Over breakfast on 13th February, when my thoughts should have been anticipating the joys of the Valentine’s weekend, I found myself ranting at the radio, mouth full of organic oats, in disbelief at the Today programme’s startlingly unbalanced coverage of climate change.
Opinion vs fact
Anyone who can loses 30 kilogrammes in a few months, can rightly lay claim to being something of a slimming expert, but is Nigel Lawson the best person to spout forth on climate change? His arguments swayed erratically between climate scepticism and climate inevitably. In Lawson’s writings and interviews, he alternately challenges the scientific evidence for climate change whilst accepting that it is happening (but that it is so exaggerated that the economics of mitigation do not stack up).
Logic would dictate that these two positions are irrevocably linked. If climate change is as serious as expert bodies such as the InterGovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, then surely the damage will be as severe as economists such as Sir Nicholas Stern predict?
In other words, Lawson is trying to both have his cake and eat it; something his best-selling diet book surely warns about.
Stick to evidence-based decision making
This confusion between opinion and fact is something that those of us who don’t have access to prime airtime also need to guard against. Evidence-based decision making must form the basis for all corporate sustainability aims and aspirations. And we must be prepared to change our views as new evidence becomes available – as uncomfortable as this can sometimes be.
Challenge the evidence
I had cause recently to look at a three year old Government study on the economics of building integrated solar photovoltaics. Written today, that report would look very different. The cost of solar has tumbled in recent years. New evidence; different conclusions.
Sometimes new evidence is counter-intuitive. So called ‘food miles’ are not the most important contributor to the life cycle emissions of agricultural products (with the possible exception of products which are air freighted). E-readers are an environmentally preferable option to printing and distributing hardcopy books. And as I found out on one recent project, the use of recycled materials can sometimes have more impact than choosing the virgin alternative.
So, keep an open mind, challenge the evidence and base decisions on the best available information.