IPCC summary report culled and it's the deniers who claim censorship?

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It’s clear that the United States, China, Russia and Saudi Arabia flexed their collective United Nations muscle in negotiating the final version of the IPCC‘s summary for policymakers released in Brussels on Friday. But don’t let the global warming deniers tell you that the report was somehow played up by the “alarmist” UN and “their socialist group of scientists bent on new world order.” The exact opposite occurred.

As UK columnist George Monbiot writes in his column today : “Global warming scientists are under intense pressure to water down findings’ and are then accused of silencing their critics.”

To be sure, the final report does still paint a very grim future with heat waves, droughts and melting ice-caps, but a side-by-side comparison of the proposed draft and final public version shows how watered down the final document is.

Statements like “there are very likely to be major changes,” become “there are projected to be major changes,” and “likely to be at high risk of irreversible extinction,” becomes “there are projected to be major changes in ecosystem structure and species’ ecological reactions.”

Check out the attached summary of edits we have compiled. We took the released version here (pdf.) and compared it to a leaked copy of the proposed draft we found here.

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Kevin is a contributor and strategic adviser to DeSmogBlog.

He runs the digital marketing agency Spake Media House. Named a “Green Hero” by Rolling Stone Magazine and one of the “Top 50 Tweeters” on climate change and environment issues, Kevin has appeared in major news media outlets around the world for his work on digital campaigning.

Kevin has been involved in the public policy arena in both the United States and Canada for more than a decade. For five years he was the managing editor of DeSmogBlog.com. In this role, Kevin’s research into the “climate denial industry” and the right-wing think tank networks was featured in news media articles around the world. He is most well known for his ground-breaking research into David and Charles Koch’s massive financial investments in the Republican and tea party networks.

Kevin is the first person to be designated a “Certified Expert” on the political and community organizing platform NationBuilder.

Prior to DeSmogBlog, Kevin worked in various political and government roles. He was Senior Advisor to the Minister of State for Multiculturalism and a Special Assistant to the Minister of State for Asia Pacific, Foreign Affairs for the Government of Canada. Kevin also worked in various roles in the British Columbia provincial government in the Office of the Premier and the Ministry of Health.

In 2008 Kevin co-founded a groundbreaking new online election tool called Vote for Environment which was later nominated for a World Summit Award in recognition of the world’s best e-Content and innovative ICT applications.

Kevin moved to Washington, DC in 2010 where he worked for two years as the Director of Online Strategy for Greenpeace USA and has since returned to his hometown of Vancouver, Canada.

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