Biofuels driving hunger

The If Campaign, a new campaign by a bunch of NGOs, has been launched to tackle world hunger, although closer examination of their aims suggests other agendas too:

The group is calling for more aid to be targeted towards those most at risk of hunger and curbs on “tax dodging” by companies operating in the developing world.

Other targets include the rise of biofuels, which it argues lies behind a series of legal “land grabs” which have swept poor farmers, many of them women, aside.

In its first report, published today, the group claims that crops burned as biofuels in the UK alone would be enough to feed 10 million people a year.

I'm not quite sure what taxes have to do with hunger, but the focus on biofuels is of course very welcome. Strangely our friend Bob Ward seems to disagree. When I pointed out that greens' campaigns against GM crops and for biofuels were a major factor in world hunger, he responded:

your hatred of environmentalists is plain, but it is ridiculous to claim they are the main cause of hunger.

Leaving aside the normal Wardian misquoting ("major" for "main"), this seems like remarkably weak ground on which to take a stand. That greens have overwhelmingly opposed GM seems indisputable. That many have in the past argued for the use of biofuels is also plainly true (see post earlier today). That's all there is to it.

The Black departure

The Carbon Brief is surveying the state of climate reporting in the mass media, and includes an interesting observation about Richard Black's departure from the BBC.

...climate change journalism in the mainstream media is under pressure. For one, the New York Times announced it has dismantled its nine-strong environment desk. This leaves the Los Angeles Times the only one of the US's top five newspapers by readership left with a designated environment desk. And last year, BBC environment correspondent Richard Black left the BBC amidst wider job cuts at the corporation.  

I must say, I thought at the time that he had resigned to try pastures new. I wonder how I got that idea?

There are also some amusing comments from Fiona Fox about Black's expertise in the area:

Climate change is a complex scientific and political subject. On his departure from the BBC, the Science Media Centre said Black's familiarity with the climate beat stood him in good stead to cover the leak of climate scientists' emails from the University of East Anglia in 2009:

"The reason that climate scientists bemoan the loss of Richard is not because he gave them an easy time but because he knew his stuff so well and questioned them from a high level of understanding of the science involved and years of experience of following the complex and messy political machinations on this story."

Seth Roberts on HTD

Seth Roberts has written a review of Hiding the Decline at his blog:

Hiding the Decline is as well-written as a book by a professional writer but this is a book no professional science writer could write due to its investment in an officially-wrong point of view. There are lots of badly-written books from tiny-minority points of view. The appearance of a well-written one, joining Montford’s earlier The Hockey Stick Illusion, is no small deal. How much free speech do we have? It depends on the medium. Maybe the sequence from less to more censored is: 1. Conversation. 2. Email and other private writing. 3. Blog post. 4. Poorly-written book. 5. Article in minor magazine. 6. Well-written book. 7. Article in prestigious magazine. 8. Textbook. From one step to the next (e.g., from conversation to email), views become less diverse. This book is disagreement with the official line high up the tree.

Obama BAU

Having got the hopes of the faithful up with an AGW-bashing speech at his inauguration, President Obama seems to be resiling from the climate crusader position he persuaded everyone he was going to adopt. Here are his spokesman's remarks at the first White House press conference of the second term:

Q    And then just quickly on climate change.  The President was pretty extensive in his remarks on climate change in his inaugural address yesterday.  What was he trying to signal about where climate change would fall on his priority list in a second term, and is there any upcoming action that you can point to that he's going to take on that topic?

Click to read more ...

Keeping schtum - Josh 196

 

"Eastleigh’s high profile MP Chris Huhne appearing today along with his former wife Vasiliki ‘Vicky’ Pryce on charges of perverting the course of justice in relation to a 2003 speeding conviction." reports the Eastleigh News.

We are not allowed to say much as there is a gagging order on the proceedings, but you can comment on the online story, linked above, but be aware "Comments which fail to praise Mr Huhne may be deleted!!"

Via numerous mentions on Twitter.

Cartoons by Josh

Update on Jan 23, 2013 by Josh

Well, that didn't last long. The Eastleigh News story has now been removed. 

I also took the opportunity to correct my spelling ;-)

Huhne in court

Guido has reported that Chris Huhne, the mastermind behind much of the environmental legislation with which we are currently encumbered, is appearing in court, no doubt in connection the disputed speeding ticket of a year or two back.

A gagging order is in place preventing anyone reporting what takes place.

Volte face

Friends of the Earth 2004:

The Government should introduce a Biofuels Obligation, to stimulate a UK biofuels industry as a lower carbon alternative to conventional transport fuels. The obligation would require that a proportion of all road transport fuels in the UK should be sourced from accredited renewable sources. Fuel suppliers would either supply the target percentage of biofuel, or choose to pay a penalty. The revenues raised would be proportionately distributed to those who supplied complying fuels, encouraging growth in supply up to the Obligation target. The cost to the consumer is negligible, and it would benefit the economy and environment.

News report 2013:

Friends of the Earth Scotland said there were concerns government proposals for renewable electricity subsidies encourage “large, polluting and inefficient” biomass power stations.

Andrew Llanwarne, of Friends of the Earth Scotland, said: “We are astonished that the Scottish Government would fund these climate-wrecking projects.”

Disaster! Calamity! Horror, shock and awe!

As if in glorious harmony with President Obama's renewed interest in climate change, a couple of articles have appeared selling the "AGW leads to weather extremes" story.

At The Conversation, the Australian website for activist academics, there is an article by Harry Blutstein of the School of Global Studies, Social Science and Planning at RMIT University.

Hurricane Sandy may or may not be a direct result of climate change, but what is certain is that the incidence of extreme climate events is increasing.

Click to read more ...

Obama goes green

Having failed to mention climate change at all in his reelection campaign, it seems that President Obama is going to make it the heart of his second term plans (full text of inauguration speech here).

We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations.  Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires, and crippling drought, and more powerful storms.

I think he is making that last bit up.

Update on Jan 21, 2013 by Bishop Hill

Channel Four's Tom Clarke has just tweeted this:

Obama just made a link between 2012 weather and climate change in #inaug2013. @metoffice can you bail him out if he gets too much flak?

Climate Economics

Climate Economics is Richard Tol's new book, currently available in draft for review here (I wasn't able to read it online - I had to download via the file menu).

It's clearly an excellent tome, written by a discerning author:

Climate research is rather controversial. Good introductions to the controversy are Mike Hulme’s book Why we disagree about climate change: Understanding controversy, inaction, and opportunity, Donna Laframboise’ book The delinquent teenager who was mistaken for the world’s top climate expert and Andrew W. Montford’s book The hockey stick illusion: Climategate and the corruption of science.

Lord Patten's diary

A couple of interesting little snippets at a BBC-focused blog called Trading as WDR. The author has obtained some excerpts from the diary of BBC chairman Lord Patten under FOI.

These include meetings with Stephen Lovegrove, who has subsequently been appointed Permanent Secretary at DECC, and also with Lord Deben, who needs no introduction here. Lovegrove is married to a screenwriter, and has a background in media consultancy, so there may well be no climate connection.

Worthington on Helm

Bryony Worthington, the environmental campaigner who was ennobled by the last government and then proceeded to run amok through UK energy policy, has penned a critique of Dieter Helm's book on solving the UK's energy problems. Helm's objective is to do this without actually trashing the economy or killing off too many old folk.

Worthington's approach is rather different of course. She notoriously favours only hair-shirt policies on energy - if objectives are achieved without any pain they don't count in her book (see here). It's therefore hard to take her views on anything terribly seriously. For those who want a laugh, she seems to think that subsidising technologies that don't work is the way forward.

Strewth.

Boris on Piers

Boris Johnson, the shock-maned mayor of London, is waxing lyrical in the Telegraph about the virtues of Piers Corbyn and the possibility of a little ice age.

I am speaking only as a layman who observes that there is plenty of snow in our winters these days, and who wonders whether it might be time for government to start taking seriously the possibility — however remote — that Corbyn is right. If he is, that will have big implications for agriculture, tourism, transport, aviation policy and the economy as a whole. Of course it still seems a bit nuts to talk of the encroachment of a mini ice age.

But it doesn’t seem as nuts as it did five years ago. I look at the snowy waste outside, and I have an open mind.

I can't number myself amongst Corbyn's fans, having never seen any evidence to suggest that he can in fact weather forecast better than anyone else. A couple of years ago Roger Harrabin tried to organise a formal competition between the various weather forecasters, all of whom lost interest fairly quickly. This didn't encourage me to place any great weight on any of their claims.

The illiberal Economist

The Economist looks at GLOBE International (of Lord Oxburgh fame) and its recent report noting the increased levels of environmental legislation enacted around the world.

You get the sense from the article that the author is rather keen on this tsunami of government interference. One would have thought that, for a liberal publication, its necessity would at least have been open to question. Certainly there was a time when "more legislation good, less legislation bad" would have been rejected out of hand by the Economist.

Shutting down the police

An article at Forbes discusses the recent closing down of the Science Fraud website, a crowdsourced effort to expose scientific misconduct, particularly in the life sciences.

Reading between the lines, the site's owner was a little careless with the reputations of some of those who came under suspicion and the ensuing legal threats did for his site. It looks as though he's going to try again, but utilising a different structure and a different approach.

That sounds like a good idea. Science, being a process that is operated by fallible human beings with perverse incentives, desperately needs policing by outsiders. It looks as though the life sciences will get their neighbourhood cop. Let's hope the physical sciences can develop one too.