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Dear Nick It's good to know that Ecological Modernisation theory is 'the main practical green orientation'. Apart from technical questions about how EM theory measures up to the scale of the challenge of climate change in practice, I wonder how the theory addresses the broader green agenda for social change that includes peace and social justice? Not so practical in these regards, perhaps? I think we should be careful about using a brush as broad as Channel 4 documentaries. Cheers Kelvin _____ From: A forum for critical and radical geographers [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Nick James Sent: 10 March 2007 05:36 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: swindle http://www.channel4.com/science/microsites/G/great_global_warming_swindle/ Did anyone watch this? Environmentalists have been painted with one broad brush: We are anti-growth, anti-technology and dead against the use of fossil fuels. Now we are told by this group of scientists that CO2 related global warming is all one big swindle. Climate is changing, climate is unpredictable; there have been very warm periods (Medieval in Europe) and cold snaps (when the Thames froze). Professor Stott (a geographer) tells us excitedly about wine and riches when cathedrals were being built in the UK in the medieval days. It is surely the 'uncertainty' that prevails both in the science (incomplete knowledge and arguments about models) and in the social sciences (political and economic debates about costs, development pathways and the precautionary principle). To suggest that all environmentalists wish to stop 'development' in Africa is scandalous; Ecological modernisation theory (the main practical green orientation) can only be afforded in the North, so it is preposterous to suggest that Africa should be constrained by such a cost. Nick