Worth a snigger or two - by Richard... Wednesday, February 03, 2010

Worth a snigger or two - by Richard... Wednesday, February 03, 2010

It is almost impossible to suppress a snigger when Pachauri, with all the sincerity he can muster, tells us it would be "hypocritical" to apologise about the melting glaciers. 

Hypocrisy is something Pachauri knows a great deal about, and on this he is perfectly right. It would indeed be hypocritical, for he feels not the slightest bit of remorse. Nor does he seem to have any sense of responsibility for his own conduct.

Nor indeed, do his statements have even a passing acquaintance with the truth, as he persists in perpetrating the falsehood that the glacier claim was "an isolated mistake," that it was "down to human error" and "totally out of character" for the panel.

Those that care enough to find out will already know that it was not a mistake – the inclusion of the false claim was deliberate – it wasn't isolated, and human error did not come into it. As to it being out of character, unfortunately, it is all too representative of the IPCC and its structured, premeditated scaremongering.

However, the statements uttered by Pachauri, and retailed in today's edition of The Guardian are part of a sustained damage limitation exercise which started on Sunday in the Indian media and which is radiating outwards in a last-ditch attempt to salvage the tattered reputation of the IPCC and the good doctor.

Observing some of the efforts of the IPCC's defenders, Mrs EU Referendum was heard to observe: "they couldn't even lie straight in bed". This, I believe, is a traditional Yorkshire saying – usually reserved for politicians.

Most enjoyable of all Pachauri's thrashing was his piece in the Hindustan Times where he declares: "They can bend me, but they can't break me."

The man is obsessed with the idea that there is a global conspiracy ranged against him, unable to understand that he is actually facing a backlash from real people who are just sick of his cant and his scaremongering. But, even under attack, his arrogance shines through, as he tells us:

The IPCC was also correct on its claim on Amazon forests … the IPCC isn't here to answer deniers of climate change. Their sole objective is to damage the credibility of IPCC, not answering people whose only motive is to deny the science of climate change.

He then also declares:

There is only one error (Himalayan glaciers melting by 2035), to which we have admitted. After that the errors reported are spurious. They (some western media) said the IPCC claim on the losses from disasters was not from an authentic source. We checked the source; it was authentic. 

We will put up a statement on IPCC website (clarifying errors), this is it. We are not going to answer these spurious individual complaints coming in only two sources, The Times (London), and, more importantly, The Telegraph.

Despite what Pachauri is saying, there was expressed a real sense of unease in theNewsnight programme (we'll post a link when it's up - part here), as numerous commentators gave every indication that they understood the depth of the crisis confronting them.

And, with Fred Pearce back in The Guardian, questioning peer-review and the hockey stick, with Moonbat also holding forth, it is clear that there is indeed a crisis.

Even Phil Jones says he's concerned that scepticism about climate change appeared to be growing, recorded in The Times telling us: "It makes me quite worried people are beginning to doubt the climate has warmed up." He should be more worried that Moonbat has declared, again, that the e-mail scandal shames the university and requires resignations, not only Jones but others.

"You'd have to have a heart of ice not to laugh," writes Melanie Phillips on her blog. She’s referring to Stern and the Tories, but she could just as well be writing about the whole mess. And if not a laugh, it's certainly worth a snigger or two.

CLIMATE CHANGE – FINAL PHASE THREAD

Print ready

Delingpole is suitably caustic - by Richard... Tuesday, February 02, 2010

There must be very few examples of rats climbing aboard a sinking ship – holed at the Stern, one might say. Delingpole rises to the occasion, the comments reinforcing the enormity of the blunder made by that idiot Osborne.

Strangely enough, there is no comment on the unofficial Tory party blog, while Tory wannabe MPIain Dale is also silent on the matter. Having to go to non-Tory sites to get news of the not-the-Conservative party, one finds, is a very sure sign of problems.

CLIMATE CHANGE – FINAL PHASE THREAD

Print ready

Videolog - by Richard...

We're putting together a single blog using available videos to form a running videlog on Cimategate and related issues. It is work in progress, but you can see it here. Let us know what you think.

CLIMATE CHANGE – FINAL PHASE THREAD

Print ready

They can't even get that right - by Richard...

Following on from the "shock” announcement that the Tories were co-opting Nicholas Stern to help them develop a "green investment bank", Stern has issued a denial.

"I should stress that I am not, and have no plans to be, an adviser to any political party," he said in a statement. This, says Sky News "may be an embarrassment for shadow chancellor George Osborne," who announced in a high-profile speech that he was "delighted that Lord Stern has agreed to advise us."

After the debacle over the appointment of General Dannatt as a Tory defence advisor, this is yet another unforced error which projects the Tory team – and Boy George Osborne in particular – as a bunch of kack-handed amateurs.

Even Iain Martin on the WSJ blog thought the appointment "odd", while Witterings from Witneychews over the implications. When the Tories have their announcement subsequently denied, "odd" doesn't even begin to describe it.

CLIMATE CHANGE – FINAL PHASE THREAD

Print ready

An unbiased view? - by Richard...

That is the latest offering from the BBC in its so-called "green room". Of course, it would help us better judge her argument if we knew more about Malini Mehra – details which the BBC does not provide.

For instance, she is a "political scientist" (whatever that is) and gender specialist by training. Having "worked" on the NGO circuit, variously for Oxfam and Friends of the Earth, she participated in the UK-funded Sustainable Development Dialogues and served as a member of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's High Level Panel of Eminent Persons on UN-Civil Society Relations.

She also contributed to UN publications such as the Human Development Reports on Democracy (2002) and Human Rights (2000) respectively. She has been involved on climate issues since the United Nations’ conference in Kyoto (1997) where she coordinated the input of Friends of the Earth International. 

From that, the question really should be, are Malini Mehra's views worth the paper they are not printed on?

CLIMATE CHANGE – FINAL PHASE THREAD

Print ready

Under the radar - by Richard...

Amid the torrent of "climate change" news, we missed this one, the government's very own "cap and trade" scam, disarmingly labelled the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme – formerly the Carbon Reduction Commitment.

This is the child of the Climate Change Act 2008 (approved by parliament in October of that year, while it was snowing outside), a new "carbon tax" which takes effect this April. As the official guide helpfully explains:

CRC will affect large organisations in both the public and private sector. Organisations that meet the qualification criteria, which are based on how much electricity they were supplied in 2008, will be obliged to participate in CRC. 

Participating organisations will have to monitor their emissions and purchase allowances, initially sold by Government, for each tonne of CO2 they emit. The more CO2 an organisation emits, the more allowances it has to purchase.

Initially, about 5,000 organisations will be caught in the net – including many of our major national retailers who between them account for many thousands of premises. The threshold is electricity usage of 6,000 MWh/year, with those users required to buy their allowances at an introductory price of £12 per ton of carbon dioxide emitted. They are then required to buy credits on the carbon market if they exceed their quota.

A singular feature of this system is that it does not cover those businesses and operations already covered by the EU's emission trading scheme, so these are additional to the current system.

Also included in the net are government-funded organisations such as local authorities, schools, hospitals and universities, which are already under financial pressure and which will now be subject to this bizarre system where the government gives with one hand and takes away with the other.

In what must also be the height of perversity, even central government departments fall into the net, so it would appear that the cash-strapped Ministry of Defence is going to have to divert funds from its front-line operations in Afghanistan to feed the ravenous carbon machine.

Needless to say, there is a massive bureaucracy involved in administering the scheme and, to add insult to injury, there is a registration fee of £950 for all "participants", plus an annual subsistence fee of £1,290 for administration.

Autonomous Mind has a good look at the scheme and concludes, as do we, that it confirms that it is money and not "saving the planet" which is driving the government's obsession with climate change.

What is surprising – although perhaps not, considering that we failed to register it – is that this has almost completely slipped under the radar and has remained unnoticed by the MSM in general - although not by the BBC.

From that, though, you would hardly realise there was a problem but, when the media discover that patients are being turned away from hospitals, school places are restricted and RAF aircraft are being kept on the ground, as funds are diverted to pay the carbon tax, perhaps sentiment will change.

As for business, this is another "own goal" on the part of the government, driving enterprises off-shore and adding to the growing ranks of the unemployed. Some, though, will doubtless become CRC administrators, so at least we get some more "green jobs" to keep Mr Cameron happy.

CLIMATE CHANGE – FINAL PHASE THREAD