IPCC snow melt claim based on student's essay

New Delhi: In yet another goof-up the UN Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change's (IPCC) claim about snow melting on mountain peaks was lifted from a student's essay in a mountaineering magazine.

The IPCC report had said that reductions in mountain ice in the Andes, Alps and Africa was caused by global warming.

It had cited two scientific papers as its primary source of information.

But according to UK newspaper The Telegraph one source was the geography student's dissertation and the other an anecdotal article in a mountaineering magazine.

It is the third goof-up by IPCC exposed in less than two weeks.

Earlier goof-ups include the IPCC's warning that the Himalayan glaciers would melt due to global warming by 2035, which was based on an article written by a scientist from Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University.

The scientist himself confessed his claims were mostly speculative.

Last week, the Amazongate scandal surfaced. The IPCC had claimed that 40 per cent of the Amazon rainforest could be wiped out due to global warming.

The IPCC cited a WWF report that was written not by an policy analyst but a green activist.

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