Unwise intervention by prince

HOW right the Prince of Wales is to express his "dismay and alarm" at recent developments in the debate over climate change. Spot on. Many will indeed feel "dismay and alarm" at the extent to which over-statement and carelessness has crept in over predictions of climate change.

Unfortunately, the prince's "dismay and alarm" were directed at those who have criticised some of the recent statements of the climate change school. His speech comes in the wake of a series of embarrassing setbacks for climate experts, including leaked e-mails that showed scientists covering up evidence that did not support the global warming model. And earlier this week, Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, admitted the claim Himalayan glaciers would melt by 2035 was not true. Now Greenpeace UK director John Sauven wants Pachauri replaced. He says the good doctor should have acted as soon as he was informed of the "error", even though issuing a correction would have embarrassed the IPCC on the eve of the Copenhagen climate summit.

Good argument should not need alarmist over-statements to make the case. Better, surely, for the prince to have maintained a studied distance between himself and those whose utterances have caused many to question the underlying climate change case.