Manmade climate change isn't happening, tweets First Capital Connect

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/oct/11/climate-change-tweet-first-capital-connect

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It is a job that requires a sometimes saintly level of calm and resilience – responding on behalf of one of the UK's largest rail companies to comments, complaints and sometimes insults from passengers. But one of First Capital Connect's social media team lost his cool on Friday when a passenger questioned why the company was deploying outdoor heaters on a not particularly cold October day.

Forgetting the rail company's commitment to the environment he shot back on the @FirstCC official Twitter feed that the science underpinning climate change had been "shattered" by reports and the climate had always changed naturally.

Rob Francis had asked why there were outdoor heaters at Finsbury Park station in London, saying "the issue is #climatechange and your tick-box environmental policy. The heaters are wasting huge amount of energy!" An employee signing himself as Jay, replied "[climate change] has been shattered by numerous scientific reports. The earths climate changes naturally, has throughout time."

In the following exchange, which has now been deleted from Twitter, Jay suggested temperatures were rising as part of a natural upward trend: "Using the Vostok Ice Core data,it suggest that we are part of an upward trend which has been going on for millenia."

His comments, coming just three weeks after a landmark UN climate science panel report that said warming over the past five decades was unprecedented over millennia and scientists were 95% sure it was caused by humans, generated a torrent of complaints on Twitter.

"Your trains may be part of the solution but your attitude to #climatechange is the heart of the problem," wrote Peter Archibald, a green campaigner and sustainability adviser in Windsor. "First Capital Connect - not only are their trains rubbish, but so is their understanding of climate change…" tweeted Martin McGrath, a writer and designer.

A First Capital Connect spokesman said the social media staffer's views did not reflect the train company's stance on climate change. "This ill-considered tweet did not in any way represent the views of the company and we are deeply sorry. The member of staff has apologised and made this clear. We care passionately about the environment – train travel is the greenest form of public transport and we are doing a huge amount to further reduce our carbon footprint and that of our passengers."

He added that the company was just about to launch a "green week" initiative, highlighting the company's environmental efforts and urging customers to join in, for example by cycling to rail stations. Jay, who has only be identified by his first name, would be the first to be briefed, he said.

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