David King, Chief Scientific Advisor To Blair, Steps Down After 7 Years - Independent

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Sir David King stepped down yesterday as the Government's chief scientific adviser after seven years at the centre of the Whitehall machinery governing science-related topics as diverse as flooding, badger-culling, nuclear power and climate change.

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But it was his comments on climate change in an editorial he wrote for the American journal Science that gave Sir David his high international profile, especially in the United States where the Bush Administration was in full denial of the mounting evidence linking global warming with the burning of fossil fuels. "In my view, climate change is the most severe problem that we are facing today, more serious even than the threat of terrorism," Sir David wrote in an article clearly designed to influence political opinion in Washington.

"The Bush Administration's strategy relies largely on market-based incentives and voluntary action ... But the market cannot decide that mitigation is necessary, nor can it establish the basic international framework in which all actors can take their place," he said.

Early in 2007 – international polar year – Sir David continued to make it clear that climate change was the most serious, long-term issue on the political agenda following the news that the polar ice is melting faster than predicted. "Global warming is the most challenging problem our society has ever faced up to. Ice is the canary in the coal mine of global warming," he said.

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http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article3298378.ece