On Saturday, 15 February 2014 23:04:03 UTC, Alastair wrote:
Every day we get a post from Lawrence explaining how climate change is a scam. It seems that his drip drip approach has been fairly successful in persuading people that there is doubt about whether it is caused by CO2. That is all the big oil and coal companies need - doubt - to prevent there being an upswell from the public to persuade the govenrment to act. Here is a message from Greenpeace for those of you who have not been fooled by Lawrence, and his sock puppet Dawlish, into believing that AGW is just a childish argument. Dear All, The devastating floods spreading across the country are causing havoc for everyone caught in their path, and arguments about who's to blame for the current crisis are dragging on. Yet very few politicians or journalists are talking about what's really causing the extremes of weather we've experienced in recent years: climate change. What I find particularly absurd is that environment secretary Owen Paterson - who is a key player in shaping the government's policies on climate change, including tackling the floods - refuses to accept climate change is part of the problem. It doesn't make sense. We can't afford to have a denier like Paterson in a position responsible for climate change, so tell David Cameron to replace him with an Environment Secretary who's serious about climate change. A few days ago, the chief scientist at the Met Office said the evidence suggests the floods are consistent with climate change predictions. She knows a thing or two about climate, as do other scientific advisors, yet Paterson has been ignoring them since he became environment secretary 18 months ago. The evidence keeps stacking up. He hasn't had a single briefing on climate change since he took up the job, and we've heard he won't even look at a document that so much as mentions it. He's made statements in public about climate change which are factually incorrect, and also said that "people get very emotional about [climate change] and I think we should just accept that the climate has been changing for centuries." If your house or business is currently underwater, you'd be emotional, and understandably so. This all explains why climate change spending in Paterson's department has been cut almost in half since he took charge and staff working on it have been slashed from 38 to just six. It's insane. How can Cameron claim his government is serious about climate change when he has a denier like Paterson is in such a crucial role? Please sign the petition. Cameron has to get Paterson away from anything to do with climate change - he's a complete liability who's undermining any attempts to get a grip on the situation. In exasperation, Jamie PS Very few people are making the link between climate change and the floods. Carbon Brief analysed newspaper stories on the floods and found that in over 3000 published since the beginning of December, only 206 mentioned climate change. If the media aren't talking about it, it's up to us - sign and share the petition telling David Cameron to get serious about the impacts of climate change.

Since when has Dawlish been Lawrence's sock puppet and even more inexplicably, since when has he been an AGW denier. You may not like his style but on this subject he talks sense.
The fundamentalists are not all on one side, you know. While the deniers cannot be argued with because it's a religion for them, or at least a convenience, there are those of the Green persuasion who will unjustifiably attribute every episode of bad weather to AGW. I have had experience of this from a friend who stood as a Green candidate in a council election. He now "owns" the weather but actually knows very little and seemingly doesn't want to. My views were rubbished as were the Met Office and the Royal Met Soc. At this point I gave up, obviously.
I think Graham Easterling may have something to say on this. From his own measurements over a long period he has stated that storminess in the last 20 years has been quite low. This has to be set against the current episode. So has AGW had a hand in this latest stuff? Maybe. Maybe not.
I'm not an AGW denier, BTW. There is a strong human contribution to the warming. But does it cause stormy weather? May do. I've no idea.

Tudor Hughes, Warlingham, Surrey.