Is this the last straw? After claiming Himalayan glaciers would be all gone in 25 years, that 50% of the Netherlands is now below sea level (only 26% is, and it has been that way for a long time), and a string of predictions that the world would warm by AT LEAST .2°C per decade from 1990 to 2010 and NONE of these claims are true (scientifically) one would think Al Gore and the IPCC would trade in their Nobel Peace Prizes for a Darwin Award.

Yet here we are, with one more IPCC dire prediction of pending doom destroyed on the altar of REALITY!

Ever more question marks have been raised in recent weeks over the reputations of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and of its chairman, Dr Rajendra Pachauri. But the latest example to emerge is arguably the most bizarre and scandalous of all. It centres on a very specific scare story which was included in the IPCC’s 2007 report, although it was completely at odds with the scientific evidence – including that produced by the British expert in charge of the relevant section of the report.

…

One of the most widely quoted and most alarmist passages in the main 2007 report was a warning that, by 2020, global warming could reduce crop yields in some countries in Africa by 50 per cent. Dr Pachauri not only allowed this claim to be included in the short Synthesis Report, of which he was co-editor, but has publicly repeated it many times since.

Emphasis mine. Now this is a serious and dire warning. This is akin to screaming fire in a theatre. if Africa lost 50% of its food production capacity there would be mass famine, death and violence. Thankfully, this claim is about as real as Star Trek transporter beams:

The nearest any got to providing evidence for his claim was one for the Moroccan government, which said that in serious drought years, cereal yields might be reduced by 50 per cent. The report for the Algerian government, on the other hand, predicted that, on current projections, “agricultural production will more than double by 2020”.

Down by half, up by twice. Can’t both be true. There are reports that the Sahara has been greening again due to increased rainfall (evidence shows the Sahara transitions from desert to lakes on something like a 12,000 year cycle due to a wobble in the Earth’s orbit). So we know the DATA shows indicates the IPCC dire claims are bunk. Peddling bunk usually destroys credibility:

A LEADING British government scientist has warned the United Nations’ climate panel to tackle its blunders or lose all credibility.

Robert Watson, chief scientist at Defra, the environment ministry, who chaired the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) from 1997 to 2002, was speaking after more potential inaccuracies emerged in the IPCC’s 2007 benchmark report on global warming.

The most important is a claim that global warming could cut rain-fed north African crop production by up to 50% by 2020, a remarkably short time for such a dramatic change. The claim has been quoted in speeches by Rajendra Pachauri, the IPCC chairman, and by Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general.

This weekend Professor Chris Field, the new lead author of the IPCC’s climate impacts team, told The Sunday Times that he could find nothing in the report to support the claim. The revelation follows the IPCC’s retraction of a claim that the Himalayan glaciers might all melt by 2035, dubbed ‘Glaciergate’ by commentators.

All false alarms. So how many times do the alarmist cry ‘wolf!’ before we ignore them for good?

Tags: Africa, Global Warming, Green Sahara