The embattled chief of the UN’s climate change body has hit out at his critics and refused to resign or apologise for a ­damaging mistake in a landmark 2007 report on global warming.

In an exclusive interview with the Guardian, Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said it would be hypocritical to apologise for the false claim that ­Himalayan glaciers could melt away by 2035, because he was not personally responsible for that part of the report. “You can’t expect me to be personally responsible for every word in a 3,000 page report,” he said.

The IPCC issued a statement that expressed regret for the mistake, but Pachauri said a personal apology would be a “populist” step.

“I don’t do too many populist things, that’s why I’m so unpopular with a certain section of society,” he said.

In a robust defense of his position and of the science of climate change, Pachauri said:

• The mistake had seriously damaged the IPCC’s credibility and boosted the efforts of climate septics.

• It was an isolated mistake, down to human error and “totally out of character” for the panel.

• It does not undermine the “basic truth” that human activity is causing temperatures to rise.

• That he would not resign and was ­subject to lies about his personal income and lifestyle.

Pachauri spoke as the second day of the Guardian’s investigation into the emails stolen from the University of East Anglia reveals how climate scientists acted to keep research papers they did not like out of academic journals. One UEA scientist, Dr Keith Briffa, wrote to a colleague to ask him for help rejecting a paper from a journal which he edited. “Confidentially I now need a hard, and if required, extensive case for rejecting.” The request apparently broke the convention that the review process should be independent and anonymous. Briffa was not able to comment because of an ongoing independent review into the stolen emails.

In another email, sent in March 2003, the leading US climate scientist Prof Michael Mann suggested ostracizing a journal for publishing a paper that attacked his work.

For more on this please go here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/feb/02/climate-change-pachauri-un-glaciers

Face Forward Comments:

Well of course there is no apology.  He is set to make billions of dollars if they can get the phony climate laws passed.  Every country that agrees will give up their sovereignty.  Which means, that Rajendra Pachauri and the others like him can carry out their plans to destroy western civilization and culture.

CONTIGUOUS UNITED STATES

Climate Summary

December 2009

http://lwf.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/cag3/na.html

Thanks Hillary

Just as the Copenhagen climate summit appeared to be on the verge of unraveling, the United States Thursday announced its support of an annual $100 billion climate protection fund, the Associated Press reports.

“The US is prepared to work with other countries toward a goal of jointly mobilizing $100 billion a year by 2020 to address the climate change needs of developing countries,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said.

Included in the conditions for the US’ contribution, Clinton demanded that China’s emissions reductions be scrutinized independently and that 193 countries sign a climate deal tomorrow. This would keep the US and other rich nations on top of developing countries who want them to increase emission cuts, the AP reports.

Clinton revealed that the U.S. would not be decreasing emissions by 2020 beyond the 4 percent it committed to in 1990.

While she would not disclose how much the U.S. would be contribution to the climate fund, Clinton said there would be a fair amount contributed to the pot that would be made available in 2020. The finances will reportedly be raised partially by taxing aviation and shipping, as proposed by the European Union.

For the rest of this story:

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2009/12/17/2009-12-17_us_will_contribute_to_100b_climate_fund_for_developing_countries_hillary_clinton.html

There are many kinds of truth. Al Gore was poleaxed by an inconvenient one yesterday.

The former US Vice-President, who became an unlikely figurehead for the green movement after narrating the Oscar-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth, became entangled in a new climate change “spin” row.

Mr Gore, speaking at the Copenhagen climate change summit, stated the latest research showed that the Arctic could be completely ice-free in five years.

In his speech, Mr Gore told the conference: “These figures are fresh. Some of the models suggest to Dr [Wieslav] Maslowski that there is a 75 per cent chance that the entire north polar ice cap, during the summer months, could be completely ice-free within five to seven years.”

However, the climatologist whose work Mr Gore was relying upon dropped the former Vice-President in the water with an icy blast.

“It’s unclear to me how this figure was arrived at,” Dr Maslowski said. “I would never try to estimate likelihood at anything as exact as this.”

Mr Gore’s office later admitted that the 75 per cent figure was one used by Dr Maslowksi as a “ballpark figure” several years ago in a conversation with Mr Gore.

The embarrassing error cast another shadow over the conference after the controversy over the hacked e-mails from the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit, which appeared to suggest that scientists had manipulated data to strengthen their argument that human activities were causing global warming.

Mr Gore is not the only titan of the world stage finding Copenhagen to be a tricky deal.

World leaders — with Gordon Brown arriving tonight in the vanguard — are facing the humiliating prospect of having little of substance to sign on Friday, when they are supposed to be clinching an historic deal.

Meanwhile, five hours of negotiating time were lost yesterday when developing countries walked out in protest over the lack of progress on their demand for legally binding emissions targets from rich nations. The move underlined the distrust between rich and poor countries over the proposed legal framework for the deal.

For the rest of this story please go here:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/copenhagen/article6956783.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=797093

Face Forward Comments:

Have you asked yourself, “if the earth has been warming since the industrial age began, and the ice around the north and south poles have been melting, where’s the water?”  We always hear about New Orleans but that really should be an example of how little additional water there is.  New Orleans was built at or just under sea level and kept afloat by the silt bought  down by he Mississippi river.  New Orlean’s problem is that it’s sinking not that it is being covered by global warming’s waters.  And what about Venice or Holland…..  Last time I checked they were still there.