Bishop Hill Spending cuts
Apr 8, 2012 Climate: Parliament The British Antarctic Survey is up in arms because its funding is due to be sharply cut as the government desperately tries to get the public sector under a semblance of control.
The British scientific research body which discovered the hole in the ozone layer and whose work is now vital to understanding climate change is fighting for its life. Cuts of more than 25 per cent to the budget of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) have been proposed, and threaten not only its continuing work but also have already caused one major casualty, a furious interdepartmental row in Whitehall and prompted the intervention of the Prime Minister.
Interestingly, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office has become involved.
The BAS director, Professor Nicholas Owens, and NERC chief executive, Professor Duncan Wingham, are reported to have clashed sharply over the issue. The argument came to a climax in December when Professor Owens went over the head of NERC and made the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) aware of the proposed changes he felt were being forced through. FCO officials are so concerned at the proposals to scale down BAS's work it raised the issue at a National Security Council meeting in January, prompting the intervention of Prime Minister David Cameron. As part of its dual role, it also provides presence in the region for the FCO, where its science work informs government policy. However the FCO does not provide funding for BAS.
Perhaps it should. The FCO seems to have money to burn - it still maintains a network of climate change officers at embassies around the world. These people are engaged in important activities like showing environmentalists' movies to Johnny Foreigner.
Reader Comments (44)
It is a scandal that UK taxpayers' money is being spent at an 'event for young people' in Tanzania, where they are being shown rancid and ridiculous agit-prop like the "Age of Stupid".
I wonder was there no-one in the audience who felt uneasy at the message that Indians really shouldn't aspire to affordable cars and flights?
As for the BAS, it is another once-great British Institution (like the MET Office and the Royal Society - and indeed like Oxfam and the RSPB) which has allowed itself to be taken over by activists and to stray into the areas of political policy where they can claim no expertise whatever.
And Richard Betts can deign to come on here or not. Whist ever they are actively giving support to groups like ZeroCarbon Britain2030, they have ZeroCredibilityNow with me. I'd cut off ALL their funding in a heartbeat.
The Age of Stupid is a 2009 British film by Franny Armstrong, director of McLibel and Drowned Out, and founder of 10:10, and first-time producer Lizzie Gillett. The Executive Producer is John Battsek, producer of One Day in September.
The film is a drama-documentary-animation hybrid which stars Pete Postlethwaite as a man living alone in the devastated world of 2055, watching archive footage from the mid-to-late 2000s and asking "Why didn't we stop climate change when we had the chance?"
Given the needless expense and the free publicity for the Eco-Loon Movement that the discovery of that ozone hole produced, perhaps a rapid cutting-off of grant money is a positive move.
Just a thought!
Even in the United States?
Perhaps someone used to the ins and outs of the Freedom of Information Act should ask for details of the number of climate change officers employed and the countries they work in, their salary scales, and the total cost to the taxpayer (including overheads) of employing them.
Then, if we want to spend that money on climate change, which is an important subject, we could consider whether or not we would get better value for money by, e.g. increasing the number of weather monitoring stations to improve coverage in parts of the world with few stations, studying the oceans in more detail, improving our knowledge of the sun, exploring alternative hypotheses about climate change such as Svensmark's cosmic ray theory, studying natural records of past climates, etc. etc.
Of course, if the science really is settled there is no need to spend money on research and it can all be redirected to propaganda.
FOIA ?
Soon to be pay-to-go if the polos' have their way.....
Another "agency" that could, and should, be castrated is the environment agency..they spend tens of thousands doing nothing....like putting in "portage points" for canooists at every weir/lock...even when the number using them is in single figures for the entire year....now wasting another hundred thousand "upgrading" a moorings to steel-piled from wood-piled, even though it was only built five years ago. And you can bet that it is not the only one.
Not to mention the annual replacement of the mitsu 4wds'......
Truly, and agency too far.
Obviously they were going to put in example(s) but couldn't think of any!
It is news to me that there are climate change officers in many/all British High Commissions.
The Commissioner of the British Antarctic Territory (and his flag) very sensibly stay at home in London.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_the_Commissioner_of_the_British_Antarctic_Territory.svg
Chums in high places? If so, then possibly not so much a conspiracy as outright indolence when it comes to one chum thinking through what another is up to. Only the most sinister of people would think things through and then promote 'Age of Stupid' and all the other blinkered fripperies in that shocking list of dozens of bizarre climate-activist FCO expenditures recently revealed in the Guardian.
JohnM yep whole heartedly agree the EA are a prime candidate for a big and nasty cut ! although they have proved themselves very useful to water companies of late what with their 'we are all going to die' drought media campaign which was nothing at all to do with their water company summit?? or market price/profit readjustment meeting !
Now they are on a campaign to survey and I no doubt figure out a way punish anyone with a sceptic tank? yep the sceptic tank the biggest threat to humanity you have never heard of !
I'm really sorry to hear about NickO's alleged "suspension" (I though he was on sick leave) but not surprised that he didn't rub along with NERC management - he's the first proper scientist to be director of BAS since Dick Laws. I couldn't imagine Chris Rapley trying to stick up for the science when he was director.
The vast majority of science at BAS has nothing to do with "climate change" though you could be excused for thinking otherwise but that is because BAS has a meejah department who only publicise a slanted version of BAS science, in agreement with NERC policy.
Meteorology was always the least respected Antarctic science discipline at BAS (anyone who wanted to go South could always be a "met man") though the ozone hole was a big win for Joe Farman and Jon Shanklin in the 1980's. I'm sure that, in recent years, AGW has afforded an opportunity for Ice and Climate division (as was) to big up their role - but BAS does other things too - and has done for a long time.
The problem at BAS is that the logistics cost so much - with aircraft, ships, bases and the fuel for all of those. Cutting the budget 25% will have a massive effect. You can't just lose a ship or an aeroplane without screwing the whole operation. If you only sent one geologist into the field per year, you would still need at least two aircraft, Rothera and all of its support staff, a ship to deliver supplies and quite a few folk in Cambridge to support them - so the scope for substantial savings is limited.
Cutbacks have been made - Faraday was sold off (given away, actually, to save decommissioning costs) years ago and Signy went to summer only operation. South G is paid for by the South Georgia Government. Bird Island is relatively small and cheap to run, Rothera is the airbase (and does pretend science) so you can't lose that without losing all the field programs. That leaves Halley for the chop, with their outrageously expensive new base, but they've been there since '57 and they do real science.....
As for the FCO connection, it has always been there. When heading South, our air tickets used to say "FCO" on them and we used to carry a letter from the FCO to be produced in the event of "mishap" in South America! The FCO connection is important. I, for one, want UK to have a presence in Antarctica (and not just because it provides part of my income). A respectable presence - not a small shed on King George island.
So in summary, save BAS (but shut down the meejah department).
I suggest a modern definition of activist is : a wanton trouble-maker
Didn't these chaps used to be called "cultural attaches", Miss Moneypenny?
Buffy Minton
I was at BAS several times in the past 15 years and I though Rapley was a good director but he was better at two other things; being over-zealous about climate change to the point of histeria, and the other thing he was zealous about was self-publicity.
Ray Scattering
I wouldn't agree that Rapley was a good director! He was only ever interested in media opportunities. It was embarrassing to see him down South in his FID shirt trying to be one of the boys. I do remember him getting a good kicking (metaphorically speaking) in the bar at Rothera, one night. That was no surprise - one of his ideas was that the base pictures and pictures of the dog teams etc decorating the walls at Rothera should be replaced with colourful graphics showcasing BAS science. He completely forgot that the base is someone's home for 2 years, not the lobby of the science museum.
I'd start by calculating the (figurative) admirals-to-ships ratio for the BAS. I'll bet it's over-admiralled. Of course "cut backs" usually lead to scrapping ships.
Fund the BAS!! Absolutely
Dump the silly FO programmes, like the one to persuade texans, to lobby legislators away from climate denial
I imagine the scientists st the BAS are as annoyed about the spin, the media and lobbyists put in their work as we are. Ie wrt Frozen Planet.
I'm sure they were not completely happy with BBC
Unfortunately although BAS does lots of good work , its hitched it wagon very firmly to the AGW scare and so has that lost political influence to keep dishing up the cash as 'the cause ' has lost public interest and support has greatly reduced.
Sadly it unlikely to be the only area of science to suffer in this way , and quite often it will be their own fault either via-there silence over the CRU and 'the Teams' etc poor scientific behavior or band wagon jumping to dip into the deep AGW research bucket .
Indeed I guess that is why some defend 'the cause' their smart enough to know if it goes down it will take other things with it and it may be years before public trusts in 'the science', which is the real cash flow limit , is restored after so much overblown hype and such strong claims of 'certainty' are seen to be nothing but hot-air and BS . When the head of the RS would seem to prefer to change its motto from 'takes no bodies word for it' to' trust me I am scientist in the name of 'the cause' you can see there larger problems.
The gatekeepers have failed to keep in check the 'climate science ' club of which Gleick's recent behavior is merely a more extreme example off , and all of science may end up paying the price for that failure.
Pete Postlewaite was in a film called Age of Stupid
Which is bassed on a 70s distopian disaster movie called The Omega Man starring Charlton Heston
Disaster Horror Distopian films from the 1970s ,Logans Run, Shaft ,Taxi Driver, Bullet ,MASH, Godfather, Deathwish ,Jaws ,The Omen ,Exorcis,t RollerBall ,Stepford Wives, Planet of The Apes Towering Inferno, Texas Chainsaw Massacre,and the Possiedon Adventure
What they are really about is Vietnam ,The Oil Crisis ,Munich Olympics massacre, Sharron Tate ,JFK RFK Martin Luther king getting shot , Watergate and the cold war
Then in 1976 Nixon admitted to David Frost he lied
The last America soilder flew out of the embassy in vietnam
Prsident Fords wife had a Breast Cancer operation and opened her famous Rehad Clinic
America celebrated it Bicentenary
And George Lucas went to Elstreee and Tunisia and made Starwars
George Lucas and Steven Spielburg both went to Film School to avoid being Drafted
The director of Age of Stupid Fanny Armstong
Couple of days after the premiere got attacked in London by a gang of girl muggers
She got saved by the Mayor Boris Johnson riding past on his Bike
Maybe they both got a wake up call that Climate Change is not formost in peoples minds its actually crime poverty and unemployment and lack of oppotunity
The late actor Pete Postlewaite starred in Age of Stupid
He also starred in another film called Brassed Off
Which is about coal mining village in 1984 with its pit closing
He is the conductor of the local Brass band and hes desperately trying to hold his community together
Now Climate Change never closed the mines but it did give them the excuse
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKx3MUqzCcQ
'He was only ever interested in media opportunities.' (Apr 8, 2012 at 11:36 AM , Buffy Minton)
A plausible secondary reason for the remarkable political success of the climate alarm movement has been that it has attracted and rewarded such people with the media opportunities they so craved. Given that the modern political class is so obsessed with the mass media, further advancement was almost bound to follow, and so the whole horrible business of scaring people for advantage has been reinforced year after year after year.
Ozone
Er, I know this is rather lazy, but I am sure the "hole in the ozone layer caused by man/CFCs has been disproved. The ozone layer varies naturally and always has done and has continued to do so despite the Montreal Protocol. Another Nobel for bad science?
I'm off to check.
P
Drowned by their own scam. What price scientific integrity now??
Paul Maynard - re Ozone
If you want a real tome on the subject look for:
"Maduro & Schauerhammer - The Holes in the Ozone Scare - The Scientific Evidence That the Sky Isn't Falling (1992).pdf"
MikeA
Paul wrote: "Er, I know this is rather lazy, but I am sure the 'hole in the ozone layer caused by man/CFCs has been disproved"
Sure. Fred Singer will tell you all about it. Also check out WUWT favourite Steve Milloy over at cranksci.... er, junkscience.com.
Buffy,
Yes I heard about that. Overall though glad to see him leave the BAS, though in my view he was an absolute disaster as director of the science museum, as you said, too much interested in the media, no wonder they got rid of him 3 years into a 5 year contract, or so I heard.
I sat through a presentation he gave at UCL about climate change. Cod philosophy through and through - I groaned when he went on about planet earth user' manual and having no spares! Shallow.
ThePowerofX
I don't hide behind a pseudonym. You do.
I infer you doubt Fred Singer? Perhaps you could demonstrate your superiority.
I am also a fan of JS which is a bastion of sanity.
Regards
Paul
The MP(MontPro) is the BP(blupr) for transnat. regulation, the patents were running out, the chemistry is orders of magnitudes off, hole cycling is poorly understood, and the ozone/solar connection in climate is not understood. The power of X pales in comparison to the power of Paul's curiosity.
===========
It is very cold. It snows. There are penguins.
What else is there to study about the Antarctic?
The Effects of Extreme Climate on Scotch. God give me grants.
==================
I'll be interested to see what you find.
I've always found it odd that, once they managed to wreck the refrigeration industry and create mountains of scrap fridges, the enviros went uncharacteristically quiet on the subject of ozone.
As a general rule, I always assume if lefties go quiet on anything it's a sign of a guilty conscience - so I often wonder if the whole scare was just more green BS.
I remember the price of the fire extinguishers on my boat going up by around 1000% - the bastards.
One of the defining characteristics of climatology ( like its psycho & socio siblings) seems to be that, once you get your theory accepted politically - you never go back to the scene of the crime and re-check the results against the predictions.
This seems to be a fundamental difference between "ologies" and hard sciences.
The ozone hole project turned into a prototype for subsequent scares:
Plausible theory === public scare campaign === political action
I'm sure it started as an interesting research finding - variations in ozone coverage with an area that went down to zero ozone. It's what happened next that is frightening: it turned from a "hole in the ozone layer" into a "hole in the science layer". Including this massive exercise in solipsism: "I'm seeing this for the first time therefore it did not exist before I came here therefore I caused it"
Buffy Minton's post has a refreshing ring of sincerity which I am prepared to buy into. We should not abandon our traditional scientific research legacy in the Antarctic because of corrupt climatic politics.
Foxgoose - I suppose you remember the case of the Brent Spar platform? The Greenie outrage eventuated in a far-more polluting and toxic scenario than just sinking the damned thing.
Yup - all followed by deafening silence & tumbleweed.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/bizarre/4244402/Justin-Bieber-takes-silver-dream-machine-for-a-spin.html
I see that that untalented super brat Justin Beiber gone green
I never understood why BAS felt the need to utilise a considerable percentage of their budget for the new Halley facility on a high profile RIBA Architectural Design Competition:-
Design Competition for new Antarctic Research Station - Launch
http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/press/press_releases/press_release.php?id=44
BAS always knew what the final design would be, they are of course the experts in that area!
yes bish, FCO are busy everywhere:
20 Jan: FCO: UK in China: Climate change & energy section
The climate change & energy section of the British Consulate-General, Guangzhou, works to support a shift to a low carbon economy in southern China. We are part of Britain’s Climate Change & Energy Network in China, established in 2007 with teams at the British Embassy in Beijing and at the Consulates in Shanghai, Chongqing, Hong Kong as well as Guangzhou…
Events and resources…
http://ukinchina.fco.gov.uk/en/about-us/other-locations/guangzhou/climate-change-and-energy
One of the defining characteristics of climatology ( like its psycho & socio siblings) seems to be that, once you get your theory accepted politically - you never go back to the scene of the crime and re-check the results against the predictions.
This seems to be a fundamental difference between "ologies" and hard sciences.
Apr 8, 2012 at 8:10 PM | Foxgoose
Surely there must be model projections from the time of 'ozone holeness' upto the present that we can compare. It just seems not much science is going on about the ozone hole, which seems odd seeing how important it was not that long ago.
30 March: FCO: Lord Nicholas Stern’s visit to Ecuador
The author of the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change participated in conferences in Galapagos and Quito…
On Friday 30 march Lord Stern participated in a breakfast workshop organised by the British – Ecuadorean Chamber of Commerce. The breakfast had presentations by Kevin Houston, CEO of the British firm Carbon Masters, and Lord Nicholas Stern…
The visit was organised by the British Embassy in Quito and the Ecuadorean Ministry of the Environment, with the support of the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN), Fundación Futuro Latinoamericano (FFLA), FUNDAR Galápagos, Conservation International (CI), World Wildlife Foundation (WWF), and the Charles Darwin Foundation.
http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/news/latest-news/?view=News&id=740492382
Carbon Masters UK: Kevin Houston, Partner
After successful sales,marketing and consulting careers with Procter & Gamble, Price Waterhouse Coopers and IBM, which included international assignments in Turkey and Germany, Kevin took up the cause of climate change in 2006 . He returned to Edinburgh University in 2008 to do postgraduate studies in Carbon Management where he carried out research on ICT and climate change including primary research on the use of virtual world technologies to dematerialise business travel emissions.0n graduating he co founded Carbon Masters a carbon management company that works with businesses and communities to assist them to measure ,manage ,reduce and report their GHG emissions.Since January 2010 he has been advising the European Commission in Brussels as an independent expert,working with the ICT Industry to establish a common methodology for measuring the embedded energy and carbon in ICT goods networks and services.He currently represents the EC on the International Telecommunications Union ( ITU ) Study group 5 and contributes to this groups work on establishing new ICT standards based on IS0 14040 and 14044. He is also a member of the Steering group of a joint initiative between the Carbon Trust and GeSi ( Global e sustainability Initiative) which is developing ICT guidance to measure the carbon footprint of ICT goods networks and services based on the emerging WRI /WBSCD scope 3 standards.
Kevin is a native of London but now resides in Edinburgh . He has an honours degree in Chemistry from Liverpool University as well as a MSc in Carbon Management from the University of Edinburgh.
Som Narayan, Partner
Som has been working in the area of climate change for several years. Previously his main focus was in the policy review area, carrying out analysis on adaptation models for developing countries with Greenpeace-India. In the UK he worked on feasibility of low carbon technologies for energy sector and an Emissions Performance Standard (EPS) as a credible policy for coal power generating plants with Friends of the Earth and World Development Movement Scotland. As a part of his Masters in Carbon Management from University of Edinburgh his research was on the economic impacts of the UK Governments Carbon Reduction Commitment legislation. Som also holds an Environmental Engineering degree and Post Graduate diploma in Environmental law from National Law School of India University.
http://carbonmasters.co.uk/aboutus.aspx
The aid budget to countries with space programmes and ballistic missile systems has to be maintained somehow.
Priorities.
pat
After that demonstration of marketing b*ll*xspeak I need a pint of leisure experience. Will someone take me to an aspirational outlet?
I would very much like to know the full cost of the Halley 6 project now that it has been completed and also of how far it falls short of the original design brief.
BAS is not alone in having to deal with funding cuts.
Our civil war was 350 years ago. Why has it not finished?
366, the days of the year, minus 324, the years since Glory, leaves 42.
===============