Diary dates

Readers in the South-West of England will not want to miss the opportunity to hear prominent Tory environmentalist Oliver Letwin and a bunch of other greens discussing climate change. Details here.

14 September 2013 

Weymouth and Portland Transition Towns are organsing a half-day seminar on Climate Change with Oliver Letwin (MP for West Dorset & Cabinet Member), John Tomblin (Weymouth and Portland Transition Towns) and Pete West (Renewable Energy Development Officer, Dorset County Council) making presentations.

In unrelated news, Conservative Party membership may have fallen to as low as 60,000.

At the start of October, The Royal Society is going to hold a two day meeting to examine the new IPCC report. The list of speakers and session chairs is positively stellar (or, in more familiar parlance, "the usual suspects"). Details here.

2-3 October 2013

The IPCC 5th Assessment Report Working Group 1 (Science) Summary for Policy for Makers is due to be approved on 23-26 September of this year.  In the following week a number of associated activities are being planned in the UK. This meeting will provide a forum for exploration of the current understanding of some important aspects of climate science, leading on to discussion of future directions for the science.

And tonight on Radio 4, Evan Davis will be discussing greenery with a bunch of greens and a lone critic of greenery in the shape of Matthew Sinclair. Details here.

Evan Davis explores whether the temperature of the green movement is hotting up as much as global warming. In a late night discussion he finds out why Mark Lynas went from trashing GM crops in the 90s to powerful advocate of both GM and nuclear power a decade later. And how such treachery plays out in the Green Party, and with its one MP, Caroline Lucas. His other guests Solitaire Townsend, Matthew Sinclair and Mario Petrucci discuss the dangers of allying green issues with the left; whether environmentalism should abandon the ideological for the practical, and whether it's really seeking to save our souls, or the planet.

If anyone fancies writing a report on any of these, drop me a line.

Comments

[DaveS]

Letwin is a leading member of the self-righteous 'we must take a moral lead' brigade and is one of Cameron's inner circle. A dangerous combination.

[toad]

Old -Etonian 'Wetwin' has always been 'Dave's' idol and mentor.
The fact that he's addressing the 'Take us back to 14th Century' Group should surprise no-one.
"Peak Oil" was their mantra until Monbiot told them we have "enough to fry us all".
'Transition Towns' are very strong, here in Malvern, where every other wealthy, retired Prius-driver is also a Grauniad reader.

[Anon]

Toad, you seem a little bitter and cliched!

[Douglas J. Keenan]

Regarding Evan Davis, here is a relevant extract from my report on the 2012 UK Conference of Science Journalists.

The second speaker was the economist and BBC journalist Evan Davis. Davis cautioned journalists about focusing on negative aspects of science, such as fraud, saying that negative publicity might bias scientists against doing anything, and we want to encourage scientists to continue their work. He later said that “exposure [of fraud] is not a very good goal” for science journalism.

I think that there are many people like Davis: people who have effectively taken science to be their religion and scientists to be their priests or even gods. Those people are deeply fearful of having their religious beliefs defenestrated. The result is the anti-journalism on display here.

[Jabba the Cat]

Letwin always comes across as a smug and oily junior version of Leon Brittan, waiting to comfortably parachute into the EU trough post HOC career...

[James P]

"post HOC career"

:-)

[Pharos]

Been browsing some of Sinclairs old blogs on climate policy. Seems to have been very perceptive and in hindsight prophetic even going back to 2006. Some blogs on ConHome, other early blogs are here

http://sinclairsmusings.blogspot.co.uk/

[Pharos]

Couldnt stomach listening to all of it. Suffocatingly self-righteous love-in.

[Australis]

In July 2008, there was a salutary debate between Oliver Letwin and Nigel Lawson - both Oxbridge firsts in economics with cabinet experience in finance and energy. http://standpointmag.co.uk/dialogue-july

It is notable that Letwin displays little concern about temperatures. His anxieties are driven by national security considerations such as future energy dependence on Libya and Russia and the impossibility of funding fossil-fuelled generation in the face of Peak Oil.

Little wonder he has now become enthusiastic regarding the UKs shale gas prospects.

[PeteB]

What did people think of Hansen's latest comments :

“As usual the Democrats are going to take some of the money, 40 percent of it,” Hansen said. “Conservatives have to put their foot down and say you can’t use this as another excuse to make government bigger. Democrats have a problem they can’t keep their hands off our wallets.”

http://blogs.denverpost.com/thebalancesheet/2013/06/13/climate-change-jim-ha/10039/

[Latimer Alder]

In other unrelated news. Kingston-upon-Thames Transition Towns have become little more than a rug-sewing group.

Perhaps the performance of their local MP - one Edward Davey - in government has inspired them to rise to these new lows of irrelevance?

[David Holland]

I felt obliged to listen last night but struggled to stay awake. You can hear it at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0388kfn

I thought the most telling words came at 27 min 37 sec from the self-proclaimed green tycoon, Solitaire Townsend, who claimed to have asked a hard core environmental meeting whether they would vote for it if she was a climate fairy and could offer to weave a spell that would bring down CO2 concentration to 350 ppm without any one cutting back on emissions. On a show of hands only 2 out of 200 wanted the spell.