Now this doesn't shock me at all!

The other day I was shocked by an example of old-fashioned sportsmanship but today I can barely suppress a yawn when I pass on to you the utterly predictable news that all those scary IPCC reports forecasting the end of the world were less useful than a pile of manure even if the stench of rotting faeces was more or less the same! 

Joseph L. Bast at The American Thinker has been reading very carefully a report by something called the Inter Academy Council (IAC - no, me, neither) who have subjected past IPCC reports to rigorous analysis.  You'll never guess what they found:

The IAC reported that IPCC lead authors fail to give "due consideration ... to properly documented alternative views" (p. 20), fail to "provide detailed written responses to the most significant review issues identified by the Review Editors" (p. 21), and are not "consider[ing] review comments carefully and document[ing] their responses" (p. 22).  In plain English: the IPCC reports are not peer-reviewed.

The IAC found that "the IPCC has no formal process or criteria for selecting authors" and "the selection criteria seemed arbitrary to many respondents" (p. 18).  Government officials appoint scientists from their countries and "do not always nominate the best scientists from among those who volunteer, either because they do not know who these scientists are or because political considerations are given more weight than scientific qualifications" (p. 18).  In other words: authors are selected from a "club" of scientists and nonscientists who agree with the alarmist perspective favored by politicians.

Or, to put it another, less academic, way - the whole rotten festering thing is a crock!  Mr. Bast warns that the next IPCC report is already being smoothed and ironed by the usual suspects.  It will be full of 'alarums and excursions' to frighten the children and Mr. Bast asks, not unreasonably:

And on this basis we should transform the world's economy to run on breezes and sunbeams?

(Today, in an act of unprecedented generosity I am taking the Memsahib out to visit some ornamental gardens and then to lunch.  Thus, you lot will have to knuckle down and do some work for a change instead of clicking in here every five minutes for a snigger!  By the time I get back this afternoon I might - well there's always a chance - have thought of something intelligent to write!) 

Comments

[A K Haart]

"And on this basis we should transform the world's economy to run on breezes and sunbeams?"

I love that - breezes and sunbeams!

Donna Laframboise is very good on this issue. She's a journalist who has done a lot of good solid research into IPCC processes and the way activists are given key roles.

http://nofrakkingconsensus.com/

[David Duff]

Yes, I know of her and have her blog bookmarked although I don't check it regularly. And the phrase is excellent!