Vicky Pope is a scientist and the former head of the climate predictions programme at the Hadley Centre.
Biography
Pope attended North London Collegiate School. She joined the Met Office in the 1980s and went on to complete a PhD in Meteorology at the University of Reading.
She spent 6 years as manager of atmospheric climate model development and evaluation. She became a senior manager of the climate research programme for a number of UK Government departments in 2002.
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In an article for The Guardian newspaper, she wrote: "Having to rein in extraordinary claims that the latest extreme event is all due to climate change is at best hugely frustrating and at worse enormously distracting. Overplaying natural variations in the weather as climate change is just as much a distortion of science as underplaying them to claim that climate change has stopped or is not happening."
She added: "Both undermine the basic facts that the implications of climate change are profound and will be severe if greenhouse gas emissions are not cut drastically."
Publications
- Led the Met Office Hadley Centre contribution of climate science to the Stern review: the Economics of Climate Change.
- http://www.oxonia.org/WE%201-8/WE_1-8_article11.html
- Sun and superstorms: Our changing climate. (2016) Chapter for The Earth and I: a book of essays edited by James Lovelock
Selected newspaper and web articles 2007-2013
- Models 'key to climate forecasts'. BBC
- Climate change, the real facts, The Sun newspaper
- Scientists must rein in misleading claims, Guardian
- Research is robust but communication is weak, The Times
- How science will shape climate adaptation plans, The Guardian
- Are climate data and evidence important? World Bank blog
- Brochures on climate science for visitors to the UNFCCC climate conferences and interested stakeholders, 2005-2010