Climate sceptics

Independent, 1 March 2011:

Freeman Dyson is regarded as a leading climate change sceptic, but there was little evidence of scientific rigour in his debate with Steve Connor. He concedes that carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas and that levels are now higher than at any time in the past 800,000 years. Yet he denies that the global average temperature increase is due to rising levels of CO2.

In response to Connor’s query: “Where then has the extra trapped heat gone to?”, Professor Dyson describes the issue as a “narrow, technical question”. It is, of course, nothing of the sort. It is fundamental to the debate.

Dr Robin Russell-Jones
Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire