How UN "Scientists" Work

Much is made by global warming alarmists about the UN's Intergovernmental Panal on Climate Change (IPCC) and its findings, namely that catastrophic global warming (due to mankind's activities) can only be averted through government action.

An article in the Washington Post discusses a similar "crisis" that the UN has addressed for the last several years: the AIDS epidemic. The Post article is entitled "U.N. to Cut Estimate Of AIDS Epidemic" with the subhead "Population With Virus Overstated by Millions."

Some quotes from the article:

"JOHANNESBURG, Nov. 19 -- The United Nations' top AIDS scientists plan to acknowledge this week that they have long overestimated both the size and the course of the epidemic, which they now believe has been slowing for nearly a decade, according to U.N. documents prepared for the announcement.

"Some researchers, however, contend that persistent overestimates in the widely quoted U.N. reports have long skewed funding decisions and obscured potential lessons about how to slow the spread of HIV. Critics have also said that U.N. officials overstated the extent of the epidemic to help gather political and financial support for combating AIDS.

"The United Nations' AIDS agency, known as UNAIDS....has drawn criticism in recent years [for] being politicized and not scientifically rigorous."

In essence the article says that UN "scientists" have claimed a larger catastrophe than actually existed in order to increase funding and political clout.

Sound familiar?

Global Warming and Uri Geller (continued)

Global warming* alarmists are like those "true believers" who honestly think that psychic star Uri Geller has real powers, despite the fact that a) He has repeatedly failed to prove his powers under strictly controlled conditions, and b) He has been caught cheating. Their desire to believe overrides any common sense.


Global Warming Charlatanism
Misrepresentation of findings. Christopher Landsea of the Atlantic Oceanographic & Meteorological Laboratory was a contributing author for the UN's second International Panel on Climate Change in 1995, writing the sections on observed changes in tropical cyclones around the world.


He contributed again to the "Third Assessment Report" in 2001. And he was invited to contribute to the IPCC's "Fourth Assessment Report." This report would specifically focus on Atlantic hurricanes, Landsea's specialty, and be published by the IPCC in 2007.


In October, 2004, the IPCC's Kevin Trenberth -- the very person who had invited Landsea's contribution -- was to participate in a press conference. The title of the press conference was "Experts to warn global warming likely to continue spurring more outbreaks of intense hurricane activity." None of Landsea's work substantiated this claim. Nobody's had.


Landsea tried to contact Trenberth to clarify the scientific truth: No proven correlation between hurricanes and global warming. To Landsea's dismay, the press conference proceded, with the media drooling over the flashy headline possibilities.


Landsea resigned from the IPCC's report, in protest over the politicization and misrepresentation of scientific findings. You can read his story in his own words in his "Open Letter to the [Scientific] Community." Unfortunately, other scientists, eager for social status and funding, stepped in to support the bogus claims made by politicians.


The Big Question
How valid is the global warming alarmists' argument if they have to misrepresent and lie to achieve their goals?




* "global warming" in these discussions is defined as "man-made catastrophic climate change."