Met Office submits proposal for a re-examination of 150 years of climate data

At the Commission for Climatology meeting in Turkey this week, the Met Office submitted a Proposal for a New International Analysis of Land Surface Air Temperature Data, a document which calls for a reassessment of more than 150 years of global temperature records. This is part of a new comprehensive approach for analysing temperature data in order to better assess the risks of dangerous climate change. This will help to strengthen decisions on adapting to the effects of global warming.

The proposal is being viewed as a bid to regain public confidence, at a time when public conviction about the threat of climate change has steeply declined: an Ipsos Mori survey published this week showed that the proportion of adults who believe that climate change is ‘definitely’ a reality has dropped from 44% to 31% during the last year. The poll of just over 1,000 people in Great Britain was taken at the end of January, shortly after the scandal concerning leaked emails from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia, where allegations were made that researchers had manipulated the evidence in order to support man-made global warming.

The proposal emphasises that no substantial changes in overall trends are expected as a result of the reassessment; the main purpose is to ensure that datasets are completely robust and methods are transparent.

Source: Guardian, 25th February