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Michael and Mark, I was wondering whether you might indulge me by explaining exactly what you believe can be said about the current cold weather in the UK in relation to climate change. I have seen previous posts pointing out that this is likely the cause of the negative phase of the Arctic Oscillation, but I would be interested to know what connection, if any, this has with climate change. I would observe that we are now in the unfortunate position of having every individual weather event discussed in terms of whether it disproves or proves climate change. This isn't helping the public's understanding of the relationship between weather, natural climate variability and climate change. Bob Ward Policy and Communications Director Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment London School of Economics and Political Science Houghton Street London WC2A 2AE http://www.lse.ac.uk/grantham Tel. +44 (0) 20 7106 1236 Mob. +44 (0) 7811 320346 -----Original Message----- From: Discussion list for the Crisis Forum [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Mark Levene Sent: 21 December 2010 08:36 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: Conspiracy of silence Michael, Just for confirmation I saw it too, thought back to your and other material which has passed on the CF site, and was indeed, similarly confounded by the sheer inanity of Shukman's narrative, almost all of which 3 minute primetime TV seemed to be taken up in disinformation/ avoidance, of the issue! With the lack of anything else on offer by way of explanation, your analysis would seem to be (alas) all too correct, mark (Crisis Forum) on 21/12/10 1:01 am, Michael Northcott at [log in to unmask] wrote: > I just watched a BBC 'science' correspondent do 3 minutes in prime > time news on the present extreme weather with no reference to climate > science and the clear links made in a number of peer reviewed papers > published since 2009 - I sent a link to this lust of one of these two > weeks ago - between reduced Arctic sea ice, warming in Arctic and > subarctic latitudes including dramatic warming in Greenland and the > pressure changes that have caused the last two strong winters in > Northern Europe and Northeast US. I begin to detect a weird conspiracy > of silence in this blatant refusal to connect weather and climate so > permitting the pointy eared climate sceptics to ramp up their anti- > scientific nonsense. The BBC even interviewed a guy from the Met > Office who simply acted dumb and said no we can't predict weather/ > climate beyond a few months. Is this the UEA effect or simply the BBC > gradually morphing into Fox News, as apparently its overpaid DG Mark > Thompson would like? > > > Professor Michael Northcott > New College > Edinburgh > EH1 2LX > UK Please access the attached hyperlink for an important electronic communications disclaimer: http://lse.ac.uk/emailDisclaimer