A busy, but satisfying day yesterday. I did a long, in-depth interview with BBC radio for a forthcoming programme about the impact of Climategate on the global warming debate. This is to be broadcast on 24th 31st of the month. The interviewer was Chris Vallance, who I haven't come across before, but the show was being produced by FOI correspondent Martin Rosenbaum. I think having the show run by someone from outside the ranks of the green correspondents should give this programme a rather different feel to the norm.
Then off to the Energy Institute Scotland, where a green energy consultant called Demian Natakhan was talking about how to respond to global warming sceptics. To be honest it wasn't a very good presentation and presented several open goals - using the Hockey Stick graph, claiming that "entirely independent" studies confirmed it and talking of 5m sea level rises among the most remarkable. The latter point was truly jaw-dropping, particularly when it was upped to 100m during the Q&A section.
I wasn't particularly impressed with the personalisation of the debate, feeble attempts to ridicule Nigel Lawson and Bob Carter adding little to anyone's understanding, particularly from a speaker who gave the impression of having put together his talk from a book and the Skeptical Science website and of having little in-depth understanding of the issues.
My real frustration though was that the whole piece seemed to be a defence of the greenhouse effect, which is not something the majority of sceptics take issue with. I must confess that I got slightly agitated when I spoke from the floor.
I think it fair to say that the speaker will have won few converts.