Well, it seems that there have been more laps and lapses in Lima than one could shake a stick at! A close to never-ending story if ever there was one! Not the least of which were Greenpeace’s attention-seeking and appallingly disrespectful acts of destruction. Nonetheless, this annual dance to nowhere land was supposed to have ended December 12 around high-noon, Lima time. But here’s a screen-cap from my twitter-feed as of 12/13/2014 09:18 PM PST:
Will this be a never-ending meeting of the UNFCCC?!
[Update:] Now that the almost never-ending lapses in Lima have at long last officially concluded, I thought it was rather amusing that the NYT’s “expert” of choice on this long overdue “conclusion” happens to be none other than E3G‘s (now sort of former), Jennifer Morgan whose current position is that of the World Resources Institute (WRI)’s “Global Director of the Climate Program”. (WRI, btw, had declared “gross receipts” of a mere $51,873,589 for the FY ending Sept. 30/13)
Morgan’s academic qualifications apparently include “Bachelor of Arts from Indiana University in Political Science and Germanic Studies and a Masters of Arts from the School of International Service at The American University in International Affairs.”
Of course, such qualifications make her eminently qualified to serve as “Review Editor for Chapter 13 on “International Cooperation: Agreements and Instruments” for the 5th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
But the crème de la crème of Morgan’s “qualifications” would have to be her pre-E3G service with the “Global Climate Change Program of Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF), growing its climate program both in size and geography, with a focus on Asia Pacific.”
All the above, btw, is by way of introduction to the main focus of this particular post, i.e. a rare “unscripted” (perhaps!) performance by the UN’s head honcho, Ban Ki-moon during the course of an “exclusive” interview with CBC’s (far too un-challenging, for the most part) head news honcho, Peter Mansbridge – which evidently took place in NYC sometime prior to the December 8, 2014 air-date.
CBC’s head news honcho interviews current UN head honcho Link to full video
If you watch this video, you will notice a very distinct difference between Ki-moon reading a script (his most frequently seen posture) and Ki-moon responding without (any visible) script. A somewhat (albeit very limited, considering his very ill-informed and/or out-of date “talking points”) refreshing change.
Pardon my skepticism but …
Considering Mansbridge’s – almost peon at the foot of the Budda unquestioning posture for the most part and – less than “questioning” of Ki-moon’s apparently unscripted responses on matters in which neither Mansbridge nor Ki-moon possess any relevant professional “expertise”, I have to ask: Why would anyone grant the views of either Mansbridge or (more importantly) his interview subject any measure of credibility on the climate change front?!
Your aside about Ms Morgan and her move from E3G to WRT to the NYT was most interesting. While the New York Times is a hugely influential opinion former, probably no-one outside the multi-billion dollar green racket has heard of the first two bodies. In fact the only people who take an unpaid interest in them are probably you, Ben Pile, Alex Cull and me.
I came across the WRT by accident the other day while looking for something else. A fifty million dollar budget and a zombie blog with absolutely no comments. Perhaps the end of the climate hysteria will come when all those billionaire-backed foundations which finance these things realise that they are getting absolutely nothing for their money.
WRT?! I was talking about WRI!
Although, it certainly wouldn’t surprise me to learn that somewhere out there in ever-expanding enviro-land, there’s also an organization whose name gets acronymized (if there isn’t such a word, it seems to me that there should be one) to WRT … Aha! I found quite a few potential candidates via AF
But speaking of WRI … I had first stumbled across this group almost three years ago, when I was seeking some background on the “broad political concept of sustainable development”.
Thanks to the (then somewhat dormant and now, evidently defunct) Ask Earth Trends site (along with much other stuff I had found elsewhere).
I wish I could be as optimistic as you re the end of the “climate hysteria”. But – the view from here, so to speak – is that the “climate hysteria” is/was merely the “prologue” to the “sustainable development” hysteria that is increasingly being intertwined with and/or overlapping the climate cr*p (and/or variants thereof).
There is one bright-spot, though: Greenpeace certainly did itself no favours with its Lima caper. There’s a very green-tinted virtual Vancouver newspaper, the Vancouver Observer (which I rarely read, but dennisA does and he’s kind enough to forward his finds, the latest of which is:
Oh, and another bright spot just landed in my inbox, courtesy of the GWPF:
See: http://www.thegwpf.org/content/uploads/2014/12/Lee-Ethics-climate-change.pdf
Looks like a far more promising (and realistic!) read than exploring more of the WRI’s views on Climate Finance – and their pronouncements on “Facts and Figures: The Scale of Needed Investment”
WRT, WRI, WTF!
Sorry. Yes, I meant the WRI, with its staff of 450. I only found out about them because a French Minister of Sustainability got sacked last year and just joined them. I wrote about it at
https://geoffchambers.wordpress.com/2014/11/19/investing-in-ngos/
The World Resources Institute is rated second most important environmental thinktank in the world, according to Thinktankwatch (I’m not joking. There’s an NGO that rates thinktanks, and another one that advises NGOs where to go asking for money)
Al Gore was previously on the WRI board, but no longer: http://www.wri.org/profile/al-gore, although his good friend David Blood, of Blood and Gore GIM, is on their “Global Advisory Council”.
The Board of Directors includes old stalwarts such as Bill Ruckelshaus, first EPA director, of DDT fame, and James Gustav Speth, UNDP veteran and behind a lot of the Yale environmental stuff. Both still very active behind the scenes. Lots of other linkages in there as well, the network is alive and thriving.
This partnership of “Blood and Gore” has always tickled my irony bone!
But that aside, and in addition to your own findings, I would also note that which I had found a few years ago when I first stumbled across the “Waste” connections of and between Blood and Gore, and the extent to which they have permeated the policies and practices in my little corner of the universe.
As I had noted in that post:
Hi ..In listening to this podcast you will have to endure a bit of Alex Jones . He can be taking much like some in other circles ,but he really tries .He is not the main reason I bring this podcast to your attention but will say , There are some very important dot’s that are connected .The link is to a very good website that has documents that are available to the info they put out . I wish every one a happy new year and God bless .. Terry http://peacerevolution.podomatic.com/entry/2014-07-31T13_58_13-07_00