Climate Change

Please read the article then answer the questions below:

Lord Lawson, the former Conservative chancellor, has been privately accused by the government's chief scientific adviser of making "incorrect" and "misleading" claims in his book on climate change. The charge against Lawson, the country's most prominent global-warming sceptic, was made during an extraordinary and at times fractious exchange of letters between the men following a meeting over coffee at the House of Lords.

Sir John Beddington wrote to Lawson to tell him that his book, An Appeal to Reason: A Cool Look at Global Warming, had made "a number of points related to the science of climate change that are incorrect or presented in a misleading way". An appendix to his letter accused Lawson of making "meaningless" comparisons to prove his thesis. In response, Lawson wrote back to accuse Beddington of attempting to rubbish his arguments without evidence. He also confessed to being confounded by Beddington's criticisms, adding that the government adviser had committed a "gross misuse of language" in claiming that the Earth has warmed "dramatically" in the past 150 years.

Lawson, who is chairman of the sceptical Global Warming Policy Foundation, is the most prominent critic of the government's policies on climate change. While not denying that there is evidence of a change in the climate, he has announced himself unconvinced that it has been caused by greenhouse gases. But Christian Hunt of the website Carbon Brief uncovered the letters, said they showed Lawson did not have a grasp of the science: "It is worrying that a prominent figure like Lord Lawson is seen as a credible commentator on this issue, when his understanding of appears so flawed."

"His think tank, the Global Warming Policy Foundation, claims a charitable aim 'to advance the public understanding of global warming', but they seem to spend most of their time doubting well-established science." To Lawson's claim in his book that there has been no "further global warming since the turn of the century", Beddington wrote: "Short-term temperature trends are meaningless in the context of global warming."

To Lawson's claim that calculating average global temperature is not straightforward and data from the developing world and former Soviet Union were not reliable, Beddington claimed those issues were taken into account and warming could be seen in other ways, such as in the decrease of Arctic sea ice. To Lawson's claims that urbanisation raises near-surface temperatures and might be responsible for the recording of global temperature rises, Beddington said it has been studied and found to have a "negligible effect". (Adapted from The Guardian)

Vocabulary:

What do the words "fractious", "misleading", "flawed" and "think tank" mean?

Discussion:

Give a short summary of the article.

Are you convinced that climate change is caused by carbon gases?

Is it not possible that it is caused by solar fluctuations?

Are you satisfied with your country's actions on climate change?

What more could be done? More wind farms or nuclear power stations?

Are you willing to pay more for fuel to help lower consumption?

Do you take care of your personal carbon footprint? Recycle? Insulate? Switch off?

Considering that China has opened 2 new coal power stations per week in the last 3 years is it worth caring about our carbon footprints?