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WHAT THE SCIENCE REALLY SAYS

John Cook's Q & A simplified responses to the climate skeptics has become a popular iPhone application. He is interviewed by Andy Revkin at Dotearth

I studied physics at university and majored in astrophysics in my post-grad honors year. After completing my studies, I went into real world (a sorely needed break from academia) and I’ve been working from home for just over a decade now. I’ve never been involved in environmentalism before. To be honest, I’m not sure I’d characterize myself as an environmentalist now. While I got into global warming out of scientific curiosity, my continued interest and all the hours I spend on it are more out of concern for humanity than nature. I’m a Christian and a strong aspect of my faith is social conscience – hating injustice and caring for the poor. As I pored through the research into global warming impacts, I learned that poor and developing countries are those worst affected by global warming. Ironically, these are the countries least able to adapt to climate change.

The other motivation for me is I have a 10-year-old daughter and the latest science tells me she’ll see one to two meters’ sea level rise in her lifetime. This isn’t the rabid predictions of alarmist environmentalists – these are the results from multiple peer-reviewed studies using independent techniques that all arrive at the same answer. With such solid evidence being laid before us, I want to be able to look my daughter (and hopefully grandchildren) in the eye when I’m an old man and although my generation dithered on acting on climate change, at least I tried to change things to the best of my abilities.

Please continue reading the full interview at Dotearth.