Britain's chief scientific adviser Professor John Beddington (center) says climate researchers must be more honest and open about the uncertainties surrounding climate change. (Matt Cardy/Getty Images)
In the wake of a string of embarrassing blunders by global warming researchers, the chief scientific adviser to the British government has said scientists must be more “honest and open” about the uncertainties surrounding climate change.
Professor John Beddington said that although it is “unchallengeable” that carbon dioxide is warming the planet, climate researchers should be less hostile to those who seek to question their findings.
“I don't think it's healthy to dismiss proper skepticism,” he told the Daily Mail Reporter. “Science grows and improves in the light of criticism. There is a fundamental uncertainty about climate change prediction that can't be changed.”
Beddington also said that computer climate modelling is susceptible to “quite substantial uncertainties” that should be made clear.
The professor’s comments follow the “Glaciergate” revelations two weeks ago in which Rajendra Pachauri, head of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), was forced to apologize for the erroneous claim that most of the Himalayan glaciers would melt by 2035. Read more.
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