Readers may recall that in June 2013 I had stumbled across a “survey” described as:
United Nations Development Program (UNDP) announced an “innovative initiative” in which participants from around the world are invited to vote on what the priorities should be in a post-2015 world
Action taken on climate change was at the very bottom of this “priority list”. I checked again in early May of 2014, and action taken on climate change had not budged from bottom of the heap.
Nor had this bottom of the priority heap position changed when I checked again in early December of 2014.
Consequently, prompted – and somewhat puzzled – by a post at WUWT, which was entitled: “Quote of the week: climate awareness one of the ‘greatest human achievements’”, I decided it was time I revisited this survey and its results. Here’s what I found:
Strange that one of the ‘greatest human achievements’ should still be at the very bottom of the world’s priority heap, is it not?!
So where on Gaia’s green earth could:
Adam Frank … co-founder of the 13.7 blog, an astrophysics professor at the University of Rochester, a book author and a self-described “evangelist of science.”
have picked up his completely beyond reason perspective?! In case you were wondering, btw, the “13.7 blog” is an arm, hand, finger or something of the US NPR (National Public Radio), which purports to proffer “Cosmos And Culture COMMENTARY ON SCIENCE AND SOCIETY”.
Oh, well … perhaps over-the-top fact-free assertions are the latest and greatest in the field of “astrophysics” – particularly among its practitioners who call themselves “evangelists”?! Who knows, eh?! Then again, it might be within the realm of possibility that Frank had stumbled across that which seems to be a “by-product” of the UNDP’s “MyWorld” data collection.
You see, when I visited “MyWorld” today (Sep. 10), I noticed in their “banner” a parallel link to something called “Peoples’ Voices Challenge”:
How about that, folks! An invite to remind world leaders and policymakers what’s at stake
So, my mouse and I took a hop, skip and a jump** over to the Peoples’ Voices Challenge, and look what we found! Suddenly – via miracle of something or other – “Action taken on climate change” had literally leaped from absolute bottom to TOP of the list:
** Probably more by good luck than anything, my mouse and I happened to land on the above so-called “heat map of the issue” which floated “Action taken on climate change” to the very top of the list. But, for the record, here’s the path we fortuitously followed:
- From: http://data.myworld2015.org/
- Go to: http://peoplesvoiceschallenge.org/
- Click either of the: Access the data links
- From the left-hand menu, click the second item from the top; i.e. “MY World PRIORITIES MAP”. If you’re lucky, this will present you with a page on the right hand side that reads as follows:
Visualization tool: The MY World Priorities Heat Map shows each MY World priority, disaggregated by percentage of votes per country in the visual representation of the world. This tool will also allow you to cross-compare the priorities of three distinct countries, and more easily view differences in priorities.
Now, simply click the link in the above and – miracle of miracles – you will find that “Action taken on climate change” is at the very top of the list.
Amazing, eh?!
Meanwhile, unfortunately, even though this ever-evolving list of “priorities” was created long after the UN honchos became aware of a rapidly growing population of refugees in the Middle East, as a potential priority they didn’t seem to make the cut.
Certainly, from time to time there have been UN pleas for funds to assist the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) in meeting the needs of refugees. And of course an ongoing – but hardly justified – UN generated saga of the plight of the Palestinians, which the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNWRA) has failed to ameliorate since 1948, notwithstanding an annual infusion of funds (which far exceeds those allocated for the resettlement of any other refugees.)
Furthermore, as Soren Kern recently noted:
Germany and Sweden are the final destinations of choice for most migrants, lured by the generous benefits they can claim and the governments’ message that refugees are welcome in unlimited numbers.
If sustained indefinitely, the open-door immigration policies could draw potentially millions of Muslims into Europe from the Middle East and North Africa.
Every European country is being affected by the migration crisis in one way or another. What follows is a brief survey of developments in selected countries.
Do read the whole of Kern’s article. And for another perspective on the situation in Germany, see also Germany’s Appeasement of Radical Islam which spells out the views of Vijeta Uniyal, who is a current affairs analyst based in Germany.
But, stepping back for a moment … On the “climate change” vs unmet needs of an alarmingly increasing number of refugees front, so to speak … Here’s a radical thought exercise …
Can you even begin to imagine how much better off all these refugees would be if the UN had decided to forgo even half of the glitzy “climate change” gatherings of thousands over the last 20+ years? So that the funds expended could have been re-directed towards meeting the immediate needs of the real refugees that the UN’s bureaucratic and highly paid personnel have – in no small measure – in effect, created and perpetuated.
At the very least, surely serious consideration should be given to cancelling the next BIG gathering in Paris, the run-up to which Geoff Chambers reports that (my bold -hro):
President Hollande has just given a 25 minute speech to launch December’s COP21 Paris Climate Conference. It was such a monument of scientific, economic and geopolitical stupidity that I thought I’d preserve it for posterity here. Here are some extracts, which I’ll update and translate when I can.
A few points to note. [Hollande] apparently believes that:
– the point of the conference is to reduce global temperatures by 2°C.
– smart meters, subsidies for home insulation, electric cars and public transport will make people richer
– the majority of refugees are fleeing climate change.. and he’s calling on the Minister of Education to hold Climate Weeks in schools, with debates simulating COP21 and the election of “eco-delegates”…
All those in favour of postponing planned plenaries of platitudes in Paris, indefinitely, please raise your hand in the comments below!
The View From Here 
Hilary
Noded as outwards as promised
Many thanks, Ian :-)
Consider my hand well and truly raised Hilary.
As for the continued deception that is the UN’s stock in trade, well all I can say is blurgh!
Thank you for your continuing work in exposing these lunatics for what they are and more power to your elbow.
Warm Regards,
Keith
I am raising my hand here. This incredible costly arrogant nonsense should be stopped. Although part of me is thankful that these climate unchangers are not being responsible for refugees. Can you imagine the useless meetings that would occur then? BTW, I thought that awareness of climate change had been around since the beginnings of human (and other animal) life on this planet. Silly me!!
Most people don’t realize that the perpetuation of conflict in the Middle East has been largely, if not primarily caused, by the UN through the UNWRA.
http://www.thetower.org/article/the-real-palestinian-refugee-crisis/
“UNRWA’s role as a jobs machine and a pillar of the Palestinian economy has led to institutional bloat on a huge scale. Its 30,000 employees, for example, dwarf the approximately 5,000 who work for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), whose remit is the rest of the entire world. The UNHCR mandate, moreover, is clearly focused on the resettlement and rehabilitation of refugees, not on providing services that maintain the status quo.”
Thanks, all. I appreciate the support. Somedays it seems really “lonely” in this little corner of the blogosphere!
P.S. jeez, in particular, thanks for pointing to that article on UNRWA at thetower. It was one I had intended to link to in my post – and is long but well worth a read.
And FYI – somewhat O/T – depending on how big you allow the paddock!
http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2015/09/the-migrants-an.html
Apparently the UN is approaching its 70th birthday.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/07/what-has-the-un-achieved-united-nations
“Even accounting for inflation, annual UN expenditure is 40 times higher than it was in the early 1950s. The organisation now encompasses 17 specialised agencies , 14 funds and a secretariat with 17 departments employing 41,000 people.
Its regular budget, which is agreed every two years and goes to pay for the cost of administering the UN – including mouthwatering daily allowances which result in many of its bureaucrats being far better paid than American civil servants – has more than doubled over the past two decades to $5.4bn. But that is just a small portion of the total spend. Peacekeeping costs another $9bn a year, with 120,000 peacekeepers deployed mostly in Africa. Some missions have lasted more than a decade.
And then there are the voluntary contributions from individual governments that go to fund a large part of disaster relief, development work and agencies such as Unicef. They have risen sixfold over the past 25 years to $28.8bn. And yet even at that level, some agencies are warning that they are operating on the brink of bankruptcy.”
WOW! Not that this surprises me (or you, I suspect!) But what is surprising – at least to me – is that this “exposé” was spearheaded by the U.K. Guardian. Probably one of the very last places I would have expected such a piece to originate :-)
So, probably what we are seeing (she says somewhat skeptically!) are simply the worst of the surface warts – and not all of them, at that (please see below).
To my mind, a good first step in the right direction would be to get rid of all the arms, elbows, hands fingers etc. of those Conventions, agencies, bodies, commissions, working groups etc. that were NEVER part of the UN’s original mandate e.g. the UNEP and the UNRWA (“United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East”), which was not established until Dec. 8/49 (and began “operations” on May 1/50) when there were 750,000 Palestine refugees.
Today, there are some 5 million so-called “Palestinian refugees” – and the UNRWA:
Such an “effective” organization, eh?!
As a rather … well… confusing aside… If you ramble through the current version of the UN’s virtual maze, you’ll find at least one page in which “Palestine” has morphed into a “State” – at least according to the UNHCR, billed as “The UN Refugee Agency”. Notwithstanding the fact that – to the best of my knowledge – UNHCR “translates” to “United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees”: Interestingly:
And today?! Well – as we all know – there are more real “refugees” than ever.
Amazing, eh?! Talk about the “benefits” of the UN’s (conveniently?!) foggy Alphabet Soup! But I digress …
A simultaneous first step would be to expel all those countries (and/or pseudo-countries) that were admitted over the years, but do NOT subscribe to ALL the provisions of the UN’s so-called Universal Declaration of Human Rights – as I had noted earlier this year.
Well, I can dream, can’t I?!
Stand by for the next phase:
https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/post2015/transformingourworld
This Agenda is a plan of action for people, planet and prosperity. It also seeks to strengthen universal peace in larger freedom. We recognise that eradicating poverty in all its forms and dimensions, including extreme poverty, is the greatest global challenge and an indispensable requirement for sustainable development.
All countries and all stakeholders, acting in collaborative partnership, will implement this plan. We are resolved to free the human race from the tyranny of poverty and want and to heal and secure our planet.
We are determined to take the bold and transformative steps which are urgently needed to shift the world onto a sustainable and resilient path. As we embark on this collective journey, we pledge that no one will be left behind.
The 17 Sustainable Development Goals and 169 targets which we are announcing today demonstrate the scale and ambition of this new universal Agenda. They seek to build on the Millennium Development Goals and complete what these did not achieve. They seek to realize the human rights of all and to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls.
They are integrated and indivisible and balance the three dimensions of sustainable development: the economic, social and environmental.
DECLARATION
Introduction
1. We, the Heads of State and Government and High Representatives, meeting at the United Nations Headquarters in New York from 25-27 September 2015 as the Organization celebrates its seventieth anniversary, have decided today on new global Sustainable Development Goals.
Thanks Dennis.
It never ceases to amaze me how successful these UN document developers and distributors are at producing such sleep-inducing word salads – the extraordinary lengths of which make it so easy to overlook and/or miss the implications thereof and/or the glaring questions that derive therefrom.
Consider – for example – the Moslem nations, such as Saudi Arabia, which have given no indication whatsoever that they intend to take any steps towards achieving the specifics contained in (para. breaks and bold added by me -hro):
But then, perhaps in their infinite wisdom, the authors have … uh … redefined “crucial”.
Alternatively, perhaps the UN is counting on member nations continuing to use the “shopping basket” approach whereby (as with the provisions of the original UN Charter) countries can simply continue to pick and choose those elements of this new, improved “Agenda” which they will commit to following.
The implications of the glaring omissions evident in such choices will, I suspect, continue to be made with no adverse publicity and no penalty whatsoever.
I think it’s also worth noting that in typical fog-inducing-enhancement mode, various UN agencies (under the sustainable development umbrella) are evidently planning a gathering in Paris on October 14. This gathering (which according to the agenda appears to be somewhat shorter than many!) has the grandiose title and subtitle of:
Notice once again the proximity (and confusion created re “greatest threat to the future of the planet”) of “climate change” and “sustainable development”
All this fuss and muss for a gathering that will be less than 90 minutes in duration (pdf). Amazing, eh?!
The NGO footsoldiers are already mobilised, they even use the same word salad.
CSO open letter to Vice-President Timmermans on the 2030 Agenda
http://www.concordeurope.org/publications/item/460-cso-open-letter-to-first-vice-president-frans-timmermans-on-the-2030-agenda
Wednesday, 16 September 2015 03:00
“Dear First Vice-President Timmermans, We, European Civil Society Organisations working on both international and domestic EU policies across a variety of sectors ranging from Youth, Sustainability, Social Justice, Fair Trade, International cooperation, Health, Culture, Environment, Gender Equality, Migration, Climate Change, Local Democracy, Human Rights and Media Development, are writing to you in your capacity as Vice-President of the European Commission, mandated with the horizontal responsibility for sustainable development.
At the UN Summit in New York taking place from 25-27 of September, Heads of State and Government will adopt the universal, people- and planet-centered 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (‘Agenda 2030’).
As European civil society, we now expect the EU to match the ambition of this Agenda with a clear EU implementation strategy, which reflects the integrated, interlinked and comprehensive nature of the Agenda, in order to ensure well-being for all within planetary boundaries.
We welcome the mapping exercise that you have initiated within the Commission to analyse where the EU has appropriate policies in place to implement Agenda 2030 and where there are gaps. This exercise is a first important step in order to elaborate an EU strategy to implement Agenda 2030. The EU strategy must build on your mapping exercise and cover all Goals and targets of the Agenda.
The development and implementation of such a strategy should happen through a meaningful participatory process, reaching out to marginalised people. We therefore urge you to make the results of both the mapping and the subsequent analysis public and to hold a consultation on the next steps with civil society in all its diversity.”
Following on from that last paragraph and mention of a “meaningful participatory process”, it’s interesting to look at how they intend to get the wider public on board. Here’s a link to a video which has Marco Lambertini, Director of WWF International, addressing this point (from the 03:41 mark):
http://tinyurl.com/qy63agb
Interviewer: “On the ground, how do we mobilise the millions of people that are, as you say – I mean, they’re aware of this agenda now but sometimes this requires behaviour change on issues like, I think, food waste, in particular, here in Europe. All the awareness-raising campaigns, they simply don’t deliver the change in behaviour that ultimately is needed.”
Marco: “In WWF we are actually reflecting on changing our approach to campaigning and to mobilisation of people. First of all, I believe that we need millions, hundreds of millions of people to really trigger systemic change that we need. We cannot just rely on political processes alone, or private business voluntary standards alone, or the regulatory system – we do need to have people behind promoting the change. Equally [?] – how do we do that? We need to change the way we approach people, and we need to actually create campaigns that, more than directive and prescriptive, are actually empowering and offering people the opportunity to use our platform to really achieve what they want, join their voices and feel they’re making a difference in an orchestrated, connected way, locally but also globally.”
And he offers Earth Hour, as an example. It’s interesting to look at the language being used. The interviewer says “this requires” behaviour change, and that behaviour change “is needed”, which sounds quite impersonal. Marco makes it more personal; it’s “we need millions”, “systemic change that we need”, “we do need to have people”, and “we need” a couple more times, but then rather jarringly it’s about giving people the opportunity to “really achieve what they want”.
If people aren’t doing something and require “behaviour change” to get them to do it, how can he know it’s actually “what they want” (as opposed to what “we need”)?
Thanks, Alex … Always good to “hear your voice” here again :-) I’m going to try and “embed” that WWF (June 9) video below:
The other interesting – albeit, perhaps, purely coincidental – thing about the above video is how closely Lambertini mirrors some of the phrasing used by Mr. Self-Serving Dishonesty (aka now disgraced and increasingly disgraceful former IPCC Chair, Rajendra Pachauri) during the course of articulating his so-called “Chairman’s Vision Paper” in July 2009.
As I had noted in that post:
If “dangerous” was actually defined in AR5, I think I must have missed it. But in the intervening years, we have certainly been subjected to increasingly routine references to many, many “sustainable” whatevers from far too many UN-generated quarters.
Amazing, eh?!
There is No Hiding from Sustainable Development! So says Jeffrey Sachs of the Earth institute at Columbia University and climate adviser to the Pope and Ban Ki Moon:
“In September of this year, world leaders will gather at the United Nations to adopt a set of Sustainable Development Goals to address these rising threats. The SDGs will not ensure global action, but, as US President John F. Kennedy once said about UN agreements, they can serve as a lever to help move the world toward action. That is why it is so important to start planning for the SDGs now.
Ban launched the SDSN to help countries achieve the new goals. Its key members include universities and think tanks around the world, with leading businesses and NGOs serving as important partners. National and regional SDSN chapters are being formed worldwide, in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, South Asia, East Asia, Africa, and Oceania. The goal is to ensure strong participation in the SDSN in every country by the time the SDGs are adopted in September.
This spring and summer, in countries around the world, SDSN-affiliated institutions will invite governments to begin brainstorming about how to achieve sustainable development in their cities, countries, and regions. Many politicians, no doubt, will be grateful for the support of their universities, NGOs, and leading businesses. And those who want to hide from reality will find that they no longer can.
That is because our new reality is one of droughts, heat waves, extreme storms, rising sea levels, and unstable climate patterns. Unless we act with foresight and base our actions on scientific evidence, water stress, food insecurity, and social crises will not be far behind. In other words, today’s mounting threats cannot be covered up. The Age of Sustainable Development must be built on openness, participation, and science.”
http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/politicians-sustainable-development-goals-by-jeffrey-d-sachs-2015-03#xf0HeGdWO2TQHBFL.99
Oh, goody! Yet another dutiful mantra-recycling “special advisor” to Ban Ki-moon.
Like so many of Ki-moon’s “special advisors” and/or variants thereof (e.g. Mary Robinson), economist Sachs does not appear to have any expertise in matters pertaining to “climate science”.
SDSN (Sustainable Development Solutions Network) seems to be a relatively new kid on the UN’s ever-expanding acronym block. Christiana (aka Twinkletoes) Figueres and her brother Jose Maria Figueres are two of the cast of luminaries and lesser lights – along with some duly recycled old-hands James Hansen, Pavan Sukhdev (of TEEB fame), Jane Lubchenko and Ted Turner.
See: http://unsdsn.org/about-us/leadership-council/
This is the “new reality”?! It’s the same old mantra the UNEP has been spouting ever since I stumbled onto this battleground almost six years ago!
Ted Turner in the SDSN! He of “most of the people will have died and the rest of us will be cannibals” fame… Oh my goodness.
Actually, what I was coming here to say was that there was an interesting UN-related piece on Radio 4 about an hour ago, on the Today programme. Here’s how it appears in the running order:
“150 world leaders will meet at the United Nations this weekend for [a] summit on how to achieve sustainable development. What is the role of multilateral organisations in tackling poverty, inequality and climate change? Margaret Macmillan is a historian and professor at the University of Oxford, and Sir Christopher Meyer is former British Ambassador to Washington.”
As it turned out, neither had anything wildly optimistic to say about the UN – if I get a moment, will transcribe it as they both made some interesting points.
Hilary
O/T but have a look at
https://fenbeagleblog.wordpress.com/2015/09/12/box-clever-a-cubist-revival/
Hilary
Today’s find
https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2015/09/25/un-wants-another-5-trillion-per-year/
A bigger chunk of a vanishing quantity is a vanishing quantity I’d have thought?