Global Warming Report: Diplomats Win Negotiations, but Scientists Have Quiet Last Say

[Omaha Steve]

http://omaha.cox.net/cci/newsnational/national?_mode=view&_state=maximized&view=article&id=D8OBVT184&_action=validatearticle

Global Warming Report: Diplomats Win Negotiations, but Scientists Have Quiet Last Say

04-07-2007 3:25 PM
By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer

BRUSSELS (Associated Press) -- Two distinctly different groups, data-driven scientists and nuanced offend-no-one diplomats, collided and then converged this past week. At stake: a report on the future of the planet and the changes it faces with global warming.

An inside look at the last few hours of tense negotiations at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reveals how the diplomats won at the end thanks to persistence and deadlines. But scientists quietly note that they have the last say.

Diplomats from 115 countries and 52 scientists hashed out the most comprehensive and gloomiest warning yet about the possible effects of global warming, from increased flooding, hunger, drought and diseases to the extinction of species.

The 23-page summary certainly didn't sound diplomatic. But it was too much so, scientists said.


Journalists and others listen to a report on climate change at the EU Charlemagne building in Brussels, Friday April 6, 2007. An international global warming conference approved a report on climate change Friday, chairman Rajendra Pachauri said, after a contentious marathon session that saw angry exchanges between diplomats and scientists who drafted the report. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)


In the past, scientists at these meetings felt that their warnings were conveyed, albeit slightly edited down. But several of them left Friday with the sense that they had lost control of their document. At one point, NASA's Cynthia Rosenzweig filed a formal protest and left the building, only to return, make peace and talk in positive tones. Others talked about abandoning the process altogether.

"There was no split in the science _ they were all mad," said John Coequyt, who observed the closed-door negotiations for the environmental group Greenpeace.

FULL story at link.

[phantom power]

1. I hope these "diplomats" remember their idiocy 10 years from now.

The climate isn't going to negotiate with them.

[drm604]

2. Negotiated Facts?

Fact can't be negotiated, they just are. :banghead:

This struck me as particularly ridiculous:

China and Saudi Arabia wanted to lower the level of scientific confidence (from more than 90 percent to 80 percent) that the report had in a statement about current global warming effects and it looked like they would win because they wouldn't accept the original wording. That's when Rosenzweig protested and walked.

WTF? How do China and Saudi Arabia gain from a 10% reduction in scientific confidence? 80% confidence is still high enough to demand action given the consequences of inaction. The only reason I can see for this is that 20% uncertainty works better for disinformation campaigns, and that is NOT a legitimate reason to change the report.