Good point about 2007, Nicholas.
Cheers,
Elizabeth Cary
On Feb 7 2013, Nicholas Maxwell wrote:
>BlankDear Peter and George,
>
>Thank you for your very helpful comments.
>
> Mark Lynas's "Six Degrees" was published in 2007. Have there been
> developments in climate science since then to change ideas about what
> more CO2 in the atmosphere and temperature rises from 1 to 6 degrees are
> likely to produce?
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Nick Maxwell
>Website: www.ucl.ac.uk/from-knowledge-to-wisdom
>Publications online: http://philpapers.org/profile/17092
>http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/view/people/ANMAX22.date.html
>
>
> The Realclimate experts checked it when it came out and said it was all
> accurate.
>
> Peter C
>
> From: George Marshall
> Sent: Wednesday, February 06, 2013 11:55 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Request for References - Mark Lynas - 7. How reliable is
> Mark Lynas's "Six Degrees"?
>
> Not wishing to get into the entirely merited rumpus over Mark Lynas and
> GMOs, but just to say that I think Six Degrees is a well researched
> summary of the science at the time it was written and it has been
> received as such by the climate scientists. I would say that it is an
> excellent piece of work.
>
>
>
> George
>
>
>
>
>
> From: Discussion list for the Crisis Forum
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Tessa Burrington
> Sent: 05 February 2013 17:27
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Request for References - Mark Lynas - 7. How reliable is
> Mark Lynas's "Six Degrees"?
>
>
>
>
>
>
> http://www.gmwatch.org/latest-listing/52-2013/14612-debunking-mark-lynass-gm-myths
>
> Hello Nicholas,
>
> I don't know anything about "Six Digrees". So stop reading now if you
> feel so inclined lol.
>
> However, I have been following some aspects of "food politics" for 4
> years or so and there are many that are not too happy :-( with Mark!
> Millions in fact.
>
> Many academics have very little knowledge about GM issues and have been
> easily taken in by GM myths and "sophisticated" and misleading PR. Such
> are our times.
> Mark appears to be one of them. I was met with an astonishingly rude
> and quite bizarre comment from a well known contributor to this Forum
> last time I tried to raise the issue of some misleading techno food
> consultations going on in the EU and UK (Cloning, GM, Synthetic Biology
> etc). Granted the abusive comments were in relation to human DNA
> tinkering and probably due to a misunderstanding.
>
> Unfortunately, I think similar things are happening with nanotechnology
> and regulation needs to be looked at as a matter of urgency.
>
> There are also these links regarding Mark Lynas:
> http://www.powerbase.info/index.php/Mark_Lynas
>
>
> http://sustainablepulse.com/2013/01/08/lynas-school-pseudo-scientific-environmentalism/
> I am no expert, but time permitting you might want to look into small
> farming, agroecology and climate change.
>
>
> ".... Separating evidence from rhetoric
>
> Lynas went wrong in several areas. First, he claims that GE crops are
> critical to feeding the world. There are two fundamental problems with
> his reasoning: a) GE crops do not increase yield and b) focusing on
> productivity is not actually the way to solve world hunger.
>
> Taking the second, larger point first: people are hungry because they
> cannot afford to buy food. They cannot afford food because they are poor,
> and their poverty is related to a host of complex political, social,
> economic and environmental factors. It turns out that things like global
> trade policies, land tenure, commodity speculation, corporate
> concentration ratios and biofuel mandates are more direct determinants of
> hunger than a crop plant's intrinsic yield.
>
> That is why the most comprehensive global assessment of agriculture to
> date - the World Bank and U.N.-sponsored International Assessment of
> Agricultural Knowledge, Scientific and Technology for Development
> (IAASTD), authored by 400 scientists and development experts from over 80
> countries - highlighted the urgent need to undertake major shifts in
> governance, trade, finance and development policies in order to "feed the
> world." This could be achieved, says the IAASTD, by rebalancing power in
> the food system, supporting small-scale farmers and advancing social
> equity.
>
> The IAASTD - and numerous other U.N. reports - have also concluded that
> increasing investment in agroecological and diversified farming systems
> is crucial to meeting the closely interconnected climate, water, energy
> and food challenges of the 21st century. According to the UN Special
> Rapporteur on the Right to Food, agroecological farming can double food
> production within 10 years, while mitigating climate change and
> alleviating poverty..."
>
> Thank you.
> Tessa
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 5 Feb 2013 11:46:06 +0000
> From: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Request for References
> To: [log in to unmask]
>
> Can any member of the Forum help? I need to track down references that
> give authoritative answers to the following questions:
>
>
>
> 1. What percentage of CO2 that has been added to the atmosphere since
> the beginning of the industrial revolution has been put there by the
> industrially advanced countries: Europe, USA and Canada, Australia,
> Russia, and perhaps Japan?
>
> 2. What ought the UK, Europe, USA, Canada, Australia, Russia, Japan to
> be doing now to reduce CO2 emissions as much as possible, without
> bringing their economies to their knees?
>
> 3. If this is done, what is the estimated eventual global average
> temperature rise?
>
> 4. What are these countries doing at present, and what is likely to be
> the global temperature rise if this continues?
>
> 5. What is it reasonable to expect the new industrial nations to do -
> China, India, Brazil, etc?
>
> 6. Is there a recent resume of what we ought to be doing, globally, to
> reduce CO2 emissions, and how this compares with what we are doing?
>
> 7. How reliable is Mark Lynas's "Six Degrees"?
>
>
>
> I am trying to finish a book called "How Universities Can Help Create a
> Wiser World: The Urgent Need for an Academic Revolution" which is to be
> published as a paperback at £9-95 (so people can buy it!). The theme of
> the book is that, in order to make progress towards as good a world as
> possible we need to bring about a revolution in academia so that problems
> of living - including global problems - are put at the heart of
> universities. Academia needs to be devoted to public education about what
> our problems are, and what we need to do about them. Climate change is
> our most serious global problem. In the book I need to sketch what the
> problem is, and what we ought to be doing about it. Hence my questions.
>
>
>
> Any help I receive will of course be very gratefully acknowledged in
> the book. If anyone is able to help, perhaps the answer should be sent to
> me off list, and I can subsequently let the Forum know what I have
> learnt.
>
>
>
> Best wishes,
>
>
>
> Nicholas Maxwell
>
> (Emeritus Reader, University College London)
>
> Website: www.ucl.ac.uk/from-knowledge-to-wisdom
> Publications online: http://philpapers.org/profile/17092
> http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/view/people/ANMAX22.date.html
>
>
>
>
>
|
