IPCC climate study defended, but questions grow

More on the controversy surrounding the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The Union of Concerned Scientists comes to the U.N. panel's defense in response to questions regarding its credibility. Those questions stem in part from an apparently faulty claim that Himalayan glaciers could disappear by 2035 due to global warming. See the response here.

The IPCC has said it regretted its estimate about those glaciers, which was included in the second of four reports the panel issued on climate change. UCS says basically that one poorly sourced statement shouldn't discredit the whole report. IPCC's 2007 climate study remains the most comprehensive synthesis of climate change science to date, according to UCS.

The Associated Press, though, has a story today about growing concern within the scientific community about that same report that included the Himalayan glacier claims. The report tries to estimate the possible effects on humans and the environment due to climate change, and according to some scientists, relies on more subjective data.

"A steady drip of unsettling errors is exposing what scientists are calling 'the weaker link' in the Nobel Peace Prize-winning series of international reports on global warming," the AP reports.

The AP also notes that few are challenging the main thrust of the IPCC study that humans are a leading contributor to climate change.