No longer possible to deny global warming

IN HIS LETTER of August 19, Dr Kelvin Kemm, from Nuclear Energy Africa, responded to a previous comment written by Dr Nicholas King published on August 3. For clarity, King, along with other wellqualified scientists and experts, provides pro bono expert advice to the Centre for Environmental Rights.

The Centre for Environmental Rights welcomes debate on all matters of science and policy, and everyone is entitled to their views. However, as lawyers we only respond to and act on broadly accepted and peer reviewed science.

While there is still uncertainty about the exact impacts of global warming and the time frame of these impacts on our climate and our environment, it is no longer possible to argue viably that global warming is not happening, that such warming is not the result of human activity, or that urgent steps are not required to mitigate and adapt.

This is now the position of every major academy of science around the world. It is also the position of the South African government and of all major governments worldwide.

The centre promotes the realisation of environmental rights as guaranteed in the constitution. This requires us to protect the environment for the benefit of present and future generations.

To the extent that the risks to our environment, our health and our wellbeing are uncertain, the sustainable development principles that form part of our law require us to act now to mitigate and adapt, and not to wait until we no longer have this option.

Difficult as it is for Kemm and for some of the other readers who have responded to King’s letter to accept, acting now requires significant shifts in the way we inhabit this planet.

One of these shifts is to move away from mining and burning dirty fossil fuels, and to invest urgently and assertively in clean renewable energy. MELISSA FOURIE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, CENTRE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL RIGHTS, CAPE TOWN