Question the Dogma: Guy Faulkner's climate sceptical song

Guy Faulkner has been a semi-professional musician and composer all his life. He is 'very unhappy with the climate debate - because there isn't one. Dissenting views are excluded. I have found the ‘cancel culture’ mentality particularly upsetting, hence my song 'Question the dogma'

I’ve eaten too much, drunk too much,
What can I say about saving the planet?
Do I need to go vegan?

Beer and spirits, steaks and burgers,
What can I have before they ban it?
I’m not going to be beaten.

Mother Earth is the new religion,
Windmills spread across the land,
Let’s drown our sorrows, have a party,
While we can.

Droughts and floods, fires and storms,
Is that what you get when the world warms?
Are coastal cities sinking?

They say we’re all doomed, apocalypse looms,
Let’s frighten the children and build some tombs,
What on earth are they thinking?

No one wants to question the dogma,
Believing the science is understood,
They’re all soaked in righteousness and feel so good.

The stats are skewed, the plans are laid,
They’re not to inform but to persuade.
It’s politics, not science.

We’ve got to change, rearrange
Our way of living and spend, spend, spend.
It’s all upfront, not deferred.

Someone has to question the dogma,
Stimulate a real debate.
There is another point of view which needs to be heard.

Guy Faulkner

Although I am only half a scientist, having trained for agriculture and recently retired as an agricultural journalist, I became unhappy more than 20 years ago with the way that 'global warming' was being portrayed, feeling that solar activity and natural variability were more important factors than human CO2 emissions. Two years ago, with more time on my hands, my patience snapped. I determined to read up about what sceptical scientists were saying.

It has become clear to me that terrestrial climate change is incredibly complex and not well understood. In reality nobody knows what will happen over the rest of the 21st century. It could well be that the world will begin to cool again in the years ahead and that would be very bad news for humanity. The world would struggle to feed 7.6 billion people, let alone 9-10 billion.

Crop yields have risen sharply and steadily ever since WWII. While this is largely due to plant breeding successes and improved agronomy, I would suggest that at least 10% of the gains have been due to the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide. Commercial greenhouses pump in air containing 800-1200 parts per million CO2 in order to boost yields. The contention that CO2 is a pollutant seems nonsensical to me.

I am very unhappy with the climate debate - because there isn't one. Dissenting views are excluded by, for example, the BBC and the New Scientist magazine. There are plenty of environmental concerns which I share, but the CO2 obsession has moved into the political arena and is charging down avenues which I fear will cost the earth, create a multitude of severe practical problems and ultimately fail to achieve more than a minimal reduction in global temperature.

I have been a semi-professional musician and composer all my life and have found the 'cancel culture' mentality particularly upsetting, hence the song. I was very fortunate that Guy Barnes was available to sing it.