Is the heatwave a sign of global warming?

IT IS a brave climate change sceptic who dares to speak up during a heatwave, but Christopher Booker is wrong to dismiss an overwhelming scientific consensus as hot air (Mail). The current global heatwave is very different from the localised 1976 one. The science of the greenhouse effect has been known since the 19th century. The planet is 1c warmer than pre-industrial times and the frequency of extreme events has increased. If we act on climate change and the sceptics are right, we will have spent some unnecessary money. But if we don’t and they are wrong, we will lose far, far more.

A. COTTON, Southampton. CHRISTOPHER BOOKER’S very good article omitted the biggest green mania: global warming. This is predicted by computer algorithms, not facts. These programs omitted the fact that the sea absorbs a lot of heat from the atmosphere. Any global warming is caused by natural effects, not Man.

M. BURCHELL, Leatherhead, Surrey. IT IS inaccurate to claim hot summers occur only occasionally. There is clear evidence they are occurring more frequently due to global warming. There have been significant increases in daily maximum, minimum and mean air temperatures during UK summers between 1910 and 2011. A scientific paper found a rapid increase in summer temperatures since the mid-Nineties over Western Europe. The trend for hotter summers is obvious from Met Office records, with eight of the ten warmest years having occurred since 1995. BOB WARD, Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, London WC2.