Article Tags: You could not make it up
The IPCC and scientific community urgently need to focus on rebuilding trust and could learn a few tactics from Barack Obama
Over the last few years as climate campaigners such as myself have tried to mount a good rational argument, theirs has mounted a powerful disinformation campaign. In the last few weeks we have witnessed that effective campaign gain momentum and turn into a sort of global asymmetrical warfare, with criticism of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for its claims about the speed with which Himalayan glaciers are melting, personal attacks against its chairman Rajendra Pachauri and a persistent hounding of climate scientists and those reviewing the scientists.
Gold-standard scientific reporting from the IPCC , and indeed the value of scientific inquiry itself, is now under sustained assault from a motley assortment of cranks, ideologues and special interest voices intent on stopping the transition to a clean energy economy.
It was just these sorts of tactics that, with the Swift boat campaign questioning his military service, helped to bring down Senator John Kerry’s presidential candidacy in 2004. The problem was that Kerry thought being right would be enough. His response was to be photographed going wind-surfing. In contrast, when Obama ran in 2008 and he faced a similar smear campaign attack on the basis of inflammatory comments made by his former pastor, the Reverend Wright, he knew being right wouldn’t be enough. What followed was Obama’s race speech in Philadelphia setting the record straight, and the rest is history.
There’s still time for the IPCC to be Obama in 2008 rather than Kerry in 2004, but that’s going to require a much stronger response than it’s issued so far. At the moment there’s a real danger that when the next major IPCC climate assessment report is released, the likes of the BBC will feel the need to spend 30% of their coverage remembering an inconsequential error about Himalayan glaciers in the last report, because the battle here is over trust and perception. On both of these fronts there can be no doubt that the scientists are losing ground. We all need the IPCC to focus urgently on rebuilding trust, and for the scientific community at large to robustly defend science itself.
Click source to read more from Joss Garman the climate campaigner at Greenpeace UK
Source: guardian.co.uk