Read This!

Things are not always as they seem. I was most amused last week when a client and friend who recently finished first in his MBA year at a top Business School in South Africa recounted the following case study they did  some three years ago:  Taken over the entire life-cycle of the product, which leaves the biggest carbon footprint, the Hummer or the Prius? Well just posing the question means that you will deduce the improbable answer.  Taken into account the carbon needed not only in the reloading of the batteries of the Prius, but also the disposal of the batteries in an environmentally friendly way, translates in the Prius losing out to the Hummer.

Things are not always as they seem!

Which brings to me to another oblique take on climate issues.

At first glance it looks like another crack pot take on global climate change. The title of the article: “In defense of Carbon Dioxide” with the subtitle “The demonized chemical compound is a boon to plant life and has little correlation with global temperature.”

Until you look at the authors: Harrison H Schmitt , ex Apollo 17 astronaut and adjunct professor of engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and William Happer, Professor of Physics at Princeton University and former Director of the Office of energy at the US Department of Energy.

Once again so much for the conventional wisdom of the entire scientific community speaking with one voice on the topic. The article appeared last week in the WSJ. Go and read the full text there. It really helps to think differently!

Here is just a short excerpt from the final paragraph:

“We know that carbon dioxide has bee a  much larger part of the earth’s atmosphere than it is today and the geological record shows that life flourished on land and in the ocean during those times. The incredible list of supposed horrors that increasing carbon dioxide will bring the world is pure belief disguised as science.”