<img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9kbq4y_QD5M/TmAw0Qg-PGI/AAAAAAAAABY/jqJatthlDWY/s1600/1_4_2_1_1.sflb.jpg" width="1200" height="801" alt="Pollution" class="alignnone" />

Just to be absolutely clear: Yes, I do believe anthropogenic climate change is occurring. And... I think it is totally worth it.

I find it hard to believe arguments that humans are not impacting the climate, but I also think that the change being caused is *far* less than the Green-Left would like us to think. The truth is that real warming has been consistently below that predicted by climate computer models, and many climate scientists accept that there has been no statistically significant warming over the past 18 years. 

Just take a look at this chart using the IPCC's own figures:
<a href="http://smartestplace.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Warming.jpg"><img src="http://smartestplace.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Warming-254x300.jpg" alt="Warming" width="450" height="500" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-627" /></a>

From my own experience with the complex transient models in my profession, the problem with these models is that they are highly dependent on the assumed feedback constants - this is the Butterfly Effect in action. The difference between entering 0.1, 0.11 and 0.12 into an equation can be all the difference between predictions of an ice-age, life as normal, or a parched wasteland.

But the purpose of this post is actually to defend the warming that we are all choosing to have, a choice reflected by our individual actions. I am at peace with my choice, as my view is that the climate change we are causing is simply worth it - because of the quality of life it offers my family, and also for the enormous numbers of people that are being given a better life in the developing world. This evidence is far stronger a motivator for my actions than the fear that sometime in the future, but conveniently not yet, millions of people will have their homes inundated by rising sea leves. I won't hold my breath for this, but even if sealevels were to rise, people aren't just going to sit there and ... drown. They'd move, and that is still an acceptable risk. My house is only 15 metres above sea-level, I may have to move.

Over the past twenty years alone vast numbers of people have moved out of poverty, particularly in China.
<img src="http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-XC741_POVERT_E_20130417171914.jpg" width="800" height="943" alt="Poverty rates" class="alignnone" />

When these percentages are translated to numbers, we are already talking about over 1,000,000,000 people who have moved out of extreme poverty over the past 20 years. And the trend continues.

Ironically the left are engaged in an ongoing fear campaign to try to influence voters ... when they so vocally denounce such tactics when used by the right. 
The consistent message from these groups has been a fear campaign: That we are stuffing up the world. That we are reaching a tipping point. And that we need to radically cut back on consumption. This is a campaign that seeks to make us all feel guilty, and ... here is the key bit ... vote for politicians that will free us from the very system that has brought us the prosperity in the first place.

I am a strong believer that we should make decisions based upon opportunity, not fear. I choose to be a pragmatist and an optimist, and in my mind at least the opportunities offered by continued development and growth are far more tangible than the fear that it is all going to suddenly go so wrong. 

The left are the real Axis of Evil, and being green is just a sugar-coating so they can try and administer their "Big Government knows best" doctrine. Not on my watch.