<center><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" /></center>

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

Having holidayed in China just last year, 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 models, and many climate scientists accept that there has been no statistically significant warming over the past 15 years or so. Yes there is a longer-term trend, but it really ain't that bad.

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.

However the purpose of this post is not to attack these computer models, but instead to defend the warming that we are all implicitly choosing to have - a choice reflected by our individual actions. I honesty don't mind if people choose to post to 'Get Up!' about the need for more wind-power from their shiny, new iPhone 6 and then drive (in their imported car) to the polling booth to vote for Senator Ludlum - just so long as they recognise their own hypocrisy and realise they are just talking the talk.

I am totally 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 the chance of a better life in the developing world. 

Over the past twenty years alone vast numbers of people have moved out of poverty, particularly in China.

<center><img src="http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-XC741_POVERT_E_20130417171914.jpg" width="800" height="943" alt="Poverty rates" class="alignnone" /></center>

When these percentages are translated to numbers, we are already talking 1,500,000,000 people who have moved out of extreme poverty over the past 20 years. Long may this trend continue, but don't kid yourself into thinking it would have been possible without global warming. Make your choice, and then live with that choice. I have.

This evidence is a far stronger motivator for my actions than Green-Left political arguments: That sometime in the future (but conveniently not yet), millions of people will have their homes inundated by rising sea-levels. I won't hold my breath for this, but even if sea-levels were to rise, people aren't just going to sit there and ... drown. They would move. So even this risk acceptable, and more than compensated for by the global benefits real people are enjoying right now. My house is only 15 metres above sea-level, indeed I may have to move if the doomsayers most pessimistic projections are correct.

Ironically the Green-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 negative: That we are stuffing up the world. That we are rapidly approaching 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 dismantle the very system that has brought us prosperity in the first place.

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

The Green-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.