Global Science Report is a feature from the Center for the Study of Science, where we highlight one or two important new items in the scientific literature or the popular media. For broader and more technical perspectives, consult our monthly “Current Wisdom.”
The just-released “synthesis” report from the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) could be the last gasp of this clumsy dinosaur.
Containing no new science, the new IPCC offering is just a rehash of its series of Fifth Assessment Reports that have been released over the past year or so.
When the IPCC’s “science” portion of the Assessment was released last fall, it was immediately faulted for being based upon climate models which have greatly overpredicted the amount of climate change that has been occurring largely because they completely missed the slowdown of the rate of global warming that has taken place over the past two decades. The IPCC tried a few band-aid-type solutions to keep its cold blood, but they were too little, too late. With its dismal track record exposed, no one should possibly take the IPCC future projections seriously, including the folks down at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
More and more, people are calling for the United Nations to render the IPCC dinosaur to the strata of history, reaching a crescendo with this “new” report.
The Synthesis Report was shaped by the climate alarmists who were enraged that the IPCC even feebly admitted that its future projections were likely on the high side of things. Instead, they demanded a strong statement from the IPCC that could be used to force fossil fuel restrictions on the unwilling (which partially explains the ham-handed release two days before pivotal U.S. elections). So despite no new science and another year—making now 16 out of the past 16 years—in which the global average temperature has fallen beneath IPCC projections, the IPCC released what has been called its “starkest” and “most important” report yet .
From The (predictable) Guardian:
“Science has spoken. There is no ambiguity in the message,” said the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, attending what he described as the “historic” report launch. “Leaders must act. Time is not on our side.” He said that quick, decisive action would build a better and sustainable future, while inaction would be costly.
Ban added a message to investors, such as pension fund managers: “Please reduce your investments in the coal- and fossil fuel-based economy and [move] to renewable energy.”
Hopefully, such talk from the U.N. will spark the rest of us to get what we deserve, that is, an end to this government-funded U.N. charade claiming to represent the “consensus of scientists.” With luck, the extinction this dinosaur will herald the extinction of all the government-funded climate change “assessments,” ushering in the rise of Homo sapiens.
