Jairam Ramesh's Allegation - Climate Scientists Have Political Agenda - Absurd, Dangerous

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Minister’s statement that Western climate science is mired in politics is utterly baseless and dangerous for the nation. Climate Revolution files RTI with environment ministry to seek documents that show grounds for the allegation

Jairam Ramesh, union minister for environment and forests said on Wednesday that "Science is politics in climate change [...] Western climate scientists have less of a scientific agenda and more of a political agenda."

He made the controversial statement while addressing scientists at Space Application Centre in Ahmedabad implying that scientific studies published in the West exaggerate climate impacts to drive political interests of developed countries over developing ones.

Climate Revolution strongly condemns minister's allegation which once again shows that the government remains in denial of the dire consequences of climate change predicted by numerous international scientific reviews and studies.

Manu Sharma, founder of Climate Revolution campaign said, "I was incensed when I read the statement. If our environment minister still doesn't believe in the huge accumulated body of international climate research, how can he be expected to save us from the effects they predict?"

Numerous assessments of climate science

While Jairam Ramesh likes to flog the IPCC for its mistake over the date of Himalayan Glacial melt, which the panel later retracted, he fails to recognise that the IPCC did not manufacture the research, it only collated existing research and that Himalayan glacial melt is only one of the several serious consequences of climate change which include: increased frequency and severity of droughts, floods and flash floods, cyclones and super cyclones; oceans that are acidifying; rising sea level that threaten vast coastal populations; decreasing agricultural productivity that will trigger farmer suicides and food riots on a scale we haven't seen before; and massive population displacement that will happen as a result of all of above.

Ramesh also ignores the fact that IPCC is not the only international scientific authority that has assessed climate research. Over the last few years there have been dozens of comprehensive scientific assessments and studies that reveal the urgency to act on climate change -- far too many to name.

Some of the most notable studies and analyses published only in the last few months are outlined below. (With thanks to Climate Progress blogger Dr. Joseph Romm for his excellent reporting)

· June 2
The Royal Society of UK in a special issue on Global Warming details ‘Hellish Vision’ of 4°C world which we may face in the 2060s. The study, published by researchers from University of Manchester and University of East Anglia, says, in a 4C scenario, "the limits for human adaptation are likely to be exceeded in many parts of the world, while the limits for adaptation for natural systems would largely be exceeded throughout the world."
http://tinyurl.com/3vbj9ne

· May 23
Australian Climate Commission releases a report titled “The Critical Decade” that says act now or “the global climate may be so irreversibly altered we will struggle to maintain our present way of life.” It starts with slamming the media explaining that climate science “is being attacked in the media by many with no credentials in the field. It goes on to say “we know beyond reasonable doubt that the world is warming and that human emissions of greenhouse gases are the primary cause.”
http://tinyurl.com/5wqmzov

· May 12
National Academy of Sciences releases report that calls on America to “substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions” starting immediately. Part of a series of reports titled "America's Climate Choices" spanning one year, this final report warns that “waiting for unacceptable impacts to occur before taking action is imprudent because […] many of these changes will persist for hundreds or even thousands of years.”
http://tinyurl.com/3qvo9r6

· May 9
The UK government admits that climate science remains robust despite the climategate controversy, in which some climate scientists were wrongly indicted for manipulating climate data. In a statement it said, "After two independent reviews, and two reviews by the Science and Technology Committee, we find no evidence to question the scientific basis of human influence on the climate..." Further, it said, “Evidence from multiple disciplines and sources strongly indicates that climate change, driven by human activities, poses real risks for our future."
http://tinyurl.com/3jhgx25

· Mar 28
A study conducted by university of Virginia and Oregon state university scientists show that climate-driven vegetation change by Russia's boreal forests is one of the several positive feedback mechanisms that are not included in climate models. The co-author of the study says: “What we’re seeing is a system kicking into overdrive. Warming creates more warming.”
http://tinyurl.com/3dbme9m

· Mar 20
A study led by Richard Muller, former climate skeptic and physicist at Berkeley, University of Clifornia shows up unexpected results when it “confirms the reality of global warming and support in all essential respects the historical temperature analyses of the NOAA, NASA, and HadCRU,” some of the premier climate research institutions around the world. In a public talk Muller said, “we are seeing substantial global warming [...] none of the effects raised by the [skeptics] is going to have anything more than a marginal effect on the amount of global warming.”
http://tinyurl.com/6gvevdf

· Mar 16
A purely mathematical analysis by two Swiss scientists reveal that “the content of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is accelerating super-exponentially.” The paper that is essentially agnostic on climate science concludes, "the evidence presented here does not augur well for the future […] notwithstanding a lot of discussions, international meetings, prevalence in the media, atmospheric CO2 content growth continues unabated with a clear faster-than-exponential behaviour."
http://tinyurl.com/6yymn9w

· Mar 10
A study led by the U.S. Jet Propulsion Laboratory suggests, "the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets are losing mass at an accelerating pace [...] overtaking ice loss from Earth’s mountain glaciers and ice caps, to become the dominant contributor to global sea level rise, much sooner than model forecasts have predicted." The paper goes on to predict, "if present trends continue, sea level is likely to be significantly higher than levels projected by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2007."
http://tinyurl.com/6eh8s8d

· Feb 17
National Snow and Ice Data Center study shows that thawing permafrost will turn Arctic from carbon sink to carbon source in the 2020s, releasing 100 billion tons of carbon by 2100. Yet, unfortunately, no climate model currently incorporates the amplifying feedback from methane released by defrosting tundra.
http://tinyurl.com/3gzdyjo

· Feb 16
Two seminal papers in Nature, one by Canadian and British scientists and another by several European and one Japanese scientist, join growing body of evidence that human emissions are responsible for extreme weather and flooding that harm humans and the environment.
http://tinyurl.com/5rrnrop

· Feb 8
A UK-Brazilian research team publishes study on the 2010 Amazonian drought showing that it "may have been even more devastating to the region’s rainforests than the unusual 2005 drought, which was previously billed as a one-in-100 year event." Lead author of the study says, “current emissions pathways risk playing Russian roulette with the world’s largest rainforest.”
http://tinyurl.com/5w65wwe

· Jan 20
Leading climate scientist James Hansen releases draft paper titled “Paleoclimate Implications for Human-Made Climate Change” arguing that we are at a climate tipping point that, once crossed, enables multi-meter sea level rise. It says, "BAU scenarios result in global warming of the order of 3-6°C. It is this scenario for which we assert that multi-meter sea level rise on the century time scale are not only possible, but almost dead certain."
http://tinyurl.com/6gyplpx

Independent agencies

The studies outlined above are not from a single source but from multiple independent institutions and universities. There are hundreds of agencies with thousands of scientists that are engaged in climate research around the world. Although many of these institutions and universities often collaborate with each other, yet it defies logic and reason that research by such wide and disparate groups could be driven by political interests of their corresponding nations.

Scientists themselves victim

For Ramesh's theory about scientists to be true, they must benefit from their pronouncements of exaggerated findings. However, the truth is, leading climate scientists have faced a lot of criticism including even death threats from individuals and special interests groups that do not favour their findings.

Just last week, it was reported that Australia’s leading climate change scientists are "being targeted by a vicious, unrelenting email campaign that has resulted in police investigations of death threats." In the run up to Copenhagen and thereafter, a smear campaign was unleashed by climate denialists and skeptics on several notable scientists and heads of institutions of repute.

Science has no boundaries

Most often the findings and conclusions of climate studies are politically unpalatable within their respective countries. In the United States for example, there has been consistent refusal to accept climate science from Republicans over the last year and a half.

At a time when the United States is struggling to legislate climate laws domestically and faltering on its international commitments, it does not help the government politically when their National Academy of Sciences calls it to substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Yet the NAS has been doing precisely that for the past one year. When scientific findings are inconvenient to themselves, it makes little sense to argue that the science is being driven by their political interests internationally. After all, the laws of physics and chemistry do not recognise national boundaries.

No evidence linking politics with climate science

There is no evidence in the public domain which suggests that there is a conspiracy among the developed nations to influence climate science in order to support their political agenda with the developing countries. For the theory to be plausible, countless number of scientists, editors and publishers would have to conspire with the ruling political class in an unprecedented effort.

Since such seamless coordination is not always possible on such a large scale, there would have to be notable cases of suppression of genuine authentic research that does not go well with the aims of such a conspiracy. Yet no such record can be easily found.

In fact there's plenty of evidence of conspiracies in which climate denialists and skeptics, whom the minister has defended in the past, are paid for by fossil fuel interests which do not want global warming legislation. Oil companies such as Exxon Mobil are widely known to have actively funded such individuals and organisations.

In March last year, environment minister Jairam Ramesh wrote to the council that was reviewing IPCC procedures suggesting that contrary scientific opinion on the conclusions of IPCC must be included in IPCC reports. He also suggested that the panel's draft reports should be sent to all known “climate sceptics” during the review process.

In a media interview later last year Ramesh defended Bjørn Lomborg, a well-known climate skeptic who has been widely debunked.

Denial of climate science dangerous

At Climate Revolution, we have previously reported through RTI disclosures that no mechanism exists within environment ministry and PMO for climate science to inform policy decisions. This evident denial of climate science has grave implication for the country's future as it remains unprepared to meet the consequences of climate change.

The destruction caused by flash floods in Leh and Uttarakhand regions last year, for example -- that killed around 200 people -- could have been minimised or averted had their respective state governments put in place warning systems to alert citizens of impending disasters which are inline with predictions of the IPCC report.

RTI replies submitted by environment ministry show they never issued any advisory or note of warning to state governments or the public regarding extreme weather events or climate anomalies even almost three years after publication of the IPCC's 4th Assessment report.

Fresh RTI on Ramesh's Comment

We are filing a fresh RTI query with the ministry of environment to seek:

a) Copy of all emails received and sent by the minister on his official email account from the date of taking office till present day.

b) Any ministry record that provide a basis for Minister's allegation that "western climate scientists have political agenda."

The minister's emails will be scrutinised for evidence of a grand international conspiracy spanning across multiple continents and thousands of scientific institutions that may have been the basis for his statement.