Goof-up on Himalayan Glaciers' melting was a 'human mistake', says IPCC deputy - - India News Times

The deputy leader of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has said that the UN's climate science body's claim that the Himalayan Glaciers would melt by 2035 was simply a 'human mistake'. According to a report in the Telegraph, the IPCC is under fire after being forced to retract claims that the Himalayan Glaciers would melt by 2035. However, Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, vice chairman of the IPCC, said that it was simply a "human mistake". "Aren't mistakes human? Even the IPCC is a human institution and I do not know of any human institution that does not make mistakes, so of course it is a regrettable incident that we published that wrong description of the Himalayan glacier," he said. The scandal has led to the calls for the chairman of the science body Rajendra Pachauri to resign after he described those who criticised the claim as using "voodoo science". But again, van Ypersele, professor of climatology and environmental sciences at the Catholic University of Louvain, said it was "only human" to use such language. "I would personally not have used the voodoo science wording," he said. "I think humans can sometimes use words that are a bit too strong but it is certainly not a reason to ask for the resignation of a chairman who has done an excellent job," he added. "We are trying to do our best, we are going to reinforce the review procedures so the probability in the next report of such incidents happening is even lower. But to guarantee a zero fault product is probably not possible for any human enterprise," he explained. The IPCC are now working on the 5th assessment report that will be finalised in 2014 and also hugely influence world leaders. According to van Ypersele, the panel made up of more than 2,000 scientists will do everything it can to ensure there are not mistakes in the new report, although he emphasised that no scientist can promise a perfect document. "We are trying to do the best job we can in assessing the quality information about climate change issues in all its dimensions and some do not like the conclusions of our work," he said. "Now it is true we made a mistake around the glacier issue, it is one mistake on one issue in a 3,000 page report. We are going to reinforce the procedures to try this does not happen again," he added.