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Fred Pearce : Knocking Rajendra Pachauri’s Pedestal

I’m sorry to report that Fred Pearce has joined the clamour for the very famous scalp of Rajendra Pachauri :-

https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19380-why-its-time-for-change-at-the-ipcc.html

“Why it’s time for change at the IPCC : Updated 01 September 2010 by Fred Pearce”

In the print edition of New Scientist magazine, the second part of the editorial for 4 September 2010 has the headline, “Climate panel deserves a new leader”, and was presumably also written by Fred Pearce.

This is a highly disappointing opinion from Fred Pearce. It looks like he is making the same mistake as was made earlier in the year, when various commentators called for the head of Professor Phil Jones on a plate after e-mails were “liberated” (and incorrectly annotated) from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia (UEA).

Dr Pachauri has been cleared of all false accusations of wrongdoing, and has done a sterling job in keeping the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change marching together :-

https://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/26/a-newspaper-apologizes-to-united-nations-climate-chief/

But still the lashes fly :-

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/climate-panel-must-be-purged/story-e6frg6zo-1225914025436

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/7974521/IPCCs-Rajendra-Pachauri-is-damaging-the-world.html

https://blogs.nature.com/news/thegreatbeyond/2010/09/pachauri_still_under_fire_desp_1.html

https://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/georgemonbiot/2010/aug/26/rajendra-pachauri-financial-relationships

Rajendra Pachauri should stay.

Fortunately he appears to be made of stern stuff :-

https://www.businessbhutan.bt/?p=2622

“…Despite the support of the Indian government, Dr Rajendra Pachauri is still under pressure from all over the world. He insisted the IPCC report’s core assertion that the world is heating up has not been challenged and he condemned what he called posturing in attacks on the climate change body. He also said that he will stay to implement the changes unless he is dismissed by the representatives of the 194 government who run the IPCC which is most unlikely to happen as heads of organizations are rarely unseated when they are backed by their own governments…”

https://ibnlive.in.com/news/pachauri-to-stay-despite-ipcc-report-row/129957-2.html

“Pachauri to stay despite IPCC report row : Bahar Dutt , CNN-IBN : Posted on Aug 31, 2010 : …”I have a task. I have a mission to finish the fifth assessment report and I am certainly not going to quit,”…”

He’s the right man in the right job :-

https://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/cif-green/2010/sep/03/rajendra-pachauri-ipcc

“If Rajendra Pachauri goes, who on Earth would want to be IPCC chair? : No future chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change can ever feel safe if Dr Pachauri is driven out : John Vidal, 3 September 2010”

3 replies on “Fred Pearce : Knocking Rajendra Pachauri’s Pedestal”

Jo,
In point of fact, I did not write that headline, and wouldn’t have. At the risk of sounding pompous, always think twice before writing “presumably”…
Fred

@FredPearce (if you are genuinely the real-life actual Fred Pearce, journalist and author)

Thanks for your input. You don’t sound pompous at all. I apologise if I have made one assumption too many for your liking. Would you like me to re-word what I have written ? If it is offensive to you, I will surely consider it.

In which way should I “think twice” in this particular instance ? What negative repercussions do you project are possible ?

I feel this is not the time for calling generally for resignations/sackings from anyone, and it is for this reason that I have not called for the removal of Fred Pearce’s influence on Climate Change reporting style in New Scientist.

All I want is for the New Scientist to stop behaving like The Economist and telling everyone what to do in the politics and policymaking responses to Climate Change. Surely it is not the duty of New Scientist to call for the resignation/sacking of the leadership of any international science body ?

And what would it achieve, anyway, to de-stabilise the IPCC (and the general public’s perception of the IPCC) further at this point by the Media sparking a fight over who should be in the leading positions ?

It is up to the IPCC itself to convene and decide the way forward based on recommendations and guidance from a range of people and other bodies. I don’t think that calls for resignations/sackings add anything positive to the process of the IPCC.

Surely as writers on Climate Change we need to be supporting good people, promoting processes that are successful and documenting genuine progress ?

Surely we should take our responsibilities, in the broadest possible sense, seriously ?

Salute this man! Pachauri did what no climate sceptic is able to do. A Trojan Horse that destroyed the IPCC from the inside

If Pachauri did not exist, we climate sceptics would have had to literally invent him. He is in fact every sceptic’s dream. How could we have asked for more when he embodies the UN Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in all completeness? Interestingly, he also strongly epitomizes the typical climate activist and their organizations that they are attached. Did he mould both in his image or its vice versa is however for history to judge.

Next month 194 governments of the IPCC are scheduled to meet in Busan, South Korea. This is where a plot to ouster Pachuari could be unleashed. Pachuari remains defiant: “At the moment, my mandate is very clear. I have to complete the fifth assessment” The Indian Government who Pachuari is their candidate is equally defiant, backing him to the hilt. If Pachauri goes, we leave the IPCC! And if India leaves the IPCC, it can trigger an exodus.

We launch our “Save Pachauri Campaign”. This is the least we can do for a Patriot of our country. He accomplished what climate sceptics were unable to do by functioning as our Trojan horse that effectively destroyed the IPCC from the inside. Write your support to Pachauri/TERI directly or pressurise WWF to executive an Adopt a Pachauri Programme as envisaged by sceptics.

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