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NATURE|Vol 460|23 July 2009 OPINION

Petitioning for a revised statement on climate change

SIR — We write in response to your issue discussing “the coming climate crunch”, including the Editorial ‘Time to act’ (Nature 459, 1077–1078; 2009). We feel it is alarmist.

We are among more than 50 current and former members of the American Physical Society (APS) who have signed an open letter to the APS Council this month, calling for a reconsideration of its November 2007 policy statement on climate change (see open letter at http://tinyurl.com/lg266u; APS statement at http://tinyurl. com/56zqxr). The letter proposes an alternative statement, which the signatories believe to be a more accurate representation of the current scientific evidence. It requests that an objective scientific process be established, devoid of political or financial agendas, to help prevent subversion of the scientific process and the intolerance towards scientific disagreement that pervades the climate issue.

On 1 May 2009, the APS Council decided to review its current statement via a high-level subcommittee of respected senior scientists. We applaud this decision. It is the first such reappraisal by a major scientific professional society that we are aware of, and we hope it will lead to meaningful change that reflects a more balanced view of climate-change issues.

S. Fred Singer University of Virginia Hal Lewis University of California, Santa Barbara Will Happer Princeton University Larry Gould University of Hartford Roger Cohen Durango, Colorado Robert H. Austin Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA e-mail: [email protected]