Sir Bernard’s climate error

From: Helen Steward, Ilkley.

I WAS shocked to see that your paper had given space to an opinion piece by Sir Bernard Ingham which continues to peddle a number of longdiscredited misapprehensions over climate change ( The Yorkshire Post, September 2).

That Sir Bernard has not noticed much change in the weather since he was a lad is neither here nor there, so far as the realities of climate change are concerned. No one should think they can refute the verdicts of numerous international scientific investigations with a few impressionistic personal memories. It is beyond doubt that the earth’s climate is changing more rapidly than it has ever done. However, you can’t determine this by focusing on the UK climate alone, which we all know has large natural variability. You need to look across the globe at average sea temperatures, the extent of sea ice from year to year, and so on, rather than trying to extrapolate from personal memories of your own country.

In any case, Sir Bernard is wrong even about the UK. It has been established that rainfall has become more intense here in recent years, and studies have shown that spring begins three to four weeks earlier than it did in the mid- century. Others more observant than him have noticed such changes occurring over the course of their lifetime. I, for one, am delighted that Extinction Rebellion will continue to try to focus our attention on this issue. Please stop facilitating climate change denial.