I have included a quote and link to an article in todays Australian in the left column. If you are already a member of the new Church of the Latter Day Alarmists or are considering applying for membership, you might like to read it and ponder. It’s not simply a case that I agree with the good Professor, but more that he articulates my feelings and opinions on the matter better than I do. I have problems with the ongoing debate about temperature changes. Opinions are abound over what a decimal point change in average temperatures mean and what, or who is causing it; with enormous efforts by commentators portraying light and sound presentations complete with graphs and pics of Polar Bears on melting ice flows. They present this as proof that the worlds climate is changing but no one needs proof – it has been changing forever. We once had an ice age and now we don’t, and before that ice age we had warmer periods. Climate is always changing, it is cyclic as are the orbits of all the agents; the sun, other planets and matters or agents unknown to us. That much is clear but the core of the religious movement is that we humans are causing it. Nothing else matters which is a poor premise because we don’t know enough about everything else. Those of the faith, the Church elders, use alarming statements to convert us. Your waterfront property will be worthless, crops will fail, continued mining of coal will turn the skies, and your lungs, black and the people flock to the pulpit. The media, sensing a new and varied way to sell their products, join the faith and we are flooded with images of Pittwater, Sydney flooded…look at your house, it’s meters under…and graphic depictions of the Great Barrier Reef without coral…all those beautiful colours lost. Shades of Armageddon thousands of years ago ago…..convert, do what I say or you will spend your days in purgatory. That’s not to say we don’t look to better manage the Earth but I would like to see it done in a secular fashion using the old, ever reliable science, engineering and common sense. Plant trees where we have clear felled, plant and manage plantation timbers, help third world countries maintain their rain forests with some financial help, pursue cleaner power, but most of all, let’s not panic about what the preacher said at the pulpit last Sunday. UPDATE: They are even trying to panic the beer drinkers.

BEER will be short supply, more expensive and may taste different as climate change affects barley production, a scientist says.