Commentary

More Environmental ‘Thumping? This Time Internationally

My colleague Adrian Moore posted a blog entitled “Environmental Activist Groups Get Thumped” based on a Washington Post article on August 30, 2010.

On the same day, the Washington Times reported that a review of the U.N climate panel called for changes:

“The U.N.’s embattled climate change panel must make “fundamental changes” to avoid future errors and charges of bias, according to a comprehensive independent review released Monday.

The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which has taken the lead in investigating the role of humans in climate change has been under fire since admitting in January that its 2007 report on global warming exaggerated the scope of melting Himalayan glaciers.”

(The IPCC is the panel that shared the Nobel Prize with Al Gore.)

This independent review said; “We found in the summary for policymakers that there were two kinds of errors that came up – one is the kind where they place high confidence in something where there is very little evidence. The other is the kind where you make a statement … with no substantive value, in our judgment.”

On the same day the Washington Times provided an editorial entitled “Global Warming Panel Feels the Heat.”

The editorial opines:

“The public already has taken notice of this lack of substance, but don’t expect the IPCC to return its Nobel Peace Prize any time soon. According to a Rasmussen Reports poll released Saturday, more Americans believe natural forces were responsible for “global warming” than buy the story that humans are at fault. This lack of trust is what upset U.N. bureaucrats most. The effort to cook the books has been too obvious. It’s hard to call for new austerity measures, taxes and regulations if nobody believes the headline-grabbing scare stories about melting ice, rising seas and looming disasters.”

Both articles are worth the read.