The Royal Society's policy people are working hard on their carbon footprints, jetting off to a conference in Sendai, Japan on the subject of disaster risk reduction, with particular reference to weather events.
Weather disasters are a bit of a theme in Carlton House Gardens at the moment. In the last few days the society has also produced a policy statement on the subject, which called for a top-down approach based on central planning and target-setting. Vorsprung durch Sozialismus! There was also a report at the end of last year.
Throughout all of these documents there is a sly elision of weather and climate. If you go back to the announcement of last year's report you will read:
We have examined people's resilience to weather- and climate-related extreme events, in particular, floods, droughts and heatwaves.
In other words, they examined people's resilience to extreme weather. This time they are rather more brazen, stating that:
...future climatic and demographic changes will increase the exposure of people and their assets to [extreme weather].
..a position that few readers here think will mistake for one that has been informed by consideration of the science.
The society's surge of activity of course forms part of the their political lobbying effort ahead of this years' UN Framework agreements on disasters and development, and in particular the Paris climate summit. As they explain in the policy statement:
The three United Nations frameworks provide a unique opportunity to mobilise activity and build people’s resilience to extreme weather in a sustainable and equitable way.
...which does at least make it clear how the climate change is being used to push a political agenda. They need to spin a threat of climate change in order to move the politicians in the desired direction. Shame about the impact on the reputation of science, but that has long since ceased to be a concern of Royal Society.