It’s a non-debate that just won’t go away. Virtually all scientists - at least credible ones who publish in peer reviewed journals - believe that global warming is a real phenomenon. New Scientist has a full section devoted to how and why climate change is occurring. Countless independent reports have come out stating that we need to act. And yet people still produce pseudo-scientific documentaries like this 1.25 hour Great Global Warming Swindle.

If you’ve been following the news on global warming, you know that last month, the Intergovernmental Palen on Climate Change (IPCC) released a summary for policy makers. Scientific American published the key findings in an article Climate Change Verdict: Science Debate Ends, Solution Debate Begins. Now, a new article in New Scientist quotes independent analyst, David Wasdell, who claims that the policy recommendations have been “watered down” to appease various political powers.

Here are some of his criticisms.

Wasdell’s central charge is that “reference to possible acceleration of climate change [was] consistently removed” from the final report. This happened both in its treatment of potential positive feedbacks from global warming in the future and in its discussion of recent observations of collapsing ice sheets and an accelerating rise in sea levels.

For instance, the scientists’ draft report warned that natural systems such as rainforests, soils and the oceans would in future be less able to absorb greenhouse gas emissions. It said: “This positive feedback could lead to as much as 1.2 °C of added warming by 2100.” The final version does not include this figure. It acknowledges that the feedback could exist but says: “The magnitude of this feedback is uncertain.”

Similarly, the draft warned that warming will increase atmospheric levels of water vapour, which acts as a greenhouse gas. “Water vapour increases lead to a strong positive feedback,” it said. “New evidence estimates a 40 to 50 per cent amplification of global mean warming.” This was absent from the published version, replaced elsewhere with the much milder observation “Water vapour changes represent the largest feedback.”

The final edit also removed references to growing fears that global warming is accelerating the discharge of ice from major ice sheets such as the Greenland sheet. This would dramatically speed up rises in sea levels and may already be doing so. The 2006 draft said: “Recent observations show rapid changes in ice sheet flows,” and referred to an “accelerating trend” in sea-level rise. Neither detail made the final version, which observed that “ice flow from Greenland and Antarctica… could increase or decrease in future”. Wasdell points out recent findings which show that the rate of loss from ice sheets is doubling every six years, making the suggestion of a future decrease “highly unlikely”.

Download Wasdell’s report, Political Corruption of the IPCC Report?.

When will climate change stop being a political issue and start being an issue all humans take seriously and start actively trying to change?