The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is widely
regarded in the media as the ultimate authority on climate
change. Created by two divisions of the United Nations, and
recipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, its pronouncements are
received as if they come down from Mount Olympus or Mount Sinai.
The common presumption is that the IPCC has assembled the best
scientific knowledge. Let's take a closer look at this
organization to see whether it merits such uncritical deference.
The IPCC's Feb. 2007 report stated: It is "very likely" that
human activity is causing global warming. Why then, just two
months later, did the Vice Chair of the IPCC, Yuri Izrael,
write, "the panic over global warming is totally unjustified;"
"there is no serious threat to the climate;" and humanity is
"hypothetically ... more threatened by cold than by global
warming?" IPCC press releases have warned about increased
concentrations of greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere, yet
Dr. Vincent Gray, a member of the IPCC's exper