Philip Stott

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This article is about the British biogeographer. For the British architect, engineer and surveyor, see Sir Philip Stott, 1st Baronet.

Philip Stott is a professor emeritus of biogeography at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and a former editor (1987-2004) of the Journal of Biogeography [1] [2].

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[edit] Background

In the early 1970s, Stott and his wife, a historian and biographer, lived in Thailand and he was carrying out field research at Kalasin. He has two daughters.

He has written academic papers and books on chalk grassland, on the vegetation and archaeology of Thailand (and on the rest of southeast Asia), on ecology and biogeography (eg. his textbook 'Historical Plant Geography'), on fire ecology eg. [3], on lichens and mosses, on tropical rain forest eg. [4] and [5] (with references), and on the construction of environmental knowledge.

He is currently Chair of The Anglo-Thai Society [6], UK. He is no longer a member of the Scientific Alliance because he deems it important to be academically independent of all organisations, industry, and Green groups.

In the UK, he is a life-long Labour supporter and he regards himself as mildly left wing politically. He is fiercely anti-tobacco (see his Blog).

[edit] Media

He writes for the press, especially for The Times, and broadcasts regularly on BBC radio and television on subjects including biogeography, extinction, climatology, and ecology.

He hosts a new web site (April 2005 onwards), based on Bruno Latour's 'A Parliament of Things' [7].

Stott is often on Talksport with James Whale talking about Global Warming in his regular evening show.

He appeared on "The Great Global Warming Swindle" on Channel 4.

In June 2008 he was a guest on Private Passions, the biographical music discussion programme on BBC Radio 3.[1]

[edit] Published works

  • Royal Siamese Maps: War and Trade in Nineteenth Century Thailand (River Books and Thames & Hudson: 2005), for H.R.H. Princess Sirindhorn [8] (with Santanee Phasuk)
  • Global environmental change (Blackwell Science: largely on climate change) (with Dr. Peter Moore and Professor Bill Chaloner)
  • Political ecology: science, myth and power (Edward Arnold; Oxford USA) (edited with Dr. Sian Sullivan) [9].

He has also published four books of recorder music for children and recorder consorts eg. [10], and he used to conduct an Early Music Consort called 'Pifaresca'. His Sinfonia Concertante for Clarinet in B flat is available for downloading from Philip Stott's Music Box [11], along with other compositions, and the full orchestral score from Finale Showcase [12].

[edit] Views

[edit] Global warming

Stott regards himself as a Humeian 'mitigated sceptic' [13] on the subject of global warming. He has not published scholarly articles in the field of climate change, although he has published books on the subject. Also, he has researched on the construction of environmental knowledge, including global warming as a Barthesian myth, for over thirty years.

Stott has been critical of terms like 'climate sceptic' and 'climate-change denier'; he believes in a distinction between the science of climate change and what he asserts is the Barthesian myth [14] of global warming [15], saying,

"... the global warming myth harks back to a lost Golden Age of climate stability, or, to employ a more modern term, climate 'sustainability'. Sadly, the idea of a sustainable climate is an oxymoron. The fact that we have rediscovered climate change at the turn of the Millennium tells us more about ourselves, and about our devices and desires, than about climate. Opponents of global warming are often snidely referred to as 'climate change deniers'; precisely the opposite is true. Those who question the myth of global warming are passionate believers in climate change - it is the global warmers who deny that climate change is the norm." [16] (see also his essay on environmental change and La Brea [17].)

Stott is also critical of organizations like the IPCC.

His attitude to climate change is best summed up in a central passage from a letter published recently in The Daily Telegraph (June 10, 2005) [18]:

"Climate change has to be broken down into three questions: 'Is climate changing and in what direction?' 'Are humans influencing climate change, and to what degree?' And: 'Are humans able to manage climate change predictably by adjusting one or two factors out of the thousands involved?' The most fundamental question is: 'Can humans manipulate climate predictably?' Or, more scientifically: 'Will cutting carbon dioxide emissions at the margin produce a linear, predictable change in climate?' The answer is 'No'. In so complex a coupled, non-linear, chaotic system as climate, not doing something at the margins is as unpredictable as doing something. This is the cautious science; the rest is dogma." For his views more generally on climate change, see [19].

[edit] Energy policy

Stott's "alternative Charter for a sound energy policy" begins with (what) we need are strong economies that can adapt to climate change and he proposes that the Kyoto Protocol be dropped because of "[I]ts ‘command-and-control’ economics which have no chance of working in the face of world economic growth, especially in the developing world." [20]. He believes that the Kyoto Protocol is moribund politically [21]. Stott is concerned that the UK is failing to address its core energy needs, which must involve a mix of clean coal, gas, and probably nuclear power [22]. Stott also encourages development of energy infrastructure in the developing world. He sees the alleviation of energy poverty, along with the need for clean water, as two of the most urgent world issues [23] He regards most renewables as helpful (although he is critical of wind power), but only marginal to the core requirements of an advanced society. [24].

[edit] Deforestation in the Amazon

Stott contested the research of a report in 2001 that predicted that by 2020 the forest would be 42% deforested.

"New research in Brazil suggests that around 87.5% of the previously mapped area of the Amazon remains largely intact and, of the 12.5% that has been deforested, one-third to one-half is fallow or in the process of regeneration," he said [25].
"This lungs of the earth business is nonsense; the daftest of all theories"

Stott teamed up with Patrick Moore in 2000 and made several appearances deposing deforestation research.

"One of the simple, but very important, facts is that the rainforests have only been around for between 12,000 and 16,000 years. That sounds like a very long time but, in terms of the history of the earth, it's hardly a pinprick. Before then, there were hardly any rainforests. They are very young. It is just a big mistake that people are making." [26]

[edit] References

  1. ^ BBC Radio 3

[edit] External links