SPALDING GENTLEMEN'S SOCIETY

This lecture may have attracted more press coverage than any other in the Society’s recent history, and that was before the lecture took place. Essentially, this arose because Dr Phil Jones is perhaps the best known climate scientists in the country and climate change is a hot topic. When the Met Office failed to provide someone to give a lecture to the Society on the changes happening to our climate, we approached Dr Jones and asked him if he could suggest someone who might give such a lecture. The result was more than we could have hoped for because Dr Jones said he would do it himself. The lecture was a logical progression through the details of the establishment of the Climate Research Unit at University of East Anglia at Norwich and the work done there which involves the study of world temperatures in the past and now. It was explained that the base line used in comparison studies of temperature is the average of temperatures observed at individual recording station over the years 1961 to 1990. Therefore, what we see are the temperature differences between that average and what is observed. A great many graphs were shown that all had the clear message that in recent decades average world temperatures are rising. We were also shown information about the rise in the amount of CO2 and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Dr Jones showed that the powerful computers used in weather forecasting have enabled scientists to examine the consequences of a rise in greenhouse gases by modelling potential increases in green house gases. The results confirm what is already apparent in the temperature record. In short the earth is warming and so long as we continue to burn fossil fuels and therefore increase the amount of greenhouse gases, it will warm even more. There is a clear link between the increase in greenhouse gases observable in the atmosphere and the rising trend of temperature. Following the lecture, Dr Jones dealt with some interesting questions.