date: Fri Jun 17 16:27:12 2005
from: Phil Jones <p.jones@uea.ac.uk>
subject: Re: Natural Climate Variability
to: "Joel Smith" <JSmith@stratusconsulting.com>

    Dear Joel,
        Seems as though you ought to send me the RFP whatever that is !
    I am away the week after next (June27-Jul1), but hear for most of the rest of the
    summer.
        I should say that I am very busy at the moment with the 4th Assessment Report
    of the IPCC - I'm a Convening Lead Author. Much of what you are planning will be
    reported in this Assessment, which has yet to go through an open and a Govt
    review process, so will not be out until early 2007.
        There will be two meetings yet of the IPCC chapter authors, and lots of
    writing and editing involved, so a lot of the key people who would need to
    be involved are very busy.
      There are a number of other initiatives taking place in the US as well in the
    Climate Change Science Program (CCSP), so, what I'm saying is that your
    initiative is running in parallel with a lot of other things. Many are looking at the
    same sort of issues as you want to.
      Once I've looked at the RFP perhaps we could talk.
    Cheers
    Phil
   At 15:56 17/06/2005, you wrote:

     Dr. Jones:
     The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) in the US is interested in sponsoring a
     workshop to review the state of knowledge on natural climate variability. EPRI is
     interested in this partly to help get a better handle on the attribution matter. They're
     not doubting the contribution of anthropogenic influences on climate. Nonetheless, as we
     look more at attribution, e.g., estimating the role of anthropogenic forcings at the
     regional scale and for specific extreme climate events, it is important to improve our
     understanding of natural variability. In addition, if there is movement to eventually
     set a global mean temperature target for climate change, then understanding the range of
     natural variability is even more critical.
     EPRI would like to put out an RFP to those who might be interested in organizing a
     workshop. The goal of the workshop would be to review the state of knowledge on natural
     climate variability, assess how well the climate models are capturing it, and define a
     research agenda.
     I am wondering if you or someone from your group might be interested in organizing such
     a workshop? The workshop does not need to be in the U.S.
     We'd be happy  to send the RFP to you, when it is ready to go. I'd be happy to supply
     more information or call you (although I am out most of next week.)
     yours,
     Joel Smith
     Joel B. Smith
     Stratus Consulting Inc.
     P.O. Box 4059
     Boulder, CO 80306-4059 USA
     Tel: 1-303-381-8218
     Fax: 1-303-381-8200
     jsmith@stratusconsulting.com
     [1]www.stratusconsulting.com

   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
   ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

