About
About TalkClimateChange
Climate Change means different things to different people. To some it is an impending catastrophe on a planetary scale. To others it is either an elaborate scam or a political excuse for extra taxation. As with many things in life, the truth is usually somewhere in between.
Whatever your belief, Climate Change will affect you in some way - either through green initiatives being introduced by governments across the globe, or through changes to our climate and the many things we take for granted which depend upon it.
TalkClimateChange discusses the issues of living in a changing world. What does this mean for us? What will it cost? What should we believe and what should we not believe? And what can we do to make a difference?
The Green Team, Red Team and Blue Team
The Green Team believe that climate change is a serious issue, caused primarily by mankind. They believe that this needs to be addressed as soon as possible and that drastic action is required.
The Red Team believe that the actions of mankind in no way have any effect on our climate, and are somewhat skeptical about claims that the climate is changing anyway. They certainly don’t think we should be modifying our lifestyles to accommodate what is nothing more than a political and scientifically unproven farce.
The Blue Team have a balanced opinion, and believe that although the climate is changing, we should be cautious as to where we lay the blame. The Blue Team focus primarily on our future options for living in a changing world, well aware that drastic actions which are not well through through may have hugely negative environmental and economic consequences.
About Mark
Looking predominantly on the Green side of life, but often Blue and occasionally Red, Mark became interested in the potential for climate change to impact the world following a particularly snow-less skiing holiday in the French Alps in 2001.
Since then the topic of climate change has steadily risen on the agenda to the point where it may now be the biggest influencing factor on the course of our future - this observation prompted the creation of TalkClimateChange in 2007 as a place to hold the debate on the causes, implications and best way of tackling of climate change.
Mark also writes for Green Options, ProBlogger and for unimaginatively named Mark’s Blog.
Contributing Authors
Providing essential insights into often unconsidered aspects of climate change, our contributing authors bring a wide array of knowledge, intellect and wit to the discussion.
Daryl, writing for the Red Team and the Blue Team
Daryl’s primary focus is upon the economic effects of policies and legislation as well as the politics of mitigation proposals and strategies. He has passion for knowledge and educated himself on the subjects of world politics, global economics, energy infrastructure, psychology, climate science, equation based modelling, stellar science, space weather, geology, paleo-climatology and more recently transportation infrastructure.
Daryl is a defender of airline travel, champion of the incentive actually being an incentive approach, and probably the most sarcastic person in the room. Despite being a self proclaimed “denier” on the subject of Global Warming - to the level that anything in an ecosystem will impact the rest of it: it’s the extent of that impact that is relevant - Daryl still lives an environmentally conscious lifestyle, using public transit, recycling and even placing a CFL recycle bin in the shared refuse area of his condo building. He is a strange mix of a hard line conservative, progressive socialist, and a free-market capitalist. He could debate himself, and actually does, on some topics.
Daryl also writes at his own website - The Climate Heretic
Matt, writing for the Red Team and the Blue Team, with the occasional bit of Green
Matt’s approach to climate change can be summed up nicely as follows "The 1980s and 1990s brought proof (chiefly from studies of ancient ice) that the global climate could indeed shift, radically and catastrophically, within a century - perhaps even within a decade." - Meaning that records show that at some point in the past the climate changed dramatically, in a very short period of time, even without emissions of Co2 from the burning of fossil fuels. From this starting point, Matt believes that the climate change debate should focus on creating a fair, prosperous and positive world for as many people as possible.
Matt is a consulting engineer based in London, holding degrees in chemical engineering and international development. Having worked extensively in the field of sustainability, he is keen to point out that the terms climate change, anthropogenic global warming (AGW), environmental degradation, sustainability and sustainable development should not be used interchangeably - each term has subtleties that differentiate it, and misuse has led to a fog of information.
