Indian Env. Minister - Nothing "Historically Alarming" Re. Him. Glaciers - Pachauri Blasts Back

[hatrack]

India's environment minister came under fire Tuesday from scientists for denying climate change was causing Himalayan glaciers to melt and disputing the work of the UN's top global warming body. Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said Monday there was no "conclusive scientific evidence" linking global warming to the melting of the glaciers and questioned work by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

The IPCC, a UN body regarded as the world's top authority on climate change, has warned Himalayan glaciers are receding faster than in any other part of the world and could "disappear altogether by 2035 if not sooner".

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PCC chairman Rajendra Pachauri also blasted the research by Raina, calling it "unsubstantiated" and said Ramesh's support of it was "arrogant." "I cannot see what the minister's motives are. We do need more extensive measurement of the Himalayan range but it is clear from satellite pictures what is happening," he told Britain's Guardian newspaper.

Ramesh admitted some glaciers were receding but said the rate was not "historically alarming" as projected by the IPCC, the Hindustan Times daily reported. "The health of the Himalayan glaciers is poor, but according to the (research) paper the doomsday prediction of the IPCC and Al Gore is also not correct," Ramesh said, referring to former US vice president and climate campaigner Al Gore.

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http://www.terradaily.com/2007/091110120809.gt6i9rqs.html

[NickB79]

1. Well, you can't expect him to say anything that might fuck up India's expanding economy

He's bought and paid for by the same politicians that think they can keep up 6% annual growth, environment be damned, until they can provide 1 billion people a standard of living that emulates the US.

[Viking12]

2. You can tell someone is full of shit when they say, "the doomsday prediction of the IPCC and Al Gore

IPCC makes no doomsday predictions. Al Gore is not a scientist. Hysterical rhetoric flailing at strawmen.

[pscot]

3. Ramesh has made comments like this before

The man is an idiot.