LIFE

When Your Friend Believes Climate Change Is A Hoax

He’s a good guy and it is important we don’t fall out

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“How can two or three extra parts per million of CO2 cause climate change? Trees need CO2 and they release oxygen,” he told me. “The earth’s climate has shifted from hot to cold to hot. It is always changing. It’s nothing to do with CO2.”

I looked at Jock as if I was seeing him for the first time. What? It’s not even up for debate. Climate change is a thing and we’re causing it. I wondered if he was trying to wind me up. He wasn’t having any of it.

We got dressed and headed down for breakfast. We sat at a small table overlooking the gardens. January in Scotland is unpredictable. Jock looked out at the frost-covered ground. A flurry of snow swirled in the air, struggling to land in the bitter wind that rattled the trees. I could read his mind: He wouldn’t mind some of that global warming.

Weather and climate aren’t the same thing. The weather changes all the time; the climate is the long-term picture. “What if you are wrong?” I said. It was all I had left. “What if you are wrong?” Jock didn’t answer. “If we listen to all the tens of thousands of climate scientists and stop pumping CO2 into the atmosphere and it turns out they are wrong, it will be a waste of time…