A lot of climate change deniers like to tout the fact [2] that they were an "Expert Reviewer" for the last Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and a few DeSmog readers have been asking what exactly if takes to become an "Expert Reviewer." Well, thanks to our friend Tim Lambert at Deltoid Blog [3] it turns out that an "Expert Reviewer" really isn't as exciting and not nearly as prestigous as it sounds. Tim writes:
"Expert reviewer for the IPCC" doesn't mean that they asked him to review material -- all it means is that he asked to see the draft report [4]. The only real requirement to be a reviewer is to sign an agreement not to publicly comment on the draft."
I have confirmed this with one of the authors of the updated IPPC report.