British newspaper apologises to green panel

LONDON - A British newspaper which accused a UN environmental panel of bad science over its report on effect of climate change on Amazon rainforests has apologized for casting aspersions on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

In January this year, The Sunday Times had run an article which described IPCC’s claim that Amazon rainforest would be sensitive to future changes to rainfall as “unsubstantiated claim”.

The newspaper said that the nobel prize winner IPCC referenced the report from the World Wide Fund for Nature written by Andrew Rowell and Peter Moor, whom the article described as “green campaigners” with “little scientific expertise”.

IPCC is chaired by Indian environmentalist Rajendra Pachauri.

It also quoted Royal Society research fellow at the University of Leeds and leading specialist in tropical forest ecology, Simon Lewis, as also being critical of the IPCC’s claims.

Lewis then filed a complaint with the British Press Complaints Commission for using his quotes out of context.

A long apology was published by The Sunday Times in its edition dated June 21, in which it admitted: “In fact, the IPCC’s Amazon statement is supported by peer-reviewed scientific evidence.”

The newspaper also apologized for casting aspersions on Rowell and Moore.

It also accepted that “Lewis was making the general point that both the IPCC and WWF should have cited the appropriate peer-reviewed scientific research literature.”