Wednesday, December 28, 2011

RealClearScience - 'Organized Hypocrisy' at Durban Climate Talks

"Organized hypocrisy" saved the recent UN climate talks in Durban South Africa. The phrase refers to a common feature of diplomacy. Statesmen often tacitly agree to pretend to believe each other’s duplicities. The fiction saves all involved from the inconveniences that would result were the lack of agreement to break into the open.

...Thus, at Durban, all governments chose to preserve the fiction of a shared resolve on GHG control. The preaching of EU and a few island states could not, of course, force China, India, and the United States to act against their common national interests. Yet, had the impasse become too open, both the Europeans and President Obama would have suffered political embarrassment at home. No government would have gained from fully exposing the discord. Organized hypocrisy saved the day. Yet it would be foolish indeed to read the result as signaling an emerging consensus on GHG control.

More Resolutions | Real Science

  • I will not change measurement systems when the data becomes unfavorable to my pre-determined conclusions – and then blame my junk science on CO2.
  • I will not fabricate  phony upwards adjustments when the data becomes unfavorable to my predetermined conclusions.
  • 1 comment:

    Anonymous said...

    Email 0340 is interesting. It has some comments from a Dupont executive. Here are some of them:

    The US has been a target in climate change from the outset, with its disproportionate consumption of energy resources and unparalleled economic prosperity.

    While the Framework Convention is certainly an
    environmentally motivated agreement, it is equally an economic agreement.

    The harsh reality of climate change is that effectively responding to it
    will ultimately require a fundamental restructuring of foundations of the
    global economy.

    ...for adaptation to the economic effects of climate change action (compensation for fossil-fuel
    resource economies)

    While often couched in terms of sustainable development, the
    core concerns tend to be driven by perceptions of the traditional
    north/south economic gulf and need to bridge that gulf, and the
    prescriptions always seemed to boil down to more and more money from the
    north for use by the south.

    Sounds a lot like the old NIEO