Bishop Hill The green blob and its double standards
Mar 26, 2015 Green Blob Journals I'm grateful to Ben Pile and Barry Woods for these observations about the latest edition of Nature Climate Change, a special with a focus on climate change and the media.
Barry noted that it featured articles by Leo Hickman, now of Carbon Brief, and Richard Black, now of the Energy and Climate Change Information Unit. By strange coincidence, both of these organisations are funded by the European Climate Foundation (ECF), a conduit for funding sent by green billionaires.
Ben then pointed out that the author of another article - James Painter of the Reuters School of Journalism - was not only the son in law of Crispin Tickell but also the beneficiary of considerable funding from the self-same ECF. Another coincidence, no doubt, but one that meant that no fewer than three of the five articles in the special feature were written by ECF-funded authors.
(It was also noted that one of the editors at Nature Climate Change is Mat Hope, formerly of the Carbon Brief, and thus another beneficiary of ECF funding, but Mat has said that the papers were processed prior to his appointment at Nature.)
Anyway, it's a small world, the green blob, and one in which it seems it is not considered necessary to disclose all this environmentalist largesse as a potential conflict of interest. Which is strange when one recalls Richard Black's comments on Willie Soon:
_richardblack Latest news on #climate scientist Willie Soon both devastating and sad nyti.ms/17Ml8kV; how are @Harvard & @Smithsonian ok with this?
Reader Comments (43)
Well done another great article.
The greenblob is just another business.
Are any of the authors scientists, or is this not a scientific journal?
No wonder this Journal suggested without review that a paper I submitted would not be appropriate for its readership because it had too much mathematical analysis, so was better suited for a front line Physics' journal.
Nature Climate Science is a comic for believers, nothing to do with science.
Black and Hickman have offices in the same building.
Green Shill Propaganda Comics are in vogue today.
I presume their wealthy backers will be writing off the losses against tax, possibly in the next financial year.
too funny - Baroness Bryony Worthington - Sandbag (also funded by ECF has same address)
No doubt everybody works form home, and it is mailing address, office space and they can all pop into ECF premises for meetings, etc..
All at 40 Bermondsey Street
European Climate Foundation (London)
http://europeanclimate.org/
ECIU
http://eciu.net/about/contact-us
Sandbag
http://www.sandbag.org.uk/about/
Carbon Brief:
http://www.carbonbrief.org/contact-us/
so all the money they get, they don't even have to pay for office space if they need it in London, just pop into the ECF London premises.. and network, network, network withn the small green circular world.
Shub, I hope their offices are airconditioned, so they can continue to plead ignorance about natural variability, and be shielded from the consequences of zero credility.
After the success of BBC's "Children in Need" appeal, they will want to be part of the BBC's forthcoming "Climate Scientists in Need" appeal, as the winds of climate reality, force them to make their own instant coffee.
By now it is obvious that they feel safe from any comeback and can be quite blatant about 'circular interest funding'.
We may note it on this blog. But who is going to do anything about it? I assume that the editors of journals will deem that green interests are exempt from any requirement to specify funding...?
Also at the same address
The Asset Owners Disclosure Project - http://aodproject.net/about-us/our-supporters.html
"The Asset Owners Disclosure Project is an independent not-for-profit global organisation whose objective is to protect asset owners from the risks posed by climate change by improving the level of disclosure and industry best practice."
-- funded by Hewlett, Oak, Tellus Mater, Climate Institute, Client Earth & ClimateWorks (parent of ECF) foundations.
The Aviation Environment Federation - http://www.aef.org.uk/about/
" the principal UK NGO campaigning exclusively on the environmental impacts of aviation and promoting a sustainable future for the sector. ... AEF is independent from both Government and industry, being funded through our membership, together with donations from individuals and charitable trusts."
I wonder who - they don't say.
Shub's next mission is to report on how many addresss theese past and present GWPF media stalwarts share
Viscount Monckton
Dominic Lawson
Rosa Monckton
Lord Lawson
Nigella Lawson
and which of themhave never dined with Green Glimate Alliance P-R chief Charles Saatchi ?
Some of them are family members.
Russell, time to grow up.
Of course, the ECF's own UK home is 40 Bermondsey Street. - http://europeanclimate.org/contact-us/
Which is the same home as The Carbon Tracker Initiative - a team of financial, energy and legal experts with a ground breaking approach to limiting future greenhouse gas emissions. Oh, and it's ECF-funded. http://www.carbontracker.org/about/
Airportwatch is on floor 20 of the same address. http://www.airportwatch.org.uk/airportwatch-contact-details/
It is "an umbrella movement uniting the national environmental organisations, airport community groups, and individuals opposed to unsustainable aviation expansion, and its damaging environmental effects, including climate change and noise." No mention of who funds them though...
I wonder who it could possibly be.
Russell - I think you should tell us.
Ben, you mean the 2nd floor right. It looks to be a small building, 3 floors.
Yep Shub... Typo. Floor 2.
Phillip: 'Are any of the authors scientists?'
Well Dr Saffron O'Neill is a "Senior Lecturer in Human Geography" at the University of Exeter (and ex UEA). Her "broad research specialisms" are:
Does that make her a scientist?
Lord Oxburgh and Crispin Tickell appear to be on the advisory board of Richard Black's employer ECIU.
The article by Saffron O'Neill et al is quite interesting. It says that there was more IPCC coverage in the UK than in the US, and that there was more coverage of WG1 than WG2 and WG3, probably due to climate fatigue setting in.
They also say that the BBC was more inclined towards describing the science as unsettled than ITV or channel 4 (I recall that the Bish was briefly featured in a BBC news item in Sept 2013 just before WG1 came out).
On the "it's a small world, the green blob" theme, the acknowledgements section says: "J. Painter, L. Hickman and R. Black at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism workshop ‘Changing media ecologies and environment reporting’ provided insights that helped shape the discussion."
the difference between the green blob and any other business is that the green blob is a CRIMINAL fraudsters business
No CAGW no Nature Climate Change, now do the maths .
more circlethink: (ref Paul's comment)
Painter, in his Nature Climate Change [corrected, see below] paper, acknowledges, 2 other authors, for comments. on his draft
Acknowledgements
Thanks go to R. Black, K. de Meyer and S. O’Neill for
comments on an earlier draft of this Commentary
oops - it should say - Painter in his Nature Climate Change - paper!
Robin Guenier: “Does that make her a scientist?”
No, but it does make her a Climate Scientist.
(See what I did there?)
@ Ben, AEF (Aviation Environment Federation) is funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and also something called the Oak Foundation, according to the minutes of this 2011 HoC committee meeting:
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201012/cmselect/cmniaf/1227/1227.pdf
But isn't that a bit unfair, Lynn: some say that putting 'climate' before 'scientist' is rather like putting 'witch' before 'doctor'.
She does after all have a BSc in Geography and a PhD in Environmental Science (although the latter was from the University of East Anglia).
@ Alex.
In 2014, "a Special Initiative grant was made to ClimateWorks Foundation for a total of USD 75 million" by the OF to ClimateWorks, the parent organisation of the ECF. - http://www.oakfnd.org/node/5969
I think there is a lot of overlap going on.
Additionally, Kathleen Cravero-Kristoffersson, President of Oak Foundation, is on the supervisory board of the ECF http://europeanclimate.org/kathleen-cravero-kristoffersson/ , and the OF is a funder of the ECF - http://europeanclimate.org/home/who-we-are/funding-partners/
So many complexly-named quangos, so many self-important activists posing as professional journalists, so much vested interest camouflaged behind 'independent' and 'morally superior' objectives.
It really is the most complete and utter bullshit.
As they say, anything that feels the need to put 'science' in the title isn't a science. Think social science, political science, climate science, environmental science; all non-sciences. Think physics, chemistry, biology etc; all sciences - well physics is anyway.
Black is quite happy giving billionaires a green-job.
Does this really show double standards?
To me, it shows no standards at all. No standards, no integrity, no ethics, nothing except an emotional need to win at all costs.
Wow, this is big, well done sleuths.
- Projection is the hallmark of climate alarmists, so it is of no surprise that wild FANTASY idea of a conspiracy of Heartland and Big Oil, turn out to be reflected in the REALITY of ECF and a vast web of Greenblob organisations along with a pseudo science journal which shamelessly publishes the propaganda of activists & journalists so that they can say "oh it was published in a peer reviewed science journal"
"Nature Climate Science is a comic for believers, nothing to do with science."
well said @NCC 1701E
- Imagine if Heartland funded 3 different reports of the same journal and this was not made clear, that would be outrageous. If there was a hint of skeptics doing such shenanigans there would be a big special investigative
witch-huntreport in the New York Times and Guardian ... (I spit to wash my mouth out)Robin Guenier
My daughter started a course in Environmental Science. She lasted a year and then switched to Psychology.
She said she would never have believed a reputable university could have even thought about a course that was so meaningless and full of "right-on" clichés. Also empty of anything seriously environmental or scientific.
That was in the mid-80s. I doubt things have improved much.
Great exposure of these hypocrites, but then most of us knew or suspected this. After all it is one of the main reasons for my sceptism.
It would be wonderful if some sluith on here could name and shame the monied crooks behind this vast slush fund.
8.45am Friday BBC Radio Today prog Lord Leven and Debden doing propaganda .."rich countries have to pay for pollution (we'll collect it and a commission)"
On the Today programme Gummer and supporters, (one of whom, an American academic who believes that we must target a maximum 1.5 degrees temperature rise) enjoyed approximately 5 minutes spouting completely unchallenged tosh. This reflects so badly on the BBC.
From Ben Pile above:
The Asset Owners Disclosure Project - http://aodproject.net/about-us/our-supporters.html
"The Asset Owners Disclosure Project is an independent not-for-profit global organisation whose objective is to protect asset owners from the risks posed by climate change by improving the level of disclosure and industry best practice."
-- funded by Hewlett, Oak, Tellus Mater, Climate Institute, Client Earth & ClimateWorks (parent of ECF) foundations.
Someone needs to get to the bottom of Client Earth and its relationship with EU environmental policy makers/enforcers.
I won't hear a word against the BBC's incomparable light entertainment
The other evening on their stand-up show, ‘Costing The Earth’, Dale Vince (Ecotricity) had a great gag about the ‘Green Economy’ in Britain employing a million people in 2012 – the same as the financial services industry – as well as putting £128 billion into our economy
Such fun!
Richard North brought up the ECF in 2010, http://www.eureferendum.com/blogview.aspx?blogno=71668
and here, http://www.eureferendum.com/blogview.aspx?blogno=71464
"Ecofin Ltd - now earning a not inconsiderable amount from Suzlon - has a "charity" called the Ecofin Research Foundation, set up in May 2007 with a staff of one, the sole objective of which is to hand funds from Ecofin Ltd – its sole donor – to environmental "charities."
So far, Ecofin Ltd has given a few pounds short of £1 million to its Foundation and it is yet another complete coincidence that the major recipient of the Foundation's grants is an outfit called the European Climate Foundation (ECF), to the tune of £743,071 in the year ending 31 December 2008.
Thus, it is just another complete and utter coincidence that, in the grant year 2009, the ECF made a donation of an unspecified amount, direct to TERI India, to "facilitate meetings between Dr R K Pachauri and key European decision makers in support of an international agreement on climate change."
As a study financed by the ECF points out, (http://stud.epsilon.slu.se/347/1/kindangen_n_090702.pdf) the payments are devoted to developing "a strategy to influence key decision makers". The "primary audiences are EU politicians and politicians from each member state," and a special "opinion leader" is Rajendra Pachauri, to whom the ECF has been so generous. His statements are "reckoned to have substantial influence on media and members of the primary audiences."
http://www.ecofin.co.uk/eco/en/about/partners
Swiss Bankers and Goldman Sachs again
"Ecofin is an independent investment management firm which specialises in the global utility, infrastructure, alternative energy and environmental sectors. The firm, which was founded in 1992, is based in London and has offices in New York, Hong Kong and Geneva."
Here he delves deeper, http://www.eureferendum.com/blogview.aspx?blogno=71458
"A much more generous "partner", (than Ecofin) for instance, has been the Children's Investment Fund Foundation,(CIFF). In the financial year ending 31 August 2008, the foundation funded the ECF with a £2,527,973 grant "to support advocacy issues on climate change and energy in the European Union aimed at dramatically reducing the region's greenhouse gas emissions and helping the EU play a leadership role in multilateral climate protection."
"The founder of (the Catalyst project, http://www.catalystproject.info) is George Polk, a "serial entrepreneur" and most recently CEO of The Cloud Networks Ltd, the leading broadband wireless network operator in Europe.
Not only did he found the Catalyst project, he also started up the European Climate Foundation, where he served as CEO and chairman of the executive committee. Other activities were to serve as an advisor to Climateworks and as a senior advisor on climate change to McKinsey & Company.
But Polk's main interest in life is his role as the managing partner of Soros Climate "a new $1 billion initiative by George Soros to invest private equity in ways which accelerate the development and diffusion of climate change technologies and business models." And it was Soros who created something of a stir at Copenhagen, suggesting the launch of a $150 billion financial plan.
Polk, however, has yet another interest in his busy life. He sits on the executive board of an outfit called the Carbon War Room, founded by Richard Branson, of Virgin fame, and Craig Cogut. The latter, of course, is founder and co-managing partner of Pegasus Capital Advisors, which claims as one of its "strategic advisors" a certain Rajendra K Pachauri – for which post, he claims, he is paid nothing.
Thus, we have a gilded circle of the wealthy, all in the climate change business to make a buck or two, and all in some way connected to a network of environmental "charities", which are dishing out funds to activists at the sharp end, many of whom will be quite unaware of who their ultimate paymasters are."
Climate Works has on its board William K Reilly, former President of WWF US and now Emeritus Chairman, https://www.worldwildlife.org/leaders/william-k-reilly. He is a former head of the US EPA. For more on the EPA and their involvement with IPCC and the UN, read, http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/originals/the_un_states_epa.html, and http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/originals/lisa_p_jackson_epa_administrator_fulfilling_the_un_mission.html.
Other CW board members include Pamela Matson, who is on the Board of Trustees of the World Wildlife Fund and was a Lead Author, for the IPCC TAR, WG1 Chapter 4. She is a Biologist and chair of America's NAS Climate Choices panel.
Also on the CW board is IPCC's Mario Molina who shared a Nobel Prize for discovering the "dangers of ozone destroying CFC's", along with Charles O Holliday Jnr, chairman of Du Pont, who just happened to have a patent running out on those same CFC's at the time. This led in turn to the Montreal Prorocol, the stalking horse for the Kyoto Protocol. Molina is on the board of WWF Mexico and was a member of the IAC committee looking into the IPCC.
I have written about Soros here,
http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/originals/un_progress_governance_via_climate_change.html
I have previously described the whole complex collection of networks as a vast mycelium, constantly producing new fruiting bodies in the form of some new "Climate Institute" which then becomes part of the "overwhelming consensus".
Apologies. Clearly Charles Holliday did not share a Nobel prize with Molina, he just happens to be on the Climate Works board with him. Poor grammar!
thank you dennisa -
oh what a tangled web we weave! but it is just called corruption.
Biofuel facts-
See this item from Princeton University.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-03/pu-dbp032715.php
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