And you thought railroad engineer Pachauri was odd…
Donna Laframboise of “No Frakking Consensus” does some digging, and what she turns up about the new IPCC lead author is to say the least, strange. Some excerpts:
In 1994, Kovats was one of only 21 people in the entire world selected to work on the first IPCC chapter that examined how climate change might affect human health. She was 25 years old. Her first academic paper wouldn’t be published for another three years. It would be six years before she’d even begin her doctoral studies and 16 years before she’d graduate.
This question Laframboise asks really, really, needs an answer:
How does one land that sort of position (and, presumably, that sort of salary) prior to finishing their PhD?
Josh provides some comic relief:
Theo Goodwin says:
March 19, 2011 at 8:14 am
… So, the hire seems to have been made by people who have an unreasonably high regard for the IPCC.
As mentioned by OzWizard above, the school where she lectures is part of the University of East Anglia – the well known source of emails.
Ken Lydell says:
March 19, 2011 at 12:00 pm
“Kovats evidently met the right people under the right circumstances and left with them a favorable impression. When opportunity later knocked, she opened the door. And she received an amazing number of knocks.”
This does not happen in an academic department, at least not the vast majority of prominent academic departments. A person who is sponsoring a candidate for a job has to make a case for them with forceful arguments and then must defend that case against severe criticism. The person sponsored will be thoroughly tested by her superiors on each point. The kind of situation that you describe sounds more like the process of interviewing prospective graduate students. Each professor is pretty much allowed to select one or two, depending on the wealth of the department.
Hmmmm….apparently she’s an environmental epidemiologist, here’s her publication list:
http://www.lshtm.ac.uk/publications/list.php?inpress=1&filter=staff_id&value=10989
Typical fear-mongering public health type, I’m surrounded by ’em. Yup, global warming will increase malaria, plague etc. etc. I hear it every day, believe me.
Look her up on http://www.scirus.com
I think one should remeber that IPCC in the UN system is politically and administrative positioned under the UNEP.
UNEP is the place you most likely will find radical environmentalist from the Greenpeace, WWF etc etc..
And they, based on the political based UNFCCC, are pulling strings and in a large degree manage the “Muppet show” and the “scientific” “results” from the IPCC.
Some interesting info here?
http://climatechange.mensnewsdaily.com/2011/03/14/peer-into-the-heart-of-the-ipcc-find-greenpeace/