Professor Sir David King , a former UK chief executive , has said that he is scared by the possibility of extreme weather events linked to climate change that are happening sooner than expected . King was partly responding to comments by Petteri Taalas , secretary - general of the World Meteorological Organisation , who criticised environmental campaigners for frightening people by the language they used in relation to climate change . Professor King called for the UK to bring its climate targets forward by a decade , and said that it was " appropriate to be scared " .
Professor Sir David King, a former UK chief scientist, has said that he is scared by the number of extreme weather events linked to climate change that are happening sooner than expected. King was partly responding to comments by Petteri Taalas, secretary-general of the World Meteorological Organisation, who criticised environmental campaigners for frightening people by the language they used in relation to climate change. Professor King called for the UK to bring its climate targets forward by a decade, and said that it was "appropriate to be scared".