Sir, I note from your report in last week's Observer headed 'How green is our Wales?' that Mr. Rhodri Asby, representing the Welsh Assembly Government, has issued dire warnings of what will happen in the years ahead because of climate change and supports his forecasts with such precise figures concerning temperatures and dates that suggest he believes that 'climate science' is on a par with the established sciences such as chemistry and physics. This, in my opinion is certainly not true. As a research metallurgist (now long since retired), may I offer an example to illustrate this point. If a steel making specialist is given the chemical analysis of a steel, he can then state, within fairly close tolerance limits what the mechanical properties of the steel will be (eg. tensile strength, elongation, impact resistance etc.) and if necessary, what heat treatment will be required to attain these properties because this is the information engineers can rely on when designing bridges, lifting equipment and any structure which contains steel components. Contrast this with the forecasts of the 'climate scientists' who, even with the assistance of the most up-to-date weather tracking satellites, cannot tell us, with any certainty, what the weather will be in six months time, yet blithely pontificate what might happen in 50 years time - or just as likely will not happen - because Mother Nature does not recognise computer models.

Clifford Hall,

Pentlepoir, Saundersfoot.