THE SCANDAL GROWS BY THE DAY – AT 7:55 P.M. ET:  The march of global-warming "science."  Hear the bands playing, the people cheering, the money flowing.  From London's Telegraph: 

The United Nations' expert panel on climate change based claims about ice disappearing from the world's mountain tops on a student's dissertation and an article in a mountaineering magazine.

Hey, I get information about my computer from Macworld.  What's the difference?  Who are these people to question?

The revelation will cause fresh embarrassment for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which had to issue a humiliating apology earlier this month over inaccurate statements about global warming.

No it won't.  These people are incapable of embarrassment.

...it can be revealed that one of the sources quoted was a feature article published in a popular magazine for climbers which was based on anecdotal evidence from mountaineers about the changes they were witnessing on the mountainsides around them.

The other was a dissertation written by a geography student, studying for the equivalent of a master's degree, at the University of Berne in Switzerland that quoted interviews with mountain guides in the Alps.

The revelations, uncovered by The Sunday Telegraph, have raised fresh questions about the quality of the information contained in the report, which was published in 2007.

It comes after officials for the panel were forced earlier this month to retract inaccurate claims in the IPCC's report about the melting of Himalayan glaciers.

COMMENT:  What is stunning is the silence of the American media.  Fortunately, through the internet, we're able to pick up the best British reporting.  Although much of British journalism is standard left-wing stuff, there's still an island of sanity remaining.

One story I'd like to see reported is the degree of intimidation in science.  You know:  Take the right position, or lose your government grant.  President Eisenhower worried about this almost half a century ago.  But it seems to be the unspeakable issue.

It is very hard, in the United States, to root out corruption in universities, a situation implied in stories that question global-warming "research."  Loyal alumni who want to maintain the glitter of their degrees, members of Congress who depend on universities for political support, and economic forces, including powerful trustees, combine to provide a solid wall of defense.  But my sense is that a day of reckoning is coming, prompted by the huge fees that colleges and universities charge today.  People, including those ordinary unlettered peasants out there, are starting to ask questions.  They should.  All the time.

January 31, 2010