Climate Change: Instant Expert | New Scientist

Climate Change: Instant Expert | New Scientist

I did a BBC Radio 5 Live interview on Global Warming last night. Interesting how the debate has moved on. Even if you take the most sceptical position, which is that maybe there is only a 5% risk that there is any link between human activity and global warming, that is still a very significant possibility.

Most of us insure our homes and other parts of our lives against much lower risks than 5%. However we don't have an insurance policy against global warming.

And most scientists think the risk is higher than 5% in any case.

That's why governments are right to be taking action now.

We cannot wait until the case is proven beyond all doubt.

One small step every family and business can take is to become carbon neutral in the longer term, by buying a tree in a new wood or forest to offset every 0.8 of a ton of carbon we use.

That's the equivalent of £20 on the cost of a transatlantic return flight or £160 on the annual costs of driving 12,000 miles.

An alternative to planting trees is to fund projects that reduce carbon emissions in places like India - for example a single 100 watt low-energy bulb will save over 10 years the equivalent in carbon of an entire mature tree being cut down (according to Future Forest). That is when you take into account the inneficiency of generating electricity and power losses on distribution.