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January 23, 2010

IPCC Head in Glaciergate Crime?

Walter Russell Mead

The London Times continues to follow the glaciergate story–and it keeps getting worse.

The latest disclosure: Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the UN’s (formerly) prestigious Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (known as the IPCC), may have raised millions of dollars for his New Delhi institute on the basis of the totally bogus ‘glaciergate’ claim by the IPCC that the Himalayan glaciers would melt by 2035.

According the the London Times, Pachauri’s institute got money from the European Union and the US-based Carnegie Corporation to investigate a prediction that never had any scientific backing whatever, and one which all serious glacier scientists instantly recognized as impossible. The bogus claim was frequently repeated in the fundraising efforts — and reiterated as recently as January 15 when the IPCC was already under intense pressure to admit it had blundered.

This is now more than an example of eye-popping incompetence and gross neglect of elementary scientific standards by a body on whose authority the world is expected to make multi-trillion dollar decisions affecting every business and every person on the planet.

It is now, potentially, a criminal issue.  If Pachauri knew the claim was bogus and allowed these grant applications to go forward, he could find himself facing criminal charges.

But at the least his immediate resignation is required.  It was one thing to publish a false prediction in a long report–grossly incompetent and negligent, yes, but it was a long report and it was only one prediction.  An honorable person would at least offer to step down in such a situation; it might, however, be survivable for a bureaucratic street-fighter with little sense of shame.

rajendra-pachauri

That is no longer the case.  Before allowing this claim to be used for fundraising and, potentially, to be the centerpiece of a massive research effort, Pachauri had an inescapable obligation to investigate and verify the science behind the claim.  This he clearly failed to do; no reputable foundation or government can now fund any organization he heads.

Environmentalists should be the first to call for Pachauri’s resignation.  Those who truly believe that the world is in imminent peril and that a concerted effort is vital to save the planet from human caused climate change should be all over this story, demanding a full and thorough investigation of IPCC incompetence and possible criminality.  This is the only way that the serious scientists and thoughtful reformers who make up the overwhelming core of the climate change community can recapture the high ground and regain the public trust.

Meanwhile, the Indian press is also reporting increased scrutiny of possible conflict of interest charges surrounding Pachauri.

According to the Times, a groundswell is rising in India demanding that Pachauri step down.  Al Gore needs to be leading this charge in the US.  Where is he, and why is he silent?

Posted in Energy & Environment, Essays
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  • Letalis Maximus, Esq.

    Al Gore?

    Well, he’s busy jetting all over the world selling snake oil, of course. When he’s not doing that, he’s busy counting his millions.

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  • http://thebigfeedblog.com Neshobanakni

    The facts don’t matter to true believers. The end result is all that matters – a minimum of humanity distributed across the globe.

  • Mark

    Of course Al Gore isn’t saying anything. None of them want to even start down that road. Do you really think that the shenanigans don’t go beyond this glacier fraud?

  • Forrest

    The AGW menu: A hefty serving of fraud with a large side of graft.

  • Jack

    Al Gore is silent because he too knows that the AGW hypothesis is nonsense, but he can’t say that.

    So saying nothing is the best strategy.

  • Gregory Koster

    Dear Mr. Mead: For Good Al to assail Pachuri’s honesty and intelligence would be as smart as an asthmatic assailing her enemies with sacks of pollen…To be sure, Good Al’s Nobel will never be rescinded. But the billion in loot Good Al is working on so diligently, would be harmed. If he can’t have the Oval Office, he MUST have the billion, and to hell with honesty honor or integrity. The American press is backing Good Al all the way; they know that Gree(d)n Companies will be prominent advertisers soon.

    Sincerely yours,
    Gregory Koster

  • http://silentrunning.tv Wind Rider

    Al Gore needs to be leading this charge in the US. Where is he, and why is he silent?

    Gore is one of the LAST people that wants a full and honest appraisal of what’s been going on – people notice how outlandish and without basis many of the more alarming claims he’s made actually are, and he’s done. He’d be facing the collapse of the entire eco/carbon/warming financial house of cards he’s talked people into – and when that collapses, it’s going to be lawsuit city.

  • Tennyson

    “Al Gore needs to be leading this charge in the US. Where is he, and why is he silent?”

    Here he is.

    In the same place he’s been since the release of his film An Inconvenient Truth – hiding from critics, refusing to enter into any substantive debate on the so-called facts he put forth, while racking up hundreds of millions from the scam he’s perpetrating.

  • chuck

    EU Referendum did the real work in starting these investigations. They should get a lot of credit for it.

  • BrainTrust

    Al Gore, Pachauri and the rest of the corrupt scientists and carbon traders need to be sued in every country, every state, every county. Someone let the lawyers out !!!

    P.S. It does not need to be criminal. Civil Court will do nicely and will get our money back.

  • Copper Quark

    Al Gore needs to be leading this charge in the US. Where is he, and why is he silent?

    You’re not serious about this line, right? Cause we both know that our buddy Al is doing precisely the same thing.

    Just another green scam. It would be far easier to take you environmental chaps seriously if you’d police your own crooked ranks, you know.

  • Stan

    And what about the Nobel Prize?

    The Glacier melting claim was one of the pillars of the Global Warming movement.

    (Anybody have a clip of Al Gore referring to the glaciers in one of his speeches or movie?)

  • Banjo

    I would remind the people posting here that Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize. Do you think that is an award lightly bestowed?

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  • http://www.freerepublic.us Brian Richard Allen

    We aught be grateful, I suppose, that Al-Fredo Gore-leone, once the world’s potentially most deadly-dangerous dullard, is now only its richest retard.

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  • moron

    Al Gore will take the 5th. Until then he is not available.

  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1b-6U5MwyDM Mr. Xyz

    A relatively tame Hitler parody video

    Glaciergate: Hitler’s Last Straw

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1b-6U5MwyDM

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  • Brian Carter

    “The Nobel peace prize” not ‘lightly bestowed”?

    You have got to be kidding. That ‘prize’ is a joke! Jimmy Carter? Al Gore and the IPCC? Barak Hussien Obama?

    It should be renammed the “Socialist Reform Activist” prize.

  • John B

    For the same reason Al Gore doesn’t dare debate anyone on AGW! It is a losing game for him!

  • Spenc Canada

    I have been wondering about the massive silence from people like Davis Suzuki and Al Gore. Why are they not speaking up to defend their science. Their silence is as much ad admission of guilt as Pulchari’s! When are these people going to pay the price for this massive and very costly fraud!

  • sdcougar

    Al Gore? He needs to be investigated, too.
    Like Pachauri, he, too, is no scientist. And both of them are in it for the money.

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  • Ralph

    Al Gore, according to his blog, has been busy recruiting church goers the the climate religion. I guess if he gets the “moral majority” behind him he thinks he can force climate legislation.

  • Dennis

    [...] Al Gore needs to be leading this charge (for Pachauri’s resignation) in the US. Where is he, a… [...]

    “Silence is Golden” at times, particularly now with the exposure of fraudulent science behind global warming or climate change. Or should I say Al Gore takes “Silence is not Golden,” meaning he is just plain “yellow and a coward. I guess his next job will be to spread the word of God and eternal damnation for mankind.

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  • jim

    Algore needs to be leading the charge???

    The history of liberal liars suggests that Algore will double down on the lies and ratchet up the demonization of global-warming critics. Well, yes, a few small mistakes are to expected in something so complex, but that does not repudiate the overwhelming evidence that blah, blah, blah.

  • Con Michael

    The rigors of scientific discipline demand,inter alia,that a theory or hypothesis imply the kind of evidence that would prove it wrong.Predictions based on the theory are checked against the facts.If something occurs that should not have,and vice versa,the theory is discarded.The principal AGW alarmists themselves lament that they cannot explain the lack of warming.Ergo the AGW theory has been disproved.This does not deter socalled experts from touting the widespread subzero conditions as evidence of global warming.The comprehensive defeat ot the Emissions Trading Scheme in the Australian Parliament clearly demonstrates that the public has had enough of the lies,cheating,filibuster,spin and obfuscation.

  • http://Americaninterestonline Robert Gallant

    Why did all these so called expert scientific educators accept the climate change as a truth before they checked all the possible theories of globeal change. Look at all the waste of time,money,worry that these so-called experts caused. Al Gore should be told to return his Nobel Prize as he is undeserving of such a honor

  • http://cable-dsl-wireless.com/ Arterneknirty

    This is a great site man. Thanks. Hey when is the next update?

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