HOW much do you really know about IPCC Chief Rajendra Pachauri and melting Himalaya Glaciers?
‘The Fiction World of Rajendra Pachauri’ by Tony Thomas is an easy to read, informative and insightful piece of investigative journalism available here:
http://www.quadrant.org.au/magazine/issue/2012/3/the-fictive-world-of-rajendra-pachauri
It includes comment that:
“The IPCC’s Himalaya forecast was based on nothing more than speculation by an Indian scientist, Syed Hasnain, in an Indian eco-magazine in April 1999, recycled into the New Scientist and then into a report in 2005 by the activist group WWF. The grey-lit WWF report was then cited in the IPCC’s draft glacier chapter in 2007…
Six IPCC experts reviewed the draft chapter and none saw anything odd. Twelve reviewers looked at it again in second draft. One of them (from Hebron University) said caustically that two elements in the forecast contradicted each other. Another, (from Newcastle University in the UK) told the authors to look up certain contrary references that cited glacier expansion (the IPCC authors’ brief is to assess the full range of scientific views on a topic). The reviewers’ comments were ignored. None of the total eighteen reviewers found anything untoward about the lone WWF citation for the dramatic forecast…
Later, the second draft was taken up and run in the all-important Summary for Policy Makers. The draft summary was reviewed line-by-line by 190 government representatives (if the politicians’ changes clash with the science sections, the science sections are altered retrospectively). Only one commented, hitting the bullseye: “This is a very drastic conclusion. Should have a supporting reference otherwise should be deleted (Government of India).”
Even then, IPCC rigour was not to be seen. The summary was watered down, leaving untouched the howlers in the source text.”
This is a good point to mention Donna Laframboise, the Canadian journalist, who after extensive research put together a well referenced expose of IPCC failure to follow even minimal levels of professional procedures and policies.
http://nofrakkingconsensus.com/my-book/
Her blog has a current post on Pachurai based on the recent Australian work:
http://nofrakkingconsensus.com/
Neville,
Thanks for being forgiving.
SD, the Guardian reads more and more like an Onion satire of the Guardian.
"My institute, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), has no links with the Tata group, other than having been established through seed funding from that group..."
OTOH, our Raj could simply be misunderstood:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/cif-green/2010/jan/04/climate-change-delay-denial?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487
Yeah, right.
The author of this article doesn't miss a beat. Reading the whole thing is well worth the time. The widespread use of 'grey literature' by the IPCC is noted, along with non-degreed Greenpeacers providing 'scientific' documents and then reviewing them; ignoring the recommendations of actual scientists; telling whoppers to judges and legislatures; you name it. I especially liked Pachauri's admission that climate science played a secondary role in the campaign to change the structure of world trade and governance.
From Hansen's Venusian doom scenarios to the IPCC fictionalizination of climate data to "hidd the decline", to adjsutments of historical records to enhance current claims, to ignoring failed predictions, to the now "fake-but-true defense of Gleick, AGW seems built on a great deal of fiction in general.
Like Pachauri, there are many reports and scientific papers I might denounce as "voodoo science". Unlike Pachauri, I would never do so without at least having read them first. It's clear to me that he never read the Indian government report he denounced out of hand. The overall findings of that report have now been confirmed by the Colorado land ice study, which found ice loss from Himalayan glaciers to be an order of magnitude lower than estimates extrapolated from a few tens of melting glaciers.
The WWF source of the ridiculous IPCC glacier section is here:
http://assets.panda.org/downloads/himalayaglaciersreport2005.pdf
..and the careful analysis by Indian glaciologists, the "voodoo science" is here:
http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/files/MoEDiscussionPaper.pdf
It's clear to me Pachauri shares many character traits with another passionate "climate crusader", one Peter Gleick.
Pachauri's notorious trip back to India from NY by luxury private jet was not to play cricket. It was just to attend cricket practice.
Okay, okay...he did fly back again for the game. But did all those carping skeptics expect him to let his team down?
The climate elite really are like Renaissance popes or like the Perons. They dazzle with wealth and waste while appealing to the victim mentality. Amazingly, it works.
Thanks Jennifer now I know why my comment was deleted. But I'm sure it wasn't more about Luke than Pachauri.
Btw I've always gone out of my way to try and provide some new insight or solution. Then guess who doesn't like it the most and gets all personal, swearing etc?
Whether we are commenting about Pachauri's stupid ideas in this post or the stupidity of OZ trying to mitigate agw there is one abiding fact to consider, there is zero we can achieve by wasting billions $ down the plug hole every year for decades to come.
Remember the Gillard govt won't even accept this basic fact and will display their hostility by abusing the messenger every time.
Another fact is the Gillard govt couldn't care less about increasing emissions of co2. The only concern they have is to stop Aussies using a piffling tonnage per year and enjoying cheaper reliable energy for industry and jobs.
In the Quadrant story Pachauri honestly states that his main target is to redistribute wealth from developed countries to the developing countries.
This has zero to do with science ( can't even pass a simple maths test) but everything to do with envy and leftwing politics.
Jen, whilst Luke has a similar philosophy to Pachauri, I'll bet he is not as handsome,
or as young,
or as libertarian,
or as sceptical!
But is otherwise representative of mainstream hockeyteam:
http://www.physicstoday.org/resource/1/phtoad/v65/i2/p22_s1?bypassSSO=1