Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Special correspondent's report on IPCC error

ToI got it right when it starts of with what a huge goof-up it has been.
IPCC retracts 2035 alarm on Himalayan glacier melt - India - The Times of India
For the first time in its history, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) — a panel of 2,500 of the best climate scientists in the world — accepted on Wednesday that it had made a huge goof-up in its fourth assessment report on climate change and withdrew its assertion that the Himalayan glaciers ran the risk of being wiped out by 2035.
The rest of the newspapers too followed a similar script.
dnaindia.com: Finding on Himalayas 'poorly substantiated': Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
The Pioneer > Online Edition : >> Finding on Himalayas poorly substantiated Climate panel
Indian Express: IPCC admits Himalayan glacier goof-up
Hindustan Times: Climate panel sorry for glacier error

Surprisingly, Chindu has adopted a different approach to the news. The headlines comes out in support of Hasnain, while sidelining the committee's admission.
The Hindu : Front Page : Vested interests have targeted my research, says Hasnain
Professor Syed Iqbal Hasnain, whose research on the melting of the Himalayan glaciers, led to a major controversy, on Wednesday blamed “certain prejudicial forces” for mounting a campaign against his “diligent” research.
Well, not exactly surprising when you know that Hasnain is a muslim, JNU scholar. His double secular credentials trump any trumped up charges.

3 comments:

Suraj said...

To be fair, they did have separate piece on the "regret" expressed by the IPCC, in addition to the one you quote:
"IPCC expresses regret over glacier melting conclusion" http://beta.thehindu.com/news/national/article83435.ece

B Shantanu said...

HF: You and your readers may find these three posts from my other blog relevant and interesting:

Help, I’m feeling cold…
http://global-themes.com/2007/06/24/has-global-warming-stopped/

Al Gore’s Inconvenient Un-Truth(s)
http://global-themes.com/2007/10/12/al-gore-untruths/

and "Why do I feel a chill when people talk of global warming?"
http://global-themes.com/2007/02/17/a-chill-amidst-talk-of-global-warming/

Hindu Fundamentalist said...

thanks, suraj. i couldn't locate it on www.thehindu.com site. the beta site, i noticed, contains breaking news and articles which are not in the print edition.

shantanu, thanks for the links. interesting. there is significant amount of confusion being created about the climate change issue. it is becoming more and more like an indian political drama. no matter which side of the argument you are, there is truckload of evidence to support your argument and more evidence is on the way. i think climate change has very rapidly moved from a research proposition to a political playing field.