CLIMATE SCANDAL PROGRESS – AT 8:14 A.M. ET:  There are some signs, early and tentative, that the climate-change scandal is producing results.  Now, a key British figure in the climate-change establishment is calling for a major investigation.  From The Times of London:

The UN body that advises world leaders on climate change must investigate an apparent bias in its report that resulted in several exaggerations of the impact of global warming, according to its former chairman.

We stress the phrase, "its former chairman."  Now we're getting somewhere.

In an interview with The Times Robert Watson said that all the errors exposed so far in the report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) resulted in overstatements of the severity of the problem.

Professor Watson, currently chief scientific adviser to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said that if the errors had just been innocent mistakes, as has been claimed by the current chairman, Rajendra Pachauri, some would probably have understated the impact of climate change.

They call that common sense.  It is lacking in our own media, and in the White House. 

The errors have emerged in the past month after simple checking of the sources cited by the 2,500 scientists who produced the report...

...Professor Watson, who served as chairman of the IPCC from 1997-2002, said: “The mistakes all appear to have gone in the direction of making it seem like climate change is more serious by overstating the impact. That is worrying. The IPCC needs to look at this trend in the errors and ask why it happened.”

He said that the IPCC should employ graduate science students to check the sources of each claim made in its next report, due in 2013. “Graduate students would love to be involved and they could really dig into the references and see if they really do support what is being said.”

I'm a bit hesitant about that.  I'd rather employ senior or retired scientists.  Graduate students are susceptible to career pressure and pressure to get grants.  The grant-giving system may be part of the corruption here.

He said that the next report should acknowledge that some scientists believed the planet was warming at a much slower rate than has been claimed by the majority of scientists.

“We should always be challenged by sceptics,” he said. “The IPCC’s job is to weigh up the evidence. If it can’t be dismissed, it should be included in the report. Point out it’s in the minority and, if you can’t say why it’s wrong, just say it’s a different view.”

COMMENT:  As this scandal unfolds, the Obama administration is forging ahead with plans for special offices to promote the doctrine of climate change.  One of NASA'S major missions under this administration will be advancing the climate change narrative.  And we are assured by Senator John Kerry that climate-change legislation, based on the trendy narrative, is far from dead.

John F. Kennedy wrote a book called "Why England Slept," about British indifference to Nazi militarism before World War II.  Will someone have to write a book entitled, "Why America Slept"?  Might be too late by then.

February 15, 2010