date: Thu, 11 Apr 2002 10:30:10 -0400
from: Edward Cook <drdendro@ldeo.columbia.edu>
subject: Re: ECS and MH letter
to: Keith Briffa <k.briffa@uea.ac.uk>

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Hi Keith,

Thanks for the comments. I did indeed try to keep the verbiage on a 
civil level, which is not always easy to do. I agree with you that 
Mike seems to be overwhelmingly concerned about what the greenhouse 
sceptics might think. Frankly, I just ignore the bastards like John 
Daly. Mike should do the same.

Cheers,

Ed

>Ed
>I have read the Mann et al letter and your response twice. Bottom 
>line answer to your primary request is that there are no factual 
>errors .
>My overall opinion is that you are just about right in balancing 
>firm response to get the record straight with a need to keep 
>composure and preserving  the probability of continuing constructive 
>interaction with Mann (and his diminishing support). Perhaps the one 
>point I would make though, is that you underplay the questionable 
>nature of much of Mann's verbiage ,in as much it is a response to 
>imagined rather than real conflict between your Science paper and 
>his reconstruction. Most of his comments I feel are addressing what 
>he imagines (rightly or wrongly ) the greenhouse sceptics will say 
>about recent warming after reading your paper , not what you 
>actually say. His reiteration of the point that unprecedented change 
>still stands is the primary example. You say temperatures about 1000 
>years ago "approach" those up to 1990. This is reasonable - and if 
>the reader studies your two chronology comparison , it is clear that 
>the MWP is not strongly hemispherically represented 
>contemporaneously.
>Malcolm's comments are really quite irritating - given that we (you 
>and I) have pioneered an honest approach to making explicit the 
>problems . It is not as though we don't know. Mike could be a lot 
>more open about the real uncertainty of his early temperature 
>estimates (as we discussed in our first perspectives piece). Anyway 
>, go ahead and distribute the piece and let's see what happens.
>cheers
>Keith
>
>--
>Professor Keith Briffa,
>Climatic Research Unit
>University of East Anglia
>Norwich, NR4 7TJ, U.K.
>
>Phone: +44-1603-593909
>Fax: +44-1603-507784
>
>http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/cru/people/briffa/


-- 
=================================
Dr. Edward R. Cook
Doherty Senior Scholar
Tree-Ring Laboratory
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
Palisades, New York  10964  USA
Phone: 1-845-365-8618
Fax:   1-845-365-8152
Email: drdendro@ldeo.columbia.edu
=================================
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