Last week Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), promised an investigation into the Climategate email scandal. Today at a press conference at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP15) in Copenhagen, Pachauri backtracked entirely saying, I want to clarify that this is not an investigation. After trying to ignore the brewing firestorm, the IPCC was finally forced to acknowledge the event last week. We certainly are going to take a look at the whole lot of it and then are going to take a position on it, Pachauri said. We certainly dont want to brush anything under the carpet. This is a serious issue and we will certainly look into it in detail.
Today Pachauri reversed course and instead launched a defense of the climate scientists that have been accused of collusion, modification and deletion of data and a host of other offenses. He said that he felt the scientists are being unfairly targeted. Pachauri said, The persons who have worked on this report, and those who unfortunately have been victims of this terrible and illegal act, are outstanding scientists, and have contributed enormously over the 20, 21 years of the existence of the IPCC.
Pachauri stated that his only concern was finding out who was behind it, not if there are any problems with the science behind the manmade climate change theory or the scientists that formulated it. "I think this is an illegal act. The only issue that has to be dealt with as far as this occurrence is concerned is to find out who is behind it," he said.
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