Climate change bias and the ethics of science

Ethics will represent a growth industry for the next decade and more, as companies and civic leaders grapple with ever more complex moral questions.

We must continue to encourage science in its quest to understand our universe and to suggest answers to intractable problems affecting us and our environment.

We must not, however, allow scientists to invest in nudge marketing, or worse, outright social conditioning in order to align public perceptions with unproven personal convictions.

We must hold up to stricter scrutiny scientific journals that use our respect for science and the technologies it produces as a platform from which to present as absolute truth what is still open to debate within the scientific community.

For my own part, I am not necessarily a global warming 'sceptic' - though I'm happy to be so branded if that means I'm open to other interpretations of the data.

As things stand at present, I'm very happy as a layperson to accept that warming is occurring. However to what degree this is so, and how much of the problem is man-made, are still open questions as far as I can see.

This is the nub of the problem: it's hard to take an informed position on any of these questions if one feels that one may be denied access to the full range of opinions.

If global warming science is to be taken seriously, by politicians, businesses and the wider the public, its practitioners and spokespeople must release all research findings irrespective of where they seem to point.

Millions are spent on global warming research projects and millions more are at stake in pursuing their findings, as politicians set regulations to which businesses and individuals must adjust, often at considerable cost.

What's more, the money committed today to developing and adopting climate change measures is money belonging to our children.

We must be a little more ruthless when it comes to holding the scientific community accountable, so that personal prejudices and professional reputations are not placed above ethics.

Whatever your view on global warming and its causes, I feel certain you'll agree that this is too important an issue to approach with anything less than the highest levels of integrity, on all sides of the debate.