Bishop Hill UN announces review of IPCC procedures
Mar 10, 2010 Climate: IPCC UN chief Ban Ki Moon has announced what the media is calling a "mistakes review" but is actually a review of IPCC procedures prior to the Fifth Assessment Report.
The review is going to be performed by an umbrella body for national science academies, which frankly doesn't inspire much confidence and it will be interesting to see just how independent the panel turns out to be. A sixth independent-but-entirely-free-of-sceptics review might cause eyebrows to be raised, I would say.
The terms of reference look rather vague to me. There are sections on looking at making the IPCC better at managing itself and spinning a line to the media, but the substance is here:
1. Review IPCC procedures for preparing reports including:
• Data quality assurance and data quality control;
• Guidelines for the types of literature appropriate for inclusion in IPCC
assessments, with special attention to the use of non peer-reviewed literature;
• Procedures for expert and governmental review of IPCC material;
• Handling of the full range of scientific views; and
• Procedures for correcting errors identified after approval, adoption and
acceptance of a report.
The first bullet point is interesting and might cover relevant issues, like transparency of data. Then again, it might not. It would be reasonable, however, for the IPCC to demand data and code for a paper be public before permitting it to be cited in the report. I'm not holding my breath on that one though.
Reader Comments (8)
you may be interested in the latest nature editorial on climategate (three and counting- http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v464/n7286/pdf/464141a.pdf). Although the headline is the typical belligerent stuff, note the following:
"The unguarded exchanges in the UEA e-mails speak for themselves.
Although the scientific process seems to have worked as it
should have in the end, the e-mails do raise concerns about scientific
behaviour and must be fully investigated. Public trust in scientists
is based not just on their competence, but also on their perceived
objectivity and openness."
how times change...
I've just read the Pravda/BBC report on this and almost choked on my sherry when I read the last line which says "The IPCC has been under pressure over small errors in its last major assessment of climate science in 2007."
The beeb piece can be read here.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8561050.stm
It is remarkable to read your accurate and objective summary of the UN announcement and contrast it with the Guardian article:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/mar/10/ipcc-himalayan-glaciers-un-review
The Guardian headline is very misleading:
"UN brings in top scientists to review IPCC report on Himalayan glaciers"
The MSM are really giving up basic journalism to the blogosphere and concentrating on being sensational. The world is becoming topsy-turvy.
In an attempt to deflect the attention of the media from the recent very bad revelations, the Chairman of IPCC v. 2.0 told the BBC’s Roger Wheeliebin, whilst speaking from a gilded Louis the XIV love seat at the side of the olympic sized swimming pool on board his private Airbus A380, that he is extremely disappointed with the UK Government for blatently ignoring his recent statement that the planet is actually cooling.
It appears that the UK Goverment, in a last ditch attempt to hold on to power, is maintaining its stance that global warming is a real threat and in a misguided move to save the planet has ordered that the price of ice cream and fish fingers is to be frozen from 01 April 2010. This means that the resultant extra thousands of tonnes of frozen artefacts spreading throughout the country will make the cooling effect even worse. The Chairman urged the UK authorities to reconsider this irresponsible action as soon as possible.
The Chairman took the opportunity to announce that he had just received several new peer reviewed papers which show incontrovertibly that the polar bears are not only OK, but will soon have to be culled as numbers grow. Also, frozen sea water at the poles is not only melting but re-freezing again in a totally natural way . Citing an article published in the world's leading climate sceptic magazine Private Eye, he confirmed that by the first of April 2035 the Himalaya glaciers are expected to encroach upon Delhi’s plush golf links near to which the Chairman has his luxury palace complete with a fleet of six G-Wiz stretch limos.
Sweeping aside a pile of crumpled red silk hankies, the Chairman said that, now that it is generally accepted that the planet is cooling, it will be necessary to start worrying about “cooling” indicators, such as the extinction of the (t.b.a. when the Moonbat has identified a suitable cuddly equatorial animal) and how soon the unprecedented freezing of the Baltic Sea will spread to the Mediterranean Sea.
The Chairman was flying from New York to Sydney to take part in a one day international game of “Owzthat” as the guest 12th man in the EU's 2nd XI cricket team under the captaincy of a former bank clerk, the Rt. Hon. R.U.M.P.Y. van Pumpy.
Brownedoff
IIRC (and it was a long time ago), the game is called 'owzat'. Otherwise accurate in every particular... :-)
Lubos has an interesting personal take on the IPCC review body, which can be read here:
http://motls.blogspot.com/2010/03/robbert-dijkgraaf-will-review-ipcc.html#more
in case the link above gets cut off by the page width, here it is again on 2 lines:
http://motls.blogspot.com/2010/03/
robbert-dijkgraaf-will-review-ipcc.html#more
James P
We are both right. Whilst hunting around to to see if there was anything further to be gleaned of a humourous nature (certainly Owzat was correct in darkest Lancashire in the late '40s), I found a photo of a little blue tin with Owzthat printed on it, so on a whim, I went with that!
See http://www.vintagetoysgames.co.uk/owzthat_vintage.html
More whitewashing?