Australia will have to move away from coal, UN climate head says
The UNFCCC headquarters in Bonn, Germany, is a large and imposing building constructed with your taxes in the service of mankind in which Miss Figueres spends little time. um… She spends little time in either the building or the service of mankind, on the evidence I have.
Australia shares a similar challenge in moving away from coal as Saudi Arabia does in reducing its economic dependency on oil, the United Nations’ top climate negotiator says. Speaking at a conference in Melbourne on Wednesday, Christiana Figueres drew a parallel between Australia and the oil kingdom as countries that would need to diversify their economies as the world grapples with global warming.
Source: Australia will have to move away from coal, UN climate head says – h/t WUWT
In March she was in the Philippines revving up the troops to fight global warming. She took the opportunity to imply, with a cynical indifference to the lack of evidence, that the brutal cyclone last November was caused by global warming arising from our use of the earth’s resources.
“Witnessing the devastation, loss and suffering wrought by Typhoon Haiyan, which has claimed the lives of thousands and left millions without homes, the impact of climate change is truly undeniable,” said Figueres.
Quite. The woman’s grasp of scientific method might be abysmal but that’s nothing on her integrity. How long must we suffer this ignorant double-talk in high places?
Christiana’s office is in Bonn, in March she was in the Philippines and just this week she turned up in Melbourne for a conference and to tell the Aussies to stop coal mining. She racks up her crusading miles and approves of the products of our industry when it suits her to use them—thus defining hypocrisy.
Nevertheless, and even though tactically unwise, she insists that our industry be dismembered to ‘save’ the planet (she uses the euphemism ‘diversified’ but it’s the same thing because she never suggests what might replace steel ships, aluminium aircraft or concrete—or the other things no windmill can forge).
I have an idea about that: we could show her the error of her ways simply by removing the parts of our heavy industry that help her crusading, and it won’t cost us a thing. But how do we do that, you ask?
It’s easy, I say. Take away her passport. We would announce that her employment has been diversified, which will fortunately allow her more time in Bonn to ponder the service of humanity.
Figueres – In Catalan, means ‘fig trees’.
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My limited experience of Catalan culture, an exciting week exploring Barcelona, left me incredibly impressed by the people and their work ethic, their creativity and their sense of honesty and fairness. It is truly wierd that such a culture also produced this woman who wants to send the world hurtling backward.
I am sure that her fellow Catalonians must be deeply, deeply ashamed of her.
The UN has no mandate for even participating in the global political revolution Figueres, the megolomaniac, is demanding. Which is: enforced de-industrialization and enforced non-democratic socialisation i.e. Marxism via centralized UN command and control but without the industry. Neither is Figueres elected by anyone in the world except her UN employer.
Meanwhile, in the scope where the UN has a mandate, ISIS is rampant, Boko Haram similar, Syria’s war continues and its massive refugee problem is foisted on its neighbours. North Korea and Iran are intent on their nuclear weaponry – what could go wrong there? In all of this the UN is impotent – a failure.
All non-mandated UN activities should be shut down (think UNDP). Then, if their mandated scope is still a failure, the UN should be shut down. Except for the meeting room perhaps.
From Wiki:
“The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization established 24 October 1945 to promote international co-operation. A replacement for the ineffective League of Nations, the organization was created following the Second World War to prevent another such conflict.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations
That’s the UN mandate – to prevent further global military conflagration. Not “transformative” political action.
Original League of Nations mandate:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_of_Nations_mandate
[RT. Curiously, as I do, spellchecker also objects to the UN term “transformative”. As it does “de-industrialization”]
Yes. The adjective we want is not from “transform” but “transformation” so it must be “transformational”, no question. You make darn good points, RC. “Except the meeting room” — wonderful!
Completely off-topic but can’t resist sharing this from my news feed:
Australian Antarctic Division battles record ice, considers moving
The Australian – 1 hour ago [paywalled]
Climate refugees?
Tried to respond in Stuffnation comments but couldn’t submit. Article is:
Week of hunger signals climate change protest
http://www.stuff.co.nz/marlborough-express/68436502/Week-of-hunger-signals-climate-change-protest
Comment was:
>CTG “Show me peer-reviewed papers backing up your claims.”
Global Climate Model failure? A simple graph should suffice CTG:
http://www.drroyspencer.com/wp-content/uploads/CMIP5-90-models-global-Tsfc-vs-obs-thru-2013.png
If you object to the provenance of the graph (as I’m sure you will), here’s IPCC AR5 corroboration:
Chapter 9: Evaluation of Climate Models
Box 9.2 | Climate Models and the Hiatus in Global Mean Surface Warming of the Past 15 Years
…..an analysis of the full suite of CMIP5 historical simulations (augmented for the period 2006–2012 by RCP4.5 simulations, Section 9.3.2) reveals that 111 out of 114 realizations show a GMST trend over 1998–2012 that is higher than the entire HadCRUT4 trend ensemble (Box 9.2 Figure 1a; CMIP5 ensemble mean trend is 0.21ºC per decade). This difference between simulated and observed trends could be caused by some combination of (a) internal climate variability, (b) missing or incorrect radiative forcing and (c) model response error.
https://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar5/wg1/WG1AR5_Chapter09_FINAL.pdf
Tim Groser should not be making ANY commitments (e.g. Paris) until the models are reconciled with the observations. Except then there’ll be no crisis anyway.
I saw the article about the Marlborough “farmers” going on a week long hunger strike. This seems a little implausible as it takes more than a little food to work as a farmer.
Anyway, good luck to them. If they wish to kill themselves to “raise awareness” about climate change we can only cheer from the sidelines.
Darwin will sort the rest out.
@RC: “Climate refugees?” Love it! Muahahaha!!
Now that we are back in Christchurch for a bit, I thought you might be interested in some of the effects of council climate change policy on the local rebuild.
There are a couple of houses being built behind us (we are right by the sea in Southshore) that look like they are two storey houses but are in fact single storey houses complying with the new building regs that are planning for a one metre sea level rise by the end of the century.
The next door neighbour is hoping to get the insurance company to rebuild their two storey house but the company are pushing back on the estimated $300,000 for the foundations alone. Presumably a two storey house here will look like a mini tower block.
No one has said how we will get around the neighbourhood should this sea level rise occur; gondolas perhaps?
There are lots of meetings in the regions at the moment on consultations over emissions targets.
This provides an excellent opportunity to express ones views, be shouted at, abused and heckled.
Andy,
Incredi-bull.
I had to forgo the Auckland meeting last night. Bryan Leyland went, but I haven’t read his account yet.
Sorry guys, I’m just so busy with work. A good thing, but
nomuch less time for the hobby. Still haven’t finished with Michael Kelly’s presentation but neither have I given up.I read Bryan Leyland’s account of the meeting. He said he was heckled and shouted at and could hardly make himself heard.
Sounds like fun, but I recommend going as a group. Bryan is a brave man doing it alone
Green Party are advertising the “Get Loud” climate events on their Facebook page
Tonight Wellington,
Tomorrow ChCh
Thursday Dunedin
https://www.facebook.com/nzgreenparty
BYO Megaphone and attitude