Review Finds Flaws in U.N. Climate Change Group

The United Nation's climate change scientists need to be more open to alternative views. That's according to an independent review commissioned to study the issue, says the New York Times.

The report was released today by the the panel from the InterAcademy Council and criticizes the UN's International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

UN scientists have come under heavy fire after "a few glaring errors—including a prediction that the Himalayan glaciers would disappear by 2035—made it into" the last United Nations climate change report, released in 2007, according to the Times article.

That claim, says review leader and Princeton University professor Harold Shapiro, was inaccurate: "At least in our judgment, it came from just not paying close enough attention to what (peer) reviewers said about that example."

Another report, Shapiro said, “contains many statements that were assigned high confidence but for which there is little evidence.”

Additionally, the release of e-mails from leading global warming scientists contributing to the 2007 report shows that some global warming data were manipulated to trump up global warming claims.

"IPCC leaders have been criticized for making public statements that were perceived as advocating specific climate policies," the report notes. "Straying into advocacy can only hurt IPCC’s credibility."