From	Jonathan T. Overpeck	Date	Mon, 13 Mar 2006 16:29:34 -0700
To	Ed Cook, Keith Briffa, Eystein Jansen
Subject	NRC study
Hi Ed and Keith - I hate to say it, but Richard's take on the political aspects of the NRC vs. IPCC reports seem worth some extra effort. Since you were both invited to speak with the NRC committee, I would suggest that you both (together or separately) submit formal comments asap. I don't know when the comment period starts or ends, but I'm guessing you have to work fast. I'm also thinking that you two might want to get out a peer-reviewed paper on the topic really soon too. I worry that the hole will continue to deepen for dendroclimate if you two don't act to clarify what we know/don't know, and when it is safe (and why) to use dendroclimate data to address the issue of long-term variation in temperature. Please don't construe my suggestions or comments as pro/con dendro, but rather just as someone who wants the truth - whatever it is - to be communicated clearly, and as best we know it. But, I do think that if Richard is suspect, dendro has a real problem. He doesn't have a personal bias in this, and is clearly trying harder than most to understand what's really going on with climate and the proxies. Effort now might save time later. Also, are you both going to be at the Swiss mtg in June? We really have to get this all ironed out better before the next (last) draft of the IPCC AR4. Thanks, Peck -- Jonathan T. Overpeck Director, Institute for the Study of Planet Earth Professor, Department of Geosciences Professor, Department of Atmospheric Sciences Mail and Fedex Address: Institute for the Study of Planet Earth 715 N. Park Ave. 2nd Floor University of Arizona Tucson, AZ 85721 direct tel: +1 520 622-9065 fax: +1 520 792-8795 http://www.geo.arizona.edu/ http://www.ispe.arizona.edu/