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5
YEARS AFTER KATRINA:Special report includes slideshows and
multimedia

U.N. climate panel urged to reform, stick to science

Buzz up!

Reuters – A drop of
water falls from a melting piece of ice on Argentina's Perito Moreno glacier
near the city …

By Louis Charbonneau Louis Charbonneau – Mon Aug 30,
5:05 pm ET

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The U.N. climate panel should make predictions
only when it has solid evidence and should avoid policy advocacy, scientists
said in a report on Monday that called for thorough reform of the body.

The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was widely
criticized after admitting its 2007 global warming report wrongly said Himalayan
glaciers would vanish by 2035 and that it overstated how much of the Netherlands
is below sea level.

Such firm forecasts should be made "only when there is sufficient evidence,"
said a review group supported by the academies of science from the United
States, Netherlands, Britain and around 100 other countries.

Critics of the idea of mandatory limits on so-called greenhouse gas emissions
have said the IPCC errors show the science behind global warming is
questionable.

The United Nations has been concerned that focusing only on errors by the
panel, which shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former U.S. Vice President
Al Gore for work on global warming, could undermine the broader U.N. message
that climate change is a real phenomenon requiring urgent action.

The report said the IPCC's mandate calls for it to be "policy relevant"
without advocating specific policies. But some senior IPCC officials have been
criticized for remarks that appeared to support specific policy approaches.

"Straying into advocacy can only hurt IPCC's credibility," the report
said.

SHOULD HE STAY OR SHOULD HE GO?

The review said the limit of two six-year terms for the chair of the IPCC,
currently Rajendra Pachauri of India, was too long and should be shortened to
one term, as should the terms of other senior officials on the U.N. climate
panel.

The report did not call for replacing Pachauri, the IPCC chairman since 2002.
Asked if he would resign if requested to by the IPCC's 194 member states in
October when they discuss the scientists' recommendations, Pachauri told
reporters he would abide by any decision the U.N. climate panel made.

The report also called for an overhaul of the panel's management, including
the creation of an executive committee that would include people from outside
the IPCC.

The review touched on concerns about Pachauri's work as an adviser and board
member for energy firms, as well as IPCC scientists reviewing their own work.
The report noted the IPCC lacks a conflict of interest policy and recommended it
adopt a "rigorous" one to avoid biases.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has acknowledged there were mistakes in
what is known as the Fourth Assessment Report published in 2007, a document of
more than 3,000 pages that cited more than 10,000 scientific papers. But he has
insisted its fundamental conclusions were correct.

Ban's office issued a statement welcoming the review of the IPCC and
reiterating he "firmly maintains that the fundamental science on climate change
remains sound."

Harold Shapiro, a Princeton University professor and chair of the committee
that reviewed the IPCC's work, told reporters one IPCC report "contains many
statements that were assigned high confidence but for which there is little
evidence."

Shapiro said the IPCC's response to errors when they were subsequently
revealed was "slow and inadequate." The errors, he said, "did dent the
credibility of the process."

Asked about the Himalayan glaciers error, Shapiro said: "In our judgment, it
came from just not paying close enough attention to what (peer) reviewers said
about that example."

Pachauri said the IPCC "will be strengthened by the (scientists') review and
others of its kind this year."

But Shapiro made clear the review did not assess the validity of the science
behind the IPCC reports, leaving open the possibility the panel could face a new
wave of attacks from its critics.

The next IPCC report on climate change will be published in 2013 and 2014.

(Additional reporting by Alister Doyle in Oslo and Patrick Worsnip at the
United Nations; Editing by Jerry Norton and John O'Callaghan)

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Gary Wed Sep 01, 2010 04:41 pm PDT Report Abuse

What the UN doesn't realize is that
science should never be a group effort. What one scientist "proves" has to
stand up to other scientists' attempts to disprove. Politicizing it and
using it to back an agenda is very Bushesque and should be
discouraged.

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kentucky boy Wed Sep 01, 2010
11:42 am PDT Report Abuse

The Global Gloom and Doom crowd goes
on! I have before me a copy of the April 1975 issue of NEWSWEEK magazine. In
a back-page article of that issue, the climate alarmists inform the reader
that there are ominous signs that the earth's weather patterns have begun to
change dramatically, predicting a dramatic decline in food production . Just
about every nation on earth would be affected by food shortage, the article
says. Scientists were urging government officials to take 'urgent action' to
stop the threat. Now, you might ask what was this 'impending doom'? Was it
Global Warming ?..NO... Would you believe --GLOBAL COOLING ?! That's
right--the self-made 'experts'/politicians/media heads were sounding out the
warning ! TIME magazine also presented similiar articles in the 70s. And
again in 1992, NEWSWEEK presented more 'facts' about the impending doom of
an ICE AGE, the cause of which was attributed to --THE GREENHOUSE EFFECT !!
How about that ? Sound familiar ? Now comes the present and the warning has
changed --just a little bit. All one can hear NOW from almost every known
media outlet is the dire threat of GLOBAL WARMING ! And to solve the problem
of Global Cooling, what would you guess to be one of the possible solutions
mentioned in the 1975 NEWSWEEK article ?-- Get this -- to pour soot over the
Artic ice cap, to help it melt ! The very thing 'they' fear now, was the
'cure' then--amazing !! What is NEWSWEEKS response to this gross
inconsistency ? They were so sure they were right then but now they know
they were wrong-- but they KNOW they are right now...uh huh...right ! Who
can believe it ?! Does climate change? Absolutely ! And that is good ! It's
called WEATHER -- And to listen to some of these prophets of doom, you would
think they just discovered it. (Al Gore didn't invent it ).
There are a
great many knowledgeable climatologists/scientists who oppose the 'global
warming' crowd's view. But have you noticed, you rarely hear from them in
the media...one wonders why. But, I guess Heidi Cullen believes that if you
can't answer your opponents arguments, you must shut them up ! Dr. Heidi
Cullen, 'climate expert' of The Weather Channel suggested on her blog that
if all AMS certified radio/tv weather people/meteorologists do not agree
with the current position as taken by The Weather Channel, Dr. Cullen and
others , they might have their certification as members of the AMS taken
from them! Just take away their livelihood, Ms. Cullen ? Now that's some of
that good old liberal tolerance, isn't it ? If you can't answer the
arguments of your opponents, just attack them ! It is a sad commentary but
it seems that Dr. Cullen's position is the position of most of the major
media talking heads, masquerading as 'journalists'.
It is the epitomy of
ignorance and arrogance to think that man can either create or significantly
remediate the climate. If any person believes God and His word, (and He is
really smart !) then when you read Genesis 8:21-22,(and that's a promise )
you will realize that any idea of a catastrophic, disastrous effect of
climate change on this earth is absolutely foolish and absurd. That one
scripture tears apart ALL the arguments of the 'doom and gloom
climatologists----(and these are supposed to be the smart ones ! ) This
earth is the product of an Intelligent Designer and to think that man can in
some way affect its course is, truly, an unbounded arrogance. We have His
word on that !

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James J Wed Sep 01, 2010 09:53 am PDT Report Abuse

If there were no fossil fuels left on
earth we would be forced to 'go green'. I think this is
Al Gores'
strategy. Why else would he use energy at such a prodigious
rate?

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GEORGE WASHINGTON Wed Sep 01, 2010
08:01 am PDT Report Abuse

lol-hey un -nobody gives a flying f
what the hell you think
-
keep trying to impliment this crap on the
usa.the un needs the usa cash to prop up their socalist/commie
govts
-
this scam has been exposed but the un and the dems feel this
is the best way to fleece the american tax payer
-
there are countries
who produce and those who do not-why should the ones who produce prop up and
carry those who do not?
-
the un is a pathetic organization who gets
58% of their funding from the same usa they want to kill with this make
believe crap-
-
the scam has been exposed

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comment Please
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GEORGE WASHINGTON Wed Sep 01, 2010
08:01 am PDT Report Abuse

lol-hey un -nobody gives a flying f
what the hell you think
-
keep trying to impliment this crap on the
usa.the un needs the usa cash to prop up their socalist/commie
govts
-
this scam has been exposed but the un and the dems feel this
is the best way to fleece the american tax payer
-
there are countries
who ppoduce and those who do not-why should the ones who produce prop up and
carry those who do not?
-
the un is a pathetic organization who gets
58% of their funding from the same usa they want to kill with this make
believe crap-
-
the scam has been exposed

2 users liked this
comment Please
sign in to rate this comment up. Please
sign in to rate this comment down. 0 users disliked
this comment
GEORGE WASHINGTON Wed Sep 01, 2010
08:01 am PDT Report Abuse

lol-hey un -nobody gives a flying f
what the hell you think
-
keep trying to impliment this crap on the
usa.the un needs the usa cash to prop up their socalist/commie
govts
-
this scam has been exposed but the un and the dems feel this
is the best way to fleece the american tax payer
-
there are countries
who ppoduce and those who do not-why should the ones who produce prop up and
carry those who do not?
-
the un is a pathetic organization who gets
58% of their funding from the same usa they want to kill with this make
believe crap-
-
the scam has been exposed

1 users liked this
comment Please
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Smooth Criminal Wed Sep 01, 2010
07:39 am PDT Report Abuse

The "Hot Spot" is missing. Oops, there
goes the "theory" or "hypothesis" of AGW.

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Ann Beach Wed Sep 01, 2010
07:04 am PDT Report Abuse

The science is unquestionable... the
quantification is still being worked out

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Ian Tue Aug 31, 2010 06:28 pm PDT Report Abuse

@jajabinks65---If being cold means
there's no such thing as global warming, does being full mean there's no
such thing as world hunger?

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BaryB Tue Aug 31, 2010 06:16 pm PDT Report Abuse

Guess the IPCC never heard of the
medieval warm period, which was followed by a mini-ice age. I guess they
don't watch the History Channel.

Al Gore, when pressed about his
working out the framework for the carbon tax credits scheme with Ken Lay (of
Enron fame) at a House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee hearing last year
replied that he couldn't remember whether he did so or not. Okie dokie. Of
course, Al is so worried about reducing HIS carbon footprint that he bought
a huge villa earlier this year.

BTW, don't worry about the
Climategate scandal being swept under the rug - nothing to see here - move
along.

Finally, I believe that clean energy and technologies are a
good thing - too bad the corporations and patent office suppress these
technologies.. The green movement has been co-opted by the international
coroporatocracy that runs much of the world for its own
profit.

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