REAGANOMICS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE VOODOO TOO:

India turns up heat over 'Glaciergate' (Neeta Lal, 1/21/10, Asia Times)

India's environment minister, having faced accusations of practicing "voodoo science", has been vindicated with the Nobel Prize-winning United Nations climate body's prediction that the Himalayan glaciers would disappear by 2035 being exposed as inaccurate speculation.

After suffering blows from the "Climategate" scandal and the tumultuous and essentially failed Copenhagen climate conference last year, the credibility of the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is now being further questioned over revelations concerning a 2007 report in which it said the total area of the Himalayan glaciers would shrink from the present 500,000 to 100,000 square kilometers by 2035. The IPCC is the world's premier body for the study of climate change and its reports are the basis for formulating global policy.

On Sunday, the Times of London revealed that the claims of shrinkage were based solely on a speculative remark made by a little-known Indian scientist formerly at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Professor Dr Syed Iqbal Hasnain, in 1999 during an interview with New Scientist magazine. The Times quoted Hasnain as saying that the claim was "speculation" and not supported by any formal research.