Thursday
Apr092015
by 
Bishop Hill
Bishop Hill Diary date - Berlin
Apr 9, 2015 Climate: Schellnhuber Diary dates I shan't be going to this, will you?
How many more of these non-elected organisations are there beavering away demanding that the planet be saved - or else? I suspect the Greek debt could be paid off if in its entirety if these pressure groups were all deprived of the money they receive to operate.
TM
Reader Comments (15)
I think we'd be very depressed if we added up all the money piddled down the drain on this and similar issues. The UN alone must be an immense money pit. I think all organisations like that should have to submit a 'what we've achieved' report every year.
You do not have to add up the money....the sheer quantity of these organisations is depressing. None of them are going to vote themselves out of existence. On the contrary, they will all be seeking to expand.
It is a sobering thought when you realise that there are only half a dozen not-very-well-funded organisations putting any kind of opposite view.
There is a mountain to climb...or do I mean demolish?
At least in our democratic system the electorate can eventually vote out parties misusing public funds, such as all the things like this. Historically I think we find several examples where the public have eventually had enough and overturned the government/'elite' who seem to consume a vast amount of a nations wealth.
Well they can say what they like, but their demands won't be met in Paris later this year. China, India, Russia, etc etc will see to that. Of course if they really did get what they ask for it would lead to worsening economic decline, social unrest, and the possible disintegration of the EU.
What they may get is a fig leaf that allows them to keep their sinecures and continue lecturing the rest of the world while maintaining their own hypocritical luxuries.
TinyCO2
But they do, they do. In fact it's practically all they do: hold meetings, report on meetings, go to meetings of sister organisations and report back at their own meetings – all so it can be written up in the sympathetic press. (Though if you follow the Guardian Environment pages, you'll see that there's a certain NGO-fatigue setting in even there). Hence a certain urgency and a tendency to become more and more extreme, and hence the High Level Advisory Committee to the Climate Justice Dialogue and their demand for a “strong response to the climate crisis”.Look at the makeup of the committee and you'll see one of the key strategies of the Blob. There's Robinson for the high level politics and Schellnhuber for the science, and a bunch of people from third world countries who know that climate change is their meal ticket to the big time. It's very hard to attack these people without sounding racist and/or anti-poor.
Hmmm, not sure that meetings qualify as achievements. I want numbers of tigers saved, how many wars stopped, which hurriane prevented.
MSF for instance can be credited with actually being on the ground for Ebola victims, even if they haven't eradicated it yet.
"The desire to save humanity is always a false front for the urge to rule it" -- H L Mencken
Oh, there'll be a fig leaf alright! Even now the best brains at the BBC are working on how best to spin the result they must, deep down, expect. Depend on it, it will be a great victory for Gaia whatever happens.
"How many more of these non-elected organisations are there beavering away demanding that the planet be saved - or else?"
As it happens. I can update you so far as South Korea is concerned. I'm in Seoul for a few days on my way back from visiting Grandkids in New Zealand.
As I started to explore, I couldn't miss the posters and banners everywhere for ICLEI, a UNICEF outfit :-"Local Governments for Sustainability is the world’s leading network of over 1,000 cities, towns and metropolises committed to building a sustainable future"
http://www.iclei.org/
Outside Seoul City Hall, a great encampment of little tents housing every crackpot greenie outfit you've ever heard of, many you are lucky not to have heard of and, naturally, representatives of BigWind, BigPVsolar and the rest. Together with several bikes converted to electricity generation, presumably so the bearded wonders can charge their iPhone 6s.
Nice to see Starbucks has rolled out the barrel and have sponsored the happenings generously.
Nice also to see from the website that, in addition to the usual suspect municipalities from Australia, Canada and Europe, Mayors from Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Philippines etc. have felt able to sign up to ICLEI and join the party. Nothing to worry about at home, naturally. No doubt they will stay on for the "7th World Water Forum" starting on the 12th, also in Korea, before moving on to Kenya and Germany in the next couple of months.
Mind you, I also noted in Samoa, three weeks ago, a big UN bunfight on "Gender Issues and Climate Change". Not sure whether Climate Change has led to problems with Gender Issues or whether it is the other way round.
All nice stuff if you're on the gravy train.
Me?
Still no check from the Kochs, so I had to pay for it all myself.
Martin Brumby Gender Issues and Climate Change
I think this could be a conference for people to ask serious questions like:
Who am I?
How did I get here?
Who paid for the plane ticket? Why?
Will it be better to sun bathe before, after or during the lavish lunch, paid for by somebody else?
When is the next freebie holiday?
With United Nations support, 'Rent a mob politics' has evolved into 'charter a plane load of pleasure seekers'.
It used to be called the "gravy train". Now it's the Gravy Plane.
I wonder if this is another parody?
I click on a link "Women's Leadership on Gender and Climate Change" and read that
I hope they didn't f-f-f-fly there. Oh the humanity!
TinyCO2
I once came across an NGO article about a poor peasant lady in Bangladesh whose land had been ruined by salination due to sea level rise, and whose husband had been eaten by a tiger. And what did the NGO do? Give her money to buy more land? Stuff the tiger? No, they paid her air ticket to come to London to tell her tale to a meeting of climate-concerned psychoanalysts.Martin Brumby
..and one of the members of the High Level Advisory Committee to the Climate Justice Dialogue is from Samoa. He had a distinguished diplomatic career before he got roped into saving the planet. Criticising this kind of nonsense requires much tact.
Mary Robinson calls for "radical leadership" but of course doesn't say what that is. Its a frightening phrase though just the same.
But they warmly welcome the public in a Q&A session so surely someone in Germany/Berlin, with some tact, but very penetrating questions could show up and ask them??
I'm thinking along the lines of how sure they are about their seeing of the future that they may well condemn the present poor to lives of misery, and how do they weigh the cost to those today against an unknowable future outcome which may well be worse for their efforts.
Where does their certainty come from - surely not from the climate models !
I have a spy who worked for many years on the non-academic staff of a very well known English university. (A proper university, none of your jumped-up polytechnic rubbish.) Between the university terms they accommodated many 'Conferences' for NGOs, charities etc.
(Naturally, our doughty warriors against the Climate will want somewhere very much more sybaritic to stay, than the halls of residence for an English university!)
But it is not without interest that during these 'Conferences' the porters were always moaning about the frequency with which they had to refill the slot machines in the gents' toilets. The attendees at one regular NGO 'Conference' purchased at least three times the amount of consumables per week, as the normal healthy students managed in term time. The cleaning staff, however, were laughing because they only had to clean half the rooms. (No need for the Bish to blush - not the Synod of the C of E.)
I have no doubt that these far posher UN gatherings will follow along similar lines.
After snoozing through some stultifyingly boring twit preaching to the choir, in a lecture theatre darkened for Powerpoint presentation of all the usual scary charts, no doubt the participants will enjoy the expertly presented local seafood washed down with an agreeably expensive imported Sauvignon Blanc.
And so the clean white sheets of the King Size will await. The Climate will be changed via the remote for the air-con and they'll be ready to seriously address some Gender Issues. If there is a problem with sustainability, no doubt those little blue tablets will help.
But, needless to add, it is the rest of us and especially the poor who are really getting screwed.