Will the IPCC finally be disbanded because of incompetence and corruption?

Question

Glacier scientist: I knew data hadn't been verified
By David Rose
Last updated at 12:54 AM on 24th January 2010

The scientist behind the bogus claim in a Nobel Prize-winning UN report that Himalayan glaciers will have melted by 2035 last night admitted it was included purely to put political pressure on world leaders.

Dr Murari Lal also said he was well aware the statement, in the 2007 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), did not rest on peer-reviewed scientific research.

In an interview with The Mail on Sunday, Dr Lal, the co-ordinating lead author of the report’s chapter on Asia, said: ‘It related to several countries in this region and their water sources. We thought that if we can highlight it, it will impact policy-makers and politicians and encourage them to take some concrete action.

‘It had importance for the region, so we thought we should put it in.’

Chilling error: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change wrongly asserted that glaciers in the Himalayas would melt by 2035.

Dr Lal’s admission will only add to the mounting furor over the melting glaciers assertion, which the IPCC was last week forced to withdraw because it has no scientific foundation. 
The claim that Himalayan glaciers are set to disappear by 2035 rests on two 1999 magazine interviews with glaciologist Syed Hasnain, which were then recycled without any further investigation in a 2005 report by the environmental campaign group WWF.
 
It was this report that Dr Lal and his team cited as their source.

Last Friday, the WWF website posted a humiliating statement recognizing the claim as ‘unsound’, and saying it ‘regrets any confusion caused’. 
Dr Lal said: ‘We knew the WWF report with the 2035 date was “grey literature” [material not published in a peer-reviewed journal]. But it was never picked up by any of the authors in our working group, nor by any of the more than 500 external reviewers, by the governments to which it was sent, or by the final IPCC review editors.’
In fact, the 2035 melting date seems to have been plucked from thin air. 


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1245636/Glacier-scientists-says-knew-data-verified.html#ixzz0dUoPiTkG

JimZ · Accepted Answer

We actually have alarmists suggesting that the UN is not corrupt and incompetent.  That in itself is amazing to those of us who know anything about the UN.  It is strange that the left is so blind to the complete corruption of the UN since it is those that they pretend to care about that suffer most from their incompetence.

? · Answer

in a unmarried be conscious sure, for my area it is the most important crew of prepared the international over recognized criminals in the international. The scientists are chop up as to even if the may even paintings with the IPCC or no longer. an excellent type of the regulations they get about the way ahead for our climate is in accordance to computing gadget fashions, and as everyone over 25 that works with pcs can allow you to understand, GIGO (garbage in garbage out) in case you position defective records right into a software or computing gadget type, all you receives out of it truly is defective records witch is a marvel to no human being besides the undeniable fact that the human beings on the IPCC. They don’t actually have a robust expertise of what are international appears like understand as each and each of the conflicting and nonsensical learn’s prepare us, and also you won't be able to anticipate the destiny without expertise the present. it is how I see it, in simple terms one mans lowly opinion take It for what its worth.

Bob · Answer

This is at least the ELEVENTH time this "question" has been asked. One guy felt compelled to post it TWICE. It's a measure of the deniers desperation that they bring up a more than ten year old statement which has proven to be substantially correct, and doesn't have a significant effect on the main global warming science anyway. They have little else, at this point.

What is VERY clear is that the Himalayan glacier story has been over-hyped here. One sentence in an IPCC report was wrong. But the fact that the Himalayan glaciers are melting fast, and that it's a serious problem, is undeniable.

The IPCC report used a newspaper report from 1999 of the scientists peer reviewed work, where the scientist HIMSELF admittedly made that speculation. The IPCC didn't make it up. Not best practice, but somewhat understandable. Possibly just a simple mistake. Maybe even a typo, 2035 for 2350.

But, the thing is, it's proven to be substantially true, even if the "2035" part was pulled out of the scientists ear, and may be too soon (but not by much). DATA from scientific sites in the cites below.

"Himalayan Glacier Melting Observed From Space" (2007)
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/03/070327113346.htm

"Scientist’s Himalayan mission provides unwelcome proof: glaciers are dying" (2009)
http://novascience.wordpress.com/2009/12/05/scientists-himalayan-mission-provides-unwelcome-proof-glaciers-are-dying/

And, even if the glaciers don't totally melt by 2035, the effects on the water supply will surely be evident by then. Here's one underlying study:

Kehrwald, N. M., L. G. Thompson, Y. Tandong, E. Mosley-Thompson, U. Schotterer, V. Alfimov, J. Beer, J. Eikenberg, and M. E. Davis (2008), Mass loss on Himalayan glacier endangers water resources, Geophys. Res. Lett., 35, L22503

There's a rule in basketball which says, no harm, no foul. It would seem to apply here.

Richard the Physicist · Answer

"Will the IPCC finally be disbanded because of incompetence and corruption?"

When the Republican and Democratic parties do. 

In every organization there are those who make mistakes and those who are corrupt, but on the whole, they are all good organizations. To label an organization as inept, or corrupt because of a mistake or questionable act, when there are thousands of participants, is ignorant.

Zebcat · Answer

We can only hope they have finally destroyed themselves.  Karma.

Anonymous · Answer

Write to David Cameron, mind you he'll ignore you as well.

pegminer · Answer

No, because they're not incompetent or corrupt, and this question is 100% rhetorical.

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Will the IPCC finally be disbanded because of incompetence and corruption?

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