U.N. Conference Adopts Modest Climate Deal
U.N. Conference Adopts Modest Climate Deal
Cancun Meeting OKs Green Climate Fund to Help Poor Countries Reduce Carbon Emissions
Greenpeace activists hold images of world landmarks submerged Wednesday in the water off Cancun, where the United Nations Climate Change Conference is being held. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)
(AP) A U.N. conference on Saturday adopted a modest climate deal creating a fund to help the developing world go green, though it deferred for another year the tough work of carving out deeper reductions in carbon emissions causing Earth to steadily warm.
Though the accords were limited, it was the first time in three years the 193-nation conference adopted any climate action, restoring faith in the unwieldy U.N. process after the letdown a year ago at a much-anticipated summit in Copenhagen.
After debating into the early hours, the conference overrode a lone objection by Bolivia, which argued the plan did not do enough to do enough combat climate change.
The Cancun Agreements created institutions for delivering technology and funding to poorer countries, though they did not say where the funding would come from.
COP 16 Climate Change Conference, Cancun
In urging industrial countries to move faster on emissions cuts, it "recognized" the goal recommended by scientists to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from industrial countries by 25 to 40 per cent from 1990 levels within the next 10 years. Current pledges amount to about 16 percent.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon, in a 4 a.m. speech, declared the conference "a thoroughgoing success," after two separate agreements were passed. The agreements shattered "the inertia of mistrust" that had settled over the frustrated efforts for a broad climate treaty, he said.
One of the agreements renewed a framework for cutting greenhouse gas emissions but set no new targets for industrial countries. The second created a financial and technical support system for developing countries facing grave threats from global warming.
Foreign Secretary Patricia Espinosa, the conference president, gaveled the deal through early Saturday over the objections of Bolivia's delegate, who said it was so weak it would endanger the planet.
Decisions at the U.N. climate talks are typically made by consensus, but Espinosa said consensus doesn't "mean that one country has the right to veto" decisions supported by everyone else.
The accord establishes a multibillion dollar annual Green Climate Fund to help developing countries cope with climate change, though it doesn't say how the fund's money is to be raised. Last year in Copenhagen governments agreed to mobilize $100 billion a year for developing countries, starting in 2020, much of which will be handled by the fund.
The agreements also set rules for internationally funded forest conservation, and provides for climate-friendly technology to expanding economies.
Espinosa won repeated standing ovations from a packed conference hall for her deft handling of bickering countries and for drafting an acceptable deal that fully satisfied no one.
Environmentalists cautiously welcomed the deal.
It "wasn't enough to save the climate," said Alden Meyer of the Washington-based Union of Concerned Scientists. "But it did restore the credibility of the United Nations as a forum where progress can be made."
The Cancun deal finessed disputes between industrial and developing countries on future emissions cuts and incorporates voluntary reduction pledges attached to the Copenhagen Accord that emerged from last year's climate summit in the Danish capital.
It struck a skillful compromise between the U.S. and China, which had been at loggerheads throughout the two week conclave on methods for monitoring and verifying actions to curtail greenhouse gases.
"What we have now is a text that, while not perfect, is certainly a good basis for moving forward," said chief U.S. negotiator Todd Stern. His Chinese counterpart, Xie Zhenhua, sounded a similar note and added, "The negotiations in the future will continue to be difficult."
The accord "goes beyond what we expected when we came here," said Wendel Trio of the Greenpeace environmental group.
Underscoring what's at stake in the long-running climate talks, NASA reported that the January-November 2010 global temperatures were the warmest in the 131-year record. Its data indicated the year would likely end as the warmest on record, or tied with 2005 as the warmest.
The U.N.'s top climate science body has said such swift and deep reductions are required to keep temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.8 F) above preindustrial levels, which could trigger catastrophic climate impacts.
Solon protested that the weak pledges of the Copenhagen Accord condemned the Earth to temperature increases of up to 4 degrees Celsius (7.2 F), which was tantamount to "ecocide" that could cost millions of lives.
He also complained that the text was being railroaded over his protests in violation of the U.N.'s consensus rules.
In the 1992 U.N. climate treaty, the world's nations promised to do their best to rein in carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases emitted by industry, transportation and agriculture. In the two decades since, the annual conferences' only big advance came in 1997 in Kyoto, Japan, when parties agreed on modest mandatory reductions by richer nations.
But the U.S., alone in the industrial world, rejected the Kyoto Protocol, complaining it would hurt its economy and that such emerging economies as China and India should have taken on emissions obligations.
Since then China has replaced the U.S. as the world's biggest emitter, but it has resisted calls that it assume legally binding commitments - not to lower its emissions, but to restrain their growth.
Here at Cancun such issues came to a head, as Japan and Russia fought pressure to acknowledge in a final decision that they will commit to a second period of emissions reductions under Kyoto, whose current targets expire in 2012.
The Japanese complained that with the rise of China, India, Brazil and others, the 37 Kyoto industrial nations now account for only 27 percent of global greenhouse emissions. They want a new, legally binding pact obligating the U.S., China and other major emitters.
Photo Essay Planet Ice
Photographer James Martin captures changes wrought by a warming climate.
Read more at www.cbsnews.com
WikiLeaks and Claim of Warmest Year On Record, Expose Climate Criminality
WikiLeaks and Claim of Warmest Year On Record, Expose Climate Criminality
By pollywog
Read more at my.auburnjournal.comOh what a tangled web we weave,
When first we practice to deceive! ~ Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832)
Question; How and why can a year be claimed as the warmest on record two months before it is over? Answer: To help participants in Cancun Climate Conference desperate because the public don’t believe, funding and power is being lost, as their deceptions are exposed.
Most believe 2010 is the warmest year ever, which is what government weather agencies, proponents of anthropogenic global warming and their supporters want. What is actually claimed is that 2010 is on the way to being the warmest on record, but they know media headlines will distort and USA Today along with others obliges with; 2010: Warmest year on record.
Distortion and deception became necessary to support the collapsing exploitation of climate science (Figure 1) faced by all enjoying the warmth of Cancun Mexico while attending the Conference of the Parties (COP) 16 climate meeting. The paradox of record cold wasn’t lost on the public.
ball1 figure above
The Same Messengers and the Same Old Gang of Deceivers
Who is making the claim about warmest year while record cold reinforces public cynicism? It’s the same old cast of deceivers identified by BBC reporter Richard Black, who Michael Mann considered reliable. He’s the person they asked to silence BBC reporter Paul Hudson when he produced a skeptical article. Hudson was first recipient of the leaked CRU emails, but did nothing, apparently intimidated by Black.
Black reports; “Temperatures reached record levels in several regions during 2010, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) says, confirming the year is likely to be among the warmest three on record.”
There were also record lows, but the stations they selected bias toward warm.
Black: The global average temperature was 0.58C above the average for 1961-90 according to Nasa, while the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) put the figure at 0.54 above.
Why is there a difference if there is only one data set? They both over estimate, but NASA GISS, with political scientist James Hansen in charge, are always highest.
Black: The UK record, kept by the Met Office and the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia, has 2010 in joint first place with the El Nino-dominated year of 1998.
The UKMO is re-examining its data. The Sunday Times notes:
The new analysis of the data will take three years, meaning that the Met Office will not be able to state with absolute confidence the extent of the warming trend until the end of 2012.
All these groups have actively modified the data to emphasize warming. D’Aleo and Watts’ detailed the extent in their paper, “Surface Temperature Records: Policy-Driven Deception?” Reduction in the number of stations alone created a severe warming distortion. (Figure 2) All government weather offices have adjusted their data to reduce early temperatures, making the current readings seem warmer.
ball3: Average temperature versus # of stations, Source
Understanding of Climate Science Necessary to Understand Deception
Some accused me of extremism for asking if the deliberate climate deception constituted crimes against humanity. People don’t want to believe such a massive deception could occur, especially if government is involved. It’s why they dismiss those who see what is happening as conspiracy theorists. There are conspiracies, defined as a secret plan by a group to do something unlawful or harmful. Cabal may be a better description of their actions; “the artifices and intrigues of a group of persons secretly united in a plot (as to overturn a government); also: a group engaged in such artifices and intrigues.” However, deliberately altering data is unlawful and harmful.
There are two big problems created by the exploitation of climate for a political agenda; lack of scientific understanding and lack of knowledge about the political manipulation and criminality practiced. They are interdependent. People don’t grasp the extent of the criminality because they don’t understand the science. It’s why people didn’t understand the implications of the false IPCC Reports and leaked CRU emails.
Now WikiLeaks reveals the extent of government involvement in the deception. The leftist British paper, the Guardian, blames the US with the headline “WikiLeaks cables reveal how US manipulated climate accord” and the charge that, “Hidden behind the save-the-world rhetoric of the global climate change negotiations lies the mucky realpolitik: money and threats buy political support; spying and cyberwarfare are used to seek out leverage.”
They ignore the fact that all nations are involved. Maurice Strong embroiled all the world’s weather and climate bureaucracies when he organized the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change through the WMO. Anthony Watts describes what the WikiLeaks material exposes. “What really strikes us is the fact that all this Copenhagen/Cancun stuff has nothing to do with the Climate, or saving the World. It’s about political positioning, money, and plain old fascism cult promotion.”
Politicians are involved, but most control and duplicity is by national weather agencies. They’re the majority of the IPCC people and dominate conferences like the travesty in Cancun. Politically biased scientists and environmental groups support them. They know the public is not buying the science any more (Figure 1). They’ve switched to exploiting fear, but that exposes them even more as temperatures plummet. Some are so desperate to achieve their goal they’ve openly abandoned the sinking science ship and revealed the real redistribution of wealth agenda. “Last week the German newspaper NZZ Online quoted German economist Ottmar Edenhofer, who is co-chair of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Working Group III on Mitigation of Climate Change, as saying, “The climate summit in Cancun at the end of the month is not a climate conference, but one of the largest economic conferences since the Second World War.”
James Taylor of the Heartland Institute provides further evidence.
The UN-sponsored climate talks underway in Cancun are living up to – or down to – expectations. Proving once again that global warming is more a political issue than a scientific one at the UN, and that wealth transfer rather than warming mitigation is the true goal of UN action, Professor Kevin Andersen of the UK’s Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research has submitted a paper saying “rich” nations such as the U.S. should halt economic growth over the next 20 years while allowing developing nations such as China and India to continue their explosive growth and emissions growth. Enforcement of economic growth restrictions in nations such as the U.S. should be enforced by World War II-style rationing, according to Andersen.
World Held Hostage to False Climate Science
My question about crimes against humanity was based on the degree of deliberate deception of climate science practiced. The emails leaked from the CRU alone are sufficient to condemn what has occurred. The scientists involved provided the corrupted science through the IPCC that those led by Maurice Strong needed. They were exploiting climate to destroy developed economies and in doing so have caused untold trauma, disruption, costs and despair. Billions of dollars were wasted on research. False economies were created to promote alternative energy and green jobs. Viable industries and businesses have disappeared or are pushed to the edge with unnecessary costs and regulations. Real problems were ignored. Countries that went further down the false CO2 path, such as Spain, are already paying a high price. Food prices are just one example. They soar as corn is diverted to produce biofuels threatening starvation among people in developing regions. Millions of people including children were driven to fear about the world coming to an end. Progress to deal with real problems and improve economies were set back years because of wrong policies. Credibility of science was seriously undermined.
The only thing that allowed the world to withstand some of the damage was the viability and strength of economies built on fossil fuel energy and free market policies. Hopefully, those who don’t understand the climate science will at least understand the corruption, malfeasance, and deceptions in the CRU emails, the WikiLeaks information and other disclosures. It doesn’t require science to understand the tangled web of those deceptions.
December 7, 2010
Dr. Tim Ball is a renowned environmental consultant and former climatology professor at the University of Winnipeg. Dr. Ball employs his extensive background in climatology and other fields as an advisor to the International Climate Science Coalition, Friends of Science, and the Frontier Centre for Public Policy.
Britain is to be without an ambassador to the Vatican prominent figures turned down the role
David Cameron will send 'temp’ to the Vatican after Ann Widdecombe's rejection
'Embarrassment' as Britain is to be without an ambassador to the Vatican after
Ann Widdecombe and other prominent figures turned down the role.
Ann Widdecombe turned down role of Britain's ambassador to the Vatican
Tim Walker. Edited by Richard Eden
Three months after Pope Benedict XVI’s historic visit to this country was
hailed as a great success, David Cameron has failed to find anyone to send
to the Vatican as our ambassador.
Mandrake can disclose that William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, is to send an
interim charge d’affairs to run Britain’s embassy in the Holy See after a
string of potential candidates, including Ann Widdecombe, Lord Patten of
Barnes and Edward Leigh, turned down the role.
“It is becoming a genuine embarrassment,” says my man at the Foreign &
Commonwealth Office. “The original idea was for it to be a political
appointee, but now the job is being advertised here. The Government should
never have indicated that it would be a political appointment if they did
not have someone lined up.”
The “temp” will take up the post after Francis Campbell leaves at the end of
next month. It is understood that the interim envoy will be in the Vatican
for six months.
Widdecombe, a former Home Office minister, said in the summer that she had
turned down the job because of an eye problem.
“Even before that happened, I was debating it,” she admitted last month. “I
was thinking, do I really want three years, as an expat? Do I really want a
job that’s going to take all day, every day in a heaving, hot capital city?”
This week, Lord Patten, the former Tory chairman, who is the chancellor of
Oxford University, applied for the job of chairman of the BBC Trust.
By contrast, the Pope is about to announce the name of his new ambassador to
this country, just days after it was made public that Archbishop Faustino
Sainz Muñoz was leaving his post because of poor health.
Wikileaks documents show importance of Vatican for US
The US has recognized that The Vatican is one of the few sovereign entities with a presence in almost every country in the world.
Wikileaks documents show importance of Vatican for US
by Adam Richards
State Department telegrams obtained by Wikileaks confirm the importance that U.S. diplomats put on the public pronouncements of the pope and the potential they have to strengthen American geopolitics.
The US has recognized that The Vatican is one of the few sovereign entities with a presence in almost every country in the world. The embassy of the United States to the Holy See has shown interest in the information collected by the Catholic Church worldwide, including in China, where, thanks to its contacts with the underground Church and the official Church of China, the Vatican has an excellent source of information on dissidents, human rights, religious freedom, and government control over people.
Relations are not always perfect though as for their part, Vatican diplomats try to assert their views with the United States, particularly on bioethics and religious freedom.
In 2006, anxious to encourage the Holy See to do more to bring a positive message about Turkey and its integration in the EU, the Americans put forward the idea of the integration and entry of the country into the EU as an opportunity to improve the lives of Christians in Turkey.
Read more at www.discountvouchers.co.ukCables also show U.S. diplomats were aggrieved by the Vatican’s reservations on the situation in Iraq in April 2007. Despite U.S. efforts to present the doctrine of preemptive war in Iraq as close to the concept of a ‘just war’ as developed by St. Augustine and the Christian philosopher Thomas Aquinas , the Vatican was opposed to military intervention and repeatedly expressed concern about the number of deaths and the overall situation in the country.
Cables: Anti-semitism in the Vatican
Cables: Anti-semitism in the Vatican
US diplomats believe that some top members of the Vatican's hierarchy still harbor anti-Semitic views, diplomatic cable made public by the whistleblower website WikiLeaks show.
The cables were made available by WikiLeaks to The New York Times and other news organizations.
The Times said that a 2002 US diplomatic dispatch said that "despite the real progress" under Pope John Paul in the Vatican’s relations with Judaism, some in the hierarchy still "manifested remnants of anti-Semitic sentiments."
The document cited "an older desk officer of French origin" who complained that the US government’s "strong interest in modern European anti-Semitism stemmed from the ‘excessive influence of Jews in your media and government."
Read more at www.timeslive.co.za
Meanwhile another unnamed Vatican official said some lawsuits against the Holy See "were the result of 'Jewish judges having too much influence'" in the United States, the report said.
Former Corrections Officer Sentenced
The other charged defendants include:
CHARLENE B. JACKSON, age 38, of New Iberia, Louisiana, has pled guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, mail fraud, and money laundering. She was sentenced to 15 months in prison.
SEDRIC L. JACKSON, age 37, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, has pled guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and obstruct justice. He was sentenced to five years in prison.
ZELBONY O. TAYLOR, age 34, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, has pled guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and obstruct justice. He was sentenced to five years in prison.
DACOBIA L. HAMILTON, age 33, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana has pled guilty to wire fraud. She was sentenced to serve 30 days in prison.
MURKEL L. PARKER, age 35, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, has pled guilty to unauthorized use of an access device. He was sentenced to serve a five-year probation term.
KELVIN ARCHIE, age 42, of Texas, is charged in a bill of information with one count of use of an unauthorized access device.
BATON ROUGE, LA—United States Attorney Donald J. Cazayoux, Jr., announced today that Chief U.S. District Court Judge Ralph E. Tyson sentenced former corrections officer ECKNOZZIO C. JACKSON, age 40, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to 21 months’ imprisonment followed by three years’ supervised release for agreeing to accept a $10,000 bribe in exchange for using his position to smuggle cellular telephones to ROBERT THOMPSON, an inmate in the lockdown unit at the Elayn Hunt Correctional Center. THOMPSON used the cellular phones to continue a massive identity theft and corruption scheme involving over 60 victims and intended losses in excess of $20 million.
In February 2010, THOMPSON was sentenced for his leadership of the fraud and corruption scheme, including the bribery of JACKSON, to 309 years in prison, the fourth-longest white collar prison sentence in U.S. history. THOMPSON is currently serving his sentence in a specialized Communication Management Unit located within the maximum security federal penitentiary in Marion, Illinois. The unit is one of only two in the country and is specially designed to deal with inmates who are prone to use communication with the outside to facilitate additional crimes.
The other charged defendants include:
CHARLENE B. JACKSON, age 38, of New Iberia, Louisiana, has pled guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, mail fraud, and money laundering. She was sentenced to 15 months in prison.
SEDRIC L. JACKSON, age 37, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, has pled guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and obstruct justice. He was sentenced to five years in prison.
ZELBONY O. TAYLOR, age 34, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, has pled guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and obstruct justice. He was sentenced to five years in prison.
DACOBIA L. HAMILTON, age 33, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana has pled guilty to wire fraud. She was sentenced to serve 30 days in prison.
MURKEL L. PARKER, age 35, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, has pled guilty to unauthorized use of an access device. He was sentenced to serve a five-year probation term.
KELVIN ARCHIE, age 42, of Texas, is charged in a bill of information with one count of use of an unauthorized access device.
This investigation is being led by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office, and the security and investigations staff of the Elayn Hunt Correctional Center. Many other agencies have assisted in the investigation, including the Madison Parish Sheriff’s Office, the Concordia Parish Sheriff’s Office, the East Feliciana Parish Sheriff’s Office, the Ascension Parish Sheriff’s Office, the Hardeman County, Tennessee Sheriff’s Office, the Bolivar, Tennessee Police Department, the Baton Rouge Police Department, and the Louisiana Department of Corrections.
United States Attorney Cazayoux stated, “This office will remain dedicated to fighting corruption and fraud wherever we find it. This expansive investigation was the result of a dedicated effort by various federal, state, and local law agencies who worked jointly to successfully root out a serious criminal element.”
Read more at neworleans.fbi.govThis matter is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Corey R. Amundson, who serves as the Senior Deputy Criminal Chief, and Assistant United States Attorney Alan A. Stevens.
Branford Man Pleads Guilty to Federal Child Pornography Charge
David B. Fein, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that MICHAEL HOLM, 32, of Oak Street, Branford, pled guilty today before United States Magistrate Judge Donna F. Martinez in Hartford to one count of possession of child pornography.
According to court documents and statements made in court, on May 29, 2008, agents assigned to the Connecticut Computer Crimes Task Force conducted a court-authorized search at HOLM’s residence and seized a computer. Subsequent forensic analysis of the computer has revealed between 150 and 300 images of child pornography, including images of children under the age of 12 years engaged in acts of bondage and bestiality.
HOLM is scheduled to be sentenced by Chief United States District Judge Alvin W. Thompson on February 28, 2011, at which time HOLM faces a maximum term of imprisonment of 10 years and a fine of up to $250,000.
HOLM is released on a $50,000 bond with several conditions, including that he have no unsupervised contact with children under the age of 18.
This case is being investigated by the United States Secret Service and the Connecticut Computer Crimes Task Force, which includes federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Ray Miller.
The Connecticut Computer Crimes Task Force investigates crimes occurring over the Internet, including computer intrusion, Internet fraud, copyright violations, Internet threats and harassment, and online crimes against children. The Task Force also provides computer forensic review services for participating agencies. The Task Force is housed in the main FBI office in New Haven, Connecticut. For more information about the Task Force, please contact the FBI at 203-777-6311.
U.S. Attorney Fein noted that this prosecution is part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Project Safe Childhood Initiative, which is aimed at protecting children from sexual abuse and exploitation. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.
Read more at newhaven.fbi.govTo report cases of child exploitation, please visit www.cybertipline.com.
State Department Denies Sexual Abuse of 'Dancing Boy'
Read more at gawker.comOf the Wikileaks cache of diplomatic cables, one of the most potentially salacious is about the entertainment at a party thrown by DynCorp, a U.S. contractor training Afghan police, in April 2009. A 17-year-old boy was hired to dance.
In Afghanistan, hiring "dancing boys" is a long-held practice in which Afghan men hire young men and boys to dress like girls and dance at weddings and other parties. They don't hire girls, because in Afghan society men and women don't mix socially.
The dancing is one thing. But there are other practices associated with the dancing boys. As detailed in a Frontline documentary earlier this year, the boys are sometimes brought to hotels after the parties and prostituted. In some cases, their families sell them to warlords and other prominent Afghanis.
The implication in some of the stories being published now, thanks to the cable just released by Wikileaks, is that the boy hired by DynCorp was likely abused. The cable recounts a meeting in which the then interior minister of Afghanistan begs U.S. diplomats for help keeping the story out of the press, worried, he said, that lives would be in danger.
But according to both the State Department, which investigated the incident, and DynCorp, no such sexual abuse occurred.
"We did not find anything that there was any kind of misconduct of that kind at all," Susan Pittman, a spokeswoman for the State Department's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, told TPM. "It was just inappropriate."
DynCorp says one manager present stopped the dancing halfway through after "recognizing that the situation was culturally insensitive." At the State Department's request, DynCorp fired several managers involved and flew "senior leadership" to Afghanistan to do face-to-face ethics training.
"They responded responsibly," the State spokeswoman said.
It was the appearance of impropriety everyone involved — DynCorp, State, the Afghanistan government — were worried about. News of a "dancing boy" at an American-hosted party could have deeply offended Afghanistan citizens.
Military analyst and expert on Afghanistan, Joshua Foust, tells TPM it's entirely possible that the DynCorp employees who hired the boy didn't know the cultural implications of such a performance.
The Afghan minister, Hanif Atmar, didn't entirely succeed in blocking news coverage of the party: the Washington Post ran a story in July 2009 that mentioned the party and the ensuing State Department and internal DynCorp investigations. But that was before "Frontline" publicized the plight of some of Afghanistan's dancing boys.
Angry Students Attack Prince Charles and Camilla
Students protesting a university tuition fee hike in London mobbed a Rolls Royce carrying Prince Charles and his wife Camilla last night as they headed to the theater. As they say in the UK: Shite just got real.
Read more at gawker.com
Send an email to Adrian Chen, the author of this post, at adrian@gawker.com.