshore industry is expected to grow by another 100 rigs by the end of 2012.

For the last 40 years, we have constantly had 40 years of proven reserves – this shows that for every barrel we extract, we find another to replace it. This is in spite of the fact that we haven’t even begun to explore the deep water in the Atlantic and Pacific.

David Sutherland
Aberdeenshire
(Originally from Whalsay)

See original Letter on Shetland News