Sir

It is gratifying to read, on your Correspondence page, that environmental campaigners are urging the public to accept the view of a consensus of climatologists, glaciologists and atmospheric physicists that “anthropogenic climate change is a reality” (“Time to speak up for climate-change science” Nature 434, 559; 2005 10.1038/434559a). Having accepted the expertise of scientists on this issue, perhaps Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth should reconsider their opposition to genetically modified (GM) crops, as an overwhelming majority of plant geneticists, biochemists and molecular biologists have endorsed the use and safety of these crops. This would allow the economic, environmental and humanitarian benefits of this technology to be fully realized.

As president of a biotechnology company and emeritus professor of biology at Queen's University, Ontario, I agree with the environmentalists that scientists should make their science fully accessible to the general public. If this had been done, all the problems of misinformation and concern about GM use and safety would have been avoided.