Though the issue was all but settled after IPCC admitted that its report that Himalayan glaciers are still receding was false, there are more skeletons coming out of the cupboard.
IPCC’s report wrongly referenced
Putting the United Nations’ climate panel on the burner again, The Sunday Telegraph, a British newspaper, has reported that IPCC’s claim that ice is melting from the mountain peaks around the world was based on a magazine article and the research was done by a student.
Of late, IPCC had stated that ice is disappearing from the mountains in Andes, Alps and Africa.
But the newspaper said that the report was wrongly referenced as it was based on an article published in a mountaineering magazine and a dissertation written by a geography student from the University of Bern in Switzerland.
Also, Eurosceptic blogger Richard North claimed that the panel’s Fourth Assessment Report published in 2007, which stated that around 40 percent of the Amazonian forests was under risk by global warming, was based on a report that has nothing to do with climate change.
Discrediting IPCC’s assertion, North stated that the panel’s predictions about the Amazon forests were exaggerated, as the authors referenced for the report were experts from environmental group World Wildlife Federation (WWF) along with an environment journalist.
Scientists had warned IPCC against false claims
Further, many scientists are coming forward claiming that they had warned the climate change panel not to publish unauthentic reports.
An Austrian glaciologist Georg Kaser, who was also an author of one part of the report by IPCC, stated that he had sent warning to the panel in 2006 telling them that the claim about Himalayan glaciers melting was false.
Even British hydrologist Gwyn Rees, who supervised a study supported by the UK government in 2001, said that the findings published in 2004 showed that the glaciers were not melting rapidly.
“The sheer size and altitude of these glaciers made it highly unlikely they would melt by 2035,” he added.
But the panel rejected the study’s findings. In fact, they included Indian glaciologist Syed Hasnain’s claims in their report, maintaining that Himalayan glaciers would recede soon.
Climate scientists’ credibility at risk
The global warming controversy has surely undermined the credibility of the climate scientists and the IPCC.
According to a survey conducted by Yale University and George Mason University, only 57 percent of respondents believe UN panel’s claim that global warming is taking place. This is down from 71 percent in 2008.
Another poll conducted by Pew Research Center for the People and the Press asked the respondents to name important issues in order of priority. Climate change was named last.
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