I am writing in response to Michael Wood's letter on April 15, "Climate Change? Only for the better", but also to the many letters written by climate change skeptics and printed in the Citizen over the last few years. Climatologists are not out to fool you or lie to you about climate warming, but rather we state the facts and leave it up to the media and public for interpretation. I am going to do no differently as Mr. Wood has asked for the "truth, raw and real" and leave it up to you to decide. Climate is a natural system meaning it fluctuates, with cold years and warm years and years where the Arctic Ice will grow and years when it will shrink. These processes are governed by natural cycles in the atmosphere and ocean. Our last two winters in PG were cold and snowy, due to La Nina. This winter, you can thank El Nino for saving your back on the snow shovel and bringing warm and dry conditions. However, climate change is a trend that lasts over a period of time. For example, Fort St James has the longest climate record in the northern interior and in over 112 years, its mean annual temperature has increased 2.7oC. That doesn't mean it was exempt from the cold winters of 2007 and 2008, La Nina still ruled, but the overall trend through time is one of warming. The weather station at the Prince George airport has been running since 1942, during which, minimum winter temperature has increased an outstanding 6.7oC! I could print thousands of similar facts or show hundreds of temperature graphs where the lines go up but I encourage you to do this for yourself. Environment Canada provides historical climate data online, download it and calculate your own trend. Consider writing about that next time in the Citizen, rather than just repeating what you read or hear in the media.
Vanessa Foord, climatologist
