Bernie Lewin has posted the final part of his long history of the 1995 IPCC conference, at which activist scientists managed to fashion a summary for policymakers that told a different story to the scientific report.
Houghton’s ruling means that the integrity of the scientific process would be abandoned and its hard-won authority traded so as to expedite a political end – however virtuous that end might be. If there were others also alarmed by the treatment of the Saudi’s objections, then they must be holding their breath, for their voice is not heard.