Steyn: Glaciers Aren't Melting. The IPCC's Credibility Is.

The IPCC made the "Himalayan glaciers melted by 2030" claim in a footnote in their 2007 report.

Their source? A 2005 World Wildlife Fund (an advocacy organization) report which mentioned the claim.

And their source? A 1999 article in pop-science magazine.

And that guy's source? A scientist who now admits he was merely "idly speculating" and had done absolutely no research whatsoever on the topic whatsoever.

So this went from a 1999 "helper quote" -- look, the guy just said this to give the writer something juicy for a nothing little article -- to accepted IPCC fact in less than ten years, with absolutely no science whatsoever supporting it.

And the IPCC now admits there was never any science behind it, but it was just the sort of thing they thought they should put in:

Dr. Murari Lal, the “scientist” who included the 2035 glacier apocalypse in the IPCC report, told Britain’s Mail on Sunday that he knew it wasn’t based on “peer-reviewed science” but “we thought we should put it in”—for political reasons.

Ah. We thought we should put it in. The alternate step three in the scientific process. Experiment, and/or just "put it in" if you feel like it.

Now, Dr. Pachauri is the railroad engineer (yes, really) heading the IPCC. He at first rejected the trashing of this ridiculous claim (which should have been obvious as crank, based simply on visual inspection and common sense) as "voodoo science." He has since been forced to retract this stupidity.

The scientist, or whatever he is, who first "idly speculated" about the Himalayan apocalypse on the telly with a journalist in 1999 is named Syed Hasnain.

Check this shit out -- and know ye how the science gets "settled."

Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, the self-aggrandizing old bruiser and former railroad engineer who serves as head honcho of the IPCC jet set, dismissed Mr. Raina’s research as “voodoo science.” He’s now been obliged to admit the voodoo was all on his side. But don’t worry. By 2008, Syed Hasnain’s decade-old casual chit-chat over the phone to a London journalist had become “settled science,” so Dr. Pachauri’s company TERI (The Energy & Resources Institute) approached the Carnegie Corporation for a grant to research “challenges to South Asia posed by melting Himalayan glaciers,” and was rewarded with half a million bucks. Which they promptly used to hire Syed Hasnain. In other words, professor Hasnain has landed a cushy gig researching solutions to an entirely non-existent global crisis he accidentally invented over a 15-minute phone call 10 years earlier. As they say in the glacier business, ice work if you can get it.

Well. Isn't that special.

posted by Ace at 06:50 PM

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