No one believes us, admit global warming scientists

BRITONS are not convinced that mankind has caused global warming, three leading climate scientists admitted yesterday.

Britons are not convinced mankind has caused global warming Britons are not convinced mankind has caused global warming

In the wake of the scandal at the University of East Anglia, they conceded there were “uncertainties” about the science, but said the evidence was still overwhelming.

Last year, leaked emails from the university’s climate research unit appeared to show that scientists had changed statistics to strengthen their case.

But yesterday Professors Julia Slingo, Brian Hoskins and Alan Thorpe spoke out after weeks of controversy concerning the accuracy of the evidence.

Professor Slingo, chief scientist at the Met Office, said: “We have a real issue about communicating science in a clear way which the public can understand and we haven’t done that very well.”

She said the impact on temperature of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, or CO2, had been known about since the 19th century. The link was “straightforward fundamental physics”, she said, while other data – from rises in sea level to retreating glaciers – also showed the climate was changing.

Professor Thorpe, head of the Natural Environment Research Council, said that in the wake of the recent controversy there was a need for researchers to engage more openly with the public.

He added: “We have to have discussions with everybody, with the public, whether they call themselves sceptics or not.” He said he would like to see sceptics using properly reviewed scientific studies to back their views rather than “hearsay and assumptions”.

“It’s not a matter of belief, it’s about the evidence,” Prof Thorpe said.

Prof Hoskins, of the Grantham Institute of Climate Change at Imperial College London and a member of the Government’s Committee on Climate Change, acknowledged there had been mistakes in the committee’s report, but said it did not undermine the case for global warming.

“There’s an audience out there that says: ‘I hope this isn’t the case’ and is eager to hear it’s not,” he said.

But he insisted: “This isn’t a question of belief. This is fact – and there’s emerging evidence it is increasing.”

Prince Charles yesterday rejected evidence that climate change was a myth. During a speech in Manchester, he asked: “Why is it that sea levels are more than six inches higher than they were 100 years ago? This isn’t an opinion – it is a fact.”

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