Via Michael Tobis

The panel, co-winner of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, said the world would have to reverse the growth of greenhouse gas emissions by 2015 to avert major problems. “If there’s no action before 2012, that’s too late, there is not time,” said Rajendra Pachauri, a scientist and economist who heads the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. “What we do in the next 2-3 years will determine our future. This is the defining moment.”

I must agree with MTs diagnosis. I have seen nothing published that justifies a 2-3 year time after which there will be a “tipping point”. While Michael sees this as food for the defeatest, I see it as food for the denialist. (Note: I use the term denialist for those who strictly believe their own ideology and deny the scientific method.) Denialists have long been touting the IPCC as a international group of environmentalists trying to overthrow the evil capitalists in America. By throwing around numbers that have not been reported in the literature, Pauchari has given denailists the opportunity to again attack the IPCC.

The IPCC cannot be in the advocacy business. It must represent the science completely and without bias. By fabricating numbers to create a false sense of urgency, I believe Pauchari is guilty of what denialists have been accusing the IPCC of all along - being alarmist.

Pauchari, for the sake of scientists everywhere (not just climate scientists), remember that it is important that the general public trust the scientific community. Comments such as you’ve made above need to be cited in the literature. I would urge you to either provide references for your comment or to retract them. Thank you.

[As if Pauchari or anyone he knows (or anyone that knows someone he knows) actually reads this blog.]

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