I've known the work of Ian Plimer for decades. He is a widely published authority on exploration geology and in that field he is truly an expert. In fact, for investors who are not risk averse I would strongly recommend doing some due diligence on one Kefi Minerals. Ian Plimer is deputy chairman. Kefi is listed on the AIM (London Stock Exchange)
What Ian Plimer is not, is a climate scientist. He has an undoubted interest in the field but he is not an acknowledged expert. None of his published scientific papers are in Climate Science but he does certainly bring a geological context with his contribution. There can be no doubt that there has been global catastrophic climate change in the past. For example, the Cretaceous eutrophication turned much of the worlds oceans to green slime. No one really knows why but humans certainly didn't cause the change. One outcome though, was the middle east petroleum deposits and we are burning them up at a great rate. Not only that but we are burning coal and anthracite and lignite and natural gas and peat and rainforest at a great rate too.
All of these fuels produce carbon dioxide and virtually all of the carbon dioxide initially goes into the atmosphere. Some of it stays, some of it is used by plants and some of it dissolves in the waters of the Earth. Our oceans are slowly but measurably acidifying. Not good for the critters that live there. Meanwhile average air temperatures are rising according to atmospheric scientists. You don't have to believe them of course. You can believe whatever you like but climate scientists seem to be saying 2009 will be the second warmest on record. The noughties will be the warmest decade, the nineties were the second warmest. Maybe there was a warmer decade a few million years ago but my money is on anthropogenic global warming as the prime cause of the present change.
Reality is we are polluting our atmosphere with more carbon dioxide than it can safely handle. It is time to stop. Even the coal industry association recognises the need to stop and is massively funding carbon capture technologies. Who knows if they will be successful but if there is a carbon capture solution we can be absolutely certain that electricity costs will rise substantially.
