How to save us from climate-change doomsayers

Science has got more spineless since the 1960s and 70s. And politicians love it because they do not have to make uncomfortable decisions.

Science is too dependent on research grants and beholden to industry to rock the boat. Scientific institutions are too scared their scientists might make them look foolish if breakthroughs are proven wrong. And the peer review system for scientific papers is defective. Why hand your work to anonymous competitors who have a vested interest in bagging it?

Carson, Rowland and Molina did not conform to the scientific community's norms. They went out on a limb and helped save the world.

Rowland and Molina were awarded the Nobel Prize in 1995 – 21 years after the event.

With CFCs, the science was accepted and humankind was saved from millions of extra cases of skin cancer and other radiation effects on plants and animals. But we were only just in time. And the ban on DDT has spared us much environmental destruction.

With climate change there is not much time left for serious action before it is too late. This week's permafrost report is yet another warning for us to ignore at our peril.