I hope you will forgive an Englishman writing in to disagree profoundly with your editorial on global warming (Times, Aug. 19).
Al Gore also claimed that June was the hottest ever.A more rational analysis of the statistics by a number of scientists, including a past president of the American Meteorological Society, has now shown that, despite the Texas heatwave, June in the U.S.A. was cooler than on average, by as much as two degrees, something which most Americans knew already anyway.
Both your editorial and the simplistic approach of Al Gore fail to grasp two basic facts.
First, climate always changes, and it will continue to change whatever we do to greenhouse gases. Secondly, climate is controlled by millions of factors, and it is a cruel lie to suggest that human action can "do something about" it. Ultimately, climate change remains totally unpredictable. Our very best intentions may bring about results we neither expect nor want, as the different climate cycles, ranging from less than a second to thousands of years in length, impinge on each other.
The whole approach is flawed. We must accept that climate change is the norm, that climate "means" are meaningless, extremes normal, and face up to the problem, locally, nationally and internationally, of developing new economic, social and political systems of risk assessment in the face of change.
We must be ready for a human response whether the climate gets warmer, cooler, wetter, or drier, as it surely will at some point or another.
Philip Stott is a professor of biogeography (ecology) at the University of London.
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