“Glaciers in the Himalaya are receding faster than in any other part of the world,” the report noted, adding that “if the present rate continues, the likelihood of them disappearing by the year 2035 and perhaps sooner is very high.” As it happens, this prediction was not based on any peer-reviewed scientific research but was lifted from a report by the World Wildlife Fund, which was repeating an unproven speculation by a single researcher.
而在 IPCC 所犯错误中最大的一条，就是其在 2007 年编写的一份关于气候变化潜在影响的报告中对喜马拉雅冰川融化的观点。报告中说“喜马拉雅冰川比世界其他地方的冰川要消失得更快”，接着补充说“如果保持现在这个消失速度不变，那么这些冰川很有可能在 2035 年或甚至更早的时间内完全消失。”但令人吃惊的是，这一预测并未基于任何经过了科学审查的研究结果，而只是摘自于世界自然基金会的一份报告，而这一份报告只是简单地复述了一位研究人员未经证实的猜测而已。