Well, this was interesting. Just a couple weeks ago, another IPCC scandal revealed that Himalayan glaciers wouldn't be melting away by 2035, as claimed. More like, uh, 2305. Maybe. The whole controversy, and process by which this grossly unsubstantiated claim became very financially beneficial to the people making it, was aptly described as "nice work if you can invent it." So, why was the material in the IPCC report? Well, this pretty much sums up the IPCC as politics, not science:
"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.' "
Just let that statement sink in for a bit.
Now, the real expert whose contrary (and correct) glacier work IPCC chair R.K. Pachauri blackballed as "voodoo"science wants an apology. And the Indian government has decided that science is too important to be left to the IPCC. Environment minister Mr Jairam Ramesh, who notes that while some glaciers are shrinking, others are advancing, had an announcement:
"...announced the Indian government will established a separate National Institute of Himalayan Glaciology to monitor the effects of climate change on the world's 'third ice cap', and an 'Indian IPCC' to use 'climate science' to assess the impact of global warming throughout the country.
"There is a fine line between climate science and climate evangelism. I am for climate science. I think people misused [the] IPCC report, [the] IPCC doesn't do the original research which is one of the weaknesses... they just take published literature and then they derive assessments, so we had goof-ups on Amazon forest, glaciers, snow peaks.
"I respect the IPCC but India is a very large country and cannot depend only on [the] IPCC and so we have launched the Indian Network on Comprehensive Climate Change Assessment (INCCA)," he said."
The IPCC has always been corrupt and dishonest. This is a positive step.
When I was talking with my kids about the IPCC just after the emails found their way into the world, one of my sons said, "It's 'science.'"
Yes, "science" about sums it up. Of course, my wife's formulation is "more like Scientology."
India's exodus from the IPCC is a huge blow to the climate politicians. India stands right at the center of this debate, as an emergent economic power with long ties to the developing world. It's also a cultural midpoint, and this fight is cultural as well.
Pachauri is left to swing where the little birds sing, and his comeuppance will cast a lot of light on the kind of people who have been pushing this agenda.
The climate politicians have staked everything on an appeal to monolithic authority. Everybody who disagrees with them - or even questions them, like Von Storch - is a crackpot or a mercenary shill. The richly deserved scientific ridicule that now rains down on them is lethal. But the ill-will of the non-European world might be even more lethal.