Technology News Blog

Developing Nations Risk E-Waste Crisis

Unless proper electronic-waste recycling is established in developing countries, they will face serious environmental and public health consequences, a United Nations report says.

The urgency in addressing e-waste disposal is driven by the sharp rise in sales of electronic products expected over the next 10 years in countries like China and India, across continents such as Africa, and over large regions including Latin America, the U.N. said. Such imports are expected to add millions of tons of e-waste in regions where recycling efforts are inadequate to handle even current e-waste levels.

For example, most e-waste in China is improperly handled today, with much of it incinerated by backyard recyclers to recover valuable metals like gold. Such practices release steady plumes of toxic pollution and yield very low metal recovery rates compared to state-of-the-art industrial facilities.

While such grossly inadequate recycling efforts are not being properly addressed, the mountain of e-waste that exists today is growing. For example, e-waste from old computers is expected to jump from 2007 levels by 200% to 400% in South Africa and China and by 500% in India.

E-waste from discarded mobile phones will be about seven times higher than 2007 levels in China and 18 times higher in India, the report released Monday from the U.N. Environment Programme said. E-waste from televisions will be 1.5 to two times higher in China and India.

This year, China is expected to produce about 2.3 million tons of e-waste domestically, second only to the United States with about 3 million tons.

“This report gives new urgency to establishing ambitious, formal, and regulated processes for collecting and managing e-waste via the setting up of large, efficient facilities in China,” said Achim Steiner, U.N. under-secretary general and executive director of UNEP, in a statement.

In calling for action in e-waste recycling in developing nations, the U.N. report, “Recycling — From E-Waste To Resources,” points out that boosting recycling rates can generate employment, cut greenhouse emissions, and recover a wide range of valuable metals, including silver, gold, palladium, copper, and indium. (more…)

UN warns of electronic waste timebomb

The United Nations has warned of a rise in electronic waste in developing nations that could put ecosystems and human populations at risk.

A report from the UN Environmental Programme said that waste from mobile phones, PCs and other electronics could become a serious environmental issue in the coming years for a number of countries.

The uptake of electronics in developing countries will increase dramatically over the next 10 years, but many developing regions are ill-prepared to process and recycle the components.

The report estimates that levels of electronic waste in India will jump five-fold by 2020, while regions such as South Africa and China could see a four-fold increase. (more…)

People learn more after a siesta, say scientists

Curling up for an afternoon nap can improve the brain’s ability to learn by clearing out cluttered memory space, psychologists say.

People who nodded off for an hour after lunch performed better in learning tests than those who stayed awake all afternoon, the scientists found.

A study of students revealed that their brains were refreshed by napping only if they entered what is called stage 2 non-REM sleep, which takes place between deep sleep and the dream state, known as REM or rapid eye movement sleep.

The findings support a habit made famous by Sir Winston Churchill, who considered it part of his daily routine to climb into bed at some point between lunch and dinner.

The research follows a recent study by the same group that showed that staying up all night reduced students’ ability to cram new facts by nearly 40%, a consequence, they said, of brain regions effectively shutting down through sleep deprivation.

“Sleep not only rights the wrong of prolonged wakefulness but, at a neurocognitive level, it moves you beyond where you were before you took at nap,” said Matthew Walker at the University of California, Berkeley. (more…)

Selvamurthy to get DRDO award

W. Selvamurthy, Chief Controller (Life Sciences and Human Resource), Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), has been chosen for the DRDO’s Technology Leadership Award for 2008 instituted by the DRDO.

Dr. Selvamurthy will receive this award for his contribution to biomedical sciences, leading to the development of various life-support technologies that culminated in increasing the fighting efficiency of the armed forces at high altitudes such as Siachen.

The award will be presented to him by Defence Minister A.K. Antony on February 23 at a function in New Delhi.

The award citation says Dr. Selvamurthy’s recent path-breaking research — application of nitric oxide and oxygen for treating high altitude pulmonary oedema, has saved more than 500 soldiers’ lives. He developed a new prophylactic method of using carbozen gas for protection against noise-induced loss of hearing among the crew of battleships and battle tanks. (more…)

‘Need tax breaks to gear up for green technology’

Two-thirds of the infrastructure to develop energy-efficient technologies will need to be built now for India to reduce its emission intensity 20-25 per cent over 2005 levels by 2020. Policies that promote energy efficiency, like tax breaks and innovations, need to be put in place immediately, Ajay Mathur, Director General of Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), tells Kirtika Suneja. Edited excerpts:

Given that it is expensive for developing countries to build energy-saving technologies, what is the way ahead?
Agreed, technologies and finances are challenges for developing countries. But it is also an opportunity, as two-thirds of the infrastructure needed by 2030 will have to be built between now and then. The technologies will need to address issues of mitigation, adaptation, afforestation… The question is not whether it will happen, but when will it happen.

How cost-effective will it be?
Super-critical technology for coal power generation was introduced 35 years ago. At that time, cost of electricity from it was 25 per cent more. Today, it is 80 per cent of the price it cost then. Again, 25 years ago, CFLs cost Rs 800-1,000. Now, they sell at much less. The question is, how do we accelerate the process.
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Nobel physicist designing ‘toy’ black hole for research

Bangalore: Eric Cornell, one of three winners of the 2001 Nobel Prize for Physics, said that he was in the process of developing a ‘toy’black hole. This would help in a better understanding of theories around the space body. In 1915, Albert Einstein first published the general theory of relativity. Among the astrophysical implications of that theory is the presence, in space, of regions that distort space and time, allowing nothing, not even light, to escape. The black hole was posited as the end-state for massive stars.

The Bose-Einstein condensate, a state of matter that was first proposed by Satyendranath Bose and Albert Einstein in 1924, became a reality when Eric Cornell and his colleague Carl Wieman at the University of Colorado in the US produced this state of matter. It was for this effort that the two scientists, along with Wolfgang Ketterle of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology received the Nobel in Physics.

Speaking of the project to create a black hole, Cornell said, “It will be like a miniature model of the black hole. It will help in the study of the big bang phenomenon and the history of the earth. A student and I are part of the project.” Cornell was addressing an audience at the MS Ramaiah Institute of Technology. (more…)

Wipro: Noticed About $4 Mln Fraud, Taking Corrective Steps

MUMBAI (Dow Jones)–Wipro Ltd. (507685.BY), India’s third-largest software exporter by revenue, said Wednesday it detected in December a financial fraud of about $4 million by one of its employees and that it is taking corrective measures.

The company is conducting a probe into the matter, Suresh Senapaty, executive director and chief financial officer, said in an emailed statement. He didn’t identify the employee.

A Wipro spokeswoman, who didn’t wish to be named, said the company has recovered about half the money.

The employee was working with Wipro for the past three years in the controllership division within the finance department.

The division was responsible for keeping the NYSE-listed company’s financial books and had powers to authorize payments whenever needed.

The company disbanded the division after detecting the fraud, the spokeswoman said.

10+2 science & maths syllabus to be made uniform from 2011 session

NEW DELHI: State boards across the country have agreed to implement a core curriculum in science and mathematics at the higher secondary level.
The decision taken by the Council of School Board of Education (COBSE) on Tuesday will be implemented from 2011-12.

The apex body for all school boards and councils also agreed to work towards a common entrance examination for professional courses by 2013. With concerns about stress faced by students mounting, the core curriculum is expected to be implemented smoothly. Putting in place a common entrance examination for courses like engineering, medicine may prove to be difficult, as it would mean doing away with entrance exams like IIT-JEE. Both decision would be referred to the Central Advisory Board on Education for approval.

“The COBSE approved the core curriculum in science and mathematics. This will be accepted by all the state boards at the senior higher secondary level. Hence forth, the core curriculum will be taught in the science stream in all schools,” HRD minister Kapil Sibal said.
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Renewables can ensure energy security

Peak oil has been around for a while now. Energy specialists in India, specially those working in the renewable energy space, are now talking the
same about coal: not quite peak coal but an increasing likelihood that coal will not always be available to run power plants.

Will this mean that development as we know will come to a halt, given that energy production and consumption are regarded internationally as a major cause for climate change? For India, a net importer of fossil fuel, including gas, and increasingly of coal, energy security is a compelling reason to go green, G M Pillai, director general, World Institute of Sustainable Energy (WISE) believes.

Development cannot stop and it needs energy but the conventional sources of energy , oil and coal are fast running out. So, renewables are the only option. And, they are also green. So the primary objective of going for renewable energy, notes Mr Pillai, should be to secure the country’s growing energy needs. Solar energy can be a source for our growing energy needs, but what advancements have been made to store it? (more…)

SETI calls for citizen scientists

The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute has opened up its data to all and sundry.

It’s also publishing its signal-detection algorithm, hoping techies everywhere can make it even better and pick up a few of the aliens’ missed calls.

“If you are knowledgeable about digital signal processing and pulling signals out of noise – we need you,” says the website.

“If you are eager to use your eyes, ears, and mind to help us find anomalies in the data streaming from the Allen Telescope Array – we need you.”

In particular, they’re after software developers, data parsing and gaming geeks and amateur radio astronomers.

We suspect that what they’ll actually get… well, you can work it out for yourselves.

A manic Monday for commuters

NEW DELHI: Delhi Metro services were badly hit on Monday after two Bombardier trains developed technical snags and flashing was noticed on the roof of several trains on the elevated sections. For nearly two hours during the evening rush hour, train services virtually came to a standstill on Line 3 (Dwarka to Noida City Centre and Anand Vihar) as over two lakh commuters had to face delays even as the crowds swelled.

The trouble began around 6.15 pm when a train developed a snag at Kirti Nagar station. “The doors of the train weren’t opening after it stopped. It was eventually removed to a siding for checking after the passengers were asked to step down,” said a Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) spokesperson. During this period, train services had to be halted. “For about 20 minutes, all trains running between Rajiv Chowk and Kirti Nagar were either stopped at stations or were moving very slowly,” the spokesperson added.

The motoring system of another Bombardier train developed some problem at the Noida Botanical Gardens station at 7 pm. The train couldn’t be started and had to shifted to a siding. (more…)

Climate scientists hit out at ’sloppy’ melting glaciers error

Climate scientists who worked on the UN panel on global warming have hit out at “sloppy” colleagues from other disciplines who introduced a mistake about melting glaciers into the landmark 2007 report.

The experts, who worked on the section of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report that considered the physical science of global warming, say the error by “social and biological scientists” has unfairly maligned their work. Some said that Rajendra Pachauri, the panel’s chair, should resign, though others supported him.

The IPCC report combined the output from three independent working groups, which separately considered the science, impacts and human response to climate change, and published their findings several months apart.
David Adam on the glacier error Link to this audio

The report from working group two, on impacts, included a false claim that Himalayan glaciers would melt away by 2035, which was sourced to a report from campaign group WWF. The IPCC was forced to issue a statement of regret, though Pachauri and senior figures on the panel have refused to apologise for the mistake. (more…)

U.N. Climate Panel and Chief Face Credibility Siege

Just over two years ago, Rajendra K. Pachauri seemed destined for a scientist’s version of sainthood: A vegetarian economist-engineer who leads the United Nations’ climate change panel, he accepted the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the panel, sharing the honor with former Vice President Al Gore.

But Dr. Pachauri and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are now under intense scrutiny, facing accusations of scientific sloppiness and potential financial conflicts of interest from climate skeptics, right-leaning politicians and even some mainstream scientists. Senator John Barrasso, a Wyoming Republican, called for Dr. Pachauri’s resignation last week.

Critics, writing in Britain’s Sunday Telegraph and elsewhere, have accused Dr. Pachauri of profiting from his work as an adviser to businesses, including Deutsche Bank and Pegasus Capital Advisors, a New York investment firm — a claim he denies.

They have also unearthed and publicized problems with the intergovernmental panel’s landmark 2007 report on climate change, which concluded that the planet was warming and that humans were likely to blame.

The report, they contend, misrepresents the state of scientific knowledge about diverse topics — including the rate of melting of Himalayan glaciers and the rise in severe storms — in a way that exaggerates the evidence for climate change.

With a global climate treaty under negotiation and legislation pending in the United States, the climate panel has found itself in the political cross hairs, its judgments provoking passions normally reserved for issues like abortion and guns. The panel is charged by the United Nations with reviewing research to create periodic reports on climate risks, documents that are often used by governments to guide decisions, and its every conclusion is being dissected under a microscope.

Several of the recent accusations have proved to be half-truths: While Dr. Pachauri does act as a paid consultant and adviser to many companies, he makes no money from these activities, he said. The payments go to the Energy and Resources Institute, the prestigious nonprofit research center based in Delhi that he founded in 1982 and still leads, where the money finances charitable projects like Lighting a Billion Lives, which provides solar lanterns in rural India.

“My conscience is clear,” Dr. Pachauri said in a lengthy telephone interview.

The panel, in reviewing complaints about possible errors in its report, has so far found that one was justified and another was “baseless.” The general consensus among mainstream scientists is that the errors are in any case minor and do not undermine the report’s conclusions.

Still, the escalating controversy has led even many of them to conclude that the Nobel-winning panel needs improved scientific standards as well as a policy about what kinds of other work its officers may pursue.

“When I look at Dr. Pachauri’s case I see obvious and egregious problems,” said Dr. Roger A. Pielke Jr., a political scientist and professor of environmental science at the University of Colorado. He said that serving as an adviser to financial companies was inappropriate for the chairman of the United Nations’ panel, whether Dr. Pachauri received payment directly or not.

Dr. Pachauri bristles at the accusations, which he says are “lies” or “distortions” promulgated by groups hoping to undermine climate legislation and a treaty.

“These people want to distort the picture for their own ends,” Dr. Pachauri said, noting that the report was released two years ago and that the criticisms were only now coming into the limelight. “What we’re doing is not only above-board, but laudable,” he said. “These guys want me to resign, but I won’t.”

Dr. Pachauri, 69, said the only work income he received was a salary from the Energy and Resources Institute: about $49,000, according to his 2009 Indian tax return, which he provided to The New York Times. The return also lists $16,000 in other income, most of it interest on accounts in Indian banks.

Dr. Pachauri acknowledged his role as an adviser and consultant to businesses, but he said that it was his responsibility as the panel’s chairman to disseminate its findings to industry.

Nonetheless, Christopher Monckton, a leading climate skeptic, called the panel corrupt, adding: “The chair is an Indian railroad engineer with very substantial direct and indirect financial vested interests in the matters covered in the climate panel’s report. What on earth is he doing there?”

A former adviser to Margaret Thatcher who also assailed Dr. Pachauri in a critique in Copenhagen that has since been widely circulated, Lord Monckton is now the chief policy adviser to the Science and Public Policy Institute, a Washington-based research and education institute that states on its Web site: “Proved: There is no climate crisis.”

As the accusations have snowballed in the last six weeks, Dr. Pachauri remains widely admired for his work on the intergovernmental panel, which relies on the collaborative work of hundreds of volunteer scientists to sift through current scientific evidence for its reports. He has served in an elected, unpaid position as chairman of the panel, often known by its initials, I.P.C.C., since 2002.

“There is no evidence that outside interests affected Pachauri’s leadership of the I.P.C.C. at all,” said Hal Harvey, chief executive of ClimateWorks, a foundation based in San Francisco that focuses on how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The panel’s process is so “robust and transparent” that it could not be undercut by “personalities or errors,” he said.

He added, “Anyone who is qualified to chair the I.P.C.C. will have interests in academics, science, politics or business; there are thousands of scientists on the I.P.C.C., and you need their expertise and they all have to come from somewhere.”

Many government panels in the United States tolerate overt conflicts of interest in order to get expert advice, Mr. Harvey said, noting that the Federal Reserve Bank of New York has the chief executive of JPMorgan Chase on its board.

But most scientific agencies have explicit conflict-of-interest policies to ensure that expert advice is impartial. The Food and Drug Administration, for example, asks doctors who serve on drug advisory panels to disclose payments from pharmaceutical companies and can disqualify those whose financial involvement is too great.

Dr. Pielke, the University of Colorado professor, said the United Nations panel, which has no explicit conflict policy, should do the same, adding, “You need to make sure that advice is advice and not stealth advocacy.”

Some critics have said that the intergovernmental panel’s chairman should be employed full time by the United Nations while in office, and should eschew outside commitments.

The accusations of errors in the panel’s report — most originating from two right-leaning British papers, The Sunday Telegraph and The Times of London — have sullied the group’s reputation. They follow a controversy that erupted late last year over e-mail messages and documents released without authorization from a climate research center in Britain.

In one case, the report included a sentence that said the Himalayan glaciers could disappear by 2035. The sentence was based on a decade-old interview with a glaciologist in a popular magazine; the scientist now says he was misquoted. The panel recently expressed “regret” for the error.

The panel was also criticized for citing a study about financial losses after extreme weather events that found an increase in such losses of 2 percent a year from 1970 to 2005. That study had not been peer reviewed at the time, although it was later on.

The panel has called the complaint “baseless,” noting that the study was cited appropriately and that other scientific data pointed to a recent rise in severe storms.

Lord Monckton said the incidents reflected a pattern of willful misrepresentation by scientists with financial and professional interests that render them unsuitable to give neutral advice.

In response to the recent criticisms, Dr. Pachauri provided an accounting of some of his outside consulting fees paid to the Energy and Resources Institute. Those include about $140,000 from Deutsche Bank, $25,000 from Credit Suisse, $80,000 from Toyota and $48,750 from Yale. He has recently begun work as a strategic adviser for Pegasus, the investment firm, but has not yet attended a meeting, and no money has yet been paid to the Energy and Resources Institute. He has also provided advice free of charge to groups like the Chicago Climate Exchange.

The energy institute has financial interests in a number of companies. For example, it was awarded stock by the founders of GloriOil, a start-up based in Houston, in exchange for permission to use a method developed at the institute to extract residual oil from older wells.

“We thought about it long and hard, and decided to get involved in this because the U.S. has the largest number of these wells and it is better than drilling offshore or in Alaska,” Dr. Pachauri said.

The institute also provides paid consulting. For example, engineers at the institute are designing two Indian solar parks for the Clinton Climate Initiative. Dr. Pachauri added that research institutes in poorer countries like India could not depend on government largess, as those in the United States did. The institute gets its money from a variety of sources, including the European Union, foundations and private companies.

“We have to generate our own resources from our work,” he said. “This is an institute that has pulled itself up by its bootstraps.”

But even some academics who accept that climate change is a problem are concerned about such activities.

“This is not about whether this is a good person or a good cause; it’s about the integrity of the scientific process,” Dr. Pielke said, adding: “This has become so polarized, it’s like you must be in cahoots with the bad guys if you are at all negative about Pachauri.”

Rajendra Pachauri raises more eyebrows with raunchy environmental novel

The Indian head of the UN climate change panel, already under fire over errors in a key 2007 report, is raising eyebrows again after publishing a raunchy novel and accepting help in promoting it from BP and the head of India’s biggest gas producer.

The novel by Rajendra Pachauri, who heads the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), is called Return to Almora and follows a character called Sanjay Nath, who, like him, is an environmentalist and former engineer in his sixties.

For a country where sex is rarely discussed in public the book mingles lectures on climate change with descriptions of Sanjay’s sexual encounters, including frequent references to “voluptuous breasts”.

More controversially, it was released in Mumbai by Mukesh Ambani — India’s richest man and the head of the oil and gas conglomerate Reliance Industries, the largest private Indian company.

Reliance has close links to Dr Pachauri’s The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), and has received environmental awards from it, including one for its work on HIV/Aids in 2007. Mr Ambani has also been on the steering committee of TERI’s Centre for Research on Energy Security.
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EU ready to help IPCC in quality control

The European Union (EU) has offered to help the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) strengthen its quality control system, after the climate science panel was revealed to have made a mistake about the timeline melting of Himalayan glaciers.

Making it clear that the EU fully supported the IPCC, Spain’s Secretary of State for Climate Change Teresa Ribera told journalists that the transparent way the error was dealt with showed the robustness of the system. However, she admitted that “there is always an opportunity to update the processes,” especially as the Panel has grown in the number of partners and in the level of science and research.

“I personally wrote a letter to the chair of the IPCC offering to help update and improve these kinds of controls,” she said. Spain is currently chairing the 27-member European Union’s climate change agenda.

The Europeans have a high-profile presence at the Delhi Sustainable Development Summit being held here this weekend, with three Prime Ministers present at the inaugural function on Friday. Seven environment or climate change Ministers are participating in various panel discussions, apart from a high-level, informal closed-door meeting of negotiators to discuss the way forward to the next large climate change summit at Mexico this December.

Ms. Ribera felt that holding more such informal meetings among small groups could help pave the way for success in Mexico, but the final legally-binding treaty had to come out of the U.N. process.

Paul Magnette, Minister of Climate and Energy in Belgium, which will take over the chairmanship of the EU’s climate council later this year, praised India’s growth story and potential for further economic expansion, using it as his reasoning why India was equipped to take on larger responsibilities in the fight against climate change.

“India is not in the same situation as Bangladesh or Burkina Faso,” said Ms. Ribera, making the case for a division among richer and poorer developing countries.

She made it clear that in Europe’s opinion, the Kyoto Protocol’s stark distinction between developed and developing countries was outdated. “The world has changed. It is no longer black and white…There are not just two compact groups of countries which have to do this [take on mitigation responsibilities] and countries which don’t have to do this. Now there is a recognition that we all need to do something, at different levels,” she said.

India has held the stance that as a developing country, it cannot be bound with legal obligations to cut its greenhouse gas emissions in the fight against climate change. However, it has agreed to take on a voluntary commitment to reduce emissions intensity by 2020.

The most powerful indians in 2010: No. 21-30

21 : Jairam Ramesh, 55
Minister for Environment
Why
He breaks into the list, and in the top 30, because Copenhagen showed he’s capable of negotiating domestic and global political challenges on policy. He put pragmatism in India’s climate negotiations. For six months ahead of the meet, Ramesh made small shifts in the government’s position and was able to convert it into the official line despite protests by influential members of India’s team. He has raised the profile of the Environment Ministry.
Power punch
In his statement in Parliament after the Copenhagen meet, Ramesh said he had gone beyond domestically comfortable commitments at the conference. The PM was there and he was backing his minister.
What next
Bt Brinjal: to clear or not to clear. Also, can he reduce the ministry’s discretionary powers on project grants?

22 : Fali S. Nariman, 81
Legal expert
Why
He goes up sharply in the list because, at a time when the Bar and Bench are accused of overreach, he is their conscience-keeper. From arguing for minority rights to being the only official to resign in protest against the Emergency, he blends legal acumen with integrity in a way few others can.
Power punch
When he lent his weight to the movement against Justice P.D. Dinakaran being elevated to the SC, their lordships listened. Justice Dinakaran’s appointment is now on hold, while his impeachment proceedings start.
What next
With questions about judicial accountability only set to get louder, Nariman’s mediating role remains the strongest hope of consensus emerging over judicial appointments and punishment.

The son of former diplomat, the late S.K. Singh, he makes it to the list because as his boss becomes more important, the aide who has the trust of the boss and can control access to the boss becomes a player. He’s becoming to Rahul Gandhi what Ahmed Patel is to Sonia Gandhi. He’s been with Rahul for five years and is the man for all jobs. Though extremely polite, he can give a piece of his mind to powerful ministers.
Power punch
Did AICC HQ know of Rahul’s tours during the last elections? No. That information was with Kanishka Singh. He planned Rahul’s campaign schedule.
What next
His big test will come as and when he starts dealing with party veterans outside the secure confines of 12 Tughlaq Lane, Rahul Gandhi’s residence and work HQ.

He goes up the list because he’s stronger in UPA-II. He helped the Congress-led alliance sweep Kerala in the Lok Sabha polls. In his first term as a “clean” defence minister, he became a confidante of Sonia Gandhi and was asked to handle the ministry a second time. Many in the government want a faster build-up of defence ties with the US and Israel. He prefers gradualism. He’s got his way so far.
Power punch
When a corruption scandal broke out last year in the Ordnance Factory Board, he banned seven defence firms from all dealings. He has also intervened firmly in the army land scam case.
What next
He has to ensure procurements of equipment close to $ 10 billion for the armed forces, though allegations of wrongdoing will inevitably crop up.

The IPCC’s problems have been compounded by its imperious attitude

The incorrect statement in the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that the Himalayan glaciers could completely disappear by 2035 is remarkable in many ways.

First, how could such a physically implausible claim have entered an early draft of an assessment undertaken by ‘the world’s leading experts’, as IPCC authors are frequently described? Second, how did the claim survive several rounds of peer review from other IPCC authors and outside experts? Third, how did the claim, published in April 2007, remain unchallenged for more than two years before hitting the news headlines?

But perhaps most remarkable of all was the reaction of the IPCC chairman, Rajendra Pachauri, when the results of a specially commissioned Indian study of the glaciers challenged the IPCC’s claim. He dismissed the new study as “voodoo science”.

Pachauri’s haughty attitude helps explain why the controversy surrounding the mistaken claim — which, after all, is a rather minor piece of the picture of climate change impacts — is now filling newspapers, blogs and broadcast media.

But to fully understand the timing of this affair we must reflect on the unexpected turn of events in the politics of climate change science over the past three months.
(more…)

Netflix to Stock More Indie Films

In a move to expand its existing library, Netflix has signed deals with a number of distributors of independent films, which will give its members a chance to watch various independent titles too.

Distributors like The Criterion Collection, Gravitas Ventures, Kino Lorber, Music Box Films, Oscilloscope Laboratories and Regent Releasing are involved in the deal. “In all, some 300 new independent titles can now be watched instantly or will become available to do so early next year,” Netflix said.

Netflix members can watch movies and TV episodes streamed to their TVs and computers via Netflix ready devices and can receive DVDs delivered to their homes.

Authors cry foul over Google ‘rights grab’

British authors are divided over plans by Google to create the world’s largest online library and profit from out-of-print titles.

Philip Pullman is among those opting out of the proposed Google book settlement, which critics condemn as a “massive rights grab” and an unacceptable reshaping of the copyright landscape to the detriment of writers.

Helen Oyeyemi is also among those opposed to the settlement, currently being thrashed out in the US courts, which could prove to be one of the most important agreements in digital publishing.

Google Books would carry “substantial extracts” of books that are out of print but still within copyright, with US buyers then paying to download the title in full. Revenue generated would be split, with 63% going to the rights holder and the rest to Google. Although only US consumers will be able to use this service, the titles include works published in Britain, Canada and Australia as well as the US. (more…)

Harrabin’s Notes: Reforming the IPCC climate body

The hue and cry for the head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Rajendra Pachauri is in full spate, and he is defiantly refusing to apologise personally for the Glaciergate bungle.

But we should pause for a moment to ask if this particular manhunt will produce a better system of climate science.

Dr Pachauri heads an organisation set up to advise governments on the latest knowledge of climate science, potential impacts, and economic and social solutions.

The task is split into three working groups. Is it realistic to assume that the overall chair will check the reference footnotes in all three sections of a 3,000-page report? I think not.

The Glaciergate mistake (important not because it was made, but because it was not spotted) was the responsibility of WGII. As I mentioned in a recent column, the same working group also failed to reference fears over the Amazon rainforest properly, even though the science itself was solid.

The co-chairs who oversaw WGII have served their term. They were the British scientist Professor Martin Parry and Argentinian meteorologist Dr Osvaldo Canziani.

Professor Parry has repeatedly refused to answer my questions about the genesis of the errors, and his out-of-office assistant now says he is travelling for a month.

But the question we need to ask is how the IPCC can be reformed in a way that doesn’t make it worse.

Some critics want the IPCC abolished altogether, but without a mutually-accepted source of information it is inconceivable that nations of the world will be able to agree a joint resolve to cut emissions (this is exactly the outcome that fossil fuel lobbyists in the US have sought). (more…)