Cooling off
WHAT IS a department of environmental studies? Something that puts an extra mil- lion pounds on to a college's appeal for funds. So I thought it a bad sign when the Institute of Economic Affairs acquired an environment unit. Now comes the unit's first report, on — you guessed it — global warming. What should the government do? Nothing. That is the IEA's recommenda- tion and I must say that it makes a change. No need for a Euro-tax on carbon fuels. No need for the levy that rigs prices in favour of windmills — hopelessly uneconomic, and, as contributions to the environment, no more than eyesores and earaches. The IEA finds no convincing evidence that the globe is warming up or that carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would have much to do with it. It is a shock to received opinion as deep as that administered by Andrew Kenny, arguing (in The Spectator last week) that the ozone layer was proof against fridges and hair-sprays. It wil go down par- ticularly badly with colleges, which will have to think of some other reason for wanting a million pounds. Global warming itself made a change from global cooling. Twenty years ago, we were supposed to be cutting ourselves off from the sun's warm- ing rays by filling the atmosphere with dust. It was enough to worry scientists like Fred Hoyle into writing best-sellers. Govern- ments never got round to doing anything about it and thus saved themselves and the rest of us a lot of trouble.
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