A reader of this weblog sent in the following link to a column by David Suzuki published in Canadian newspapers:
...Katrina, it seems, was just a convenient excuse to get the same tired "Global warming isn't happening, and if it is it has nothing to do with anything people are doing," message out to the masses. The charitable among us might call that being opportunistic. The cynical would call it ambulance chasing.
...To demand absolute proof in science before acting on a threat is to ask the impossible. It's not just anti-scientific; it's anti-science.
The piece is at:
http://www.davidsuzuki.org/about_us/Dr_David_Suzuki/Article_Archives/weekly09090501.asp .
He raises some important issues.
Phil Done's response to The Dutch Ban Free-Range Chooks was good for a laugh and thought provoking.
Global Warming vrs Avian flu
Why is one more tangible then the other?
Since the domestication of live stock humans have probably been prone to transferable diseases as well as the risk of having a major part of their food source removed. Through the population growth/economy of scale the frequency and consequences are higher. Technology has provided us with the ability to identify these trends and try to interpret them.
Humans have always been subjected to flooding, draughts and all the other issues associated with Global Warming. Again through population growth the consequences are higher. Again technology is playing its part in trying to determine the trends particularly if the frequency has increased (through an acceleration of climate change).
Could you argue that the Avian flu pandemic is more tangible as the current technology/methodology/perception is more comfortable with a rate of change over a shorter time scale then Global Warming?
rog - sorry I did not understand your last post after mine. Sorry it came through as noise - can you clarify?
The company I work for sponsored a lecture by David Suzuki that I was priveledged to attend. He is an inspiration.
Violence ? me ? - there was a smiley included - joking ... humour
You don't have to defend D Suzuki - you can selectively quote him out of context ...