Politicians were willfully ignoring and misunderstanding the science of global warming, a government adviser said today.
John Ashton, who is the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's special representative on climate change, warned scientists that they could not trust in the honesty of politicians. Speaking at the start of the climate change conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, Mr Ashton said that the truth could be lost to political expediency or mischief and urged scientists to couch their conclusions in terms that could not be misunderstood or go unheard.
Delegates at the conference will again meet in the city later this year in an attempt to reach an international deal on how to combat global warming. Mr Ashton, who trained as a physicist before becoming a diplomat, said that researchers had been tremendously successful in analysing climate science but had yet to succeed in making political leaders understand the importance of their discoveries. More >>>
