Professor Phil Jones, director of the U.K.'s University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit said he stands by the science produced at the center but while the investigation takes place it was important that the CRU "continues its world leading research with as little interruption and diversion as possible." (via Climate head steps down over e-mail leak - CNN.com).
Coming together at Copenhagen
More than 20,000 official delegates are converging today to major international conference. Venue - Bella centre, Copenhagen. Sponsor - United Nations. Conference subject - Climate Change, managed by Yvo de Boer, the UN climate head. What about the climate change, could be so important to draw more than 20,000 people to one city from nearly 200 countries (192 to be exact).
What makes this more curious and intriguing is that "never in peacetime history has the government-media-academic complex been in such sustained propagandistic lockstep about any subject." The motivation for this campaign is (as per Washington Post) is to fix on the "world's ... population ... the saddle of ever-more-minute supervision by governments."
At least three threads seem to be running through the climate change cloth of debate. One thread is oil. The other is the competitive hobbling - like the false debate on population explosion. The third is the scientific skullduggery which seems to be rampant in the climate change debate - "the complex climate politics between the US, China and India."
The most interesting is Maldives.
1. The Maldives jigsaw
The Maldives Government staged a dramatic PR coup to draw world media attention on climate change, by holding an underwater cabinet meeting. Nepal Government followed up with a cabinet meeting at the Himalayan foothills. These were in a long line of various other such PR stunts.
The PR agency for the Maldives Travel and Tourism Authority McCluskey International does seem to either bask in reflected glory - or is hinting at the authorship of this stunt. Apparently, Maldives has been at the forefront of climate change trip for some time. One journalist, from New York Times, Andrew C. Revkin, recounts his first encounter with Maldives representatives in
Toronto in 1988 to report on the First International Conference on the Changing Atmosphere. Most of the discussions centered on devising strategies to curb emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases from automobiles, power plants, and the burning of tropical forests. Among those in attendance was Hussein Manikfan, who holds the title Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Permanent Representative to the United Nations from the republic of Maldives. At first it seemed odd to find a representative from the Maldives at the meeting. The country, a sprinkling of 1,190 coral islets in the Indian Ocean southwest of Sri Lanka, has no tropical forests, hardly any automobiles, and little industry beyond the canning of bonito.
Well coached, when Manikfan was asked what was he doing in Toronto, a slick and dramatic answer was available.
Why was he in Toronto? “To find out how much longer my country will exist,” was his simple reply.
In response to this article in NY Times, significant data was shown, how Maldives will not go under.
High noon in Maldives
Interestingly, the current President of Maldives came to power, in rather unusual 'circumstances'. In the 2008 Presidential elections, in the first round, Nasheed were placed second with 44,293 votes (24.91%), behind President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom of the long-ruling Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP), who received 71,731 votes (40.34%). In the second round, Nasheed (supposedly supported by the unsuccessful first round candidates) won 54.25% of the vote against 45.75% for Gayoom.
Displaying penchant for excellent PR, Nasheed promptly declared himself as “the world’s first democratically elected president of a 100 percent Muslim country”.
Media management and Maldives
The hallmark of the Maldives' climate change campaign has been it slick PR. Dramatic statements, intriguing sound bites, the Maldives' campaign was beyond the common bureaucratic 'creature' - much less a Malives' bureaucrat.
For sometime, Nasheed was in Britain, a 'political refugee'. The Maldives climate change campaign seems to be headquarted in Britain also.The New York Times report mentions how
Officials in the Maldives made the decision after soliciting a report on how to cut fossil fuel use and otherwise trim the country’s climate footprint from Chris Goodall and Mark Lynas, British environmentalists and authors of books on energy and climate.
The British press has been quite liberal in its coverage and published his writings. President Mohamed Nasheed, declared with saturation media coverage, that Maldives will be the first country in the world to be carbon neutral. This is quite in line with Al Gore's media and public relations management - which won the PR agency, the campaign of the year award. And Al Gore the Nobel Prize.
Much like how the population explosion report by the 'Club of Rome' was released from the Smithsonian, the climate change
"announcement was made in the Maldives, but synchronized with the London premiere of ” The Age of Stupid,” a new film on global warming and oil that is a mix of documentary, dramatization and animation.
One comment simplified the Maldives riddle very well.
If the Maldives are doomed why spend $1.1 billion on the place. Abandon the islands. Move to higher ground. Ans.: They won’t get many $$ if they ask for any other reason. And they know better than anyone they are not sinking!
Of course, this begs the question, why Maldives? That brings us to the next part of the climate change factors.
2. What if
The entire global warming debate is just a facade to keep up demand for oil from India and China. What is the biggest item on the climate change talks? Coal based power plants. Does it seem far fetched that the opposition to coal fired power plants is to stop India and China from reducing the growth in oil consumption.
After all practically all of British GDP today is declining North Sea oil and British Petroleum. Apart from Chinese money, the other source of liquidity, which keeps the US afloat is petro-dollars. And, remember, US future is so closely linked to Arctic oil. Looking at the speed and persistence with which the 123 Agreement was done by the US, it's use as a lever against Indian negotiating position cannot be underestimated or ignored.
Coincidentally, along with the Copenhagen Summit, the India-Africa Hydrocarbons Conference started in New Delhi. If Africa, the Caribbean and South America start producing their own oil, where does that leave the Oil-West-Dollar Axis? If China and India reduce their growth in oil consumption, what happens? If India and China were to reduce their reliance on oil, leading to a price collapse, the biggest losers will be the Anglo Saxon bloc.
Makes one think!
3.Three things…First, many of the regulatory bodies (like IMF, World Bank, OECD, et al)are actually a US-Euro Club – to fool the world, with token actions and steps to demonstrate inclusion and fairness to the developing world.
And second, these token actions divert the attention of the developing world. For instance, World Bank list of banned entities were significantly, from two sectors - Software and Pharma.
These are the two sectors where the US still has a lead – and the Indians are its biggest challengers. Generic pharma firms from India have become world beaters - and the Indian software companies have built up US$50 billion a year business, in less than 10 years. These 50 billion dollars have come out of (arguably) US pockets.
At least, the actions against Wipro and Nestor Pharma were pathetic excuses to ban a business – and no third party arbiter will uphold these actions.
Third, on January 9, Standard & Poor’s announced that Greece, Spain and Ireland were on review for a possible downgrade, indicating that a Euro-zone country could default. The cost of the US bailout is likely to exceed US$3 trillion. Current US budget deficit is likely to break all records and estimates.
Not so long ago …
In 1999, an employee of an auto-components manufacturer, Autolite, was arrested in France for trademarks and copyright infringement – based on a complaint by the car manufacturer PSA Puegeot Citroen. The French police, on similar complaints, arrested two other nationals, a Belgian and a Taiwanese woman also.
The Belgian was of course granted bail – and the Indian and the Taiwanese were denied bail - ‘The lawyers representing the Indian businessman offerred to deposit his passport and the sum of 100,000 French Francs claimed by Peugeot in the custody of the court as bailbond, pending the trial of the case on November 12′.
French court procedures took nearly 1 month and the Indian executive was finally granted bail after being in prison for 1 month. After two years of appeals and expensive litigation, the complaint was found to be without any merit – and dismissed.
More recently …
A shipment of medicines destined for Brazil, from India, was detained at Rotterdam. The Dutch Customs used a complaint from a local Dutch company, to detain this shipment, based on local patent laws. After a few months of ‘negotiations’, the shipment was sent back to India. An expert writes, what
‘EU is doing is using Council Regulation (EC) No. 1383/2003 to impound drugs that are suspected of violating patents registered in member-countries even if these are simply in transit. The regulations permit customs to hold these goods for a minimum of 10 working days while informing the patent holder of the seizure. The patent holder then applies to a civil court to initiate legal proceedings in order to prove that infringement has taken place.’
Again coincidentally, India decided to proceed against the EU on the same day as the beginning of the Copenhagen meeting.
Public sector or oblivion?
During the Great Depression, more than 19 auto companies (similar to the number of banks today) were folded into the Big 3. The Big 3 lived to fight for another 70 years. In their death throes, the US Big Auto is likely to go the way European auto sector has gone – public sector or oblivion.
What is on the table
Two out of the
G-7 countries are bankrupt – US and Britain. Their
industrial base was supported by raw materials and captive markets –
acquired by genocide, and the loot of centuries.
France, Germany, Canada, Italy and Australia (not in G7) are tethering on the brink – under the weight of their social security system, and most of their business is in the public sector. A geriatric Japan is dependent almost entirely on exports to these declining seven. Japan’s investment in India and China has been negligible.
Unhappy negotiators
When certain negotiators in India were 'worried' about the conditionalities - Indian played up the Kakodkar card. Kakodkar was supposed to be unhappy with the deal. After much speculation and 'negotiations' Kakodkar gave the go-ahead.
Just before the Copenhagen meeting, another Indian negotiator, Chandrashekhar Dasgupta, 'outed' the impending Government Of India's surrender. His analysis and logic was well presented in this post, on the morning of the Copenhagen meeting.
Crooked scientists
As the Climate Change talks came to the actual date, it was discovered that the 'chief repository' of data and information was hacked, released to the world. What this 'leak' showed the world, was how the scientists are playing dirty.
In June, however, he became a sudden celebrity with the surfacing of a few e-mail messages that seemed to show that his contrarian views on global warming had been suppressed by his superiors because they were inconvenient to the Obama administration’s climate change policy. Conservative commentators and Congressional Republicans said he had been muzzled because he did not toe the liberal line. (via Furor Over Alan Carlin, a Climate Change Skeptic - NYTimes.com).
When data from Indian scientists was released, it showed that the Himalayas have been retreat for nearly a 50 years. The most glaring of it was when
In its 2007 report, the Nobel Prize-winning Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said: "Glaciers in the Himalayas are receding faster than in any other part of the world and, if the present rate continues, the likelihood of them disappearing by the year 2035 and perhaps sooner is very high if the Earth keeps warming at the current rate.
Careful reading of the report by
Professor Cogley has found a 1996 document by a leading hydrologist, VM Kotlyakov, that mentions 2350 as the year by which there will be massive and precipitate melting of glaciers.
"The extrapolar glaciation of the Earth will be decaying at rapid, catastrophic rates - its total area will shrink from 500,000 to 100,000 square kilometres by the year 2350," Mr Kotlyakov's report said.
Mr Cogley says it is astonishing that none of the 10 authors of the 2007 IPCC report could spot the error and "misread 2350 as 2035".
India 'arrogant' to deny global warming link to melting glaciers, was Dr.Pachauri's response.
When the levee breaks
A few days ago, some hackers broke into the East Anglia HQ, where most of the climate change data was being 'studied' and 'analysed'.
This data was released by these 'data thieves' a few days before the Copenhagen meeting. The effect was electric.
This scientific bunker holds the world's largest trove of climate-change data, gleaned from Siberian tree-ring counts, Greenland ice-layer measurements and centuries-old thermometer readings.
Now the pirating of thousands of e-mail messages from within its walls has revealed a dangerous bunker mentality among the scientists who guarded those records and a data-fudging scandal that has created a crisis of confidence in global-warming science that is threatening to destroy the political consensus around next week's carbon-policy summit in Copenhagen.
Said one scientist working at the institute: “It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that this has set the climate-change debate back 20 years.”
Al Gore's docu-drama, An Inconvenent Truth, was based on this faulty, fudged and corrupt data. The PR team for that film won the PRSA award for that year. Al Gore's team won the Nobel Prize. Now some academy members want to take back the Academy Award given to Al Gore, the former vice-president and a carbon-cap advocate, for his climate documentary An Inconvenient Truth.
Al Gore has cancelled the US$1200 dinner at Copenhagen.
Whats the climate change
These seem like offensive actions from the EU and the US – to undermine their competitors and to bolster Euro-US businesses. It makes me doubt the Satyam saga. To carry the conspiracy theory thread forward, was there a Merrill Lynch-Ramlinga Raju ‘deal’?
Modern day protectionism, huh?
This also furthers the importance of having non-Western bodies, which are sponsored by the Third World, which will regulate and govern international laws. To depend on the West, is to further dig the hole that the Third World finds itself in.
And in case you forget, remember that for some time Indian cows were blamed for global warming!
The African model
Don't have children - but have Christian children, if you must!
Been there and done that
Posts
