Former Scientific Advisor says Green Campaigners are Luddites

The former scientific advisor to Tony Blair - the man who urged our then prime minister to take global warming seriously, has come out and stated that he feels many green campaigners are actually a liability.

Sir David King has been quoted as saying: “There is a suspicion, and I have that suspicion myself, that a large number of people who label themselves ‘green’ are actually keen to take us back to the 18th or even the 17th century.

• » See also: #4 Copenhagen, Denmark: Great Bicycle City Photo Tour
• » Get EcoWorldly by RSS or sign up by email.

“[Their argument is] ‘Let’s get away from all the technological gizmos and developments of the 20th century’, and I think that is utter hopelessness.”

King also maintains that nuclear power must be seen as part of the solution as we seek to combat carbon emissions.

My initial reaction to these comments was one of frustration and disappointment.

Why is it that if I rely on public transport, I’m the Luddite, yet if a car owner scoffs at modern sustainable technology, they aren’t a Luddite.

What’s so advanced about a combustion engine?

And with reference to King’s comment, what’s so advanced about nuclear fission or nuclear fusion? As Greenpeace maintains, why renew our faith, dating back to the 1950s, in nuclear power? It didn’t work then. Why should it work now? His views on the green movement are extremely generalised and outdated.

It seems to me we’re dealing with double standards.

Just because nuclear energy avoids the burning of fossil fuels, this does not equate that it is forward thinking. In my opinion, nuclear power is far from safe and the waste created hardly means that it is a clean energy. Max Lindberg argues a very strong case against nuclear power here.

Yet a closer inspection of King’s opinions negated my initial dismay. The short Press Association piece went for an incendiary angle, clearly designed to rile.

An in-depth interview that ran in the UK’s Guardian newspaper reveals a different man. It describes a level-headed scientist who takes global warming very seriously indeed.

I certainly don’t concur with his views on nuclear power. I’m not even obliged to after all, yet some of his views are indeed extremely sound.

I ask that you read the interview here. You’ll smile, you’ll shout, you’ll nod your head, you’ll shake it in annoyance, yet at least the UK has a scientist who is stressing the importance of global warming and volunteering his solutions. He’s co-authored a book entitled The Hot Topic where he discusses the subject in depth.

I’ll leave you with one of King’s retorts to a young woman who asked what she could do to help combat global warming.

“Stop admiring young men in Ferraris,” he replied.

Source:

Image courtesy of Akuppa at Flickr

Tweet This Post