Bishop Hill Another resignation
Sep 24, 2011 Climate: Sceptics Gosselin is reporting that a prominent engineer has resigned from one of France's learned societies over its bad behaviour on climate change - SEII, which appears to be an interdisciplinary body, disinvited two prominent sceptics from its conference after pressure from the IPCC.
Thanks to Messenger for this rough translation of the resignation letter:
For the attention of M Philippe Wauters, President
Subject: the resignation of all my commissions exercised on behalf of the SEII and cancellation of my position as member of the SEII.
It has come to my knowledge that the official document put out by the Secretary General in which he informed the Administrators with regard to the Climategate affair.
The SEII Executive, had by a very large majority, reiterated its trust in you, despite the factual evidence which I had supplied earlier, establishing the reality of the lies you had told them. It appears that, after (although?} this has been denied in writing, you would do well to remember that you had made an intervention through a “third party”, as he was discreetly called in the Secretary General’s letter to the Administrators, this intervention by a third party being in fact a letter of protest [declaration?] from Prof. VAN YPERSELE. For myself, to put it plainly, this action was nothing other than the trafficking of influence, based on defamatory declarations that you had not taken the trouble to verify yourself and you would have been better to admit that you had come under external pressure from SEII [for?] appearing to censure those who defended a point of view which was opposite to that of M. VAN YPERSELE and those authorities that he represents. These facts are incontestable, whatever casuistical arguments you are tempted to develop to suggest that I had committed a serious fault in procedure. In the absence of any limits in the extremely woolly definition of the commissions with which I had been entrusted during the setting up of the activities of the SEII, and more precisely, in those appearing to be the direction of a [cut-price?] philosophical “café” dedicated to the climate controversy, I really can’t see which procedure I would have failed to follow in the simple execution of the repetitive activity of the working group which I was involved with for more than a year. When the action of sending an agenda or the minutes of a meeting from the working group of the SEII, or the temptation to invite new members to join with him, for that is only certain and uniquely what was done in this instance, it seems to me that it is the rule that one should use paper with the SEII heading for this, and each time (to do) it without any input from the Bureau. Moreover, without the intervention of M. VAN YPERSELE, you would no longer have anything plausible you could find fault with, obviously, nothing which would not require the Bureau to remain coherent and objective in its judgments.
The facts which I reproach you for are strategic in nature for the SEII. To try to escape the blame by utilising arguments of procedure are specious and belittle you. It would have been better and more judicious to remember [how] you had been reduced by M VAN YPERSELE because of the reputation which he is once more enjoying in Belgium, in spite of his association with the most radical branch of Greenpeace. I have proof of it. On this occasion, having given you the opportunity of a week in which to review your position, [it appears} you do not wish to take it.
I can no longer accept that neither you nor the Executive Bureau share [the same] values which are dear to me and on which I have never compromised nor will ever compromise in the future. In consequence of which, I present you with my resignation from all the duties which I have performed on behalf of SEII. Also I no longer wish to appear on the list of members, nor to receive any more of your emails.
Above all, in this affair which brings us into conflict, I reserve for myself the freedom to plead my own good faith, which I can prove, by calling on people and authorities of my choice.
Yours faithfully
Reader Comments (22)
Not a happy bunny
Thank heavens there are some scientists with integrity about.
Please can we have a proper translation instead of this Googlespeak.
Sorry, I can't do it myself :)
'Trafic d'influence' is probably best translated as 'corruption'. This is strong stuff.
One of the comments on the original article is rather interesting: it refers top a Reuters item (in German) ...
DirkH
24. September 2011 at 21:28 | Permalink | Reply
During my usual Euro crisis trawl I find this interesting suggestion:
http://de.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idDEBEE78M0A020110923
A top EU bureaucracy – the “EU task force for Greece” – suggests that German electricity consumers should have to pay for solar energy produced in Greece. “Unbestritten ist, dass die bisher nur gering entwickelte Solarenergie enorme ökonomische Chancen für das Land birgt.” “There is no doubt that the by now underdeveloped solar energy holds enormous economic chances for the country.”
Are these people intentionally trying to worsen the situation, or are they just dumb? Can’t decide.
Karl Marx is attributed with the phrase 'A Spectre is Haunting Europe'. Perhaps it is a chronic affliction.
It would appear that the elitists are living in a wonder world now.
And with the Greek economy in shambles, they appear to be planning to be planning to "swap" short term debt (Greek bonds) for longer term bonds which only the banks have any interest in because they will be insolvent otherwise.
Alice in Wonderland stuff. You would need a heavy dose of LSD to dream up this sort of stuff.
But then again, they must have been using something to reach this alternate reality they seem to live in.
This is all going to end sadly and suddenly. Be thankful of that it is the pound in your pocket and not the euro. The Iron Lady was right.
They never resigned like they used to.
Surely the politicians who led to this crisis believed in the AGW myth.
It is EU policy, and UK policy aswell
Oh budger, we are nest
Completely off topic but an interesting allegory at Google.com
They have a homepage at Google.com Celebrating Jim Henson's 75th birthday
There are a number of muppets in a row, the right hand most one is my idea of certain trolls. He looks like an angry red cup cake. Click on him to wake him up. Now click several times on his head near the back behind where his ears should be and watch how he communicates his opinion.
O/T I'm afraid but I came across this story which, if true, wants to make it to the MSM.
http://www.prisonplanet.com/armed-troops-burn-down-homes-kill-children-to-evict-ugandans-in-name-of-global-warming.html
It may be worth noting that in france "ingenieurs" are seen as an elite profession, superior to doctors and lawyers. This is because they have to pass extremely exacting competitions to get into the best engineering schools (ecole polytechnique, ecole centrale). So when an engineer does something, lots of people take notice. They are also well connected. This is unlike the UK.
Minor point: the SEII is not one of France's learned societies; it is Belgian, with "European" pretensions.
This is one of them, and he has this to say:
http://claesjohnson.blogspot.com/2011/08/ipcc-censorship.html
This is what Ypersele had to say about Singer:
"You should know that Mr. Fred Singer is a person whose scientific integrity leaves much to be desired. Its (sic) activities are financed disinformation by the lobbies of fossil fuels….. , and it is scandalous that such a person may be associated, directly or indirectly, to SEII and the University Foundation."
Who is Prof. Dr. Ir. Henri A. Masson and what is his subject? I've just googled "Prof. Dr. Ir. Henri A. Masson " and got only 4 results mostly linking back to the NTZ post. One though is interesting , could it be Henri Masson at the University of Antwerp an economist.
A top EU bureaucracy – the “EU task force for Greece” – suggests that German electricity consumers should have to pay for solar energy produced in Greece. [...] Are these people intentionally trying to worsen the situation, or are they just dumb? Can’t decide. -- AJC
I guess they'll have to pay for german solar panel and wind turbine manufacturers to keep selling their goods to Greece.
If you watch the greek "Debtocracy documentary", you can see a few seconds of a lonely french representative stating furiously how come France sends 'bailout' money to Greece but demands that Greece buys pointless french war equipment (jet fighters and other trinkets) with it.
The Prof has made a post on WUWT.
For Hengist, over at WUWT, Dr Masson describes himself:
"henri Masson says:
September 25, 2011 at 4:55 am
ANSWER to MAROT: Please note Henri Masson form UNIL is my homonym.
“Dr. Ir.” is the Belgian oficial title for PhD in Engineering, that I got from the University of Brussels, Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering.
“Ir” is to be distinguished in Belgium from “Eng”. The first one (which is my title) refers to a M.Sc. cum laude (2 years bachelor + 3 years masters). Eng corresponds to four study years.
I have been affiiliated with the University of Brussels, University of Durban (SA), University Collerge London (UK), Cambridge University (UK), Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (CH). I presently work on a part time basis at the University of Antwerp (Be) and at the Maastrichtt School of Management (Nl) beside my consulting work for international donors (USAId, EUAid, UNDP, etc.) on sustainable and local development in emerging economies.
My research focus is since several years on the analysis of complex “dynamical” (chaotic) systems (understand systems so coimplex and non linear that they become almost unpredictable on the medium and long term). Climate change and all the players moves around are my real favourite investigation playground, as it is a marvellous case for using my toolbox. "
Hengist -
Yes, you have correctly identified Prof Masson. The proof may be found at http://up.sur-la-toile.com/iRZc , which is the (pre-arm-twisting) announcement of the conference. It has the same email address for Prof Masson as at the link which you give.
Based on the report, I suggest the resignation of IPCC vice president Jean-Pascal van Ypersele is in order.
John
You'll find a much better translation than mine in the comments at WUWT.
Careful with the EU, it's always a solution in search of a problem...perhaps we should help it by manufacturing suitable, harmless problems into which it could dilute its efforts...