Climate Alarmists Accuse IPCC Of ‘Watering Down’ Disaster Predictions (Again)

Climate alarmists are alarmed that a new IPCC report to be released on 8 October by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will reject their apocalyptic rhetoric and disaster predictions.

They blame IPCC scientists for deliberately downplaying the danger of global warming in order to placate the Trump Administration and some of its fossil fuel allies.

Warnings about the dangers of global warming are being watered down in the final version of a key climate report for a major international meeting next month, according to reviewers who have studied earlier versions of the report and its summary. They say scientists working on the final draft of the summary are censoring their own warnings and “pulling their punches” to make policy recommendations seem more palatable to countries – such as the US, Saudi Arabia and Australia – that are reluctant to cut fossil-fuel emissions, a key cause of global warming.

Exactly the same accusations were made back in 2014 when climate alarmists told the same paper the IPCC had ‘diluted’ its report under ‘political pressure’ to protect fossil fuel interests.

According to a report in today’s Observer the IPCC report concludes that the rise of global temperatures by 2°C could have negative consequences for some countries, such as rising sea levels, spreading deserts, loss of natural habitats and species, dwindling ice-caps and increases in the number of devastating storms.

However, it is the report’s summary for policymakers that is causing concern. This is the document politicians will use as a key climate guide when making changes to legislation. Reviewers of earlier drafts say it is being altered to make the dangers of climate change seem less alarming. As a result, they say,, policymakers could seriously underestimate the risks of global warming. Cuts made to the final draft of the summary include: • Any mention that temperature rises of above 1.5C could lead to increased migrations and conflict; • All discussion of the danger of the Gulf Stream being disrupted by cold water flowing from the Arctic where more and more sea-ice is melting; • Warnings about the dangers that 1.5–2C temperature rises could trigger irreversible loss of the Greenland ice sheet and raise sea levels by 1–2 metres over the next two centuries. Other cuts from the summary include the sentence: “Poverty and disadvantage have increased with recent warming (about 1C) and are expected to increase in many populations as average global temperatures increase from 1C to 1.5C and beyond.”

Over the years, climate activists and professional doom-mongers have repeatedly accused the IPCC of watering down the danger of climate change, of underestimating climate risks and of underestimating global warming.

It would appear that the usual suspects are once again using the same trite mantra in order to prepare themselves for more disappointment.