The UN, GW and Abandoning Scrutiny
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Reject the UN
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It is doubtful the United Nations ever misses an opportunity to work the crowd and the media. If you are green or a tree hugger or a charter member of PETA (another op for Alicia Silverstone to disrobe) one can only suspect you are ecstatic over news of the UN Global Warming Summit. The rest of us may not be so sure. Not unlike the group of scientists who hold a different view of the issue than is played relentlessly in the MSM.
17,200 Scientists Dispute Global Warming
Alarmist global warming claims melt under scientific scrutiny
World scientists meet on global warming
But many top scientists reject the new figures…
This post does not accept nor reject the idea of global warming. But that is the whole point. While the global warming issue was raised near a fever pitch in anticipation of the IPCC report on global warming, the first question that should have entered your mind is who the hell is the IPCC and what credentials do they have to support the assumed credibility of their findings?
Many surprising supporters of the idea of man-made global warming are very large corporations. Those announcements were followed by the skeptics wondering what financial incentive they had to cause the voluntary participation in fighting a demon on which we have too much or too little information. Please withhold your criticism as it should be repeated again, this post does not accept nor reject the notion of global warming. But if one is the least bit skeptical or cynical of mass approval or rejection of any idea, this would be a good candidate for suspicious motives. For instance, if you have been on the planet long enough to remember the push for alternative fuels and energy conservation and other environmental issues from thirty or more years ago, the lack of enthusiasm then and over decades since should be sufficient to alert your radar. Something may be wrong here.
Leaders Gather for UN Climate Change Meeting
By Phuong Tran
Dakar
23 September 2007
Tran report (mp3) - Download 596k
Listen to Tran report (mp3)
Heads of states from more than 80 countries are gathering in New York City for what will be the largest U.N.-organized event for world leaders on climate change. This is a preliminary meeting to work toward a new international agreement on the issue. But scientists say places like sub-Saharan Africa need more than just an agreement to really fix the problem. Phuong Tran has more from VOA’s West and Central Africa Bureau in Dakar.
The IPCC who provided the grand report on global warming earlier this year that renewed the discussion and raised to that fever pitch is part of the United Nations. How convenient is that? One of the reports listed at the top of the page suggests not all the panel members are scientists and those who voiced objection to the report were deleted from the publication. While that assessment seems a little over the top, the same sort of accusation in reverse was leveled at the Bush Administration earlier this year. So who knows? Again, that is the whole point. What do we really know?
If that question sounds absurd to you in light of recent developments you may want to consider how absurd it would be to act on all the recommendations if there are flaws in the data. Any undertaking this massive and ‘global’ requires more scrutiny than everyday decision making.
Schwarzenegger, Gore add star power to climate meet
By Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent
Mon Sep 24, 1:10 AM ETCalifornia Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and former Vice President Al Gore are set to join world leaders for a U.N. meeting on Monday aimed at spurring global negotiations on how to cool a warming planet.
Schwarzenegger, a former bodybuilder and movie star who has pushed for environmental reforms in California, acknowledged that rich and poor countries have differing responsibilities when it comes to global warming, but said it is time to stop the blame game.
The report above certainly does not help. Part of the problem is when those with celebrity status fail to measure the undo influence of their public positions on critical issues. To take an absolute position rejecting any alternative viewpoints is dangerous even if combined with altruistic intentions. This may be another case of asking the right questions. Could a former actor and current governor of the state of California and a former VP who lost his only attempt at becoming President have any other motives for their respective stands on global warming? It is no different than asking if major corporations have jumped on the GW bandwagon to launch profitable new businesses that will cater to the environmental panic?
However, if you have not settled on a position for this issue and are more alarmed about potential panic and half-baked solutions than the idea of global warming itself, take heart. The article below aside from announcing some new agreement on HCFC elimination mentions the beginning of that organized effort as 1987. The inefficiency and time lag of all such initiatives is as staggering as the number of issue-based organizations in existence. Whether man-made global warming is a legitimate issue or not, there is better than even odds that solutions won’t be timely in either case.
‘Historic’ deal reached on cutting ozone threats
by Philippe SauvagnarguesSat Sep 22, 10:19 PM ET
Nearly 200 countries have agreed to accelerate the elimination of chemicals that threaten the ozone and exacerbate global warming, the United Nations Environmental Program announced Saturday.
UNEP chief Achim Steiner hailed the agreement by governments to move forward bans on dangerous hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) as a “vital signal” in efforts to slow climate change and welcomed China’s willingness to back the deal.
“It is perhaps the most important breakthrough in an international environment negotiation process for at least five or six years,” Steiner said.
And one can only guess at why President Bush has changed his views on the subject. But the more compelling fact about the article below is there always seems to be a media story about those clamoring for attention pointing their collective fingers at the US.
U.N. climate chief urges U.S. action
By CHARLES J. HANLEY, AP
Sat Sep 22, 1:53 PM ETThe Bush administration has made a “significant” shift on global warming, but still falls short on the “much more aggressive” policies needed to head off its damaging impact, the U.N. climate chief said Saturday.
“It’s very clear that we’re not on track,” Yvo de Boer told The Associated Press.
More than 70 presidents and prime ministers and 80 other national representatives are gathering here for Monday’s U.N. “climate summit.”
To emphasize once more that this post does not accept nor reject the idea of global warming is attached to the final thought expressing the need to subject the global warming issue to strict and continuous scrutiny befitting any other scientific endeavor. This is one of those times when embracing the flat earth or the sun revolving around the earth would not only be embarrassing but entirely counterproductive not to mention a colossal mistake.
Stanford Matthews
MoreWhat.com
related: Michelle Malkin’s All Eyes on the UN