Pachauri won’t quit, but admits to four new errors
RK Pachauri, in the hot seat over an erroneous estimate by the panel he heads that most Himalayan glaciers would melt by 2035, may be in greater trouble. The chairman of the IPCC, who on Saturday refused to resign over the mistake, admitted to four more mistakes in the panel’s report, reports Chetan Chauhan.
R.K. Pachauri, in the hot seat over an erroneous estimate by the panel he heads that most Himalayan glaciers would melt by 2035, may be in greater trouble.
HT Image
The chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), who on Saturday refused to resign over the mistake, admitted to four more mistakes in the panel’s report. He attributed these to “human error” but expressed inability to take action against the scientists responsible, saying they were not IPCC employees.
{{^htLoading}} {{/htLoading}}
The Himalayan blunder was first reported by HT on January 18.
According to the report, the present area of the Himalayan glaciers is 500,000 sq km, when in reality it is 33,000 sq km.
The report also says there are 15,000 Himalayan glaciers, whereas the actual figure is between 9,000 and 12,000.
Furthermore, the IPCC says the Pindari glacier in Uttarakhand is melting at a rate of 135.2 metres a year, when the factual position is 25.3 metres.
It also predicts that the Ganga, Indus and Brahmaputra will become seasonal rivers in the “near future” — based on the research of Indian glaciologist Syed Iqbal Hasnain, who also made the 2035 meltdown claim.
“Without considering the glacial sources of the Indus and Brahmaputra in China, one can’t reach such a conclusion,” said D.P. Dabral of the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology.
{{^htLoading}} {{/htLoading}}
{{^usCountry}}
“We admit to the unfortunate mistakes,” Pachauri told a press conference on Saturday, adding that no Indian glaciologist pointed out the mistakes since the report came out in 2007.
{{/usCountry}}
{{#usCountry}}
“We admit to the unfortunate mistakes,” Pachauri told a press conference on Saturday, adding that no Indian glaciologist pointed out the mistakes since the report came out in 2007.
{{/usCountry}}
The IPCC — the UN’s Nobel prize-winning body on climate change — has launched an investigation into the errors a month after the environment ministry published a paper questioning its claim.
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.
Catch every big hit, every wicket with Crickit, a one stop destination for Live Scores, Match Stats, Infographics & much more. Explore now!
