Monday, January 25, 2010

Should the IPCC be disbanded?

Or at least the people who are decision makers need to go. Even if it just to restore its credibility.

The main charter of the IPCC, is flawed. It states:

The Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change is the leading body for the assessment of climate change, established by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) to provide the world with a clear scientific view on the current state of climate change and its potential environmental and socio-economic consequences.

Instead it should have been

The Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change is the leading body for the assessment of climate change, established by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) to provide the world with a clear scientific view on the current state of climate change and its environmental and socio-economic consequences, if any.

You do not start a scientific inquiry by deciding before hand that there is a potential consequences. One is already biased.

In any case, the credibility of IPCC is at all time low. It is being hit by one controversy after another. Close to the heels of the Himalayan Blunder, and allegations of financial impropriety and conflict of interest against Mr. Pachauri comes this news of apparently incorrect linking global warming to an increase in the number and severity of natural disasters. Ignoring unfavourable data and including data that supports your hypothesis is not a scientific approach. Once again it points to process failures. Caution by two reviewers were completely ignored.

It is as if a bunch of scientists are determined to prove that there is a problem out there. There might well be; but this is hardly the way to go about it.

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