Wednesday
Feb182015
by 
Bishop Hill
Bishop Hill Breaking...
Feb 18, 2015 Climate: IPCC I am hearing on the grapevine that a senior IPCC official has been accused of sexual harassment and that a police investigation has been commenced. The official denies everything and has also issued a complaint to police, alleging a hacking attack.
Reader Comments (71)
M Courtney:
What happened to innocent until proven guilty?
The same thing as happened to "the null hypothesis (natural variation) wins unless or until it proven that CO2 did it".
If Pachauri were CO2, they'd have him hung drawn and quartered by now and be locking up anyone who dared to deny his guilt.
MCourtney - did someone suggest that you are being bribed? Who and when?
From my experience of the Courtneys in the blogosphere, it reminds me of C P Snow's characterisation of his civil service head, Hector Rose. Rose often went to lunch or to functions with captains of industry and so on, but as his subordinate remarked, "It would have been like trying to offer Robespierre a five pound note."
I don't know about other countries, but in the US any sexual conduct between an employer and an employee is automatically harassment. That makes this a business and legal affair, not a purely personal one. It is automatic grounds for dismissal. Whether this rises to a criminal offense is a different matter, and I have no idea what the expectations are in India.
Yes, we should presume innocent until proven guilty in criminal matters. In other venues, the standards can be much lower.
Johanna, The comment I was referring to was NW at Feb 18, 2015 at 4:29 PM.
At the Guardian it is too many to count.
As for the rest of your comment I am intrigued. Do you think the House of Courtney is endowed with riches?
Sadly, we are not.
Of course, that doesn't mean we could be paid to take positions we don't believe in.
That's possibly why we are not.
Sadly after some background;finical work expect the charges to be dropped , has in reality she has little to win and much to lose in pushing this case, as taken on powerful men in Indian , and his local connections give him that power, very seldom works out well for anyone . While the Indian legal system is such that a case like this can spend many years gathering dust . But I hope she gets justice in the end.
Perhaps this is something to do with rumours of them looking for a new head of the IPCC, with honesty and integrate , being a negative requirement for the role.
There's definitively a hint of irony in the air - Pachauri claiming a "widespread conspiracy" against him
Where's Lewanclownsky and conspiratorial ideation when we are in need ?
MCourtney, once again I am reminded of the lack of nuance in the blogosphere.
My point was, neither Robespierre nor Hector Rose could be bought. Robespierre was a lawyer, Rose was a well paid civil servant. Neither was the least bit interested in getting fabulously rich.
Sigh.
"In an odd way this is cheering news."
Remind me how to spell 'Schadenfreude'. It has such a nice ring to it......
If Pachauri is correct, and his email system has been hacked, perhaps we will have the spectacle of Climategate IV before too long. Those would be some interesting emails. However, if he is bluffing, and there is no hacker, he's dug a very deep hole for himself. All I can say is I hope he stays on as IPCC chair for a long, long time.
Looks like he's hit the buffers...
Is there any light at the end of the tunnel?
.
I'll get my coat...
Has he reported the alleged 'hack' to the local police? He should act quickly if he/they are to stand a chance of following any possible leads....
He has been homogenised.
Nice post, love to read it again and again. Thanks for sharing it.
And it is!!!
Latimer Adler
"Remind me how to spell 'Schadenfreude'. It has such a nice ring to it......"
And there was me trying to buy a dozen bottles of it on line from Tescos.
Given how Pachauri went the legal route to shut Dr Richard North up, I don't see this ending well for the woman.
I doubt that Guido would be airing it without any evidence. Like Private Eye, he's careful not to say anything actionable - although his commenters are not so restrained!
I'm impressed that the Indian police bothered about a girl's complaint.
It's now hit the wire services, and even the NYT ran it.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/02/22/world/asia/ap-as-india-climate-panels-chief.html?_r=0