date: Thu, 19 Apr 2007 11:46:08 +0100 from: "Bob Ward" subject: RE: The Great Global Warming Swindle to: "Phil Jones" Dear Phil, Many thanks for your message of support, despite being busy in Vienna (I'm also here at EGU). The Royal Society is circulating the letter for signatures from Fellows, so hopefully Brian Hoskins will also hear from them. I don't really know what to suggest about the data request - I have already seen some of the commentary on the issue and it seems clear that McKittrick is looking to cause trouble. It seems to me that you are damned if you do and damned if you don't respond positively. I guess it looks better to outsiders to agree - although it seems that permission is needed from the partners organisations, so I suggest you make McKittrick approach them for permission. In terms of managing the release, I am a fan of getting retaliation in first, so it might be worth preparing a rebuttal to the most obvious points that McKittrick may try to make. This sort of preparation may take a bit of time but will probably pay off because an instant rebuttal often seems more definitive than a finely-crafted but delayed response. I hadn't realised that Paul and Matt were former students of yours - I'll mention that you and I have been in contact when I am next in the office. Bob Bob Ward Director, Global Science Networks Risk Management Solutions Ltd Peninsular House 30 Monument Street London EC3R 8NB Tel. +44 (0) 20 7444 7741 Blackberry +44 (0) 7710 333687 [1]www.rms.com ______________________________________________________________________________________ From: Phil Jones [mailto:p.jones@uea.ac.uk] Sent: 19 April 2007 10:19 To: Bob Ward Subject: Re: The Great Global Warming Swindle Bob, Been in Vienna and away next week, but happy to sign up for this. I've just sent an email to Brian Hoskins (couldn't think of who else to send it) about their Climate Change controversy web pages. Their argument 1 is too brief on the MWP and LIA and should have been stronger on the English aspects of these. Grapes were not that extensively grown. There were ~40 vineyards in the Domesday Book and there are over 400 now. Wine drinking is more cultural (Romans/Normans as they were used to it) and now it is more in. Anglo-Saxons drank beer and the Celts spirits. Also the Thames only froze over between 1400 and 1830 when the old London Bridge was there with its weir which stopped the tide. Most of the frost fairs occurred when we have Manley's Central England temperature record. On the Ch 4 programme, I met Eric Wolff (BAS) in Vienna and he told me that Carl Wunsch has hired some London lawyers as Ch 4 said they would counter sue him. Also Eric said the NASA figure with the global temperatures on was a plot from 1881 to 1987 that was stretched to extend to the present. The plot looked wrong to me when I saw the programme, but I didn't record it. I saw that the schematic from the First IPCC Assessment Report in 1990 resurfaced. As you say this was superceded by subsequent reports. The one in AR4 will be more comprehensive, but similar to the TAR. I'm involved in a paper from paleo-group meeting last year. In this I will be showing what the schematic is actually based on. It is not just a schematic (as its caption says) it is actually a smoothed series for one location. Hopefully, the review paper will be ready for submission in a few months. Keep up your efforts. I could spend all my time dismissing the claims not just in the programme, but in several recent papers in supposedly peer-review journals (not climate ones). When I've talked recently to journalists, I've stressed they should find out the qualifications of their experts - what I've told them to ask is whether they have papers published in Climate Journals. Only a few on the Ch 4 programme had, and then some were a number of years ago. The NAS and CCSP reports in 2006 and the IPCC (WG1) when CUP get it out soon go a long way to show the current state in Climate Science. It is ridiculous for anyone to ignore these, but I expect many will. I expect more of the same from the skeptics when the AR4 report comes out - in May I'm told. On May 4 you should be able to get pdfs of the chapters. On a related issue, I'd like some advice. I'm being hassled by some of the skeptics (the Climate Audit people). They are requesting much of the data through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in the UK. They want the raw station data (we make the grids available) and specific data from papers as far back as 1990 (a paper in Nature). I've given them the latter, as amazingly I could find it. Anyway, I've been contacted by someone in Nature who has noticed their letters and UEA responses on the Climate Audit site. I'm in two minds about whether to contact Nature, as it may give them airtime which is not my aim. I've got nothing to hide, but I don't see why I should make the raw data we've collected available - particularly as for some we agreed not to pass it on (with the National Met Service that provided it) to third parties (but we can use it in the grids). I hope you've met a couple of our ex-PhD students Paul Burgess and Matt Swann at RMS. If you see Matt, he's still to finish his PhD, but I expect you're giving him lots of work and he's finding it hard to find the time to fully write up. Cheers Phil At 06:37 19/04/2007, you wrote: Dear Professor Jones I am writing to seek your support for a protest letter against the planned distribution of DVDs of 'The Great Global Warming Swindle', which contains a number of serious misrepresentations of the science of climate change. The programme was originally broadcast by Channel Four on 8 March and subsequently repeated several times on More 4. Ofcom has received about 150 complaints about the programme, and is due to give its view in the next few weeks. I have submitted a complaint outlining seven major misrepresentations that occur in the programme (see attached document). However, the programme's production company, Wag TV, is already taking advance orders for the DVD, which is due to be distributed shortly. Although Ofcom's role includes enforcement of the Broadcasting Code, its remit does not extend to the distribution of DVD versions of programmes. In effect, Wag TV is not bound to wait for Ofcom's ruling before it distributes the DVD, nor is it required to reflect Ofcom's ruling in the DVD version. Wag TV is using its website to prominently promote sales of the DVD and has devoted a separate website to the programme ([2] http://www.greatglobalwarmingswindle.com), which includes commentary and links to materials that it claims support the version of climate change science that was presented. I believe that it is not in the public interest for the DVD to be distributed without amendment of the serious misrepresentations that were contained in the broadcast versions of the programme. As Ofcom is unable to uphold the public interest in this case, I am seeking to gain signatures on a letter of protest to Martin Durkin, who produced the programme and who is Managing Director of Wag TV. I have sent this letter to a number of leading researchers, such as you, for signature. I hope that you will join me in signing the letter and thus put pressure on Wag TV to correct the misrepresentations before the DVD is distributed. I also hope to attract wider media coverage for the letter once it has been despatched. In view of the plans to distribute the DVD very shortly, I would be grateful if you could let me know as soon as possible, and no later than 10:00 am on Monday 23 April, whether you are willing to sign this letter. Please feel free to contact me if you require any further information. Best wishes, Bob Ward Director, Global Science Networks Risk Management Solutions Ltd Peninsular House 30 Monument Street London EC3R 8NB Tel. +44 (0) 20 7444 7741 Blackberry +44 (0) 7710 333687 [3]www.rms.com This message and any attachments contain information that may be RMS Inc. confidential and/or privileged. If you are not the intended recipient (or authorized to receive for the intended recipient), and have received this message in error, any use, disclosure or distribution is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately by replying to the e-mail and permanently deleting the message from your computer and/or storage system. Prof. Phil Jones Climatic Research Unit Telephone +44 (0) 1603 592090 School of Environmental Sciences Fax +44 (0) 1603 507784 University of East Anglia Norwich Email p.jones@uea.ac.uk NR4 7TJ UK ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- This message and any attachments contain information that may be RMS Inc. confidential and/or privileged. If you are not the intended recipient (or authorized to receive for the intended recipient), and have received this message in error, any use, disclosure or distribution is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately by replying to the e-mail and permanently deleting the message from your computer and/or storage system.