Russian energy institute says climate change due to Earth's spin

© Flickr / azrainmanclimate change
climate change - Sputnik International
Subscribe
The head of a Russian energy strategy institute has claimed that fears over planet-warming emissions are exaggerated, and that observed climate change is in fact due to the slowing of the Earth's rotation.

The head of a Russian energy strategy institute has claimed that fears over planet-warming emissions are exaggerated, and that observed climate change is in fact due to the slowing of the Earth's rotation.

The United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen will enter its final day on Friday, with world leaders trying to agree on global measures to curb greenhouse gas emissions beyond 2012. Scientists have warned that the emissions cuts so far offered at the summit would fail to prevent a catastrophic rise in temperatures.

However, Vitaly Bushuyev, general director of the Energy Strategy Institute set up by Russia's Fuel and Energy Ministry, insists that the main reasons for climate change are being ignored.

"Cyclical changes, including climate change, have always existed and will continue to exist," Bushuyev told RIA Novosti.

"Climatologists tend to limit their research to the planet's thermal balance. In effect, they merely study the influence of solar radiation or its lack as caused by the greenhouse effect. In reality, a powerful energy force is linked with changes in the Earth's rotation speed, which is now slowing down.

"Even if the planet's rotation speed slows down insignificantly, at a rate of one second every few years, this process still generates a tremendous amount of energy, which would exceed the amount of electricity generated by all power plants around the world.

"This is why we believe that current climate change is not linked with any man-made factors or emissions from burning fuels, but is primarily determined by energy emissions into the Earth's atmosphere. Such emissions are determined by changes in the Earth's rotation speed," he said.

However, Bushuyev did not deny the danger of greenhouse gas emissions, saying any small changes can trigger larger ones.

"I have always believed and still think that it would be incorrect to go from one extreme to another and to claim that there is no impact and that the environment is something irrelevant, or to say that everything depends entirely on environmental factors.

"Humans increase or reduce this influence. We can even express this influence in percentage terms. Even a small increase in some critical change can become a decisive factor and trigger some process," he said.

He called for countries to join efforts to find the best way of deal with the looming environmental dangers.

"We must now work out a common approach, one based on the environment, energy and the economy. A common approach is the only way that would enable us to make the right decision regarding the development of our civilization," he said.

Bushuyev, 70, was deputy fuel and energy minister from 1992 to 1998.

MOSCOW, December 17 (RIA Novosti) 

Newsfeed
0
To participate in the discussion
log in or register
loader
Chats
Заголовок открываемого материала