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UN To Create Independent Panel To Review IPCC

Hugh Pickens writes "The NY Times reports that an independent board of scientists will be appointed to review the workings of the world's top climate science panel, which has faced recriminations over inaccuracies in a 2007 report that included a prediction that Himalayan glaciers would vanish by 2035, although there is no scientific consensus to that effect. That brief citation — drawn from a magazine interview with a glaciologist who says he was misquoted — and sporadic criticism of the panel's leader have fueled skepticism in some quarters about the science underlying climate change. Nick Nuttall, a spokesman for the United Nations Environment Program, said the review body would be made up of 'senior scientific figures' who could perhaps produce a report by late summer for consideration at a meeting of the climate panel in October in South Korea. 'I think we are bringing some level of closure to this issue,' says Nuttall. One area to be examined is whether the panel should incorporate so-called gray literature, a term to describe nonpeer-reviewed science, in its reports. Many scientists say that such material, ranging from reports by government agencies to respected research not published in scientific journals, is crucial to seeking a complete picture of the state of climate science."

7 of 342 comments (clear)

  1. How do you know what is real? by microbox · · Score: 3, Informative

    I was thinking the same thing. For example, a political action group could be using this process to strip climate science of the peer-review process. As a consequence, certain ideologically motivated (*cough* laissez-faire capitalists *cough*) institutions will further their actual claim that there isn't scientific consensus.

    However, there was scientific consensus in the 70s.

    So -- how do you know what is real?

    --

    Like all pain, suffering is a signal that something isn't right
    1. Re:How do you know what is real? by A+beautiful+mind · · Score: 3, Informative
      Thanks for that link. I for one knew about Naomi Oreskes' work as a historian of science, however I didn't know the specifics. I'm 16 minutes in and already I've learned that Lyndon B Johnson not only knew that the carbon dioxide composition of the atmosphere is changing, that we're responsible and that could cause AGW, but publicly said so in 1965:

      This generation has altered the composition of the atmosphere on a global scale through...a steady increase in carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels.

      I'd suggest to any climate change denial to watch the video.

      --
      It takes a man to suffer ignorance and smile
      Be yourself no matter what they say
  2. Re:My particular facts. by Rockoon · · Score: 4, Informative

    Every year for the last ten years has been setting record temperatures.

    Wrong, unless you are talking about localized records, in which case that will always be true.

    Its been cooling a bit for the last 8 years... the trend began in 2002. You are either making things up, or repeating what you heard from someone else who was making things up.

    --
    "His name was James Damore."
  3. As Independent as Philip Campbell? by Iyonesco · · Score: 3, Informative

    Philip Campbell was one of the "scientists" selected to join the "independent" review panel for the UEA leaks. He later had to step down when it was revealed that he had already made up his mind before any review:

    http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/science_technology/aposclimategateapos+review+member+resigns/3536642

    I'm sure he was replaced by somebody equally independent and impartial and that we can expect the same level of impartiality from the UN's review of the IPCC. This is nothing but a waste of taxpayer's money.

  4. Re:Debate the Solution, not the Problem by uassholes · · Score: 3, Informative

    That is typical. In other words; "Don't argue with us; we are right. Case closed".

    There were no political attacks on the science. There were political attacks on the politics. If you can't keep those two straight, then it's no wonder that you are an acolyte in the Church Of Global Warming.

    Maybe this will help (http://www.ocregister.com/common/printer/view.php?db=ocregister&id=234092):

    ClimateGate - This scandal began the latest round of revelations when thousands of leaked documents from Britain's East Anglia Climate Research Unit showed systematic suppression and discrediting of climate skeptics' views and discarding of temperature data, suggesting a bias for making the case for warming. Why do such a thing if, as global warming defenders contend, the "science is settled?"

    FOIGate - The British government has since determined someone at East Anglia committed a crime by refusing to release global warming documents sought in 95 Freedom of Information Act requests. The CRU is one of three international agencies compiling global temperature data. If their stuff's so solid, why the secrecy?

    ChinaGate - An investigation by the U.K.'s left-leaning Guardian newspaper found evidence that Chinese weather station measurements not only were seriously flawed, but couldn't be located. "Where exactly are 42 weather monitoring stations in remote parts of rural China?" the paper asked. The paper's investigation also couldn't find corroboration of what Chinese scientists turned over to American scientists, leaving unanswered, "how much of the warming seen in recent decades is due to the local effects of spreading cities, rather than global warming?" The Guardian contends that researchers covered up the missing data for years.

    HimalayaGate - An Indian climate official admitted in January that, as lead author of the IPCC's Asian report, he intentionally exaggerated when claiming Himalayan glaciers would melt away by 2035 in order to prod governments into action. This fraudulent claim was not based on scientific research or peer-reviewed. Instead it was originally advanced by a researcher, since hired by a global warming research organization, who later admitted it was "speculation" lifted from a popular magazine. This political, not scientific, motivation at least got some researcher funded.

    PachauriGate - Rajendra Pachauri, the IPCC chairman who accepted with Al Gore the Nobel Prize for scaring people witless, at first defended the Himalaya melting scenario. Critics, he said, practiced "voodoo science." After the melting-scam perpetrator 'fessed up, Pachauri admitted to making a mistake. But, he insisted, we still should trust him.

    PachauriGate II - Pachauri also claimed he didn't know before the 192-nation climate summit meeting in Copenhagen in December that the bogus Himalayan glacier claim was sheer speculation. But the London Times reported that a prominent science journalist said he had pointed out those errors in several e-mails and discussions to Pachauri, who "decided to overlook it." Stonewalling? Cover up? Pachauri says he was "preoccupied." Well, no sense spoiling the Copenhagen party, where countries like Pachauri's India hoped to wrench billions from countries like the United States to combat global warming's melting glaciers. Now there are calls for Pachauri's resignation.

    SternGate - One excuse for imposing worldwide climate crackdown has been the U.K.'s 2006 Stern Report, an economic doomsday prediction commissioned by the government. Now the U.K. Telegraph reports that quietly after publication "some of these predictions had been watered down because the scientific evidence on which they were based could not be verified." Among original claims now deleted were that northwest Australia has had stronger typhoons in recent decades, and that southern Australia lost rainfall because of rising ocean temperatures. Exaggerated claims get headlines. Later, news reporters disclose th

  5. Re:Asking the fox to guard the hen house by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · Score: 3, Informative

    There actually are independent scientists, and as the CRU emails show, they have been disparaged and shut up at every possible point.

    Really? Disparaged maybe, but the papers the CRU emails were talking about trying to "shut up" were published anyway.

    --
    When information is power, privacy is freedom.
  6. Re:Extra, Extra! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    The CRU mails include a wonderful example where a scientific journal collaborates with the CRU to delay publishing of a paper for a few months so they have enough time to cobble together a satisfying rebuttal of it to be published at the same time. But of course, it's obvious that you haven't read them, and have no intention to ever do so.
    Your tireless wholehearted and rather blind dedication for only one side is called zeal.
    That makes you a zealot.