cc: Heinz Wanner <wanner@giub.unibe.ch>, k.briffa@uea.ac.uk, Christoph Kull <christoph.kull@pages.unibe.ch>, p.jones@uea.ac.uk
date: Thu, 20 Oct 2005 13:23:57 -0400
from: "Michael E. Mann" <mann@meteo.psu.edu>
subject: Re: PAGES/CLIVAR workshop - past millennia variability
to: Thorsten Kiefer <thorsten.kiefer@pages.unibe.ch>

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HI Thorsten,

Thanks for the update and summary. Having the endorsement of EPPRI for 
this could actually be helpful. There is nothing intrinsically 
anti-industry about the science (though some may feel there is), and so 
having EPPRI's stamp of approval could be helpful for both us and the 
broader community.

My Ph.D advisor (Barry Saltzman) got significant support from EPPRI 
through the years, and he never fealt that they in any way tried to 
place any constraints on what he did, published, etc...

I personally don't see a problem with this. But I'm interested in how 
others feel...

mike

Thorsten Kiefer wrote:

> Dear colleagues,
>
> I discussed the options with Heinz today and had spoken yesterday with 
> Christoph (who is now travelling), so can summarise a PAGES viewpoint.
> - We agreed with the opinions articulated so far that postponing the 
> workshop should be avoided in order to preserve the momentum. Also, 
> there would be no guarantee for financial support by CLIVAR somewhat 
> later.
> - To preserve the initial good concept, CLIVAR should remain on board, 
> assuming they want to.
>
> Currently, the resulting options for continuing as planned are to 
> downscale the workshop to the 10k PAGES support or, thanks to Phil's 
> mediation, to accept co-sponsoring by EPRI. Based on the 
> recommendations to and comments of Phil, the background information 
> from Larry Williams, and some study of their website we are in 
> principal open for such a partnership. Maybe unsurprisingly, EPRI 
> seems to have a general philosophy of handing climate change by 
> adaptation rather than mitigation, on which not everyone may agree. On 
> the other hand, this is beyond our objectives of reconstructing and 
> understanding climate change. Nevetheless, in the light of this, 
> points that we think needed clarifying and assuring are
> 1) that the science remains independent.
> 2) that the credibility of the group and the results does not suffer 
> from industry-related sponsoring.
>
> If these two points can be dealt with, then this could be a good 
> opportunity to get the initiative going. Keith and Mike, it would be 
> important to have your opinions on this. It is clear that all of us 
> addressed here had to be comfortable with EPRI sponsoring and the way 
> this is handled. If we are, then we should also get consent from 
> CLIVAR and the CLIVAR/PAGES leaders Andrew Weaver and Eystein Jansen.
>
> With kind regards,
> Thorsten
>
>
>
> On 8 Oct, 2005, at 12:50, Heinz Wanner wrote:
>
>> Dear colleagues,
>>
>> thanks for your messages. I will not comment the different 
>> suggestions but
>> discuss it within the PAGES group in Bern and let you know our ideas 
>> next
>> week. My opinion is that we should not loose too much time.
>>
>> Kind regards,   Heinz
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------
>>           Dr. Heinz Wanner, Prof., Director  of NCCR
>>     (National Center of Competence in Research in Climate)
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Office Institute of Geography:       Office NCCR Climate:
>>
>> Institute of Geography               NCCR Climate
>> Climatology and Meteorology          Management Center
>> Hallerstrasse 12                     Erlachstrasse 9a
>> CH-3012 Bern                         CH-3012 Bern
>>
>> Phone +41 (0)31 631 8885             Phone +41 (0)31 631 3160
>> Fax   +41 (0)31 631 8511             Fax   +41 (0)31 631 4383
>>
>> www.giub.unibe.ch/klimet/            www.nccr-climate.unibe.ch
>>
>>               e-mail:  heinz.wanner@giub.unibe.ch
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> Thorsten Kiefer
> PAGES International Project Office
> Sulgeneckstrasse 38, CH-3007 Bern, Switzerland
> tel: +41-(0)31-312 3154
> fax: +41-(0)31-312 3168
> kiefer@pages.unibe.ch
> http://www.pages-igbp.org/
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>


-- 
Michael E. Mann
Associate Professor
Director, Earth System Science Center (ESSC)

Department of Meteorology              Phone: (814) 863-4075
503 Walker Building                    FAX:   (814) 865-3663
The Pennsylvania State University      email:  mann@psu.edu
University Park, PA 16802-5013

http://www.met.psu.edu/dept/faculty/mann.htm


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