In Nature, Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger is calling on scientists to put pressure on organisations like the Wellcome Trust and the Gates Foundation to divest from fossil fuels. Now I'm not sure about the idea of scientists taking up the activist cudgels in this way, but I'm certainly interested in the views of climate scientists on the moral dilemmas involved. A month or so ago I asked climate scientists a very similar question on Twitter.
Climate scientist followers: what is your response to people who seek to deny third world access to fossil fuels because of AGW?
— Bishop Hill (@aDissentient) March 15, 2015
My question had been prompted by a tweet by Gavin Schmidt, who had been taking Matt Ridley to task for even suggesting that there might be a trade-off:
Conflating climate change concerns w/a disregard for African children dying from smoke inhalation by @mattwridley is totally abhorrent.
— Gavin Schmidt (@ClimateOfGavin) March 14, 2015
Unfortunately, nobody seemed to want to respond to my question, and Doug McNeall said that this was my own fault:
@aDissentient *sigh* nobody engages with you because your attempt to frame this is so transparently cynical. @ClimateOfGavin
— Doug McNeall (@dougmcneall) March 16, 2015
I don't see this myself. The policymakers who had to consider the question of investment in fossil-fuels in the Third World had a simple choice to make: do it, or don't do it. To ask people which way they would have chosen is hardly unfair.
Nor is it unfair to note that the policymakers in question said "no" and that their choice has had consequences: no decrease in deaths from woodsmoke in the present day but, if the climate and economic models are to be believed, then a saving of lives and costs in the future.
These are the choices that society has to make, and Alan Rusbridger is asking scientists to stand up and make the same decision. For sure, he makes no mention of the trade-offs involved, so I'm sure I will be commended by all involved for making this clarification.
I wonder what reaction he will get?