The other main issue targeted by "sceptics' was the IPCC's assertion that up to 40 per cent of Amazon rainforests "could react drastically to even a slight reduction in precipitation." The statement was based on an activist report written by a layman, and published by environmental lobby group, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
In fact, the statement was entirely true. The WWF report sourced a peer-reviewed 1999 paper in the journal Nature by Yale University tropical forest scientist Daniel Nepstad, which categorically confirmed the IPCC's warning. Nepstad himself responded to the "sceptic' media reports, noting "The IPCC statement on the Amazon is correct", and citing further peer-reviewed papers written by himself and others corroborating the same conclusion.
We should not forget the 'sceptic' claim that the IPCC's warnings about sea-level rise were false. An independent peer-reviewed 2009 study in Nature Geoscience corroborated the IPCC's sea-level projections due to global warming, warning that levels will rise by between 7 and 82 cm.
Finally, what of claims of financial corruption? Even IPCC chairman Dr. Raj Pachauri did not escape unscathed, being accused of exploiting his position to secure fabulously huge research grants with which he enriched himself. Not only have the allegations been proven to be "untrue" by an independent KPMG audit of all his financial relationships, but Dr. Pachauri has further been found to be "scrupulous to the point of self-denial." The degree to which Dr. Pachauri, and other climate scientists as well as climate science itself have been subjected to smearing and demonization despite facts being plain for journalists and editors to see if they really cared to is shocking, but illustrative of the extent to which vested special interests want to muddy the waters to stall meaningful political action.
All this goes to prove a single point. The IPCC's Fourth Assessment Report has not been discredited as a signifier of the scientific consensus that global warming is anthropogenic. The IPCC itself has not been discredited. The University of East Anglia Climate Research Unit has not been discredited. There was no "email scandal'.
So let's cut the bullshit and get over the anti-global warming alarmists.
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