From DAVID SLADE
Your editorial took the American IPCC delegation to task for their weak
endorsement of the validity of global warming (Comment, 8 September). While
we may agree emotionally with John Houghton’s certainty that the earth will
become warmer, we must realise that predictions of our greenhouse future
are based on unproven models; models that cannot be proven until a climate
change can be unambiguously identified as an anthropogenic phenomenon. Therefore,
even the most environmentally active among us must entertain a hint of doubt.
What this suggests is that we should double our efforts to measure the
condition of the environment for the earliest possible detection of a climate
change (we Americans are doing well in this regard) and quadruple our efforts
to use the flow of data being collected (with a few exceptions, both the
US and Britain are doing poorly in analysing what is already on hand).
Also, and most obviously, I suggest we get on with those activities
that make sense even were a change in climate to prove a chimera.
David Slade Silver Spring Maryland, US
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