MADAM – Caroline Stephens’ letter on climate change needs clarification.

She states that there has been no significant increase in temperature in the last 18 years.

But the temperature rise that occurred in 1998, was itself a very significant rise, and subsequent temperatures have been only slightly below it.

In fact, since 2000 there have been 12 of the warmest years ever recorded.

There has been no hiatus, no slowdown in the rise in temperature.

With the exception of 2008 and 2011every year has exceeded all temperatures that preceded 1998 and 2014’s temperature is the highest ever recorded.

For confirmation of this, see the graph in the Climate Progress report at bit.ly/1KeFzX4 Graphs like this that record natural events are never straight lines: you have exceptional highs and exceptional lows.

I could equally have said that the increase between 1976 and 1998 proved that the climate was changing twice as fast as the official figures, and I would have been equally wrong.

Results can be misrepresented by cherry-picking your starting and finishing points.

Caroline Stephens’ other point about the smallness of the UK’s contribution towards tackling CO2 emissions not being enough to justify action is similarly misguided.

Is she saying that if I pinched a bottle of whiskey from a shop I should be allowed to get away with it, because it would be an insignificant part of the crime figures?

That would put Ukip’s thinking in an interesting light.

Roger Plenty

Stroud