Yet another embarrassment for climate "science": the Himalayan glaciers are not melting.
In the past few days the scientists behind the warning have admitted that it was based on a news story in the New Scientist, a popular science journal, published eight years before the IPCC's 2007 report.It has also emerged that the New Scientist report was itself based on a short telephone interview with Syed Hasnain, a little-known Indian scientist then based at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi.
Hasnain has since admitted that the claim was "speculation" and was not supported by any formal research. If confirmed it would be one of the most serious failures yet seen in climate research. The IPCC was set up precisely to ensure that world leaders had the best possible scientific advice on climate change.
It's pretty astounding that "scientific" conclusions are being reached without actually... you know... performing any experiments or collecting any data.
Problem is that politicians and newspapers respond so poorly to science (see eg fishing quotas), scientists need to juice things up a bit to get any action.
Problem is that politicians and newspapers respond so poorly to science (see eg fishing quotas), scientists need to juice things up a bit to get any action. The climate change deniers are completely overestimating the scale of the juicing, i think.
This incident illustrates the power of peer review.
The headline here is not true: the 2035 forecast is not right but the glaciers are melting.