Norman Tebbit: We must not be dogmatic about climate change – unlike the warmists
The opener:
I have been asked a good many times where I stand on the great climate change controversy. In short, I am unconvinced by man-made global warming but not dogmatically sure that it is all nonsense, a racket or a conspiracy.
The absolutely sure facts in all this are not very many. The first is that climate change is not new. It has been going on since the world was new. In relatively recent times, say since life emerged, there have been cycles of long-term warming and cooling overlaid with shorter-term fluctuations. It is not easy to identify with certainty a short-term fluctuation from a change in the long-term trend until 1,000 years or so from when the time it began.
We know that within comparatively recent times wheat was grown in Greenland. We know that mammoths were herbivores and that the remains of one were recently discovered in the permafrost of arctic Russia. It is true that during the Roman occupation of Britain grapes were grown right up to Hadrian’s Wall and the Imperial Governor in Londinium received a rocket from Rome on behalf of the local wine trade because he was not importing enough wine from home. Since then, we have experienced centuries long warm and cold spells. Even in my lifetime, winters have become notably warmer.
We know that cosmic events, from the variability of the sun to meteor impacts, or great volcanic eruptions, have had a huge impact on the climate of our planet. After that it all gets a lot more iffy.
The rest here.