AmazonGate Follows on the Heels of GlacierGate

The UN IPCC AR4 report of 2007 makes this claim:

Up to 40% of the Amazonian forests could react drastically to even a slight reduction in precipitation; this means that the tropical vegetation, hydrology and climate system in South America could change very rapidly to another steady state, not necessarily producing gradual changes between the current and the future situation (Rowell and Moore, 2000).  It is more probable that forests will be replaced by ecosystems that have more resistance to multiple stresses caused by temperature increase, droughts and fires, such as tropical savannas.

In a report by James Delingpole, Dr. Richard North discovered that the reference to Rowell and Moore is to a report by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature.  Rowell is a journalist and environmental activist and Dr. Moore is a policy analyst with an interest in fires in Australia and Southeast Asia.  Neither is a specialist in the Amazon rain forests.  And even the cited report has no mention of the 40% figure!  No one knows where that 40% may have come from.

Once again, the UN IPCC AR4 report has been found to quote unscientific reports, as it did with respect to the glaciers of the Himalaya Mountains, to hype the claims of impending disaster due to man's use of fossil fuels.  The politics of the UN is more important than the science.