HAVING read the feature "Global warming is here and it's real" (February 16), I feel it worth pointing out that it isn't only Michael Crichton who doubts the claims of the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
The scientific community itself is split right down the middle as regards the doomsday scenario that is currently so popular in the media.
The Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine states as regards the effects of global warming: "Predictions of harmful climatic effects due to future increases in minor greenhouse gases like CO2 are in error and do not conform to current experimental knowledge."
A petition stating precisely this for the institute had recently been signed by 18,000 scientists. Closer to home, Prof David Bellamy, above, has been campaigning with numerous newspaper articles for a more grown-up debate on the matter.
The danger with a complex subject such as climate change is that it gets oversimplified with the net result that science is perceived to get in the way of mainstream politics.
Oliver Starzynski,
Murton Way,
York.
Updated: 11:32 Saturday, February 19, 2005
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