Melting glaciers : the IPCC in a turmoil

Already, last November, this case had created a big disorder! Hacked Emails on the website of the center of climate research at the University of East Anglia, Great Britain had given a helping hand to the skeptical climatologists. Seizing the opportunity, the affair was turned into a scandal at an international level where critics on human impact on global warming had the opportunity to denounce the work of the IPCC. Brandishing the threat of a lie-like plot, they had then spent so many tricks to discredit the adoption of a climate bill at the American Congress and a treaty in Copenhagen. The rest, everyone knows about it!

The case could quickly be relegated to oblivion if another scandal had erupted this month. More seriously this time, the grain of this discord is all about the date on which the Himalayan glaciers are expected to be disappearing from the surface of the planet. But back to the original problem. In 2007, in their report of 938 pages that had won the Nobel Peace experts of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projects a loss of glaciers in the Himalayas for 2035, "even earlier". However, as the American glaciologist Graham Cogley, who also participates in the work of the IPCC, the alarm had been pulled by several scientists about the veracity of such projections that were based on calculations of an unaudited Indian glaciologist Syed Hasnain.

An uncertain date for an unavoidable glacier melting

Allegations of serious consequences for China and India, two countries supplied with water by the seasonal melting of ice. Recognizing the error of his fellows, the chairman of IPCC, Rajendra Pachauri, has admitted that the report in question "refers to the poorly justified withdrawal rate and date of disappearance of Himalayan glaciers." Lamenting a "regrettable mistake", he assured that future research procedures would be strengthened. But he nevertheless refused to resign. Thus, adversely affecting the date of disappearance of glaciers, however, the IPCC confirmed that the melting peaks of the Himalayas, the Andes and the Hindu-Kush will accelerate in the twenty-first century.

This case, if it fuels the optimism of climatologically skeptics, should not participate in the discrediting of scientific experts unanimously accepted. Cautious, Professor Kaser, an Austrian glaciologist who had some reservations before the report was issued in 2007 advised against the discredit of the IPCC, but acknowledges that it will require a review in the drafting methods of the next report, due in 2013 or 2014.

Tags: IPCC, global warming, climate, Himalayas, melt down, glaciers, skeptical climatologists