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Sir David Anthony King is the director of the
Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at the
University of Oxford, director of research in physical chemistry at
the University
of Cambridge, a senior
scientific adviser to investment bank UBS and
chancellor of the University of Liverpool. He was the
chief scientific adviser to the British government under prime
ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, and head of the Government
Office for Science from October 2000 to December 2007. He is the
author, with Gabrielle Walker, of the book
The Hot Topic, dealing with climate change science and policy.
He is a fellow of the Royal
Society; his expertise is in chemical physics as well as
science and policymaking.
While in the role of chief scientific advisor to the Blair
government, King helped push climate change up the political
agenda,
famously stating in 2004 that "In my view, climate change is
the most severe problem that we are facing today-more serious even
than the threat of terrorism." In the past he has spoken
supportively of the IPCC's scientific work. For example, of the 2001
synthesis document,
he said in 2004 that it "is the best current statement on the
state of play of the science of climate change, and that really
does represent 1,000 scientists. I think the world community of
scientists has converged totally." However, he appears to have
become more guarded.
In a 2010 article in the Telegraph, he stated:
"The emails from scientists at the
University of East Anglia suggest that certain members of the IPCC felt that the
[scientific] consensus was so precious that some external
challenges had to be kept outside the discussion … Climate
scientists have been forced into this corner by a disastrous
combination of cynical lobbying and a misguided desire for
certainty. The American lobby system, driven by political and
economic vested interests in fossil fuels, seeks to use any
challenge to undermine the entire body of science. The drive for
consensus has come to some extent because the scientific community
(me included) has become frustrated with this wilful misuse of the
scientific process."
Nonetheless, he concluded the piece with a strong statement of
support for the consensus scientific position. On the possibility
of certainty in the science, he
compared the debate over climate policy with the debate over
smoking legislation, noting that:
"When cigarette manufacturers paid
lobbyists to try to discredit the scientific theory that smoking
causes lung cancer, they used the argument that it wasn't a proven
fact. Well it wasn't then, and nor will it ever be, but would you
now bet against it? We have built many successful enterprises by
going with the balance of probabilities that science deals us. And
in the case of climate change, the scientific probability that the
world is warming, and that humans are the chief cause, is
overwhelming."
As a prominent UK commentator on scientific policy, he has
stated that he believes that steps to cut greenhouse gas emissions
will be possible for the world to agree:
"Copenhagen's failure to deliver a
single universal deal opens up space for smaller regionally based
deals. Coordinating these will be hard, but not as hard as what we
have tried in the past. We are all custodians of a global commons,
and we have moral responsibility to future generations to curb our
greenhouse emissions. I am optimistic that Rio can deliver."
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