The "Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change" released its report on climate change yesterday, and Outside magazine declared it an "Authoritative Report" (http://outside.away.com/outside/news/2007201_1.html).
I'm not interested in a debate about whether or not climate change is impacted by human beings (the IPCC is "disclosed its educated belief that it is “very likely” that global warming has been caused by human activity").
I'm interested in the idea of a non-governing body (or any-body for that matter) being declared "authoritative."
History is not what happened, it's how we remember what happened. One of the philosophers said that - Plato? Aristotle? Liberace? - I don't remember which. What's important is that if the ones who win the wars get to record history, is it the groups who appoint themselves and have some sort of quorum who get to be authoritative?
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This is a sneaky one my friend. While most news outlets are trumpeting no less then 2,500 scientists participating in this, the IPCC website makes clear that this is a report from authors, reviewers and country policy-makers. I assume the scientists were represented by their peer reviewed studies, whose inclusion or exclusion in the conference was no doubt determined by the authors, reviewers and policy-makers. Since the IPCC is now in it's sixth year, I have no doubt that less than a dire prediction would have had no affect on the livelihood of these scores of international bureaucrats.
It may also be interesting to note that people have authoritatively stated that the world was flat (of course this was almost always opposed by the Judeo-Christian clergy based on their "superstitious" understanding of Job 26). Or what about the authoritative declaration in the mid 70’s that we were heading into a new Ice Age. All this authoritativeness has probably led to the subtle re-labeling from “global warming” to “global climate change.” That way, no matter what happens, they’re covered this time and it’s our fault. And what ever happened to acid rain, Chicken Little?
I just caught this link on Drudge. It is an Ohio State professor (info included) saying that the continent of Antarctica is not matching the climate change models. Maybe we should look to scientists instead of policy makers. Check it out:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-02/osu-atd021207.php#
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