Indian Gov. Classifies All Glacier Data, Including Photographs, Downstream Flow Rates

[hatrack]

NEW DELHI: India is in a fix over releasing “secret data” on the Himalayan glaciers to the scientists studying the phenomenon of ice melting in the region.

This data is so classified that government glaciologist Dr VK Raina was refused access to his own work that he had done during his tenure in the Geological Survey of India (GSI). He was bluntly told that all GSI data was classified, which also includes the water flow from the melting glaciers.

However, Raina was able to use some of the data he had – though at the risk of being hauled up under the Official Secrets Act (OSA) – in his report, trashing the gloom predictors' claims of fast disappearing glaciers by pointing out that some glaciers have in fact “expanded”.

Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh had released Dr Raina's report to take on Rajendra Pachauri, chief of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) who had predicted the extinction of the Himalayan glaciers by the year 2035. Data available with the GSI, which can speed up the research on glaciers, includes aerial photographs of some glaciers on India's borders. But it is all locked up as "classified" on the ground that its release might be a compromise on the country's security, probably due to the fears that it might get into “wrong hands”.

EDIT

http://tinyurl.com/ybj59qu

[Viking12]

1. You might want to find corroborating reports on this.

There's more than a few clues that this is denier hyperbole but this really stands out,

trashing the gloom predictors' claims of fast disappearing glaciers by pointing out that some glaciers have in fact “expanded”.

Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh had released Dr Raina's report to take on Rajendra Pachauri, chief of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) who had predicted the extinction of the Himalayan glaciers by the year 2035.

[hatrack]

2. I agree - some Indian newspaper sources are pretty solid, others less so . . .

On top of that, Indian journalistic style can be simultaneously over-the-top and ambiguous at times, though more typically in entertainment & political gossip contexts.

[bananas]

3. It's a Pakistan newspaper

".pk" is Pakistan, also read the fine print in the logo at the top of the screen:

[hatrack]

4. (Sound of hand slapping own forehead)

Which might also have some bearing on the story . . .

[OKIsItJustMe]

5. India boosts climate data contribution to IPCC

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/feb/08/india-ipcc-climate-data

India boosts climate data contribution to IPCC

A scientific network set up recently by India's environment ministry will contribute formally to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the country's prime minister has announced

T. V. Padma for SciDev.net, part of the Guardian Environment Network
guardian.co.uk, Monday 8 February 2010 11.00 GMT

A scientific network set up recently by India's environment ministry will contribute formally to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the country's prime minister has announced.

It is the first time that Indian scientists will be involved at an institutional level with the IPCC, whose job is to assess the information relevant to understanding the risks of climate change. Its scientists have hitherto made individual contributions.

The Indian Network for Climate Change Assessment (INCCA), formed last year (October 2009), will provide its first research findings to the IPCC by November 2010, prime minister Manmohan Singh told a sustainable development summit in New Delhi today (5 February). Its findings will form part of the panel's fifth assessment report, due to be finalised in 2014.

INCCA comprises more than 200 scientists drawn from 120 institutions across the country and will focus on the 'three Ms' — measuring, modelling and monitoring — to make comprehensive assessments of climate change's impact on key sectors such as agriculture, water, biodiversity, natural ecosystems and health, environment minister Jairam Ramesh said yesterday (4 February).

...