As Blair Trolls For Climate "Legacy", Met Office Faces Cuts To Pay For Iraq Costs - Independent

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Britain's world lead in climate change research is being put at risk by proposed government spending cuts - just as Tony Blair sets out on a mission to secure a new international climate treaty. Mr Blair meets Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, in Berlin today to plan a radical new global warming agreement for the world, to be put forward at the G8 summit of rich nations to be held in Germany in June.

Back home, Britain's own internationally renowned scientific work on climate prediction and research, which has provided a solid base for its global warming diplomacy, is being jeopardised by cuts to the budget of the UK Meteorological Office being sought by the Ministry of Defence (MoD), its sponsoring department, according to senior sources. There is grave concern at high levels of the Met Office that if the cutbacks go ahead, Britain's position at the top of the climate change science league will be lost.

In drawing up its next annual budget the MoD, under pressure from the cost of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, is seeking year-on-year funding reductions in the Met Office's public weather service, which is centred around its giant supercomputers used for simulating the global climate and thus forecasting the weather.

But these computers not only forecast the sunshine and the rain a week in advance - they are used by the Met Office's Hadley Centre to predict the world's climate up to a century ahead.

EDIT

http://www.ecoearth.info/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=69237

Maybe the Poodle's a little more like his master than we thought.