Blair wants us to fly more

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So Tony thinks we can just wait for science to invent the answer huh?

http://environment.guardian.co.uk/travel/story/0,,1986457,00.html

I like flying.

In fact I'd still like to get my own pilot's license one day.

And I believe science has and can continue to answer extraordinary questions and solve enormous problems.

But I have children.

And I'd like them to see living coral reefs. Snow at Christmas. Be able to eat. Not die in wars launched by the starving desertified nations of the world as temperate zones move towards the poles.

Maybe James Lovelock is just a crank.

Maybe all Fellows of the Royal Society are cranks.

But I know who'd I'd bet on.

The biggest point the scientists are making is that there is a big unknown. Its quite possible that science & technology will figure out a way of sucking excess carbon out of the atmosphere. And reducing human carbon output to zero.

Experimental carbon sequestration schemes are starting. Renewable energy schemes are everywhere.

But there are at least two problems with this:

We don't know if any of these schemes will ultimately be sufficient to remove the CO2 output of industrial human society in our timescale.

We don't know if any reduction will happen soon enough to mitigate the worst possible consequences of current CO2 increases.

Maybe Tony has better advice than the rest of us "citizens". If so, that's something we really must be told. Personally I am concerned that even as a clever lawyer he has almost no understanding of the term "tipping point".

If not, we really must have a "plan B".

Plan B being everyone makes individual efforts to cut their carbon emissions.

Either that or we get the Tories next time... and party while Rome burns.

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