London, Jan. 23 (ANI): While UN climate chief Dr Rajendra Pachauri has rejected calls to step down in the wake of the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change's withdrawal of an erroneous warning on Himalayan glaciers, the Indian climate official has admitted that there could be more errors in the Nobel prize wining report.
Earlier, experts behind the report had admitted that the IPCC warning that global warming will melt most of the Himalayan glaciers by 2035 was based on a "speculative" article published in New Scientist.
Dr Pachauri said he was considering whether to take action against those responsible.
"I know a lot of climate sceptics are after my blood, but I'm in no mood to oblige them. It was a collective failure by a number of people. I need to consider what action to take, but that will take several weeks. It's best to think with a cool head, rather than shoot from the hip," The Times quoted Dr Pachauri, as saying.
Dr Pachauri said that the IPCC's report was the responsibility of the panel's former Co-Chairs, British scientist Dr Martin Parry and Argentine meteorologist Dr Osvaldo Canziani.
"I don't want to blame them, but typically the working group reports are managed by the Co-Chairs. Of course the Chair is there to facilitate things, but we have substantial amounts of delegation," Dr Pachauri said.
"Frankly, it was a stupid error. But no one brought it to my attention," he added.
He also declined to blame the 25 authors and editors of the erroneous part of the report.
But Syed Hasnain, the Indian glaciologist erroneously quoted as making the 2035 prediction, said that responsibility had to lie with them. e and other leading glaciologists pointed out at least five glaring errors in the relevant section.
It says the total area of Himalyan glaciers "will likely shrink from the present 500,000 to 100,000 square kilometers by the year 2035". There are only 33,000 square kilometers of glaciers in the Himalayas.
A table below says that between 1845 and 1965, the Pindari Glacier shrank by 2,840m - a rate of 135.2m a year. The actual rate is only 23.5m a year. (ANI)
|
|
Comments:
