Sir, – Your editorial on climate (November 19th), the latest in a litany of alarmism by your newspaper in the past two decades, merely regurgitates the increasingly discredited view of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Its alarmist narrative – of substantial increases in the average global temperature by 2050 if fossil fuel burning is not massively curtailed – relies on the resultant water vapour from industrial activity (largely from fossil fuel burning) having a positive amplifying effect.
Empirical evidence in the recent decade, during which time there was an exponential surge in carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere, is that the water vapour is having a negative feedback. Without the predicted positive effect, the IPCC concedes that the average temperature will only increase by another 1.3 degrees by the end of this century, well within its prescribed safe limit.
The contrary view to that of the IPCC, concerning the minimal 0.7 degrees increase in global temperature that has occurred since 1850, is that the main driver of that warming was increased solar activity up to the end of the 20th century which, it is generally now conceded by all, including Nasa and the UK’s Met Office, is reversing to a point where there is a significant risk of globally cooler temperatures over the coming decades. – Yours, etc,