Climate Change Debate -- Worth Watching if you Have the Time!

I am a nerd. We all know this. This blog is pretty nerdy, and this post in particular will ramp up the nerdy factor exponentially, but please bear with me...

So on Monday, the University of Virginia School of Law hosted a most interested climate change debate. Each side (i.e. climate change believers & climate change skeptics) was represented by a respected scientist and a respected law professor. The debate was great in that it was informative and went well beyond the ordinary superficial rhetoric that the daily media is inundated with.

For me the debate really hit home on two key points:

1) A wise professor once told me that the ideal LLM program should both push the boundaries of your closely held preconceived notions since this sort of challenge helps you formulate a properly informed response, and also there should be good free food lectures.... Well I can say that this debate satisfied both of those prerequisites...

2) Climate change, whether you believe it or not, is something that the general public should (in my opinion) inform themselves about given the importance of this issue moving forward. This debate accurately captured the difference between climate change denial (i.e. CO2 is not a greenhouse gas, or there is not any warming) and climate change skepticism (i.e. the complex interaction between positive and negative feedback loops that impact the climate system are still being investigated, we cannot rely completely on computer models to tell us what is happening in the real world, and while a 2-3 degree celcius warming is likely happening does this magnitude require immediate and alarmist action).

I, for one, believe quite strongly in the precautionary approach to these problems and would have not problem sacrificing some amenities in the here and now if it means future generations will be able to enjoy the same sort of world that we enjoy now. I also value wildlife and biodiversity generally quite highly, and as a moral judgment call think we should act now to avoid causing more harm than is necessary. Have you thought about any of these issues today? How about my readers back in Alberta, where climate change and also the conventional pollution issues associated with our fossil-fuel-frenzied society are front and center? Something to consider on a Thursday, perhaps...

If you are at all interested in listening to what the experts down here had to say about it all, here is the link to the YouTube video of the debate (I apologize that this link is not accompanied by the Mexican food that was enjoyed in person):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9Sh1B-rV60

Have a great day!