A few months back it was exposed that IPCC chair, Rajendra Paschauri, faced a rather significant conflict of interest–he was heavily invested in CO2 trading and sat on the board of companies that stood to make a lot of money from the a global warming crisis–a crisis that Paschauri was and is in a position to perpetuate. Well now the co-holder of Al Gore’s Nobel Peace Prize is on the hot seat again. It is being reported in the UK Telegraph, and other outlets, that he has been in the thick of what is now being call “glaciergate.” Again, as reported here, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reported in its 2007 assessment, the document that won Paschauri the Nobel Prize, that the Himalayan glaciers would completely disappear by 2035. As it has turned out this prediction was completely unsubstantiated. In the latest revelations it is being reported that the person who was cited as the source for this alarming fabrication works for a private non-profit organization run by Paschauri, and Pascuauri used this information to raise money. According to the Telegraph:
the scientist from whom this claim originated, Dr Syed Hasnain, has for
the past two years been working as a senior employee of The Energy and
Resources Institute (TERI), the Delhi-based company of which Dr
Pachauri is director-general. Furthermore, the claim ? now disowned by
Dr Pachauri as chairman of the IPCC ? has helped TERI to win a
substantial share of a $500,000 grant from one of America’s leading
charities, along with a share in a three million euro research study
funded by the EU.
The Telegraph goes on to report that when the Indian government came out with a study showing that there was no good evidence to support the extreme claim about the Himalayan glaciers Paschauri, who has no credentials in science (he actually holds a Ph.D. in economics from NC State), called the study “voodoo science.” The Telegraph reports that:
Dr Pachauri has been castigated by India’s environment minister, Jairam
Ramesh, and called on by Dr Raina to apologise for his “voodoo science”
charge. At a stormy Delhi press conference on Thursday, Dr Pachauri was
asked whether he intended to resign as chairman of the IPCC ? on whose
behalf he collected a Nobel Peace Prize two years ago, alongside Al
Gore ? but he refused to answer questions on this fast-escalating row.
As an aside, Paschauri testified to the North Carolina Legislative Commission on Climate Change in 2008. It is now becoming quite clear that the commission needs to reconsider his testimony, examine it carefully for misinformation, and possibly remove it from the record.
