I READ Roger Mathew's letter in last Thursday's paper and didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

First, he says that climate scientists (note the plural) decline to link recent storms with 'Global Warming', then quotes just the one, Professor Matt Collins, who says: 'There is no evidence that global warming can cause the jet stream to get stuck in the way it has this winter.

If this is due to climate change, it is outside our knowledge.' This hardly supports Mr Mathew's statement. Professor Collins can't find a scientific case for linking the two but he hasn't ruled the link out, either.

Mr Mathew goes on to say there is considerable evidence that this year's rainfall is by no means exceptional. I'm baffled by this. The Met Office has just reported the wettest winter (Dec-Feb) since records began in 1910 and the Radcliffe Meteorological Station at Oxford University, started in 1767, has reported this year's January rainfall as the record.

Mr Mathew then uses the failure of the current climate models to predict the apparent slowing down in global warming, even though atmospheric carbon dioxide has continued to increase, as a reason for rubbishing the whole process. This is both illogical and unfair.

I'm not a climate scientist but I worked as a hydrogeologist for a water authority and built computer models for groundwater systems, so I have some experience in these matters. My models covered only a few hundred square kilometres and I can't say any of them worked perfectly but they weren't complete nonsense either. There was nothing wrong with the scientific principles on which the models were based. They were well-tried and tested. The problem was always a lack of the right data. With computer models of natural systems, it's important to have a long run of data. Either they don't exist and an estimate has to be made or the data are not accurate enough.

What was clear was that the quality of the models improved in tandem with the quality of the data. It's the same with models of the global climate system. It's a big enough problem to collect data adequate to represent the planet now. It's much more difficult for historical times. Nevertheless, I'll back the climate scientists and I'm sure that the models will be improved to include the apparent pause in the temperature increase and possible reasons have already been advanced.

I cannot understand the attitude of people like Mr Mathew. Even he admits that atmospheric carbon dioxide continues to increase and I assume that he understands its rôle as a greenhouse gas.

Whatever one's' opinion of climate models, it seems sensible to adopt the precautionary principle. If we clean up the planet and the climate scientists are wrong, it doesn't matter. If we don't clean up the planet and the scientists are right, it will probably be too late to do anything about it.

Dr K J Vines

Kilmantain Horrabridge