British science chief wants honesty on climate change

Another top British scientist Mike Hulme raised questions whether Pachauri of India should continue to head the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change IPCC.

In the wake of an admission by IPCC that it grossly overstated the rate at which Himalayan glaciers were receding,Beddington told The Times that climate scientists should be less hostile to sceptics who questioned man-made global warming.

He also condemned scientists who refused to publish the data underpinning their reports.

Beddington said that public confidence in climate science would be improved if there were more openness about its uncertainties,even if that meant admitting that sceptics had been right on some hotly-disputed issues.

Pachauris voodoo science remark to slam Indias Environment ministry over the Himalayan glacier issue drew more flak from another scientist.

Hulme,Professor of Climate Change at the University of East Anglia,criticised Pachauri for his dismissive response last November to research by an Indian group suggesting that the UN body had overstated the threat to the glaciers.

Pachauri described it as voodoo science.

Pachauris choice of words has not been good. The question of whether he is the right person to lead the IPCC is for the 193 countries who make up its governing body. Its a political decision. Prof Hulme said.