Gasp! Indian government "actually encourages" climate realists

Climate change deniers spreading misinformation: Environmental groups

In the same decade, climate related disasters reported a dramatic ten-fold increase since 1950. Last year alone, we saw catastrophic flooding in Pakistan, wildfires and extreme temperatures in Russia, severe rain, floods and landslides in China and unprecedented flooding in Australia. Rainfall broke records in India too and flash floods left around 200 people dead in the sparsely populated Leh region.

In its 2007 reports, the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) had warned of precisely such disasters.
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Unfortunately, rather than restrict the spread of such misinformation campaigns by climate deniers, the government actually encourages them.

The April 2008 launch of "Civil Society Report on Climate Change" was presided over by none other than Montek Singh Ahluwalia, the Deputy Chairman of India's Planning Commission.

Even Jairam Ramesh, India's Environment and Forests Minister has accorded legitimacy to climate deniers. In a letter to the European committee reviewing IPCC procedures in March 2010, Ramesh suggested that the panel's draft report should be sent to all known "climate sceptics" during the review process.

Such support for climate deniers by the government is not only unfortunate but also questions the legitimacy of their claims that they are serious about tackling climate change. For the government to seriously address climate change it must first accept the scientific consensus behind it. By Sanjay Kumar