date: Sun, 25 Nov 2001 18:05:59 +0000
from: Mike Hulme <m.hulme@uea.ac.uk>
subject: Roy Soc meeting, 12-13 December
to: andrew@ukace.org,paul.jefferiss@rspb.org.uk,ham@bnif.co.uk, steve.waller@ntlworld.com,robert.maynard@doh.gsi.gov.uk

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Dear Colleague,

Forgive this impersonal communication, but I wished to make contact 
initially with you all at this stage with some information about the 
session at the RS meeting on climate change on Thursday 13th December you 
have kindly agreed to contribute to as a discussant.

The session is called 'challenges for the UK' and follows an earlier 
session on 'challenges at the international level'.  The first day of the 
meeting (Wednesday) will have reviewed and critiqued (I hope) the three 
working group reports of the IPCC TAR.

Within the session I am co-ordinating there are three topics - reducing 
emissions (Tom Delay from the Carbon Trust speaking), risk - managing the 
dangers (Chris Newton from the E. Agency) and reaction - communicating 
climate change science (Roger Harrabin from the BBC).

The overall purpose of the session is to identify in as constructive a way 
as possible what needs to be done to ensure that climate change is managed 
in the UK as best we can.  The problem will not go away; we all have to 
accept that, through our own actions, we have created a rather different 
world than previous generations have lived through, a world in which 
climate will not just vary from season-to-season and from year-to-year as 
it has done for time immemorial and to which our society is, in some sense, 
adapted, but that there is now a directed trend in climate which we will 
all have to get used to.  How large this will be we don't know, although we 
know we can influence the magnitude of the future trend through our 
actions.  The session therefore has three themes - reduce the problem 
(mitigate), manage the risks (adapt) and provoke reaction (communication).

The role of the discussants is to provide a brief (no more than 5 minutes 
PLEASE) perspective from your professional vantage point about what the 
salient problems are and the highest priority actions for the UK to 
take.  In part, I hope you will also support or reject the perspectives 
provided by each of the three key speakers in turn (Delay, Newton and 
Harrabin) - the purpose is to stimulate discussion both in the Q&A time 
that will follow and around the fringes of the meeting.

I hope to be able to send you, in about 10 days time, some notes on what 
the three speakers plan to say - but feel free to contact me before time if 
you would like clarification.  I attach in the meantime my suggested 
drafting notes for the 3 speakers (they may well deviate of course, and I 
hope they do!!).

All logistical information is handled by the Society, not me - speak with 
Marisa Goulden.

Marisa Goulden
Science Policy Officer (Environment & Energy)
Science Advice Section
The Royal Society
6 Carlton House Terrace
London SW1Y 5AG
Tel: +44 (0)20 7451 2590
Fax: +44 (0)20 7451 2692
e-mail marisa.goulden@royalsoc.ac.uk


Many thanks,

Mike












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Attachment Converted: "c:\eudora\attach\Notes for RS meeting session 7.doc"
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*****************************************************************************
Dr Mike Hulme
Executive Director
Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research
School of Environmental Sciences
University of East Anglia
Norwich  NR4  7TJ
UK

tel:		+44 (0)1603 593162 (or 593900)
fax:		+44 (0)1603 593901
mobile:	07801 842 597
email:		m.hulme@uea.ac.uk
web site:  	www.tyndall.ac.uk

************************************************************************************
                   The Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research
                 .... integrated research for sustainable responses ....

       The Tyndall Centre is a new research initiative funded by three UK
   Research Councils - NERC, ESRC, EPSRC - with support from the DTI.
************************************************************************************
          
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