After Weakening Of Draft, "A Lot Of Scientists Are Not Going To Engage In The IPCC Process Anymore"

[hatrack]

BRUSSELS — After a marathon session that saw angry exchanges between diplomats and scientists, an international global warming conference approved a major report on climate change Friday. "We have an approved accord. It has been a complex exercise," conference chairman Rajendra Pachauri told reporters after an all-night meeting.

Several scientists objected to the editing of the final draft by government negotiators, the Associated Press reported, but in the end agreed to compromises. However, some scientists on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change vowed never to take part in the process again, the AP reported.

"The authors lost," one participant told the AP. "A lot of authors are not going to engage in the IPCC process anymore. I have had it with them," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the proceedings were supposed to remain confidential. An AP reporter, however, witnessed part of the final meeting.

The climax of five days of negotiations was reached when the delegates removed parts of key charts highlighting devastating effects of climate change that kick in with every rise of 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit, and in a tussle over the level of confidence attached to key statements. The charts have been called a "highway to extinction" because they show that with every degree of warming, the condition of much of the world worsens — with starvation, floods and the disappearance of species. Those charts "tell us there's a danger in the future," said Belgian delegate Julian Vandeburie, who is in the science policy branch of his government. The United States, China and Saudi Arabia raised the most objections to the phrasing, most often seeking to tone down the certainty of some of the more dire projections.

EDIT

http://www.usatoday.com/weather/climate/globalwarming/2007-04-06-global-warming-report_N.htm?POE=NEWISVA

[phantom power]

1. Unfortunately, that just makes the censorship easier the next time.

It's rather like public servants with integrity resigning under BushCo. The administration just smiles and appoints yet another political hack to replace them.

Not that I blame them.

[necso]

2. Go to war (whatever) based on

placing high confidence in unreliable data, because you like what it says; but downgrade confidence-levels in scientific analysis (whatever), because you don't.

Yeah, that sounds just like neocons.