“We want to produce a briefing that replies to all the usual climate ‘sceptics’ arguments.”
The e-mail is below.
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date: Mon, 22 Sep 1997 16:16:16 +0100
from: “Wallace, Helen”
subject: Climate sceptics
to: ‘Mike Hulme’
Dear Mike,
I am wondering whether you could help us with some urgent (paid) work we
need doing for Kyoto. Or perhaps you can recommend someone else?
We want to produce a briefing that replies to all the usual climate
‘sceptics’ arguments, in the form of short questions and answers. The
work would involve supplying short (single paragraph) answers to a list
of about 15 to 20 questions. Unfortunately, we have (as usual!) a very
tight deadline – Friday 3 October. We could pay standard rates for the
work, and it would be fine to have a number of different people helping
with the answers, provided one person could be responsible for meeting
the deadline. The report would be published as a Greenpeace
International one.
If you are unable to help, perhaps you could suggest someone else in
your department who could – maybe with help from postgrads/postdocs in
your department?
Thanks in advance for your help, I look forward to hearing from you.
Best regards,
Helen Wallace
Dr Helen Wallace
Senior Scientist
Greenpeace UK
That’s a very natural request to come from a Senior Scientist. Of course, it is perfectly senior-grade science to fall back on postgrads/postdocs in somebody else’s department. The best defence against sceptics that money can buy.
Hilarious.