Centerfield

Putting Your Money Where Your Mouth Is

Climate change sceptics bet $10,000 on cooler world: Russian pair challenge UK expert over global warming

Two climate change sceptics, who believe the dangers of global warming are overstated, have put their money where their mouth is and bet $10,000 that the planet will cool over the next decade.

The Russian solar physicists Galina Mashnich and Vladimir Bashkirtsev have agreed the wager with a British climate expert, James Annan.

The pair, based in Irkutsk, at the Institute of Solar-Terrestrial Physics, believe that global temperatures are driven more by changes in the sun's activity than by the emission of greenhouse gases. They say the Earth warms and cools in response to changes in the number and size of sunspots. Most mainstream scientists dismiss the idea, but as the sun is expected to enter a less active phase over the next few decades the Russian duo are confident they will see a drop in global temperatures.

I dunno who's right. I have doubts that we'll see a decline, just as I have doubts that any rise will be on the scale that some predict. I'm not posting this because I have a dog in the fight, I'm posting it because I like it when people making predictions are willing to put some money on the outcome. There are few things I enjoy more than giving someone talking out their butt the old "I'll bet you $100 you're wrong" and then enjoying the retreat to safer more qualified ground.