cc: mann@multiproxy.evsc.virginia.edu, tom@ocean.tamu.edu, p.jones@uea.ac.uk, k.briffa@uea.ac.uk date: Fri, 15 Jun 2001 12:39:32 -0400 from: "Raymond S. Bradley" subject: Why did you change the text? to: "Christine Pearce" , juppenbrink@science-int.co.uk The letter that appeared today was not the same as you indicated in our recent correspondence (see below). By deleting the phrase "Could you appreciate the complexity of a symphony by listening only to the percussion section of an orchestra? " the reader is left perplexed by the next sentence: "Studies that have analyzed data from a wider range of instruments than Broecker mentions..." Unfortunately, the word "instruments" suggests "instrumental records" which is NOT what we were talking about. You also managed to mangle the references so now there is no reference to the fifth footnote at all. This seemingly trivial bit of editing has changed the meaning of my letter and it is very annoying to find that you did this after sending me what you indicated would be the final edits. Why bother if you are going to change things further? The other letter that I sent was also changed without anybody asking me (fortunately, without altering the meaning, but losing a little humor) and I have to say I find this extremely annoying and not very professional. Ray Bradley The text was slightly edited and is below for you to > > review. Please send me any corrections by Thursday (June 7), Friday at > > the latest. Thank you for your patience. > > > > Sincerely, > > Christine Pearce > > Associate Letters Editor, SCIENCE > > > > Department e-mail: science_letters@aaas.org > > > > > > > > EDITED TEXT: > > Hemispheric mean temperatures recon-structed with a wide range of > > climate proxies indicate that temperatures were warmer in Medieval > > times than during the subsequent "Little Ice Age" (~1550 to 1850) (1). > > However, all studies of large-scale climate variations reveal some > > re-gions that do not follow the global or hemispheric trend [for > > example (2)], so selecting a few data points, as W. S. Bro-ecker does > > in his Perspective (23 Feb., p. 1497), adds little to resolving the > > title question he poses: "Was the Medieval warm period global?" > > Furthermore, Broecker's statement that only borehole temperatures > > and snowlines can reconstruct temperatures to within 0.5ºC is not > > supported in the literature. Re-constructing global temperature > > requires a geographically extensive network of data. Could you > > appreciate the complexity of a symphony by listening only to the > > percus-sion section of an orchestra? Studies that have "listened" > > to a wider range of "in-struments" than Broecker mentions (1, 3) > > conclude that 20th century warming is un-precedented, in both rate > > and magnitude, compared with warming during the past 1000 years. > > Medieval climate was clearly unusual in some areas (4), and further > > regional studies are needed. These might help to determine if > > Broecker's hypothesis of a change in thermohaline circulation (5) holds > > water. > > > > RAYMOND S. BRADLEY,1* KEITH R. BRIFFA,2 THOMAS J. CROWLEY,3 MALCOLM K. > > HUGHES,4 PHILIP D. JONES,2 MICHAEL E. MANN5 > > > > 1Department of Geosciences, University of Massa-chusetts, Amherst, MA > > 01003, USA. 2Climatic Re-search Unit, University of East Anglia, > > Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK. 3Department of Oceanography, Texas A&M University, > > College Station, TX 77843, USA. 4Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, > > Univer-sity of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA. 5Department of > > Environmental Sciences, Univer-sity of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA > > 22903, USA *To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: > > rbradley@geo.umass.edu > > > > References and Notes > > 1. P. D. Jones et al., Holocene 8, 455 (1998); M. E. Mann, R. S. > > Bradley, M. K. Hughes, Geophys. Res. Lett. 26, 759 (1999); T. J. > > Crowley, T. S. Lowery, Am-bio 29, 51 (2000). 2. P. D. Jones et al., > > Rev. Geophys. 37, 173 (1999). > > 3. M. K. Hughes, H. F. Diaz, Clim. Change 26, 109 (1996); K. > R. Briffa > > et al., J. Geophys. Res. 106D, 2929 (2001). 4. S. Stine, in Water, > > Environment and Soci-ety in Times of Climatic Change, A. S. Issar, N. > > Brown, Eds. (Kluwer, Dordrecht, 1998), pp. 43-67; M. K. Hughes, G. > > Funkhauser, in The Impacts of Climate Variability on Forests, M. > > Beniston, J. L. Innes, Eds. (Springer, Berlin, 1998), pp. 99-107; C. > > Pfister et al., Holocene 8, 535 (1998); V. C. LaMarche, Science 183, > > 1043 (1974); D. Dahl-Jenssen et al., Science 282, 268 (1998). > 5. W. S. > > Broecker, S. Sutherland, T.-H. Peng, Science 286, 1132 (1999). > Raymond S. Bradley Professor and Head of Department Department of Geosciences University of Massachusetts Amherst, MA 01003-5820 Tel: 413-545-2120 Fax: 413-545-1200 Climate System Research Center: 413-545-0659 Climate System Research Center Web Page: Paleoclimatology Book Web Site (1999): http://www.geo.umass.edu/climate/paleo/html