cc: a.minns,e.l.jones
date: Mon Apr 14 18:44:01 2003
from: Mike Hulme <m.hulme@uea.ac.uk>
subject: Re: Lenton, EDP and CRed
to: "Trevor Davies" <T.D.Davies@uea.ac.uk>

   Thanks Trevor - I had already drafted a letter to the EDP which has gone off.  It is
   attached below.  I don't usually respond to Lenton's jibes, but I did to this one since he
   (ab)used my name specifically.
   Glad to know EDP are on board for CRed.
   The brochure looks good.  A couple of suggestions:
   - the text by the graph of temperature could usefully have inserted "contained" between
   "carbon" and "in fossil fuels"
   - the graph could be a little bit better captioned/explained
   - the blurb cutting from 5 balloons to 2 balloons - this could be improved; when it says
   "released" what do you mean?  this is for UK average - what about the world?  you have used
   CO2 mass rather than C mass (the latter is the more common unit in formal statistics).
   And a final point - I know Marcus is working on CRed and Simon G has a role; who else in
   ENV is currently employed on CRed?  Just useful to know who the right contact points are.
   And as Tyndall's rep on the Advisory Group for CRed, will Elaine be involved in any formal
   planning and development as the project takes off?
   And a final, final point - we (Laura) could still do with a bit of text about the 6
   September Saturday CRed event as part of SD3 and ZICER opening - or maybe she has it
   already.
   Thanks,
   Mike
   ___________________________________________
   Sir
   Mr Tim Lenton is clearly an arch sceptic of the idea that humans are already changing world
   climate ("Doing nothing, Mr Hulme, actually might be best", 13 April). For the many
   thousands of EDP readers, however, such cynicism and ignorance deserves a reply.
   The Ice Ages he mentions occurred when global temperature swung just 4-5 degC in a colder
   direction; the prospect ahead of us now is a 2-6degC movement to warmer conditions on the
   time-scale of no more than a century or so. This is indeed a more radical change than the 6
   billion (and rising) people on the planet have previously had to cope with.
   Whether we should do something about this is a matter of judgement rather than of science,
   but there are many, many well-informed people who recognise that action to reduce our
   emissions of greenhouse gases is at least desirable, if not essential (witness the
   front-page headline of the same issue of the EDP concerning incentives for biofuels).
   This issue is too important to be left as amusing entertainment on an unanswered opinion
   page.
   Yours sincerely,
   At 10:44 14/04/2003 +0100, you wrote:

     Mike,

     Before/if you respond to Lenton, you should know that I spoke with the Editors of both
     the EDP & the EEN last week. They are both fully behind CRed. The EDP will make the
     launch their top story & will include supplements etc. They will joins as "partners" and
     have agreed to support Cred actively (as newspaper "campaigns- with regular features,
     challenges etc et). UEA Communications Division is involved.

     I attach the latest version of the popular brochure for your info (still a few
     glitches).

     Trevor

     _____________________________
     Professor Trevor D. Davies
     Dean
     School of Environmental Sciences
     University of East Anglia
     Norwich NR4 7TJ

     Tel +44 (0)1603 592836
     Fax +44 (0)1603 593792
