"I attended TCS in Sydney in the 1980's and have been a keen reader of FM ever since.

"I also have a Masters degree in Applied Science and believe I have enough grey hair to offer the following comment:

"Your technical and behavioral analysis of markets is brilliant but your musings on the causes and effects of climate change are not well informed and do not do justice to the standard you have set over the years in FM.

"It would not be surprising if the cause was a combination of both natural and human factors."

"Yes it would. The causes of climate variation over geological history are well understood and have nothing whatever to do with the warming the earth has experienced over the past 60 years.

"the world's climate has varied considerably over millennia and we have been fortunate to live in such a stable period."

"Humans existed for a million years as hunter-gatherers before a period of unusually stable climate permitted the development of agriculture which free up a portion of the population to spend time developing the arts and technologies which in turn have led to modern civilizations. There is a real possibility that we are causing this stable period to come to an end and the risk increases with each tick up in global temperature."

"long before we found ourselves wading in our low-lying coastal cities, climatic changes would create havoc with our food supplies."

"This is already happening - particularly in my country - where farmers who have experienced 7 or 8 consecutive crop failures due to drought are now watching helplessly as a bumper crop sprouts in the field due to continuing rain at harvest time. This is also why the global food reserve is now at its lowest level in 40 years and falling."


"Hopefully, the turbulent weather patterns responsible for reductions in global yields for many agricultural commodities this year were flukes"

"The probability that the recent unusually severe floods in Australia, Pakistan, China, Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Ireland, England, Mexico, Ghana, Colombia, Haiti and Benin plus the recent extreme heat events and wild fires in Victoria (Australia), California, Kansas, Florida, Brazil, Sudan, Kuwait, Pakistan, Cyprus and Finland have all occurred together by chance is probably around one in several million.

"So I wouldn't want to bet my grandchildren's future on it either.

"David, looking for climate change insights in a US newspaper is a bit like asking your mother-in-law for a critical analysis of your wife. The one thing you are not going to get there is the truth.

"I suggest it's time to stop seeing climate change as we wish it to be and start seeing it as it really is. Just like you do every day with the markets.

"This, to me, is the most important topic ever raised in FM because it will affect every country, every industry, every company and every person for at least the next few hundred years.

"Perhaps it's time for FM to stop being neutral and decide which side you are on.

"Please."

David Fuller's view Thanks for your comments on Fullermoney and interest in the service over so many years, and also for your impassioned reply to my remarks relating to yesterday's lead article.

I suspect that if we sat down together, shared a bottle of Australia's best at a watering hole overlooking Sydney Harbour, that we would have a very good discussion on any subject of mutual interest, including climate change.

However, I am wondering why a scientist, of all people, would quote me selectively to misrepresent what I actually said. Your first two quotes above should be seen in context with the last sentence of that paragraph which I repeat here, also in italics:

It would not be surprising if the cause was a combination of both natural and human factors. After all, the world's climate has varied considerably over millennia and we have been fortunate to live in such a stable period. Also, how could the ever rising quantity of greenhouse gasses released by mankind's enterprises over two centuries and counting not be a factor?

Your fourth, partial quote above creates a very different impression without the concluding seven words. Here is the full sentence:

Hopefully, the turbulent weather patterns responsible for reductions in global yields for many agricultural commodities this year were flukes, but I would not count on it.

I think the NYT article that I posted yesterday is more informative than your dismissive comment. More importantly, so does the scientist who forwarded it to me. I included it precisely because the subject of climate change is so important. We cannot responsibly assume that mankind's contribution to climate change is not an extremely serious risk, as I have said before.