Hi Vijay.
You were thinking about climate change, its impact on Africa, and the reliability of forecasters. We don't have any current Dadamac project or Special Interest Group (SIG) related to climate change, but that doesn't mean that we couldn't have one. Dadamac is concerned with using the Internet to help people rub minds and learn from each other - especially people who could never have connected with each other before the Internet existed.
Two people can start a group
If at least two people want to rub minds on something that seems relevant to Dadamac then we can start a new SIG here at Dadamac.net. However - I can't really be one of the two people, so we would need to bring in at least one other person. Meanwhile if you want to start sharing your thoughts and collecting up resources in readiness you are very welcome to do so.
How to begin
You can start just as you are doing, through your open letters, or we could set up a new discussion area. I think a discussion area might work best, as it would keep everything together. If you do start a new SIG (on this topic or any other) then you could organise various discussion threads in the discussion area. Meanwhile, if you come across any relevant resources you could gather them up there, and they could be the starting point for discussion if you do launch a group. Of course you can continue to mention your chosen topic in your open letters. If it grows and becomes a project of some kind then we can flag it up in the projects section. That is the way I expect Dadamac areas of interest to emerge here - new things and also things we are currently doing elswhere on the Internet.
Climate change and peak-oil
I agree with you that there are very worrying things happening regarding climate change now, and I also agree that it is hard for people who are not specialists to know who to believe about the future. However it seems to me that even people who disagree about climate change and carbon dioxide should be concerned about sustainable futures. I believe we should all be concerned that fossil fuels are being used up more quickly than they are being found. Surely - no matter how hard we look - there has to be a limit to how much fossil fuel can be found on one single planet. There is disagreement about when peak-oil will be reached (or if we have already gone past it) but it seems to me we should all be thinking hard about the implications and trying to imagine the future and prepare for a very different "normal" compared to what we know now.
What next?
Like you, I read quite a lot about this. If you decide to follow it up within Dadamac.net I will try to remember to forward relevant links and discussions to you when I come across them.
Pam