From the Earth System Science Partnership
International scientific community issues first “State of the Planet Declaration”
Scientists issued the first “State of the Planet” declaration at a major gathering of experts on global environmental and social issues in advance of the major UN Summit Rio+20 in June.
The declaration opens: “Research now demonstrates that the continued functioning of the Earth system as it has supported the well-being of human civilization in recent centuries is at risk.” It states that consensus is growing that we have driven the planet into a new epoch, the Anthropocene, where many planetary-scale processes are dominated by human activities. It concludes society must not delay taking urgent and large-scale action.
“This is a declaration to our globally interconnected society,” said Dr Lidia Brito, director of science policy, natural sciences, UNESCO, and conference co-chair.
“Time is the natural resource in shortest supply. We need to change course in some fundamental way this decade,” she added.
Over 3,000 experts in climate change, environmental geo-engineering, international governance, the future of the oceans and biodiversity, global trade, development, poverty alleviation, food security and more discussed the intricate connections between all the different systems and cycles governing our ocean, air, land and the human and animal life dependent on those environments.
Dr Mark Stafford Smith, Planet Under Pressure conference co-chair, said, “In the last decade we have become a highly interconnected society. We are beginning to realise this new state of humanity can be harnessed for rapid innovation.”
“But we need to provide more open access to knowledge, we need to move away from GDP as the only measure of progress, and we need a new way of working internationally that is fit for the 21st century,” he added. “This conference has provided new ideas and practical solutions for the way forward.”
The declaration concludes that, “a highly interconnected global society has the potential to innovate rapidly. The Planet Under Pressure conference has taken advantage of this potential to explore new pathways.”
But, say Brito and Stafford Smith, effective planetary stewardship also requires: “More ways of participation at all levels, stronger leadership in all sectors of society; greater connectivity between those generating new knowledge and the rest of society; and rethinking the roles of science, policy, industry and civil society.”
The conference presented new initiatives as recommendations for the Rio+20 Summit:
- Going beyond GDP by taking into account the value of natural capital when measuring progress.
- A new framework for developing a set of goals for global sustainability for all nations.
- Creating a UN Sustainable Development Council to integrate social, economic and environmental policy at the global level.
- Launching a new international research programme, Future Earth, that will focus on solutions.
- Initiating regular global sustainability analyses.
The conference also previewed the first Inclusive Wealth Report, developed by UN University’s International Human Dimensions Programme (UNU-IHDP) and the UN Environment Programme.
Based on a new economic indicator that measures natural, human and produced capital, the tool goes beyond GDP and can provide guidance for economic development towards sustainability.
Says Professor Anantha Duraiappah, Executive Director of UNU-IHDP: “Until the yardsticks which society uses to evaluate progress are changed to capture elements of long-term sustainability, the planet and its people will continue to suffer under the weight of short-term growth policies.”
The report, scheduled to be published at Rio+20, will describe the capital base of 20 nations: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Ecuador, France, Germany, India, Japan, Kenya, Nigeria, Norway, the Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, USA, United Kingdom and Venezuela.
Off the back of the declaration and recognizing the interconnectedness of the current challenges, the four major international research programmes under ICSU that direct global environmental change science (the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme; DIVERSITAS; the International Human Dimensions Programme; and the World Climate Research Programme) aim to rapidly reorganize to focus on global sustainability solutions.
Additionally, the programmes are proposing to develop platforms that facilitate cooperation with all sectors of society to develop a new strategy for creating and rapidly translating knowledge into action. “Such interactions should be designed to bring societal relevance and trust to science-policy interfaces, and more effectively inform decision-making to keep pace with rapid global change,” reads the declaration. This strategy will form part of “a new contract between science and society” and includes the launch of a new international research programme, Future Earth.
The Planet Under Pressure conference marked the beginning of this new shift in direction, according to the conference co-chairs.
Delegates in London were joined by almost 8,000 people online worldwide and reached more than a million people through social media in the first three conference days.
Dr Brito said, “We have a positive message: strong leadership from all sectors and harnessing the increased connectivity offers some hope that the risk of long-term environmental crises can be minimized.”
“This new connectivity is the beginning of how the scientific community needs to operate. We need a powerful network of innovation, North and South. This approach needs to be part of our DNA from now on,” she added.
In recorded remarks, UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon said today that “climate change, the financial crisis and food, water and energy insecurity threaten human wellbeing and civilization as we know it.”
“My High-level Panel on Global Sustainability has just recommended that I consider naming a chief scientific advisor or establishing a scientific board to advise me and other organs of the United Nations.
“I also intend to engage the scientific community on other projects, such as the Global Sustainable Development Outlook report,” he added, “I am also ready to work with the scientific community on the launch of a large-scale scientific initiative.”
UN Rio+20 Executive coordinator, Elizabeth Thompson, said, “politician or public servant, scientist or citizen, community or company, we are the shareholders of Earth Incorporated and have a joint responsibility to protect our common patrimony.”
“The scientific community can help us make sense of these complex and interconnected challenges.”
Conference delegates also heard how research advances in the previous decade have shown humanity’s impact on Earth’s life support system has become comparable to planetary scale geological processes such as ice ages. “Consensus is growing we have driven the planet into a new epoch, the Anthropocene, in which many Earth system processes are now dominated by human activities,” the declaration states.
This new force risks pushing parts of the Earth system – the sum of our planet’s interacting physical, chemical, and biological processes including life and society – past so-called tipping points.
Tipping points include the disappearance of summer sea ice in the Arctic, permafrost in Arctic regions releasing large quantities of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, and the drying out of the Amazon rainforest. If these tipping points are crossed they can increase the likelihood of going beyond other thresholds generating unacceptable and often irreversible environmental change on global and regional scales with serious consequences for human and all forms of life on the planet.
The declaration stated that existing international arrangements are failing to deal with long-term development challenges such as climate change and biodiversity loss in an interconnected way indicating that it would be a mistake to rely on single international agreements. Research indicated that comprehensive sustainability policies at local, sub-national, national, and regional levels should be encouraged to provide “essential safety nets should singular global policies fail.”
* The State of the Planet Declaration is by the Co-Chairs of the Planet Under Pressure conference, Dr Lidia Brito and Dr Mark Stafford Smith, supported by the conference Scientific Organizing Committee.
The statement in full is available online athttp://www.planetunderpressure2012.net/
The research discussed in the press releases, the conclusions drawn and the opinions offered are those of individual speakers or research teams at the Planet Under Pressure conference.
More information about Planet under Pressure Conference
The international science conference will be the biggest gathering of global environmental change specialists in advance of the United Nations Rio+20 Summit: 3,000 scientists, policymakers, industry and media representatives will meet to hear the latest research findings on the state of the planet and discuss concepts for planetary stewardship and societal and economic transformation towards global sustainability.
More information on the web: www.planetunderpressure2012.net/
I would like to add my participation but it mostly consists of unprintable statements. Were it recorded in a video it’d be five or ten minutes of continuous BEEEP.
Vomit.
Ego trip.
Tranzy bum-shufflers preparing for the Rio jig. They must never be allowed to proceed to implementing their global dictatorship.
So many adjectives, so little time…
* Going beyond GDP by taking into account the value of natural capital when measuring progress.
* A new framework for developing a set of goals for global sustainability for all nations.
* Creating a UN Sustainable Development Council to integrate social, economic and environmental policy at the global level.
* Launching a new international research programme, Future Earth, that will focus on solutions.
* Initiating regular global sustainability analyses.
So, no mention of any need to continually reassess the science underpinning these policy objectives in the light of new theories with good supporting evidence then.
Oh of course, any such ‘way out theories’ could be dealt with by defining those who develop them as mentally deranged, as one of the conference presenters suggested.
Good luck in selling this one to the emerging nations!
Or will it be just another methodology for transfer of wealth?
The article says;
“The declaration opens: “Research now demonstrates that the continued functioning of the Earth system as it has supported the well-being of human civilization in recent centuries is at risk.” It states that consensus is growing that we have driven the planet into a new epoch, the Anthropocene, where many planetary-scale processes are dominated by human activities. It concludes society must not delay taking urgent and large-scale action.”
But the caveats appended to its end include;
“The research discussed in the press releases, the conclusions drawn and the opinions offered are those of individual speakers or research teams at the Planet Under Pressure conference.”
So, there you have it: “opinions offered” by “individual speakers or research teams at the Planet Under Pressure conference” are said to equate to “consensus is growing.”
Conclusion: Their own words proclaim they are self-deluding idiots.
Richard
“3,000 scientists, policymakers, industry and media representatives will meet to hear the latest research findings on the state of the planet and discuss concepts for planetary stewardship and societal and economic transformation towards global sustainability.”
The blind leading the blind more like.
In the country of the Warmist Blind the one eyed skeptic is King.
Gibbering power crazed politcos obsessed with the idea of world domination, nothing changes, Arnold will return Terminator 4 about to be relived in explicit detail in real time without the need for a blue screen or CGi, maybe science fiction does fortell the future.
“Tipping points include the disappearance of summer sea ice in the Arctic, permafrost in Arctic regions releasing large quantities of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, and the drying out of the Amazon rainforest. If these tipping points are crossed they can increase the likelihood of going beyond other thresholds generating unacceptable and often irreversible environmental change on global and regional scales with serious consequences for human and all forms of life on the planet.”
The interesting point about these ‘tipping points’ is that they are not happening at the moment. But have all happened in the past before the age of the SUV.
I cannot help feeling that behind these people know the cycles of nature and have been using them to convince the uneducated that humans are to blame.
It reminds me of the passage in Chapter 11 of ‘King Solomon’s Mines’ by H Rider Haggard:
““I think that I have it,” said Good exultingly; “ask them to give us a moment to think.”
I did so, and the chiefs withdrew. So soon as they had gone Good went to the little box where he kept his medicines, unlocked it, and took out a note-book, in the fly-leaves of which was an almanack. “Now look here, you fellows, isn’t tomorrow the 4th of June?” he said.
We had kept a careful note of the days, so were able to answer that it was.
“Very good; then here we have it—’4 June, total eclipse of the moon commences at 8.15 Greenwich time, visible in Teneriffe—South Africa, &c.’ There’s a sign for you. Tell them we will darken the moon tomorrow night.”
The Team (including the Agenda 21 groups) are playing the same game – any natural event – is ‘blamed’ on anthropogenic causes. Except where in King Solomon’s Mines it was done once, the Team are trying to repeat the exercise on each ‘weird’ event. And you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.
Ha-ha! You almost had me there for a second before I remembered what day it was.
Wait – this posted on the second…
Crap.
Wow, I see more jobs coming in NGO’s all over the world. This is all hyper speak, the usual we need to sort of tripe from report writers who do not contribute to any economy. Lets forget the level of indebtedness in the USA, Europe and beyond. What part of “we have spent up” do these people not understand? Innovation never comes from Gov’ts, the markets always decide, that is why they are having to subsidise “green jobs” and still the message does not happen as they wish, because good sense overcomes “bullshit” in time, the money still flows.
Sounds like the annual greenfest and associated exotic taxpayer (ultimately) funded holidays for self elected and blinkered nincompoops is well underway!! Their travelling alone must register as a significant contribution to carbon emissions.
Is this a delayed april fools joke or the sound of a cash register in an echo chamber?
Zee artical above states:
“I also intend to engage the scientific community on other projects, such as the Global Sustainable Development Outlook report,” he added, “I am also ready to work with the scientific community on the launch of a large-scale scientific initiative.”
They spent and earned $BILLIONS – in large scale scientific initiatives.
WAFU.
Indeed, our planet is under pressure. … (a post in which I concluded:)
Not from anything you or I might be doing (or not) to the environment, but rather from the agenda of these ideologically driven bureaucrats and their very closely aligned stable of NGOs – not to mention their
stoogespartners, such as the CBC and the BBC’s Richard Black, in the mainstream media.I’m inclined to suspect that as far as “pressure” goes, we ain’t seen nothin’ yet – and that those who inhabit our planet will be under considerably more pressure during the next ten years of this new, improved “Future Earth” initiative to “meet … sustainable development goals”.
Reblogged this on Climate Ponderings.
Wellness and Happiness Indices are trumping GDP measures and now used by all tiers of government as a rational tool in policy development in US, Australia and Canada. Presumably why the use of surveys has become so prolific. And cost effective, takes too long for people to work out the ‘sampling errors’.
The Census and Statistic Act 1905.
http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Previousproducts/1301.0Feature%20Article332003?opendocument&tabname=Summary&prodno=1301.0&issue=2003&num=&view=
(search google ‘ABS Wellness Index’ or 1301.0 – Year Book Australia, 2003 )
Defectors throw light on harsh realities of life in North Korea (and anywhere else where media and free speech is regulated). ………..
13.06 mins, worth watching.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/8720870.stm
and http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/8711895.stm
Glimpses of real North Korean life behind the facade
for some understanding of ‘happiness’
Of course it is a joke, they left one of the most important countries in the world off their list. Where is NZ?????
Resistance is futile and must be treated-http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/03/30/climate_scepticism_racism_slavery_treatment/
The ghost of Thomas Malthus still stalks the earth!
Some one has written similar sentence about 60 years ago:
ARCTIC CLIMATE’S ALARMING CHANGE
LOS ANGELES.
May 30, 1947
A mysterious warming of the climate is slowly manifesting itself in the Arctic, and in the Antarctic ice regions and the major Greenland ice cap should reduce at the same rate as the present melting, oceanic surfaces would rise to catastrophic proportions, and people living in lowlands along the shores would be inundated, said Dr. Hans Ahlmann, noted Swedish geophysicist today, at the University of California’s Geophysical Institute. Dr. Ahlmann added thattemperatures in the Arctic have increased by 10 degrees Fahrenheit since 1900. An ‘enormous’ rise from the scientific standpoint. Waters in the Spitsbergen area, in the same period, have risen from three to five degrees in temperature, and one to one and a half millimetres yearly in level. ‘The Arctic change is so serious that I hope an international agency can speedily be formed to study conditions on a global basis.’ said Dr. Ahlmann. He pointed out that in 1910 the navigable season along the western Spitsbergen lasted three months. Now it lasts eight months.
http://bit.ly/HdLubv
Act Now to Avert Planet Catastrophe Part CCXIII …
… except the people, the despised masses with their motor cars and even their air conditioners, aren’t listening, and even the politicians have registered that they aren’t listening.
All the ‘experts’ associated with this ‘declaration’ have just registeried their names and booked their tickets on the climate ‘Titanic’
So, no evidence, just consensus! No news there then. So the solution to all our woes just happens to be, Global Socialist Guvmnt, unelected, undenocratic, unaccountable, & unsackable! What do these Muppets earn a year & who is paying them?
Well this is almost on topic. It’s a survey by Australia’s ABC — tends to the left — on climate change opinion. I can honestly say they’ve got the 16 questions pretty much spot on.
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/changeyourmind/survey/
Recommend readers try it out. Just presume the literal meaning, they cover the detail in separate questions.
Saw this on Drudge Report – http://www.infowars.com/climate-change-skepticism-a-sickness-that-must-be-treated-says-professor/
“Comparing skepticism of man-made global warming to racist beliefs, an Oregon-based professor of sociology and environmental studies has labeled doubts about anthropogenic climate change a “sickness” for which individuals need to be “treated”.
Professor Kari Norgaard, who is currently appearing at the ‘Planet Under Pressure’ conference in London, has presented a paper in which she argues that “cultural resistance” to accepting the premise that humans are responsible for climate change “must be recognized and treated” as an aberrant sociological behavior.”
===========
That’s not very good news…. considering that Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Lenin, etc used similar tactics to get rid of opponents…
The only sustainability these people are interested in is the sustainability of their own life style at the expense of others, which is the same motivation of all politicians and dictators.
Was there no statement on firstly, before taking practical steps, eradicating that virulent disease known as corruption from all UN bodies?
They are getting really desperate now. Jig’s up!
Like the enviro-extremists, the UN has destroyed its credibility with its false alarmism.
The UN continues to re-brand its crisis-de-jour: first was “Global Warming” but the world stopped warming; hence “Climate Change’ but that has also failed, so now it is “Global Sustainability”.
As an earth scientist, I can assure you that their “State of the Planet” declaration that “we have driven the planet into a new epoch, the Anthropocene” is scientific nonsense.
There are real problems in the world today, but the UN has no credibility to solve them.
The UN needs a complete overall or should be shut down.
I’m just glad Elizabeth Thompson said … “to protect our common patrimony.” and not “matrimony”. Now that would be an unsustainable and ugly situation indeed.
Sounds a bit sexist too, if you ask me.
There’s something very sad and pathetic about these people. Makes me want to hold them in my lap and comfort them: “There, there, little warmist. It’s all going to be ok. Mommy and Daddy will take care of you. See, there really is no monster in the closet.”
“Research now demonstrates that the continued functioning of the Earth system as it has supported the well-being of human civilization in recent centuries is at risk.” It states that consensus is growing that we have driven the planet into a new epoch, the Anthropocene”
This new concensus is presumably made up of the same individuals who told us there was concensus that the science was settled!
They’re just as wrong now as they were then, untill they let go of the idea that there are massive +ve feedbacks in the system they will continue to issue statements like this and make complete arses of themselves when it doesn’t happen.
Gad, they must regret that this ‘interconnectedness’ which allows erroneous ‘stampede’ messages to propagate unnaturally through the herd also allows the countermessage to propagate rapidly.
=======================
“… except the people, the despised masses with their motor cars and even their air conditioners, aren’t listening, and even the politicians have registered that they aren’t listening.”
http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/political-news/poll-misery-for-labor-27-per-cent-20120401-1w6n7.html#ixzz1qpHQV7v7
These people are dangerous. They mean to steal our (remaining) loot and to take our (remaining) liberty. They really do! Keep both barrels nice and clean.
While a lot of posters here may sneer at the topics and intentions, declaring that the concerns expressed are spurious or non-existant, the fact remains that there ARE environmental problems that require policy responses.
Unless BOTH sides of the political divide advance responses to the problems the side that DOES engage with climate change, water shortages, extreme weather events and fossil fuel exhaustion will win by default if the other side does nothing but reject the existence of those problems.
Credible policy responses to the real problems that arise from climate change and environmental damage is a far more useful, and rational, behavior than quibbling over trivial details of the science behind these problems.
“Creating a UN Sustainable Development Council to integrate social, economic and environmental policy at the global level”
Yet again the New World Order raises it’s head with another attempt to create an unelected, unaccountable and anti-democratic world government.
The stakes are high and they are not going to give up on that aim lightly.
Ah, well…
If they are so concerned about Planet Incorporated why don’t they add the threat of Iran going nuclear to the list? That is far more of a threat to the planet than all their humbug..
ER did it really say that the consensus is growing!!!!!
You either have a consensus or not. It doesn’t grow.
AndiC says:
April 2, 2012 at 3:32 am
Good luck in selling this one to the emerging nations!
Good luck selling it in *Spain* — it seems all those “good, high-paying green jobs” the wind turbines were supposed to create are still stuck in the barn with the gold-dust farting rainbow unicorn ponies…
It’s time these power hungry fools started hearing from the public that they wish to impose their will upon. It’s not enough anymore to complain to our representatives of government. They need to know that “the many” are watching them. Make your voices heard.
re Rick Bradford: you’re dead on target with that “not listening” comment. I started into this and only made it a paragraph or so before I realized that I just can’t stand to wade through bilge like this anymore. When I try to read it, all I see is:
“blah blah blah GIVE US MONEY blah blah blah DO WHAT WE SAY blah blah blah GIVE US MORE MONEY blah blah blah blah blah blah blah”
more and more, that’s all the general public is hearing from pieces like this as well. When credibility is gone, the willingness to pay attention to them goes along with it.
OT?
or
N-OT?
Defectors throw light on harsh realities of life in North Korea
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/8720870.stm
“I was totally impressed with East Germany, the Workers Paradise, and was really sorry to see it go. But you have to admit, those North Koreans sure do a great job on Earth Day!”
– Ed Broadbent, former leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada, April 1, 2012
Andy says:
April 2, 2012 at 3:25 am
Ego trip.
—
Yup – pretty much my assessment too. By the way, who’s paying for this conference??? Oh LOOK HERE…
http://www.planetunderpressure2012.net/supporters.asp
Hmmm…it appears that these clowns are supported by:
* The National Science Foundation
* NASA (!!!)
* USAID
* AAAS
* World Wildlife Fund
among many, many others…
And you thought April Fool’s Day was yesterday….
There is a more insidious side of this conference. Marc Moreno pointed out the agenda of cramming people into cities to return the rest of the land back to its wilderness condition. Part of this agenda has already been implemented in California.
http://hallofrecord.blogspot.com/2012/04/planet-under-pressure-politics.html
“Time is the natural resource in shortest supply. We need to change course in some fundamental way this decade,” she added.
Putting the clock back to 1942? Darkness at noon?
Forget Global Warming.
Forget Climate Change.
It is now the all encompassing “Global Environmental Change”
This is terrifying on many levels, but none of those levels include the climate. The goal of these unelected bureaucrats is to extend dominion over the world and nations in all aspects of life, They must not be allowed to succeed.
Seems to be scientists trying to shift the blame for the sate of the planet onto economists!
“A new framework for developing a set of goals for global sustainability for all nations. “ (Bold mine.)
Matter can neither be created or destroyed. The Earth will eventually be gone; either destroyed by our own sun or smashed to bits in some cosmic collision. So all of the Earth will be sustained, just not in a form we currently recognize. No worries.
The PUPS (CURS?) need to adopt the proper perspective of time. Humanity is but a single wingbeat in the life of the hummingbird that is the universe. We’re just not all that important.
In the noble spirit of open discourse , even though My hackles rose at the use of ” The Anthropocene” , I persisted and read it …………………..Now I need a shower !!
Izen’s comment above is an absolute breath of fresh air … I was about to open the window from the stifling sneering of this comment list. Where’s the WUWT famous “we debate the science”?
The declaration starts by saying that this was written by Brito and Stafford Smith, who believe that it reflects the results of the conference. That belief is unfounded. Speakers were not asked for written papers beforehand, and there is no way they can have processed all the material presented since the end of the meeting (last Friday). Presenters were not surveyed either. It is, therefore, nothing but the opinion of the two authors.
“Consensus is growing we have driven the planet into a new epoch, the Anthropocene, in which many Earth system processes are now dominated by human activities,” the declaration states.
This new force risks pushing parts of the Earth system – the sum of our planet’s interacting physical, chemical, and biological processes including life and society – past so-called tipping points.”
One could go on for pages about the scientific issues about the statement, but I don’t that even matters given the sociological / psychological issues.
Psychologically, these people really need some marketing help. After decades of this approach, they haven’t learned that scare tactics don’t work & in fact have the opposite effect – people feel helpless, throw their hands in the air & say “I don’t want to hear about it any more because it is too depressing”. So, what do they do – come out with one of their most ominous statements to date – basically everything is screwed (not just the weather / climate) if we don’t change our ways.
I can hear the average Joe now “Well, there is no way we can get everyone to change their ways, so we are screwed so who cares (and quit your yapping about the problem while your at it – I don’t want to hear about it anymore) ”
They are truly their own worst enemy in achieving their goals.
We need to have a more considered response.
The thing is, these new supranational structures provide career paths for politicians, bureaucrats and NGO heavies beyond the former ‘top of the tree’ – i.e., being in charge of your country. Due to being higher on the ladder, they deserve more money, perks and power than the losers further down. From their perspective, what’s not to like?
Add immunity from annoying national laws – as WUWT has already highlighted – and we have the beginning of the creation of a global caste of unaccountable secular priests.
Depressing as it is, I am starting to wonder if only a massive conflict can shatter this growing global consensus of parasites. I am having a close re-read of the history of the Reformation, which hopefully is a better metaphor than any of the wars. And, while I have always been skeptical of nationalism because of its stupidity (X is the best country in the world, so there!), perhaps it could save us from this model, which takes decisions further and further away from the people they affect.
“Time is the natural resource in shortest supply…”
I know I posted on this statement above but I just can’t believe the idiocy of this.
Time is a ‘natural resource’? Time is in ‘shortest supply’?
So the end really is nigh? We are all doomed, doomed…
Make this Scientific Fr*udsters Under Pressure.
Global sea ice hits zero anomaly. Cooling is underway. Expect alarmist conmen to switch to ice age scare any moment now.
The planet is under pressure eh? Whatever.
No ?
I got to “Anthropocene” and knew I was in for the same garbage. These people are living in a bubble. Their own reality is created by humans (themselves), but the Earth will go on just fine no matter what they disgorge. However, if they are able to institute a world tax, the rest of us humans will be in trouble.
Aha! WordPress ate it. I didn’t think that would happen in the comments I was trying to point out that there was no <!–more–> (more tag).
Anthropocene, are these people for real?
When I was in college, the Anthropocene was a term which was thrown around as a joke, now I hear it used more and more like its a valid epoch.
Can someone answer this question for me: is the Anthropocene a valid geological epoch?
AndiC says:
April 2, 2012 at 3:32 am
Good luck in selling this one to the emerging nations!
Or will it be just another methodology for transfer of wealth?
Exactly. “This is a declaration to our globally interconnected society”. Except that a billion or two didn’t get the message because they were too busy scraping a miserable existence while waiting for their half-wit solar cell to fire up the transistor radio. And they were probably thirsty.
“We are beginning to realise this new state of humanity can be harnessed for rapid innovation” Sorry, it’s already harnessed. To a bunch of egomaniacal ‘crats with their heads up their behinds.
This is very disturbing, especially seeing how it was trumpeted through Nature, Inc. (Scientific American). Ultra-alarmist garbage. Astounding.
izen says: April 2, 2012 at 5:04 am
Unless BOTH sides of the political divide advance responses to the problems the side that DOES engage with climate change, water shortages, extreme weather events and fossil fuel exhaustion will win by default if the other side does nothing but reject the existence of those problems.
fredb says: April 2, 2012 at 5:55 am (Edit)
Izen’s comment above is an absolute breath of fresh air…
The two of you are suffering from vincibly ignorant cranial-rectosis. The neo-Malthusians have been a solution in search of a problem for over half a century and you want us to concede that this time they are right and we need to engage on “solutions”? The crises are trumped up and imaginary. The “solutions” were never about science or the environment or even human well-being. The crisis that really needs to be addressed is the power grab these self-anointed elites seem bent on perpetrating and Rio may be their last, best chance. Read the damn statement as well as their policy brief on global governance here:
http://www.planetunderpressure2012.net/pdf/policy_instframe.pdf
Read those and then engage.
@- Jeff L says:
“Psychologically, these people really need some marketing help. After decades of this approach, they haven’t learned that scare tactics don’t work… I can hear the average Joe now “Well, there is no way we can get everyone to change their ways, so we are screwed so who cares (and quit your yapping about the problem while your at it – I don’t want to hear about it anymore) ”
Your analysis of the flaws in the ‘PR’ on the science side may well be correct.
But then the persistant warnings of danger, the scare tactics, are not adopted because the scientists involved think that is the most effective way to motivate people (although it does tend to work on scientists!) but because the scientific findings are genuinely pointing to dangerous changes.
Perhaps you have an alternative method for persuading people, and specifically political power, to respond to anthropogenic environmental danger.
Warning of the dangers worked quite well – eventually – for tobbacco, lead, asbestos acid rain, DDT, CFC’s, mercury….
AT least it worked after the disinformation and refusal to accept scientific findings by industry interests was overcome.
I would also like to direct everyone’s attention to still another conference on Global Governance to be held in Lund, Sweden April 18-20.
http://www.lund2012.earthsystemgovernance.org/html/conference_themes.html
I haven’t seen anything like this since a big change in management thinking at my old corporation. No discussion of what’s best, just platitudes and corporate speak for doing what management says to do. They do a really good job of acting as if everything is already settled except the implementation. Would be wizards.
There is no science for discussion. These folks want to use the Green religion as a source of platitudes in support of their concept of “enlightened” directive. No thanks. Again (like those of the climate change clan), too much like the Mayans – but less of a need for their organizational “skills” since we already have a civilization.
Why replace current civilization for a global political disaster in the name of false science? The bright line is that a crisis can be addressed by our world as it is while what they are proposing would not be appropriate or necessary even if the promised crisis happened. Control based on fear of what might be is not new. But it is the most primitive.
izen says:
April 2, 2012 at 5:04 am
“While a lot of posters here may sneer at the topics and intentions, declaring that the concerns expressed are spurious or non-existant, the fact remains that there ARE environmental problems that require policy responses. ”
And you think the UN or this carnival of conmen is concerned with solving problems?
“Unless BOTH sides of the political divide advance responses […]”
The two sides I see is a corrupt cleptocracy aided by pseudoscientists like Hari Kari “Treat the skeptics” Nordgaard on the one side, and the people on the other side.
fredb says:
April 2, 2012 at 5:55 am
This was a science paper!? I thought it was utterly “stifling” and also “sneering” in its assault on freedom and the pursuit of happiness. Let’s use all the money these folks are wasting on their travels and useless mutterings and solve real problems.
Verity P says:
April 2, 2012 at 5:14 am
ER did it really say that the consensus is growing!!!!!
You either have a consensus or not. It doesn’t grow
Well said Verity P!
When will these idiots realise that we’re not as stupid as they are, & that Socialism is a political system that seeks to impose its will upon others, whether they want it or not! A great pity that millions have died to preseve freedom & democracy in two woulrd wars & beyond, such a waste of life if this ideology were to succeed in its goals!
I think part of this warmista mindset is a result of the dramatic shift in population demographics. Seems like at least 80% of the warmist meme comes from urban dwellers. Folks in rural areas ( in my experience) are far less likely to jump on the AGW bandwagon.
====================================================================
More Americans are living in cities now than a decade ago, according to U.S. Census data released on Monday.
The most urban state is California – one that dominates the popular imagination as a land of empty deserts, open beaches and thick redwood forests – the Census numbers showed.
In 2010, a total of 80.7 percent of Americans lived in urban areas, up from 79 percent in 2000.
Conversely, 19.3 percent of the U.S. population lived in rural areas in 2010, down from 21 percent in 2000.
At the same time, the population of urban areas grew by 12.1 percent, much faster than the country’s growth rate of 9.7 percent from 2000 to 2010.
More people residing in urban areas could drive up demand for housing, public transportation, road repairs and social services such as schools and healthcare, at a time when city budgets are starving from cuts in state aid and lower property-tax revenues.
In some places, the growth rate was more than 50 percent, including Charlotte, North Carolina, where the population increased by 64.6 percent over the decade.
Altogether, there are 486 urbanized areas in the United States. They have an overall population density of 2,534 people per square mile.
Read more: http://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/2012/03/26/more-americans-take-up-city-living-in-past-decade/#ixzz1qt0b6xnH
Census.gov: http://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/2010_census/cb12-50.html
I love it. All of the (non-existent) tipping points are lies.
Any excuse to further Agenda 21 and the UN’s ascendancy to world power is okay in their book.
Curiousgeorge says:
April 2, 2012 at 4:50 am
“There’s something very sad and pathetic about these people….”
Unfortunately the same could be said of Adolf Hitler in his younger days, until his delusions became reality.
Any psychologists here?
Is there such a thing as a ‘Jor-El Complex’?
This strategy will form part of “a new contract between science and society” and includes the launch of a new international research programme, Future Earth.
I’m a fan of the old contract between science and society. Scientists endeavour to discover the truth, and society pays them a living wage but otherwise leaves them alone, while benefiting from their discoveries.
I reserve my most scornful insult for people like this.
“Well-intentioned, but misguided.”
(Or, if you prefer, “Stark Staring Bonkers.”)
International governance? Getting past GDP? Lots of science there. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the communists haven’t had much to do. This is clearly a good outlet for all their pent up energy.
@Izen: I’m not buying what your trying to sell. I’ve been researching climate science for more than 2 years now, morning, noon and night and have extensive knowledge of the science as well as the underlying politics of today’s state of the climate science.
The real reason of what we are seeing coming out of this conference is revealed in the conclusion from William Briggs in this article here:
http://wmbriggs.com/blog/?p=5440
I don’t want to give away his conclusion here. Go read it and discover it for yourself. It most likely describes your predicament 😉
Another bunch of unelected control freaks who think that they can tell the rest of us what to do because somehow they are better than us poor deluded fools.
Sorry not buying the spin, the lies, the panic or the guilt anymore….
Reads like the globalists are weighing their powder and counting their shot. The first battle for the scientific high ground nears. There will be joyous crowds recent of their simple lives and simple educations, joining, flags and pennants waving, cheering on their boys as the marching columns of reformers, lettered and degreed, march to the battle ground fresh from Cancun, Lisbon, Kyoto, Copenhagen, Durban. Sydney. There, energized with the power and might of the IPCC’s regressive agenda and deep pockets, among the daisies and snapdragons, the gutters that ring the killing fields will run green by their terrible smite.
Tomorrow there will be scaring the proles.
izen said, “Warning of the dangers worked quite well – eventually – for tobbacco, lead, asbestos acid rain, DDT, CFC’s, mercury…”
What’s really funny is that tobacco, mercury, and acid rain are the only scientifically supported scares here. Although it makes total sense not to spew lead into the environment from cars, the science of the problem turns out to be questionable, Mercury and acid rain were easily fixed and are fine now, despite the EPA;s new strangling regulations; the ocean remains the dominant, overbearing mercury source. Ozone and CFCs, junk science supported by patent incentives. DDT, no science, but a political agenda. AND of course, CO2 is plant food and has no down side.
Although it appears perfectly reasonable to conserve for future generations, it is also a complete unknown what the future generations will need. Thus, the evil Precautionary Principle says that we should minimize the use of everything forever to create “sustainability” which does not exist, ever. The road to hell is paved with good intentions and this is one very wide road being paved.
I think Anthony should send a donation commesurate with our confidence in their conclusions and objectives. $3.00 should do it.
* Launching a new international research programme, Future Earth, that will focus on solutions.
So the previous ones didn’t?
Izen and Fred, the sock-puppetry handbook suggests you not both use the word sneer.
Don’t you just love that natural capital stuff. Personally, when I am sitting in the cold and the dark I like to contemplate natural capital, thinking about the fish swimming unmolested in the sea, trees growing happily in the forest, and because it is cold and dark I don’t need to worry about the Cuisinart in the sky shredding brother and sister bird because the wind must not be blowing.
I also like to contemplate human natural capital, Children of the UN and the NGO, jetting around the world and doing their light worker best for all of us sitting back at home in the cold and dark.
No, Izenfred, it would be a mistake to sneer at you. If you sneer at someone it is easy to not take them seriously.
Tell them it’s a hedge bet. While we are 99.999999% sure they are full of B/S. It’s the 0.0000001% we are worried about!!!
izen says:
April 2, 2012 at 5:04 am
“ . . . , the fact remains that there ARE environmental problems that require policy responses. ”
True, but none of them require a one-world government or any organization with power over the world’s countries. We should and do help countries with their issues, but it is the thriving and development of each country’s economy that creates the wealth and resources to handle their environmental issues—the worst issues are all in undeveloped countries.
Radically reorganizing the world and pretending to redistribute wealth and resources to achieve these goals simply kills development. Countries on welfare will never have the will to fix their own problems as, if they do, they lose the welfare.
“It states that consensus is growing”. Gosh. It sounds like its now even more unanimous than it was before.
Okay, guys, let’s brainstorm here. We need some neutral way to measure worth, some virtual marker that takes into account the extraction and processing costs of the natural resources. But it also has to have a built-in method of compensating for things like the distance the stuff needs to be shipped and there might even need to be some way of accounting for political instability disrupting the supplies. Oh, and we can’t leave out the cost of labour: some areas simply have socio-economic conditions that require that workers be paid more for their labour, because of various factors like housing costs, food costs, transportation to & fro, & of course the UN’s local child hospitality worker fees (*wink wink*).
I propose that these virtual markers be required by law to be allowed for exchange for any good or service, & that we set up a secure service to store and transmit large quantities of these markers (for a nominal fee) for those workers who wish to move larger quantities of markers over longer periods for the exchange of larger or more valuable goods. We could even offer a system by which a worker who is reliable can temporarily hold or exchange more markers than he has stored (again, for a nominal fee), so that he could buy a shovel to help himself dig, or a stove to cook his food on.
Once we’ve developed a system for moving these markers, we can begin tracking them: since they’re exchangeable for all good & services in a given area, they’ll be a decent method of measuring the relative value of the goods & services that exist, & when new natural resources are discovered in an area, the movement of workers and goods to make use of those resources will suffice to bring everything into some form of crude balance.
I’m pretty sure when you consider the issues of fairness and economic justice, you’ll see that this virtual marker system far surpasses the ugly and racist system we now use.
Just another pointless meeting of bureaucrats, ‘climate scientists’ and superfluous hangers on, saying “We need more of us and we need more money”.
Reminds me of an old British sitcom in a clothing factory, symbolised by the comment: “Never mind the quality, feel the width.”
I tried telling everybody they are using the global warming threat as a pretext for global government but they all laughed at me saying I was a tinfoil hat wearing conspiracy theorist.
…Elizabeth Thompson, said, “politician or public servant, scientist or citizen, community or company, we are the shareholders of Earth Incorporated and have a joint responsibility to protect our common patrimony.”
Is there something you can do about this erosion thingy that is reducing the mountains we love to look at and hike in. It also clogs up many of the rivers and lakes if left to itself and again we like to swim in the rivers and lakes. That erosion stuff also takes land from one place and puts in another via wind so could you stop that so we don’t lose or gain anything unfairly.
Thanks concerned shareholder,
The International ‘community’ couldn’t agree anything in 2009 in Copenhagen when public opinion was on their side and there was only “50 days left to save the world” (at least according to Gordon Brown). I doubt very much that such nebulous aspirations as “We need to change course in some fundamental way this decade” are going to cut it much now.
Andi, it’s just another North-South transfer mechanism. Nothing has changed.
For the announcement itself, all those words, and the sentences, every one, are pure drivel.
“Perhaps you have an alternative method for persuading people, and specifically political power, to respond to anthropogenic environmental danger.”
Izen, I have no interest whatever in persuading people about globo-maniacal delusions.
Ultimately, I would probably agree that we are going to end up with a layer of international “government”, ideally purely for sorting out differences of opinion between different countries peacefully. On the other hand, one thing made perfectly clear by the slime oozing from the UN in recent years is that under no circumstances must any of the New World Order crazies at the UN and elsewhere be allowed anywhere near any position of power or influence.
I declare unequivocally that the requirements of democracy and nationhood absolutely trump every “globalist” pronouncement these people make. The more of us declare that, the more obvious we can make it to these power-crazed subnormals that they will not be permitted to prevail. As a “baby boomer” I accept that I have had an uncharacteristically quiet life by historical standards; but there are things for which I will gladly risk what remains of that life however necessary. Stamping out, once and for all, the fascism my parents’ generation proved unable to crush is the most important of those things. These lunatics cannot be allowed to prevail, period.
Taking “natural capital” into account, and why stop there eh? Why not just make up figures as they go along like a river is worth 100 trillion and a forest 1000 trillion. In fact it is simply a scheme to creating a false and make believe world to justify their Luddite insanity. There is no price on anything unless someone wishes to buy it for whatever use, land is bought and sold and even the best uses changes that land in some way. The very worst and most dangerous fanatics are those that would pervert a fabricated cover of science to hide their real intentions.
In fact these people are nothing more than cultist fanatics, believers in the new Eden, a place where planetary stasis rules supreme where the natural forces of the real world do not intrude on their made up childish fantasy land, a pre industrial Luddite fantasy where people live in harmony with nature like chimps in the forest. Whack jobs like these have been a feature of the modern world for generations but now they have power and influence at the highest levels and lots of money. And they are no better than a cult like the moonies or the heavens gate cult or the scientologists, there is no doubt these people are off the charts mental.
I wonder how much of the “Final Statement” wasn’t already on disk ready for release before the “conference” opened. I’m betting <5%. Maybe <1%.
You tell ’em Lidia. We nee to be building coal, gas and nuclear now in the UK before the lights go out…
What was that?
What do you mean, “That wasn’t what she meant”?
DaveE.
Steve C said:
“Stamping out, once and for all, the fascism my parents’ generation proved unable to crush is the most important of those things. These lunatics cannot be allowed to prevail, period.”
I said on BH last week that when we finally win this thing, this period in history will be looked back on as as important as the rout of fascism or the breakdown of communism.
Ordinary non-interested people do think you’re a tin-foil hat wearing lunatic when you mention a power-grab by the left powered by a a shifty pseudoscientific pretext, but then most power-grabs pass the ordinary punter by until it’s too late. Did ordinary Germans in the 30s scoff at those warning what the Nazis were like? AH was a nice man. He liked painting.
It’s difficult NOT to lapse into Godwin’s Law when talking about this power-grab, because it’s almost identical.
This reminds me of Captain Edmund Blackadder’s explanation for the cause of World War One:
“Edmund: You see, Baldrick, in order to prevent war in Europe, two superblocs developed: us, the French and the Russians on one side, and the Germans and Austro-Hungary on the other. The idea was to have two vast opposing armies, each acting as the other’s deterrent. That way there could never be a war.
Baldrick: But this is a sort of a war, isn’t it, sir?
Edmund: Yes, that’s right. You see, there was a tiny flaw in the plan.
George: What was that, sir?
Edmund: It was bollocks.”
“Such interactions should be designed to bring societal relevance and trust to science-policy interfaces,.
First act of business. Disband and the IPCC and no that does not mean transfer the funds to the new sustainability cabal.
I see a time coming when the privileged few get to traipse around rainforests and unspoilt beaches at will, while the rest of us become more and more restricted in what we can do and where we can go, and get put into smaller and smaller boxes and walled in areas, our only role being to man the factories and keep the whole infernal machine going.
We should not laugh at Professor Kari Norgaard labelling any dissent as suffering from a mental disease, this sounds like the first step in making it a crime (McCarthy style witch hunts).
I’m glimpsing a world somewhat like North Korea, where people of privilege and power will do anything to make sure they stay within the ‘elite’ and can live what we now see as a normal life.
I marvel at the pointlessness of the EPA shutting down cheap coal fired power stations, against all logic, and with certain negative economic effects, and I wonder if we are reverting to the old method of rule by fear and orchestrated crises. Once, these crises were always wars or a threatening enemy, but now, it seems economic disruption and hardship may be easier to manage:
…especially if you can simply make energy a lot more expensive.
Odd. It doesn’t seem to matter what the scare is: Global cooling, global warming, overpopulation, etc… the proposed answer is always the same. Global governance. Always the Neo-Malthusians recommend a dictatorial global government. Odd that.
Oh wait on second thought, the entire UN is a waste of money. Its only successes are at building the UN. Talk about sustainability.
[snip . . please don’t shout so Max. The locals don’t like it much so try a repost without the caps . . kbmod]
I’m sure izen and fredb are busy consuming petroleum products and fossil fuel-based energy while telling the rest of us to deal with problems that have nothing to do with “climate” (e.g. “extreme” weather).
Ditto for everyone else at this useless conference…
I would, however, welcome izen and fredb suggestions on how we can avoid sponsoring these tax money-wasting conferences in the future.
Associate Professor Kari Norgard on her University of Oregon blurb-
“Over the past ten years I have published and taught in the areas of environmental sociology, gender and environment, race and environment, climate change, sociology of culture, social movements and sociology of emotions.”
Yeah, yeah Kari we know the type well-
http://www.news.com.au/national/academic-toilet-paper-opens-doors-on-dunny-business/story-e6frfkvr-1226266176545
Normal people call them toilets and don’t go there to hang about but not this new mutant strain of graduazzi that infects our sandstones and grows like necrotising fasciitis on the healthy body of science.
fredb says:
April 2, 2012 at 5:55 am
………… Where’s the WUWT famous “we debate the science”?
=========================
Debating social science is as fruitful as debating theology.
Dr Mark Stafford Smith, Planet Under Pressure conference co-chair, said, “In the last decade we have become a highly interconnected society. We are beginning to realise this new state of humanity can be harnessed for rapid innovation.”
Where has this guy been the last 70 years? The interconnectedness of our global civilization was acknowledged as the major impetus behind the organization of the allies for WWII in their fight against totalitarianism.
At the end of the day, most of these problems can be reduced down to energy and its cost. Yet I see nothing in any of their proposals that actually address how to increase our energy supply in order that our coming planetary population of 9 + billion can live in comfort and prosperity.
“This is a declaration to our globally interconnected society,” said Dr Lidia Brito, director of science policy, natural sciences, UNESCO, and conference co-chair.
“Time is the natural resource in shortest supply. We need to change course in some fundamental way this decade,” she added.
Yes, yes, of course, let us slow down the earth’s rotation rate so the days are longer, and move to a larger orbit about the sun to slow the years down. That’s the ticket to extent our natural resource in the shortest supply! That should also solve any global warming problems too! Needless to say; /sarc
Phrase: “to be sold a pup”
Definition: To be tricked into buying something that is not worth anything
What is the collective noun for a group of mental masturbators? Something like a wunch of bankers? This lot surely qualify and more.
“We need to change course in some fundamental way this decade,” she added.
That sounds familiar!
U.N. Warning of 10-Year ‘Climate Tipping Point’ Began in 1989
According to July 5, 1989, article in the Miami Herald, the then-director of the New York office of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), Noel Brown, warned of a “10-year window of opportunity to solve” global warming. According to the 1989 article, “A senior U.N. environmental official says entire nations could be wiped off the face of the Earth by rising sea levels if the global warming trend is not reversed by the year 2000. Coastal flooding and crop failures would create an exodus of ‘eco-refugees,’ threatening political chaos.”
http://tomnelson.blogspot.com/2009/12/you-say-years-i-say-let-call-whole.html
I wonder how much Climate Justice those Detroit City residents are demanding.
I have now read the whole Declaration and can summarise it in four words: ‘Give us more money!’
@ Dennis Wingo (@wingod) says:
April 2, 2012 at 8:40 am
At the end of the day, most of these problems can be reduced down to energy and its cost. Yet I see nothing in any of their proposals that actually address how to increase our energy supply in order that our coming planetary population of 9 + billion can live in comfort and prosperity.
**********************************************************************************************************
Why do you think that 9+billion will all live in comfort and prosperity? It’s never happened in the past, and is very unlikely to happen in the future, regardless of energy/food, etc. availability. There will always be a minority that is better off than the majority. The trick is to be one of the minority without getting your head lopped off.
“In recorded remarks, UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon said today that “climate change, the financial crisis and food, water and energy insecurity threaten human wellbeing and civilization as we know it.”
“My High-level Panel on Global Sustainability has just recommended that I consider naming a chief scientific advisor or establishing a scientific board to advise me and other organs of the United Nations.”
They are deliberately muddying the waters by blending their fanatical beliefs and apocalyptic predictions about CAGW and sources of energy running out with real problems like the financial crisis, famine and providing clean drinking water. The climate scientists, not content with their nonsensical computer models, want a seat at the political top table where they can get their hands on even more taxpayers money and advise politicians on ‘Earth system governance’. They are using new language to try to manipulate gullible people into accepting a world where people’s every action is regulated. In this context ‘global sustainability’ means a powerful elite and a compliant multitude.
These hippies would be suicidal if you took their iPhones from them.
How does one produce 21st century technology for hippies with no environmental impact?
In my view it can’t be done.
And speaking of sociologists and sociology I like to think of those coal fired power stations as million year old campfires for us to all gather around and enjoy socially-
http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/humans-used-fire-earlier-than-thought/story-e6frfku0-1226316917245
When is Nikola Tesla Hour to be held by the way? Midsummer or midwinter?
This is a dictatorial declaration to end national sovereignty, capitalism AKA free enterprise, redistribute wealth and resources as a chosen unaccountable few see fit and to control science through political force. It also proposes to change the way of life of everyone to save the planet from the consequences of a fraud.
One definition “National sovereignty” is a legal expression of the right to self-government by a state or nation. It entails the declaration by a political system to operate independently of foreign rule or control.
Like all frauds the claims don’t match reality but the response to the fraud should.
Take heart. Like all Iron Curtains, it tends to rust over time from neglect and indefensible overreach plus unjustifiable siphoning of resources that become more obvious to generations in decline—see the East German model for comparison.
While the international “Planet Under Pressure” UN idolizing elites cry for “global sustainability”
izen says:
April 2, 2012 at 5:04 am and
fredb says:
April 2, 2012 at 5:55 am .
Thankfully,
higley7 says:
April 2, 2012 at 7:09 am
izen said, “Warning of the dangers worked quite well – eventually – for tobbacco, lead, asbestos acid rain, DDT, CFC’s, mercury…”
What’s really funny is that tobacco, mercury, and acid rain are the only scientifically supported scares here….
===
Sure, many important things will always need to be recognized, discovered, scrutinized, analyzed, recorded and related, for whatever reasons and this won’t be done productively by mega-centralization elitists who can’t/won’t tolerate competition to their pet/invested in interests. Self-interested healthy(an appropriate GDP?), competitive nations/peoples will always best be able to help support not so fortunate nations/peoples in a productive fashion.
The UN, socialism, fascism, communism have not succeeded on national/international levels (at least not without being externally supported/protected) and cannot be used to lead a global effort of any significantly constructive importance. Such an effort disallows all of the necessary intangibles of self-interest and competition, let alone the basic search for answers/explanations/rewards – paullm.
johanna says:
April 2, 2012 at 6:01 am
We need to have a more considered response….
Add immunity from annoying national laws – as WUWT has already highlighted – and we have the beginning of the creation of a global caste of unaccountable secular priests.
• Robert E. Phelan says:
April 2, 2012 at 6:40 am
I would also like to direct everyone’s attention to still another conference on Global Governance to be held in Lund, Sweden April 18-20.
http://www.lund2012.earthsystemgovernance.org/html/conference_themes.html
Ha! The “work” day never ends, does it?!
paullm
The 2012 Earth Summit is planning to declare the Amazon Jungle a Heritage of Humanity
with the real purpose of facilitating the Carbon Shares´ business. It is not about any “sustainability” at all, it is about the BIGGEST SCAM EVER CONCEIVED.
This declaration was already tried at the ALCUE SUMMIT in Lima, back in 2008, where the then brazilian president Luis Ignazio Lulla da Silva, had to menace with Brazil leaving the conference if that declaration was not removed.
This business will be better than the previous “invention” of the “credit card”. Here there is NOTHING of INVESTMENT and NOTHING OF PAYMENT, everything is 100% PROFIT.
More like this.
How to tax more.
How to hide the tax.
Who gets the dole from the tax.
How to lie best about the tax.
Tax, Tax, Tax, all about Tax.
More like this:
How to tax more.
How to hide the tax.
How to best lie about the tax.
How to split up the lie tax.
How to keep on the tax dole.
The era (error) of Global Warming is over. For the priests and priestess of ACGW, the mighty (though a bit dodgy) thermometer refused to cooperate. To avoid any connection to reality, we now have the completely subjective term ‘Sustainability.’ The future is in doubt as xkcd has demonstrated, sustainable is not sustainable. http://xkcd.com/1007/
I searched this document and did not find one use of the word “concern”. To be scientific there has to be CONSENSUS and CONCERN. Obviously the 3000 individuals who discussed this are not real scientists.
The writer needs to take an English course and learn to write a sentence without using every word in the dictionary. Can you say BAFFLEGAB? What was it about anyway?
The current madness involves many good hearted people, or not so clever people, as to make them believe they will fix the world and fix human society. If there would be, here in WUWT, a complete data base including ALL the objectives of the ideology generated at the UN: From Gay Marriage , promote abortion, leaving a small “carbon foot print”,”renewable energies”, etc.,etc., the people would realize the enormity of such an absurd ideology and they hopefully would stop drinking “kool aid”.
I just saw this animated video, which seems to be targeting school children. here’s a look at the totalitarian Brave New World the Green fascists want for humanity:
Planned-opolis
the people behind this are serious and this is a promotional video for the Green Cities of the Future. there’s only 13,000 views. more people should watch this 4 min video.
#1. As a technical editor I’m impressed with the sheer mass of bloviation, pointless maundering, and vague generalities littering their documents.
#2. The breathtaking hypocrisy of a hiking-lover (the Oregon professor) advocating the closing of the countryside.
#3. The de-population of the countryside is already under way in the Third World, via armed gangs that drive people out to make way for enviroparks and biofuel plantations. They are the true ‘climate refugees’, in the millions yet, assiduously ignored by the Media, of course.
#4. When its America’s turn to be depopulated, it will be enforced by our own killer drones. I dare Hollywood to make a movie of that!
#5 Have Josh pen a cartoon of a Predator Drone with UN markings and a green happy-face on its Hellfire bombs, flying over an empty, roadless Yosemite.
The first thing that has to stop, is repeating the meme “democracy”. Democracy is tyrrany by the majority, it is no freedom, it is slavery.
We all have natural rights to personal freedom which cannot be given or taken from us by any government, elected or not. Americans need to reclaim their republic, the Brits need to understand Common Law which is the only Law of the Land, and the Europeans need to be taught that their Napoleonic law is dictatorship [everything is forbidden except if specifically allowed] – if they knew the difference they would be aware of what they have foisted on the rest of us, unlawfully.
Primer: http://www.britsattheirbest.com/freedom/f_british_constitution.htm
“…Going beyond GDP by taking into account the value of natural capital when measuring progress…”
One of the current problem is the developing/developed nation status. A country can remain “developing” for decades, with no real benchmark to show advancement.
You can bet that if China and India see a threat to their current “developing” status, they’ll be kicking and screaming.
Their “developing” status allows them free-reign over the civilized laws the rest of the world follows.
Are you sure that this isn’t an April Fool’s joke from the Onion?
Associate Professor Kari Norgard on her University of Oregon blurb-
“Over the past ten years I have published and taught in the areas of environmental sociology, gender and environment, race and environment, climate change, sociology of culture, social movements and sociology of emotions.”
What the hell is “gender and environment”????
The only solution is global governance and increasing the research grants. /Sarc Off
From the children (and a few leftover old geezers, no doubt) of the Club of Rome “Limits to Growth” crowd, which hysterically had us running out of oil and many other critical raw materials by the 1980’s and 90’s if we did not radically change our lives.
The sky is falling. Put us in charge of your lives or you are all goners.
adolfogiurfa says: April 2, 2012 at 10:10 am
“The 2012 Earth Summit is planning to declare the Amazon Jungle a Heritage of Humanity”
Why don’t more people recognize this for the obscenity it is?
If they really want forests, tell them to go and grow their OWN forest, it does not take long!
This kind of stuff frightens me in an “Atlas Shrugged” kind of way.
Dennis Wingo (@wingod) says:April 2, 2012 at 8:40 am
“….humanity can be harnessed…”
Hmmm. NOW they are starting to worry me!
Conference delegates also heard how research advances in the previous decade have shown humanity’s impact on Earth’s life support system has become comparable to planetary scale geological processes such as ice ages. “Consensus is growing we have driven the planet into a new epoch, the Anthropocene, in which many Earth system processes are now dominated by human activities,” the declaration states.
Behold hubris at a pathological level.
And they produced a cartoon to go with it…
http://www.planetunderpressure2012.net/images/anthropocene_cartoon.jpg
(humour level comparable to ‘No Pressure’)
“…society must not delay taking urgent and large-scale action.”
And what large-scale action would that be? Mass murder of billions of humans to relieve pressure on the planet? Or a more “humane” approach of levying huge taxes on energy use so millions slowly starve to death and the rest can’t afford to reproduce? Eco-nuts always seems to end up advocating one or the other.
“Phasing out the human race will solve every problem on earth, social and environmental.”
— Dave Forman (founder of Earth First!)
michael says:
April 2, 2012 at 10:41 am
“I just saw this animated video, which seems to be targeting school children. here’s a look at the totalitarian Brave New World the Green fascists want for humanity:
Planned-opolis”
Looks like The-Projects-o-polis… I think the artist did a splendid job on cashing in on propaganda cash while at the same time delivering a sublimininal message…. “Hate this!”
@mkelly says:
April 2, 2012 at 11:49 am
Associate Professor Kari Norgard on her University of Oregon blurb-
“Over the past ten years I have published and taught in the areas of environmental sociology, gender and environment, race and environment, climate change, sociology of culture, social movements and sociology of emotions.”
What the hell is “gender and environment”????
=================================================================
A: If you’re in a cold environment such as the Antarctic, you’ll freeze your ‘nads off if you don’t wear pants which may affect your gender, eh?
BTW, good find. What I’d like to know is, if she hung out her shingle in a shop in the mall, who would stop in to pay a penny for any of her expertise? Not much of a market for that stuff except from the government and students who will wonder why they can’t get a job after graduation.
“The conference presented new initiatives as recommendations for the Rio+20 Summit:
* Going beyond GDP by taking into account the value of natural capital when measuring progress.
* A new framework for developing a set of goals for global sustainability for all nations.
* Creating a UN Sustainable Development Council to integrate social, economic and environmental policy at the global level.
* Launching a new international research programme, Future Earth, that will focus on solutions.
* Initiating regular global sustainability analyses.”
These are extensions of the United Nations Agenda 21and its local implementation strategy known as ICLEI, the ‘International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives. The intent is to bypass national governments and secure agreements and compliance from states, cities, and local governments. It is already more deeply embedded in the US than most of us would have imagined. We are finding references to ICLEI tenets within our school systems, city and county governments here in Washington state, USA.
A decent backgrounder on UN Agenda 21 and ICLEI can be found at
http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/tech-mainmenu-30/environment/6235-your-hometown-a-the-united-nations-agenda-21
Open the file and scroll down into the story to the heading “ICLEI, the Hidden UN Component”. This is the point where the background on Agenda 21 and ICLEI are developed and explained.
This is a topic none of us can afford to ignore any longer.
MtK
It’s been noted here before, but this writing evidences the notable shift from the bullet riddled target of “anthropogenic climate change” toward something even more difficult to disprove, sustainablitiy. If you thought climate model output illustrated broad untestable hypotheses, try testing “sustainablility”. It’s a completely unscientific term, and so the argument is now entirely political.
The good news is that no one can accuse us of denying the facts with this meme. Nothing lasts forever, but sustainable does not mean forever. Only fools would think otherwise.
The question is, why are these cockroaches being paid to tell us things we already know?
Young folks today are not entertained unless the imagery is fast moving and Hi Def.
They don’t seem very interested in such a dry, dreary, unfocused expression as “Sustainablity.”
They also expect more than slick graphic presentations and dramatic speeches. They demand real, tangible innovation, exploration and discovery from their scientists and engineers.
These folks going to Rio are just riding the momentum of a popular wave that has subsided. Governments are always the last to react to social change.
Actually, churches are even slower to react than governments, but participation in church dogma is voluntary.
mkelly asks- ‘What the hell is “gender and environment”????’
Clearly if you have to ask that you do not comprehend the sociology of emotions among other pressing matters like gender spaces. In any case you are most likely an ignorant lay bloke and therefore you cannot hang around gender spaces to find out about such things. If you were paying attention properly you would have noted Kari Norgard is merely an Associate Professor and any deeply nuanced enquiries about such highly technical stuff should clearly be directed to the Professor of Sociological Emotions at Oregon for a definitive epistemological rulling.
@ observa says:
April 2, 2012 at 6:29 pm
mkelly asks- ‘What the hell is “gender and environment”????’
Neptune was male and controlled part of the environment (oceans, etc. ) Other Roman Gods and Goddesses controlled, to greater or lesser degree, other parts of the environment. See here for a rather lengthy list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_gods .
Obviously Kari is implying that the Romans had it right, and she would be happy to intercede as High Priestess on humanities behalf. 😉
“ImranCan says:
April 2, 2012 at 7:36 am
The International ‘community’ couldn’t agree anything in 2009 in Copenhagen when public opinion was on their side and there was only “50 days left to save the world” (at least according to Gordon Brown). I doubt very much that such nebulous aspirations as “We need to change course in some fundamental way this decade” are going to cut it much now.”
Yup. Very much like the Occupy Movement, they proclaim the neet to change course but offer no course to steer.
Gotta keep their hands off the tiller for sure.
mkelly says:
April 2, 2012 at 11:49 am
Associate Professor Kari Norgard on her University of Oregon blurb-
“What the hell is “gender and environment”????
“Women … play an essential role in the management of natural resources, including soil, water, forests and energy … and often have a profound traditional and contemporary knowledge of the natural world around them” – World Bank
http://www.gdrc.org/gender/gender-envi.html
Is it just me or is sustainability getting a real run these days
After global warming and then climate change we now have sustainability.
Is all this sustainable.:-)
Amanda Noorgard over Hari every day of the week. I do hope they are not related!!
Those mystified by my comment need google 😉
The question is: Are we willing to scale back our activities so we can effect change in our environment? Humans pursue different agenda and when local politics come into play it will be a different scenario. The Kyoto Protocol is an example of how close we could have changed the course of human civilization. Unfortunately, there were highly strong geo-politics that had to be considered by countries. In the end, major countries that are source of pollution of this planet did not sign the deal. What a waste! I hope we would not stop in educating the people.
More worrying than the various statements is the list of supporters …
http://www.planetunderpressure2012.net/supporters.asp
(given that the Royal Society is in that list) Is this what Paul Nurse meant by …
We wouldn’t want the two getting mixed up – eh Paul?
(http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/paul-nurse-we-have-to-stop-mixing-science-and-politics-6261931.html)
australia directory says:
April 3, 2012 at 12:31 am
What a waste! I hope we would not stop in educating the people.
First bit of education — improve your English skills before you post spam again…
No, wrong way around. Consider sustainability as the mother swamp from which all else arises.
rukidding says:April 2, 2012 at 8:58 pm
Here ya go: the word sustainable is indeed unsustainable;
http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/kbenfield/the_word_sustainable_is_unsust.html
See they did not have to waste all that time and jet fuel. I could have written the conclusion for them in one minute. The Club of Rome, made that clear in 1972 with its report The Limits to Growth and the message has never changed.
Going beyond GDP by taking into account the value of natural capital when measuring progress.
This is what they are talking about when they refer to “natural capital” Humans get to live in the green dots only.
Older version of US map: http://www.amerikanexpose.com/Graphics/wildlands_map.html
This is the newest version: http://www.godlikeproductions.com/sm/custom/fiqckcrb.jpeg
Ian W says:
April 2, 2012 at 3:45 am
I cannot help feeling that behind these people know the cycles of nature and have been using them to convince the uneducated that humans are to blame….
_______________________________________
Of Course they knew. It is not like the 88-year Giessenburg cycle was unknown in 1972 when the Club of Rome published their report or Maurice Strong chaired the first Earth Summit.
izen says:
April 2, 2012 at 5:04 am
While a lot of posters here may sneer at the topics and intentions, declaring that the concerns expressed are spurious or non-existant, the fact remains that there ARE environmental problems that require policy responses….
_____________________________________
izen, most of us here are very angry because of the huge amount of wealth squandered on climate change that could have been used for dealing with REAL problems in the environment and in third world nations. Our complaint is about a hoax that is designed to funnel a huge amount of the wealth of the entire world into the pockets of a few. It has nothin g to do with the environment, Mom or Apple pie and everything to do with GREED!
Just an example:
Climate Change
2011 US Federal Government Budget
NOAA 437 million
NSF 480 million
NASA 438.1 million
DOE 627 million
DOI 171 million
EPA 169 million
USDA 159 million
TOTAL = 2,312.1 million
From: http://climatequotes.com/2011/01/08/how-can-climate-scientists-spend-so-much-money/
Here is more from a 2009 article.
Every single penny of that money comes from the Average Joe. He is the one stuck with the bill and the one asked to make sacrifices in his life style and the life style of his children. All so these Egomaniacal Sociopaths can continue to collect large salaries and great perks while they engage in trying to take over the governments of the world.
Bruce Hall says:
April 2, 2012 at 5:33 am
There is a more insidious side of this conference. Marc Moreno pointed out the agenda of cramming people into cities to return the rest of the land back to its wilderness condition….
________________________________
This part of the agenda has been known for over a decade by the “Consiracy Theorists” Unfortunately because they often mix the Christioan Religion into it (a bad move IMHO) they get labeled Right Wingnut Extremists and sidelined.
List of laws and bills from Klamath Bucket Brigade
Green Global Dictatorship: Regional Governance, UN Agenda 21, Sustainable Development, and the Wildlands Project from Four Winds
Wildlands Project Revealed/
That is just a quick grab at the many sites.
And the other side:
Since “Wildlands Project” got a bad name they rebranded to Wildlands Network:Reconnecting Nature in North America™
The Rewilding Institute
“Time is the natural resource in shortest supply. We need to change course in some fundamental way this decade,” she added.
_______________________________
Translation: The Marks are starting to wake up we have got to move fast and lock them into serfdom by 2020.
fredb says:
April 2, 2012 at 5:55 am
Izen’s comment above is an absolute breath of fresh air … I was about to open the window from the stifling sneering of this comment list. Where’s the WUWT famous “we debate the science”?
__________________________________________
What Science???
All I see is a gathering of a would be dictatorial world bureaucracy who is driving a stake through the heart of science.
The consensus (dialectic) process:
Sorry that is not Science.
QUESTION:
Since this conference was hosted by the world’s premier Science Society, the Royal Society, do we now mark 2012 as the year that Science officially died?
klem says:
April 2, 2012 at 6:29 am
Anthropocene, are these people for real?
When I was in college, the Anthropocene was a term which was thrown around as a joke, now I hear it used more and more like its a valid epoch.
Can someone answer this question for me: is the Anthropocene a valid geological epoch?
______________________________________
NO
Discussed in the comments here: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/03/16/the-end-holocene-or-how-to-make-out-like-a-madoff-climate-change-insurer/
Blair says:
April 2, 2012 at 6:59 am
Any psychologists here?
Is there such a thing as a ‘Jor-El Complex’?
________________________
Sure looks like it considering this bunch of bureaucRats are exhibiting all the symptons.
“Such interactions should be designed to bring societal relevance and trust to science-policy interfaces”
Well they already lost it on that one. August 03, 2011, 69% Say It’s Likely Scientists Have Falsified Global Warming Research
Unethical scientists undermine public trust
Even Scientific American is waking up In science we trust poll
Building public trust in science should be the scientific community’s top priority. That is the conclusion of an editorial in this week’s Nature Good luck with that. Once scientists had fallen off the pedestal and were found to be in bed with Politicians I am afraid the distrust rubbed off and you will not get it back any time soon.
Good grief that is even worse that I thought.
Steve C says:
April 2, 2012 at 7:43 am
Ultimately, I would probably agree that we are going to end up with a layer of international “government”…
___________________________________
I think you are about 17 years too late.
How the World Trade Organization works: http://www.engdahl.oilgeopolitics.net/GMO/World_Trade_Order/world_trade_order.html
How the US government reacts: FDA on International Harmonization
Where Pascal Lamy, Director General of the WTO, wants to head:
http://theglobaljournal.net/article/view/56/
http://theglobaljournal.net/article/view/256/
http://www.globalpolicyjournal.com/articles/global-governance/global-governance-getting-us-where-we-all-want-go-and-getting-us-there-to
http://www.globalpolicyjournal.com/content/global-governance-whom-response-pascal-lamy-global-governance-getting-us-where-we-all-want-g
Those articles paint a pretty terrifying picture and those like the “Occupy Wall Street” crowd who are opposed to the international mega corporations are the SAME crowd helping push the WTO agenda. Amazing…
Forgot link to the FDA and International Harmonization of laws and regulations. http://www.fda.gov/Food/InternationalActivities/ucm103013.htm
mfo says:
April 2, 2012 at 9:09 am
……They are using new language to try to manipulate gullible people into accepting a world where people’s every action is regulated. In this context ‘global sustainability’ means a powerful elite and a compliant multitude.
__________________________________
And in the old language we called ‘global sustainability,’ Feudalism, the powerful elite, Aristocrats and the compliant multitude, serfs.
markx says:
April 2, 2012 at 12:03 pm
Dennis Wingo (@wingod) says:April 2, 2012 at 8:40 am
“….humanity can be harnessed…”
Hmmm. NOW they are starting to worry me!
____________________
Yeah, it has always been a seach for a method of putting the genie of freedom for the common man back into the bottle.
rukidding says:
April 2, 2012 at 8:58 pm
Is it just me or is sustainability getting a real run these days
After global warming and then climate change we now have sustainability.
Is all this sustainable.:-)
_____________________________
Sustainablity has been around. It is the code word for UN Agenda 21 but it sounds all warm and fuzzy so the rubes do not understand they are having their country and land stolen right out from under them.
All this madness will spill on the floor and evaporate, leave a stain and a stench, if the US, UK, Canada and Australia wake up to somehow synchronize and pull the cork from UN’s bunghole. Imagine there’s no UN…It’s easy if you try….
But for now, us little peons must concentrate on keeping the ‘Net as free as possible, because without that wer’re burned toast.
@ Old England
The NWO doesn’t exist and never will. Honestly, if you are so concerned about it, do something, or are you scared that you’ll be arrested? I’m sick of conspiracy theorists. Absolutely insane they are.
Jack Thompson says:
April 2, 2012 at 5:14 am
If they are so concerned about Planet Incorporated why don’t they add the threat of Iran going nuclear to the list? That is far more of a threat to the planet than all their humbug..
Utter crap, and parroted from the same type of media sources and political institutions that bring you all the drivel about global war… climate ch… climate disrupt…
Iran allows inspections of its nuclear facilities. Iran agreed to have third parties (France and Turkey) enrich uranium for her. Iran has never declared or demonstrated the intention to acquire nuclear weapons. But even if she did, there is an existing nuclear power in the region whose name cannot even be uttered for fear of the backlash. It is not a member of the IAEA, does not allow inspections, and does not admit to having somewhere around 400 to 600 nuclear warheads as well as nuclear submarines. Yet somehow a nonexistent Iranian nuclear program is a threat? Get a sense of perspective.
And here I thought California was the land of Fruits and Nuts
Look like New York is giving competition with it’s UN infestation 😉
I’m surprised that some people here seem unfamiliar with the “sustainability” buzzword. These days it’s almost necessary to tack on this term onto any grant proposal in order to have a chance at getting funded. It’s been perhaps the major catchall term in academia for at least 5 years. (Well, maybe it still comes in behind “inequality”.)