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"To take the extreme case, while it may at first blush seem
heartless to say that the welfare of those living in the next
millennium is of no consequence, to take decisions on the basis
that it is every bit as important as the welfare of the population
of the world today would be palpably absurd."
Nigel Lawson, An Appeal to Reason, A Cool Look at Global
Warming.
Lord Nigel Lawson is the founder
of the Global Warming Policy
Foundation, a life peer in the House of Lords, the author of
An Appeal to Reason, A Cool Look at Global Warming and a former
chancellor and secretary of state for energy.
In 2005 he was a member of the House of Commons Economic Affairs
Select Committee when it produced an inquiry into the economics of
climate change.
Although he has no scientific background, Lawson has considerable
political gravitas. He opens An Appeal to Reason by saying: "By way
of preamble, I readily admit that I am not a scientist." In his
book, Lawson states that the "largely man-made" increase in CO2
emissions have contributed to the "modest" Twentieth Century
warming of the planet. However, he believes that "climate
alarmists" have exaggerated the negative impact of this warming.
Lawson writes:
"Warmer but richer is in fact healthier than colder but
poorer". He asks: "Is it really plausible that there is an
ideal average world temperature?", adding "average world
temperature is simply a statistical artifact." In his book, Lawson
picks seven years of data from this century to question the
scientific consensus that global warming will continue. This line
of argument has been
widely criticized by scientists.
Dr Robert
Watson, a former chair of the IPCC and chief scientist to Department for
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), has said:
"Lord Lawson's perspective that the UK and Europe are over-reacting
to the threat of human-induced climate change is substantially
wrong and ignores a significant body of scientific, technological
and economic evidence."
Sir John Houghton, in a review of An Appeal to Reason for the
science journal Nature, argues that Lawson uses
"sleight of hand with gross numbers" to suggest future
generations will not be significantly adversely affected by climate
change while ignoring evidence that "global warming will lead to
tens or hundreds of millions of people suffering loss of resources,
livelihoods and land." Sir John concludes that Lawson presents
"misleading messages" that his conclusion on temperature rise show
a "surprising ignorance of elementary statistical analysis" and
recommends the peer "begin with a course of reading of the IPCC
reports."
Lawson is on the record stating:
"I think that the ordinary bloke has an instinctive sense that it
wouldn't be too bad if the weather warmed up." He stated the
summer heatwave in France of 2003, which was responsible for the deaths
of 15,000 people, was in his own experience "perfectly
tolerable". Lawson took part
in a Newsnight debate in 2008 with Professor Chris Rapley, the
Director of the Science Museum
. In the discussion he
stated: "The sea ice has been increasing considerably for the
last six months." Rapley replied: "If you're saying the sea ice is
freezing - it's winter."
Lawson has links to the oil industry via his chairmanship of the
company Central
Europe Trust, which he declares on the Register
of Lords' Interests. CET states on its website that it
co-manages private equity funds and consults on mergers and
acquisitions for companies including BP, Royal Dutch Shell and
Texaco. Lawson has also been president of the British Institute of Energy
Economics, sponsored by Royal Dutch Shell, the BG Group and
BP.
Lawson
attended Christ Church College, Oxford, where he studied
Philosophy, Politics and Economics. In 1961 he was appointed city
editor of the Sunday Telegraph and from 1966 was editor of the
Spectator. Lawson was elected as a Conservative MP in 1974 and
appointed to the position of Secretary of State for Energy in 1981.
He was made chancellor under Margaret Thatcher two years later, in
1983. He resigned as Chancellor in 1989, which made him the longest
serving chancellor at that time, after Thatcher ignored his advice
to join the European Exchange Rate Mechanism. Lawson retains
political and media influence - his son Dominic has edited the
Spectator and the Sunday Telegraph - and he is a prominent advocate
for the climate sceptic cause.
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