Hot and cold
Professor Anthony Trewavas (Letters, 30 October) implies that the Scientific Alliance does not believe in global warming and the UK should not bother to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. Perhaps he could make its position clear.
He deplores what he alleges is your “catastrophising” of “unlikely” climate change and suggests the changes are “imperceptible” on a decadal level. Yet the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) press conference, which I watched, was at pains to explain there could be catastrophic effects and that the decadal changes were certainly detected. Its charts and diagrams were quite alarming.
As for the surface temperature hiatus over the past 15 years, the IPCC made it clear the probable explanation is that heat has been absorbed by the deep oceans, where the temperature has increased. It may be that the models have been able to accommodate this effect.
Steuart Campbell
Dovecot Loan