A WARNING that climate change will melt most of the Himalayan glaciers by 2035 is likely to be retracted after a series of scientific blunders by the United Nations body that issued it.

Two years ago the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued a benchmark report that was claimed to incorporate the latest and most detailed research into the impact of global warming. A central claim was the world’s glaciers were melting so fast that those in the Himalayas could vanish by 2035.

In the past few days the scientists behind the warning have admitted that it was based on a news story in the New Scientist, a popular science journal, published eight years before the IPCC’s 2007 report.

It has also emerged that the New Scientist report was itself based on a short telephone interview with Syed Hasnain, a little-known Indian scientist then based at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi.

Hasnain has since admitted that the claim was “speculation” and was not supported by any formal research. If confirmed it would be one of the most serious failures yet seen in climate research. The IPCC was set up precisely to ensure that world leaders had the best possible scientific advice on climate change.

This sort of stuff really pisses me off. Taking advantage of a frightened public like this is just plain wrong. The original article here and New Scientist angle here.




  1. The Warden says:

    Yet you will not see the lame scream media report about this. You will only hear the paid for big money climatologist still shill for this fake global warming BS because it has become their gravy train. Just like Al THe WHORE GORE has made tens of millions off his lies. They will pay eventually as history will not treat them kindly.

  2. jescott418 says:

    How is melting Ice caps going to make Polar Bears fall from the sky anyway? This does not even make sense. Its just senseless shock by single minded people who cannot accept reality.
    Its too bad people become so obsessed with something like this.

  3. deowll says:

    I vote with #1 and #2.

    How the heck can they claim: “The IPCC’s chairman, Rajendra Pachauri, has hit back, denouncing the Indian government report as “voodoo science” lacking peer review. He adds that “we have a very clear idea of what is happening” in the Himalayas.”

    based on a one liner in a non peer reviewed publication? I would hope the typical 8th grade science student does better work than this. Of course said student wouldn’t be making the big bucks the people who churned out this bleep is making either.

  4. deowll says:

    I vote with #1 and #2.

    I did read the links.

    I would hope the typical 8th grade science student does better work than this.

    Of course said student wouldn’t be making the big bucks the people who churned out this bleep is making either and if they reported nothing important is going on what would happen to their jobs?

  5. jcj7161 says:

    Republican says:
    This sort of stuff really pisses me off. Taking advantage of a frightened public like this is just plain wrong.
    ROTFLMAO

    [Republican? I’m an Australian who votes Green. Lose the blinkers. – h]

  6. sargasso says:

    A snow scientist in New Delhi?

  7. BertDawg says:

    As time passes and more revelations emerge, we will no doubt see an epidemic of those who “knew it all along…”

    Long-time readers of this blog will be able to attest that there are some among us who actually did…

  8. BertDawg says:

    Now if we could only heed the sentiments of Benjamin Franklin and let rational thought prevail over this Homeland Security hysteria…

  9. MAOM7 says:

    And they wonder why no one believes anyone crying “global warming” these days. The truth is not what we’re hearing, if articles like this are any indication. So, what IS the truth and will we ever hear it?? Bunch of nonsense in my mind.

  10. Martin says:

    So where’s the news media (CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX, etc.) reports about this nonsense? They’re quick to report on Al Gore’s global warming press conferences, but where are their reporters when this kind information surfaces. More importantly why didn’t those news organization reports investigate and make public this kind of false scientific study in the first place.

  11. jccalhoun says:

    don’t attribute malice where incompetence may work.

    I’m working on my dissertation (in the humanities not the sciences) and can’t tell you how many times I’ve come across a quote that sounds good and try to hunt down the original source and find out that it doesn’t say anything like that at all and that the person “quoting” the thing is using a paraphrase from a 3rd source instead of the actual original.

    The science is in… NOT!
    Yep, one mistake and it all falls like a house of cards… NOT!

  12. freezing says:

    I just want Al Gore to bring some of that global warming to my house. There’s a 12 foot snowdrift in my backyard.

  13. Animby says:

    #12: “Yep, one mistake and it all falls like a house of cards… NOT!”

    ONE? What rock have you been hiding under?

  14. moss says:

    I hope no one is presuming any of the climate teabaggers here are ever going to read anything!

    Silly enough presuming the depth of analysis the New Scientist is capable of with their famous headline cover on Darwin Was Wrong.

    They’re the Mechanix Illustrated of English popsci.

  15. Ah_Yea says:

    So where are all the global cooling deniers?

    Awake, ObamapologistForever, Dallas, Fusion, and all other like minded morons…

    The Science is IN!

  16. LOWER CASE SCREEN NAME says:

    “Peer review” in climate science is a joke. It’s like Stalin reviewing Hitler.

  17. Phydeau says:

    #5 Republican says:
    This sort of stuff really pisses me off. Taking advantage of a frightened public like this is just plain wrong.
    ROTFLMAO

    [Republican? I’m an Australian who votes Green. Lose the blinkers. – h]

    Being an Australian, maybe you didn’t realize the extent to which the Cheney administration drummed up fear and tried to manipulate it in the years after 9/11. Elevated terror alerts right before elections, etc. Republicans are offended that anyone else is trying to use fear to manipulate people — that’s their tactic and they don’t want anyone else using it. 🙂

  18. Ah_Yea says:

    OH! I’ve got the response from the climate cooling deniers!

    “Just because ONE report was proven wrong, that doesn’t mean there isn’t global warming!!”

    (One report, then another report, then another…)

  19. Ah_Yea says:

    And looking at the pic above, I can’t help thinking of how many cool fur coats they would make to help ward off the chill of the coming ice age.

  20. Phydeau says:

    Wingnuts are unfortunately uncomfortable with the whole science thing — too many theories that can never be proved 100% certain, too many gray areas for their black-and-white minds. So if it looks like some scientist got something wrong, they jump all over it, with a gleeful I-told-you-so reminiscent of the dumb kids back in high school gloating when one of the smart kids got something wrong.

    That’s right wingnuts — scientists who are smarter than you occasionally get things wrong. Does that make you feel better? Smarter? Good for you. 🙂

  21. Animby says:

    #21 Fido – Per Wikipedia: A wingnut or wing nut, a nut (hardware), with a pair of wings to enable it to be turned without tools.”

    So, basically, we need no tools – like you – bloviating incessantly and trying to convince us you graduated high school.

  22. Phydeau says:

    #23 Wow what an excellent riposte. Golly.

  23. jccalhoun says:

    I’ve got the response from the climate cooling deniers!
    Too bad “global cooling” was never a theory that was espoused by the majority of scientists.

    http://usatoday.com/weather/climate/globalwarming/2008-02-20-global-cooling_N.htm

    One report, then another report, then another…
    ONE? What rock have you been hiding under?

    Which ones? where are they?
    Even this report doesn’t say that climate change isn’t happening. It says that they were wrong about one thing.
    here’s a guide from New Scientist that covers lots of the myths about climate change: http://newscientist.com/article/dn11462

  24. Skeptic says:

    jccalhoun, there is almost no report that is considered accurate. Any climate scientist who has the balls to stand up to the IPCC and it’s ilk, are the only people doing real climate science these days. This is a very embarrassing and sad time in history for climate scientists that can truly call themselves scientists.

    Here a recount of one scientist who was threatened “when trying to publish a study showing with higher confidence that global temperature changes were natural and caused solely by Earth’s physical processes” It was postedhere in Science magazine’s ScIence Insider.

    E.H. Moran, November 30, 2009 12:38 PM:

    The data are in the faces of Man-Made Climate Change supporters and they still refuse to acknowledge the evidence.

    These same scientists threatened my job with the US Geological Survey when trying to publish a study showing with higher confidence that global temperature changes were natural and caused solely by Earth’s physical processes. Additionally, these same scientists would not discuss or refute the science and facts presented. Instead, they took two days to personally insult and attack me.

    I always knew that when man-made global climate change was shown as insignificant that people would lose faith, note the word “FAITH”, in science. But this event and exposure is by far worse for the science community; but “Truth is the daughter of Time (Francis Bacon)”.

    Several USGS scientists got fired for the same thing when discussing data manipulation for models developed for the Nevada Nuclear Test Site. But no outcry and defense for those scientists?

    IF you see no problem with this and not wondering if the public has been misled by these scientists, then you are not scientists, you’re in denial, and you stand for no moral principles.

    On 25 November 2009 at 12:15 PM, I tried to post comments on RealClimate.org concerning this matter. That website refused the posts because they know me; another attempt to silence objective parties and since they were the ones that threatened my job…..

    Now, Al Gore PUBLICLY states Mantle temperatures are MILLIONS of DEGREES. The man doesn’t have the morality, decency, and/or courage to publicly admit he was WRONG. SO WHY SHOULD these scientists admit they are wrong? They can’t, because if they do, the gig is up.

    The phenomenon I discuss in my research has been studied for nearly 50 years and accepted as highly plausible by the Royal Society (I have the Publication) but the process and connection were unexplainable; the only drawback of all Magnetic Intensity and Ambient Temperature studies, in their WORDS; till now. We explained the Process in our paper along with the data analysis. Unfortunately, we used the Hadley Global Temperature Datasets. The data used were yearly averages, which was well explained both in the original paper and the 2008 AGU presentation. Just didn’t see any RealClimate people at the presentation. But they knew about it. I informed them.
    The following is what I perceived as personal intimidation and a threat to call my USGS supervisor for doing this study. The only reason someone uses words like “Does your boss know what your doing” in the context of this event is a threat to get you FIRED if you don’t cease and desists. Now if the study and theory were not plausible and a potential explanation of global temperature variability, then why would RealClimate.org do what they did in their posts? Not very professional for PhDs. Additionally, there are many other areas on that website where conversations took place.

  25. Rick Cain says:

    One report by a dubious scientist and climate change is invalidated.

    One lie by a rightwing fanatic and he just “misspoke” but obama has a nigerian birth certificate!

  26. gquaglia says:

    admitted that the claim was “speculation” and was not supported by any formal research

    Pretty much describes the whole global warming scam be perpetrated on the weak minded people of the world by a few with a political and economic agenda.

  27. MikeN says:

    And they mixed up 2035 and 2305.

    They did the same thing with regards to hurricanes. They took a non-peer-reviewed report over a peer reviewed output of Munich Re.

  28. Phydeau says:

    #22 You’re barking up the wrong tree, Ah_Yea… I don’t fanatically believe in AGW like you fanatically deny it. People challenging the scientific establishment is great. That’s the great thing about science: someone can challenge the status quo and others can examine his results and do their own experiments. I’d be glad if AGW doesn’t exist — one less thing to worry about. As time goes on, the truth will come out. Copernicus and Galileo were eventually vindicated.

    But you’ve got more certainty than the scientific community does. What do you know that they don’t? But you conservatives need your 100% certainty. I’m willing to wait and see what the scientists say.

  29. Ah_Yea says:

    Phydeau, what gall, what hubris.

    You laughingly state you are not a fanatic, yet everyone who doesn’t agree with you is an idiot or a Republican.

    Apparently you didn’t even finish reading my post, or examined any of the links I provided.

    If you had, you would finally start to comprehend that there is conclusive science steering us away from AGW than toward it.

    How about commenting on ANY of the links I provided?

    Let’s start with this one:
    http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/SORCE/sorce_05.php

    And look at this. It is PROOF POSITIVE that AGW is a farce. It’s technical, so I don’t expect you to understand it.
    http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/images/stories/papers/originals/co2_report_july_09.pdf

    Otherwise, Phydeau, please stop wasting our time. Really.

  30. Heymac says:

    Ah_Yea… good links. Adding them to my arsenal. 🙂


1

Bad Behavior has blocked 9458 access attempts in the last 7 days.