A common theme that has run throughout all presentations at Wilton Park is the reliance on stats. Presentations have been an orgy of numbers and percentages sprayed liberally on the unsuspecting audience. But the blur of digits comes at a price (literally if you are speaking about world energy demands in 2030). First and foremost we lose all sense of perspective. Faced with a succession of boxes on MTOEs it’s very easy to lose sight of what the real story is. Second, it becomes extremely tempting to use stats to support a set of questionable assumptions on the basis that your stats will trump everyone else’s. I reckon if we had taken a recording of all the presentations over the past couple of days then we would find a host of numerical discrepancies. Finally we dismiss the social and political issues at our peril. In our pursuit of hard facts and proven numbers we often miss the more nuanced conversations that are critical in understanding how the world works. Context in this game is everything.
Let’s make climate a culture war!
If the politics of climate change end up polarised, is that so bad? No – it’s disastrous. Or so I’ve long thought. Look at the US – where climate is even more polarised than abortion. Result: decades of flip flopping. Ambition under Clinton; reversal...
