World community doubts validity of the International Panel on Climate Change
Issue date: 2/9/10 Section: Opinion
MARYANNE McELROY
Opinions Columnist
As the Loyola campus spent the weekend snowed in, wondering if a candy-run to Royal Farms would result in frostbite, and tried every possible snow-related excuse not to do homework or laundry, I think this is the perfect time to reflect on one of the hot-button issues of our time: global warming. Just think. While you spend the week plotting to sabotage snow-plowers and thus maximize your number of snow days, members of the UN-run International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) are in a mad dash to save its reputation after both India and the Netherlands say that they can no longer rely on IPCC data. The timing couldn't be more perfect. As the IPCC reasserts its crusade to prevent the earth from becoming a fire-ball, Baltimore has its biggest blizzard since the 1922 "Knickerbocker" Blizzard. If you are like me, sitting at your window wishing you had Balto to take you to Primo's, and doubting the unequivocal dogmatic cries of the IPCC that the earth is on the brink of becoming a 400-degree oven, you are not alone.
Besides people such as yourself who just might hold doubts about global warming as you weather through Baltimore's most severe blizzard since 1922, members of the international community have also challenged the IPCC this week. The Netherlands asks the IPCC how it concluded that half of their country was below sea level in a 2007 report when in 2010 only 26 percent of the country is. India asks the IPCC how it found that the Himalayan glaciers would be totally melted by 2035, when scientists say it could take more than 300 years for them to completely melt. India in fact has created its own climate change body to study the Himalayans, the Indian coastline and border regions, saying it cannot rely on IPCC data. The world community is also asking the IPCC to explain how hundreds of e-mails and documents between IPCC climatologists over the past 13 years have gone missing in the wake of previous IPCC scandal.
Opinions Columnist
As the Loyola campus spent the weekend snowed in, wondering if a candy-run to Royal Farms would result in frostbite, and tried every possible snow-related excuse not to do homework or laundry, I think this is the perfect time to reflect on one of the hot-button issues of our time: global warming. Just think. While you spend the week plotting to sabotage snow-plowers and thus maximize your number of snow days, members of the UN-run International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) are in a mad dash to save its reputation after both India and the Netherlands say that they can no longer rely on IPCC data. The timing couldn't be more perfect. As the IPCC reasserts its crusade to prevent the earth from becoming a fire-ball, Baltimore has its biggest blizzard since the 1922 "Knickerbocker" Blizzard. If you are like me, sitting at your window wishing you had Balto to take you to Primo's, and doubting the unequivocal dogmatic cries of the IPCC that the earth is on the brink of becoming a 400-degree oven, you are not alone.
Besides people such as yourself who just might hold doubts about global warming as you weather through Baltimore's most severe blizzard since 1922, members of the international community have also challenged the IPCC this week. The Netherlands asks the IPCC how it concluded that half of their country was below sea level in a 2007 report when in 2010 only 26 percent of the country is. India asks the IPCC how it found that the Himalayan glaciers would be totally melted by 2035, when scientists say it could take more than 300 years for them to completely melt. India in fact has created its own climate change body to study the Himalayans, the Indian coastline and border regions, saying it cannot rely on IPCC data. The world community is also asking the IPCC to explain how hundreds of e-mails and documents between IPCC climatologists over the past 13 years have gone missing in the wake of previous IPCC scandal.
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
kbp69
posted 2/09/10 @ 8:11 AM EST
"...cannot tell you whether or not [manmade] global warming exists, but I can tell you that human error, greed and corruption exist and that no field or institution or belief can be presumed exempt from these. (Continued…)
kiyan
posted 2/15/10 @ 1:31 PM EST
a correction statement from the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency -http://www.pbl.nl/en/dossiers/Climatechange/content/correction-wording-flood-risks. (Continued…)
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