The Booker column is posted, under the main heading: "African crops yield another catastrophe for the IPCC". The strap line tells us: "One more alarming claim in the IPCC's 2007 report is disintegrating under closer examination, says Christopher Booker".Interestingly, the IPCC is stalling on this one, especially after Pachauri's outburst on Friday. Yet, it has given way on the Netherlands affair. It has issued a "background note" admitting that AR4 wrongly stated that 55 percent of the country was below sea level.
This is rather like a bank robber being caught speeding fleeing from the scene of his crime, then pleading guilty to that offence and denying the more serious crime. Yet the IPCC knows full well that, to admit to "Africagate" will do it great damage, hence the current tactic of stalling.
As Booker writes, in the wake of all the other recent scandals, "Africagate" may be the most damaging of all, because of the involvement of Dr Pachauri himself. Not only is the reputation of the IPCC in tatters, but that of its chairman appears irreparably damaged. And just as damaged will be the reputation of Dr Martin Parry, WGII co-chair, who seems to have gone missing.
Unlike the Netherlands, it would seem that the institution and its principle actors are 100 percent below sea level, and sinking fast.
CLIMATE CHANGE – FINAL PHASE THREAD
