January 24, 2010

Stop the Check: Grant Applications Cited Bogus Glacier Melt

Monique Chartier

On Wednesday came the revelation that the UN IPCC - the United Nation's global warming panel - had grossly exaggerated the rate at which the Himalayan glaciers will melt. (They had said it would melt in decades; the correct estimate of "centuries" is probably inadequate in light of the cooling trend that even AGW advocates admit we are entering.)

Touching in part on motive, the Daily Mail (UK) reports that

A scientist responsible for a key 2007 United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report warning Himalayan glaciers would be completely melted by 2035 has admitted that the claim was made to put political pressure on world leaders.

Some would point out that these "scientists" lied to shape public policy. But let us be not so quick to condemn: after all, Uncle Al said it was perfectly fine to do exactly that.

Now the lastest development. The Sunday Times (UK) reports that

The chairman of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), has used bogus claims that Himalayan glaciers were melting to win grants worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Rajendra Pachauri's Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), based in New Delhi, was awarded up to £310,000 by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the lion's share of a £2.5m EU grant funded by European taxpayers.

Whoops. Looks like some revisions to those grant applications are in order.

"When we said 'decades', we actually meant ..."

Weak.

"The 'decade' is the new 'century' ..."

What does that mean??

"We employed the term 'decades' in the bibical sense ..."

Think, man, think! Four million dollars is at stake ...

I was considerably amused by a stout disclaimer in the earlier IPCC statement which admitted the glacier error but defended the balance of that section of the report.

This conclusion is robust, appropriate, and entirely consistent with the underlying science and the broader IPCC assessment.

Science? Really? Let's review. We had the breaking of Mann's hockey stick . We have substantial problems with AGW computer models upon which the warming conclusions of the IPCC relies. There was the stunning expose of the "Hide the decline" ClimateGate data scandal. (British Parliament announced on Friday that they are opening an investigation.) Dare we mention that an uncooperative Earth has not warmed nearly as much as expected? Could that be attributed to the minisculity of man's role in generating greenhouse gases? And the IPCC glacier meldown Wednesday was followed by an admission that, contrary to the IPCC's prior assertion, severe weather is not a symptom of global warming.

It's becoming more and more clear that the "underlying science and the broader IPCC assessment" on global warming may be consistent, just not necessarily consistent with science and some facts on the ground.

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Another shingle falls off the house of cards that the internationalist garbage have been trying to force on us.Al Gore batter check his f**kin' oil stocks.
Oh,Jeff I called a name-shame,shame on me.Hahahahaha

Posted by: joe bernstein at January 24, 2010 6:00 PM

I read an article/interview on that. It is rare that you encounter so many "weasal words" in one article. i.e. "there was some miscommunication", "it wasn't my decision", "the various board chairs faltered", etc., etc.

Posted by: Warrington Faust at January 24, 2010 9:15 PM

Newsflash, the flat-earthers say that the earth is not quite as curved as previously thought! So a the report that referenced the research of thousands of scientists and tens of thousands of documents had a misquote.

Climate contrarians are inflating the importance of an erroneous reference to Himalayan glaciers in a 2007 U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report to attack the scientific body and its chairman, Rajendra Pachauri. The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) expects ideological bloggers, some members of Congress, and fossil-fuel industry front groups to try to exploit this relatively small error in the report to bolster conspiracy theories about the IPCC and climate scientists...

What should not get lost in this manufactured controversy is the fact that glaciers around the world are melting rapidly.

A 2005 global survey of 442 glaciers from the World Glacier Monitoring Service found that only 26 were advancing, 18 were stationary, and 398 were retreating. In other words, 90 percent of the world's glaciers are shrinking as the planet warms.

Posted by: Russ at January 25, 2010 10:04 AM

lol, I love this part (same link above)...

Although individual scientists can make mistakes, the scientific process corrects them. That's one important way science moves forward. Climate contrarians often cherry-pick minor points like this one then inflate their importance to attack the broader science.

The rare times contrarians have proven scientists wrong, scientists have corrected the error and gone back to work. When scientists prove contrarians wrong—which happens all the time in and out of the scientific literature—contrarians tend to ignore them and move on to other points or simply repeat debunked arguments.

Because climate contrarians cannot ignore the overwhelming evidence that heat-trapping emissions from human activity are driving global warming, they have resorted to conspiracy theories and attacks on scientists to try to explain away reality. Climate contrarians likely will use this small error to try to undermine confidence in the IPCC and climate science generally. They also are using it to attack Pachauri personally. It is incumbent upon journalists to resist giving these attacks more credence than they deserve and avoid confusing the public about the real threat of global warming.

Megadittos!

Posted by: Russ at January 25, 2010 10:08 AM

Fred Reed, has an interesting article on "Evolutionists" vs. "Creationists". If you substitute "AGW advocates" and "Climate contrarians" I think Fred's observations still work:

http://fredoneverything.net/FOE_Frame_Column.htm

Posted by: Warrington Faust at January 25, 2010 11:33 AM

The fact is,China and India won't bend for the Copenhagen demands and won't sign an agreement,yet the homegrown blame America crowd insists as painting their own contry the villain.
No notice of the obscene burnoffs and deforestation in Brazil,Madagascar,and Indonesia.
I suggest the people who dump on their own nest try out life in one of the aforementioned paradises-and if you're thinking Brazil is so great,don't live on Panema-live in a favela.
Good luck and good riddance.

Posted by: joe bernstein at January 25, 2010 4:08 PM

"Al Gore batter check his f**kin' oil stocks."

And his holdings in carbon credit scams corporations.

Posted by: Monique at January 25, 2010 9:08 PM

[Don't push it, bub --- JK]

Posted by: Phil at January 25, 2010 9:26 PM

Only a moron could fail to recognize that the earth is warming. The last decade was the warmest on record.

Posted by: David at January 26, 2010 8:14 AM

David-if so,why is it warming?And why should that be an excuse for corrupt third world regimes to shake down US citizens?They are polluting regularly and will not use any extorted funds to change that behavior.
As far as money to the third world,read economist Dambisa Moyo on the futiltiy of the "Bono syndrome" with regard to Africa,and she is a native of Zambia,so she's not some out of touch theorist.
The politicization of science by BOTH sides of this dispute has made the truth inaccessible by this point in time.

Posted by: joe bernstein at January 26, 2010 2:11 PM

The only morons "sure" of "global Warming" are Community College dropouts who (were) majoring in "interpersonal relationships" But BOY are they SURE!

Posted by: Dick Tuck at January 26, 2010 4:18 PM

You won't see Monique commenting on this (a bit selective in her interest in climate change, no?)...

As politicians waffle on climate change, glaciers exit Glacier National Park

As Denver Mayor and Democratic gubernatorial candidate John Hickenlooper waffles on climate change, the U.S. Geological Society is reporting that Montana’s Glacier National Park will be glacier-less in a decade. Scientists had previously estimated that the park’s signature glacier-grade ice fields would last until 2030.

“The 2020 date is new. Dan Fagre, glacier-melting expert [for the USGS], took a close look at his monitoring data last year and determined that the glaciers are melting faster than he had anticipated,” Steve Thompson, senior program manager at the National Park Conservation Association’s Glacier Field Office, told the Colorado Independent.

Thompson has been living and working in northern Montana for 20 years and knows Glacier and its environmental challenges intimately.

“There are only about 26 glaciers left now. There were 150 in the late 1800s,” he said.

Posted by: Russ at February 12, 2010 12:48 PM