As previously noted at WUWT, over at the COLA/IGES website, they had this response to the disappeared letter to the Obama administration calling for RICO act investigations of climate skeptics:
WUWT reader Dean P. writes in comments on the WUWT story from earlier today:
The updated website says that they’ve been planning to shut down IGES for over two years now. That makes no sense since in October 2013 they were awarded NSF Grant #1338427, which started in May 2014 and is expected to continue into 2017. Does that mean they were planning to shutter the doors while they were still applying for grants? Did they tell the NSF that they planned on shutting down?
As others have said – something smells fishy…
Fishy? I’ll say, that award was updated in June 2015, to the tune of over 4 million dollars (yellow highlights mine):
It seems this is an active grant, good for another two years. It is important to note the name James Kinter in that NSF page, who is part of the Shukla nepotism empire:
IGES Personnel:
President Shukla, Jagadish
Business Manager Shukla, Anastasia
Assistant Business Manager Shukla, Sonia
Director, COLA Kinter, James
Assistant to the President Shukla, Sonia
Source: http://www.iges.org/aboutiges.html
…and so far, that four million dollar plus NSF grant has produced only one paper. From the NSF grant page:
ABSTRACT
This award provides continued funding for the Center for Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Studies (COLA). COLA is a climate science research center established to explore, establish and quantify the variability and predictability of Earth’s climate variations on seasonal to decadal time scales, and to harvest this predictability for societally beneficial predictions. The Center is jointly funded by NSF, NOAA and NASA.
Work supported through this award includes activities devoted to 1) basic research on predictability on intraseasonal, seasonal, interannual, and decadal timescales; 2) evaluation of the predictability, skill, and fidelity of US national climate models; and 3) contributions to the development of next generation seamless prediction systems. Research performed under item 1 includes testing of land data assimilation schemes in multiple models, performing hindcasts of El Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events investigate inter-event diversity of ENSO, performing dynamical prediction experiments for the Indian monsoon, and determining the dependence of drought probability on surface boundary conditions including land cover change. Work under item 2 focuses on the use of optimal spatial structures derived from information theoretic analysis, which represent the most predictable modes, or modes for which predictability differs the most between two models. This activity is intended to support climate prediction efforts at US national centers and contribute to COLA’s research-to-operations effort. Work under item 3 involves collaborators at the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) and includes the development of optimal methods of initializing high-resolution coupled models including version 2 of the Coupled Forecast System (CFSv2), a model used operationally at NCEP.
The work has broader impacts due to its focus on research leading to improved climate prediction, given the substantial societal consequences of climate variability and change. In addition, COLA benefits the US climate research enterprise through community integration, education, seminars, workshops, and software and information services. COLA also serves an important function in transferring the results of basic climate science research on predictability and prediction into operational use.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
Badger, A. M., and P. A. Dirmeyer. “Climate response to Amazon forest replacement by heterogeneous crop cover.,” Hydrol. Earth Sys. Sci., v.12, 2015, p. 879.
Source: http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1338427
Now, you might say that COLA isn’t the same as the IGES organization, and that might be true on paper, but the fact is that the http://iges.org website, soon to be “decommissioned” according to them, shows clearly that COLA and IGES are part of the same group, all under George mason University: (yellow highlight mine)
Note the COLA page is a sub-page of the IGES website:
With 4 million dollars and counting, good to 2017 according to NSF’s own grant page, the claim of the IGES/COLA website being “decommissioned” just doesn’t make any sense. It doesn’t wash. And, with a web page that still looks like it was designed in 1995, one wonders why Shukla’s clan didn’t put some of that money towards making a decent web page. After all, they only were able to make ONE paper with that 4 million dollars, according to NSF.
It gets better. Have a look at their staff page:
Source: http://www.iges.org/people/people.html
Lest Shukla and associates try to claim that IGES and COLA are somehow separate, their own COLA staff web page puts the issue to rest.
COLA appears to be a subset of the Shukla family run IGES. So if the IGES website was going to be “decommissioned”, and so by shutting down IGES, it would seem that would affect COLA too. I can’t find any plans or announcements on their website that says COLA is going to supplant/survive IGES.
A Google search yields no other “new” web pages for COLA. It only yields the IGES web page and COLA subset and the COLA webpage at George Mason University, which is an exact copy of the IGES/COLA front page:
Then there’s this symposium advert page at GMU:
Source: http://cola.gmu.edu/symposium/
Gosh, a COLA symposium and Shukla’s photo is prominently featured on it? It seems that IGES and COLA are indistinguishable when it comes to Shukla involvement. I wonder if Shukla predicted at that symposium on chaos, the current chaos he’s in the middle of as a result of the now disappeared RICO20 letter?
Let’s go back to the claim they uploaded in place of the disappeared RICO20 letter yesterday.
If COLA is a subset of IGES, and it appears to be so, with the same people running the outfit, their claim of “all research projects were completed in July 2015” seems more than a bit unbelievable. It also seems unbelievable to me that they’d “decommission” the only website (IGES.org) that represents COLA while it is receiving active NSF grants.
There’s quite a gravy train going on there it seems, and as Steve McIntyre pointed out in Shukla’s Gold, it seems there’s quite a bit of double dipping going on, despite GMU policy to the contrary:
Before discussing Shukla’s structure, I’ll first quickly comment on institutional policies, as both the federal agencies (NSF, NOAA, NASA) and the university (George Mason) purport to have policies that prevent double-dipping.
Perhaps the Shukla gravy train is about to be derailed once the true accounting is done. Read McIntyre’s excellent piece Shukla’s Gold, the monetary tentacles run deep and wide on this one, and I’m betting there are a lot of people at GMU, NASA, NOAA, and NSF fretting over damage control right about now.
Note: within about 10 minutes of publication, this article was edited for a spelling correction and a text formatting correction.
UPDATE:
http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/simpleSearchResult?queryText=Jagadish+Shukla
How many millions has this Shukla family organization taken from the American Taxpayer? How much of that money did they spend to create the RICO charge against climate skeptics?
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Popcorn futures are rocketing.
It even says: ” continuing grant “.
How could they possibly plan to shut it down.
I think we may have located our first candidate for RICO-shaying !
Well maybe 20 of them anyhow.
Well the first thing that scuttles off when you turn the lights on is the cockroaches.
And these ones behave just like Madagascar hissing cockroaches.
What a sorry bunch. of miscreants.
g
Sorry, he is still a tenured full professor at MIT, and his only cost has been the loss of two small grantsfrom the commonwealth of Massachusetts. Some cost, that.
Jonathon Gruber went from being a respected statistician who laid the groundwork for ObamaCare, to being a national disgrace after his contemptuous attitude toward the intelligence of voters came to light.
His name became synonymous with government telling obvious lies to dupe the American public (Being “Grubered”.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=grubered
How long before “being Shuklaed” enters the vernacular?
How long?
T plus two days and counting, by my estimate.
Sorry Phillip … Just got to do it …
A family affair.
We get the picture,
We’re in it somewhere.
Permanent fixtures.
People who care.
Stranger beware,
This is a family affair
Apologies to JCC if he’s now some kind of ‘climate warrior’ in his advanced years.
An inquiry will be established by GMU, with all the wrong folks on the panel, and will exonerate the whole lot!!
Dare I say, “Carbon” copy of the climate gate whitewashing job.
…just like UEA and PSU. Maybe GMU can pull a UVA and hide everything.
And Michael Mann will claim it exonerates him too.
I think Climate Change rivals Medicare for the amount of fraud. I would like to see a congressional investigation.
Seriously? All recent Congressional “investigations” resemble Keystone Cops episodes.
You might check into Hillary’s problem to see if the Congressional impact is along the lines of the Keystone cops.
Even with all the lying from her and the State Dept., wiping the server clean with a rag, hiding e mails by both parties from FOIA her ratings have dropped like a stone in public opinion, even with unsuccessful cover up by the MSM..
Did anyone say Enron yet?
Now that you mention it, Enron was instrumental in getting the climate con running. They wanted to trade carbon credits.
The blindness of the Faithful amazes me. Shukla lives in a lavishly funded greehouse and the walls were smashed when he threw the RICO stone. No doubt his Faith includes the expectation that his cronies will circle the wagon; Obama et al.
Can’t wait to see where this leads.
All that cash!?! That’s it. I’m going over to the dark side.
Eh… I need some practice. This gloom and doom stuff takes a little getting used to, but for that kind of moolah, I’ll get the hang of it sooner or later.
My Mother always said I should have gone to climate school
+1
Speaking as a US taxpayer… I’d like my money back from this disgraceful family.
I am just sick and tired of our government giving away our hard earned wages to stupid causes I don’t support whether that be Iran, Planned Parenthood, illegal immigrants, Tesla, farmers, ADM, windmill operators, Solyndra, or even Big Oil who also benefit from a boat load of stupid and unnecessary subsidies.
Is that the “silent majority” I hear screaming?
It definitely ain’t the liberals !!!!!
you forgot tesla
Nope, it’s in the list 😉
Do you mean ” depletion ” allowances; usually referred to as ” depreciation of capital assets ” by ALL ordinary businesses.
Yes I do depreciate my Nikon Cameras and Lenses, which are used for several useful purposes both for my lens design ventures, and also for doing experimental studies of illumination patterns produced by various solid state light sources, and their associated (non-imaging) optics peripherals, that I do a lot of design work (patented) on.
Which agency or agencies of the Federal or State governments actually have budgets that include monies to be paid to “big oil” to help sustain them for some purpose.
Can ” big oil ” buy grocery needs, like wine and beer and T-bone steaks with some sort of corporation EBT card ?? (That’s the ‘ Everybody But Taxpayers ‘ card) ??
Once depletion allowance was accepted by the public as a “subsidy” , its been almost impossible to correct this misconception. The vast majority of the public don’t understand/grasp depletion and depreciation period. And almost a waste of time trying to explain what these terms mean.
A shame but that’s the way it is.
Big oil pays a very large amount of taxes, in fact in 2013 the 2 US businesses that paid the most taxes were Exxon/Mobil which shelled out $31 billion and Chevron which paid $20 billion. This of course does not include the federal and state revenues from tax at the pump on gasoline, heating oil etc. In fact oil companies get little or no subsidy, Like all businesses they can however offset depreciation of capital assets against income just like Joe’s Corner Doughnut Shop.
These grant funded organizations on the other hand are entirely parasitic producing no wealth or incomed but costing you money.
The Federal Treasury gleans (like that word) more moolah from ” Big Oil ” than do the share holders of those companies, who after all are the ones who take the risks.
Keith, The oil fields themselves ;the source of ALL of the value of ” BO “, are the primary capital assets that they depreciate. It’s called the ” Depletion Allowance ” and ALL finite natural resource exploiting industries and businesses account for that.
The whole concept of depletion allowance or ANY depreciation, allowance is for the business to recover (save up) the cost of their assets, IN ORDER TO replace them once they wear out or otherwise disappear.
Without depreciation, all businesses would dry up and die.
An extreme example of the absolute necessity of depreciation is the semi-conductor industry (think micro-processor chips).
When an Intel or other SC company cuts the ribbon on their brand spanking new $100 M wafer fab plant (back in the stone age), it is already obsolete, so the company needs to get cracking on making profits from that plant’s products; because in a couple of years they will have to build a new one, in order to keep on making competitive products to sell, and that new wafer fab is going to cost them $500 M (also stone age) because the technology will have advanced so much further; bigger wafers, smaller geometries, faster memories, bigger, memories, more CPU cores, etc etc. Think ” Moore’s Law “.
Today in 2015, there are VERY few companies in the world, with enough money to build a modern competitive semiconductor wafer fab plant.
And they can’t recover their cost even from depreciation, so it will take massive capital input from the markets to fund that new fab facility, which now are in the multi billions price range.
John Q Citizen, has absolutely no concept of the astronomical pace of development of semi-conductor technology, and the cost of that research and equipment.
The motto of Silicon alley is:
” If it works, it is already obsolete ! ”
g >>> G
Only a Conservative government in 2017 will shine a light on this dark horse of corruption !!!!
Exactly, but you won’t get it. They will spend quadzillians of dollars to keep the Republicans out and the books closed.
Then war is the only answer !!!
Eh… are you guys truly blind enough the believe the Republicans are ANY better? Or did I completely miss the sarcasm??
OOOPS !! ” house of corruption ” !!!
They will be just as corrupt.
Shulka. Sham? Golly!
I’m old enough to barely remember that allusion. Clever, tho.
I wish that WUWT readers would actually read my article – which is careful – before jumping to conclusions that I’ve overlooked something obvious. In my article, I said:
“The most recent grants to IGES Inc. appear to have been made in 2009-2010, though funding under these grants seems to have continued until 2014-2015. ”
I am aware of Grant 1338427, which was listed in my spreadsheet. Yes, it involves Shukla and his associates, but it was made to George Mason University, rather than to IGES. Yes, the precise status of COLA is obscure, but that doesn’t warrant getting mixed up on points that are clear.
I recommend that this post be totally re-written.
If it smells like a fish , acts like a fish and looks like a fish…..it is probably a fish !!!
Unless you use liberal logic ( Common Core ?? )
@ur momisugly Steve I don’t know that anyone accused you of “overlooking something obvious”. I certainly didn’t say that. I will say though, that it is the obscure nature of the whole outfit that raises so many questions. If you have a point of clarification that should be included (beyond the GMU -vs- IGES award point), I’ll certainly welcome your input.
I have to wonder, where are the lines drawn here?
[edited to add @ur momisuglySteve so it was clear who the reply was directed at – Anthony]
Thanks Anthony , I was a little confused on his comment !!!!
@Steve I was going y this in the NSF award.
Yet you say it was awarded to GMU. What did I miss?
Anthony, in the Sponsor item, it states that the Sponsor is George Mason University, not IGES. This is important and, in response to your question, this is what you “missed”. The reference to COLA doesn’t prove what you think.
If you look at all the grants (as I did), you will see that IGES and George Mason both occur as Sponsors. In my analysis, I collated both. I observed that the most recent awards in IGES’ name were in 2009 -2010 and since then all awards have been in the name of George Mason. The award identified in your post was to George Mason, not to IGES. It refers, as you observe, to COLA and – as I observed in my post, George Mason announced that COLA had :joined” GMU, though the precise form of the transaction is somewhat murky.
Nonetheless, there are enough issues here that there’s no point making claims that can be refuted, as they will end up being the only ones that you’ll ever hear about. In my opinion – and I’ve looked at the documents far more closely than your reader – Grant 1338427, made to George Mason, not only does not provide evidence that IGES was continuing, but evidence the other way. Now it is possible that grants sponsored by George Mason were funneled to IGES, but we don’t know that based on the present information.
‘
Anthony – Steve is correct (but need that even be said?). The grant is clearly to GMU. Just seconding his comment.
But it is a tangled web.
Agree. Plus GMU had a PR about COLA being ‘transferred’ to GMU, which suggests it was at that time ‘severed’ from IGES. And the 2014 grants are expressly for work by COLA, with Kinter as P.I.
I think the kids call it a FWB relationship. I.e., you have “transferred” out of the relationship, but you still, um. work with your ex.
I caught that too, Steve. It was to GMU and probably conformed to all of the rules about salary, fringe, and overhead.
The 2014 form 990 for IGES reports almost all revenue ($3.8M) to be sourced from “government grants”. So were their auditors simply being sloppy?
The same 990 states that IGES makes its governing documents, conflict of interest policy and financial statements available to the public upon request. Perhaps those would shed further light on the subject?
That sounds a bit like the circumstances surrounding Willie Soon Yes it involves (insert name here) but it was made to (insert institution here) in that instance it was seen as no defence, why is it different here?
Please tell me this self-serving scamming hypocrite tyrant is an author of salacious romance novels as per Rajendra K. Pachauri. Pachauri was also found to be sexually assaulting female analyst. Shoes are dropping on this guy. How many shoes?
Dr. Jaroslaw Sobieski, Hampton, VA
This Shukla enterprise should be brought to the attention of the President of the George Mason University.
I am confident that he would like to satisfy himself that whatever is going on would not stain the reputable university record.
JS Please do it then…………..
I emailed the George Mason President on September 21. To date I have not had a reply, but then I did not expect to receive one, even though the tone of my message was civil.
It would not surprise me if GMU circled the wagons, and protected the source of grant money. The problem with that idea is all of the government money which did not go to research, but to enrich members of a family.
Of course they circled the wagons! Those boys got a $4 million heifer in there and mob of wild Indians trying to get at it! Did you never play “Academics and Indians” as a kid?
How about bringing it to the attention of the PRESIDENT of the US after all the letter was sent to him.
They have someone called Marx and someone called Benjamin Cash.
Now they’re just mocking us.
LOL…I noticed that too !!!
Thank you Mr Watts for pursuing this
It’s funny, I’ve been reading all these posts about this letter urging Obama to adopt the RICO statute against dissenting voices. And, things seem to be changing by the minute with a few of the signatories; principally Shukla and friends.
Anyway, I took my usual afternoon nap and I had the weirdest dream. I dreamt that Shukla and the other signatories, including Trenberth, were marching in front of the White House chanting:
What do we want?
RICO!
When do we want it?
Now!
What do we want?
RICO!
When do…
But then this wind blew in from Canada, California, and Colorado. And, all of a sudden, the chant emanating from those very same protesters completely changed:
Hey Ho,
Hey Ho,
RICO’s got to go!
Hey Ho,
Hey Ho,
RICO’s got to go!
LOL….
I came late to this rodeo.
Think I need a roadmap.
Yes, liberal eco-terrorists like to blur the money trail !!!!
It’s raining taxpayer funds. Get some for yourself before they send it all to India.
Think I need a roadmap.
I think you’ll get up-chucked spaghetti before this is over.
When do they start issuing stock? It has the growth rate of a fast start up biz.
You can only buy stock if you vote for Obama….. for a third time !!!
I don’t think we’ll have that option. Voting, that is.
Thanks for the work, Anthony. This looks so bad that if it wasn’t for our experience with Climategate I’d expect it to break the Team’s ranks.
Riddle me this Batman — Where are all the pitchfork and torch carrying critics who lambasted Willie Soon et al? If Dr. Soon had done what Dr. Shukla has done here, the firestorm would consume several network news broadcasts and half the newspapers in America.
The entire world is about to change in a severe way, and it will not be in the direction Agenda 21 had hoped for !!!
I’ll be at the front of that.
More evidence I’m on the wrong side of the issue. 🙁
LOL…love your video’s
BUT…personal integrity and honesty is worth much more than monetary gain !!!!!
I salute you !!!
“personal integrity and honesty is worth much more than monetary gain”
Perhaps.
But it sure does not spend as easy.
You can always start a go-fund-me entry. 🙁 🙁
More evidence I’m on the wrong side of the issue.
I would stay just where you are. It may not be as well ‘compensated’ but I’m not sure that I would want to exchange places with (the) Shukla(s) just now.
Just think about the value of a good night’s sleep and you’ll feel better.
Roy Spencer,
You aren’t on any side that I can see. You are practicing science based a philosophy of science using objective principles and critically applied reasoning; that is not a side. But there are also philosophies of science based on subjective principles and subjective beliefs /thinking; that is not a side. This is the 2,500++ year old intellectual issue of objective vs subjective thinking, there are no sides but there are significant consequences caused by which approach is implemented.
John
good point. I try to show that there’s another way to look at the data which others aren’t mentioning.
Well there you go Dr. Roy.
What makes you think there is an issue to be on a side of? What if it makes the sound of one hand clapping ?
G
I’m glad I only design hardware. Every time you turn it on, you know whether you got it right or not.
And if not, you might still be able to use it as a door stop.
The trouble with doing climate experimental work is that nothing ever happens again, so you only get one shot at it, and then it’s tomorrow.
But they seem to spend more of their time changing yesterday’s numbers than they do worrying about correctly getting today’s numbers.
g
This is called “who you know” type grant writing to NSF.
Sigh, I guess it is to soon for the government to ask Dr Shukla and crew for their passports.
Have they already flown the coop?
michael
I believe the Bishop’s expression is ‘snouts in the trough’.
What a lovely bunch of grifters.
Now, I’d be inclined to think that Dr Shukla is less a leader than a follower, and some spelunking through the rest of the alarmist karst would likely turn up other institutions every bit as dirty as COLA/IGES..
Don’t be silly , only CO2 is dirty !!!
Ask a liberal !!!
Oh dear God I did it as a joke, I looked it up …its real
http://www.dummies.com/store/product/Grant-Writing-For-Dummies-5th-Edition.productCd-1118834666,navId-322436.html
“grant writing for DUMMIES” I’m going to go weep, then laugh then scream
michael
I’m gonna be rich !!!!
But first I have to puke !!
Do we have to first find a way to unlearn everything we know?
I think that, even if I made a conscious decision to “go crooked” for the money, I would not be able to actually keep up the façade in daily life.
Certainly not in doing research, or writing up a study, or issuing a report.
I would stink as a climate con artist.
First you must “fool yourself to better fool others”.
As explained here:
http://www.biofortified.org/2012/02/fooling-yourself-to-better-fool-others/
Maybe there is a similar one for grantors – “Granting for Dummies – get the science you want”
This scandal perfectly illustrates what I’ve been saying for years. The climate extremists have been getting away with criminal behaviour because they were protected by the press. But as soon as any decent journalists starts digging, because they have been so arrogant about their untouchability , the journalist will find a goldmine of dirt.
SKEPTIC ??
No Sceptic!!
Alba gu bràth
In Britain it is spelt sceptic! Like we say ‘maths’.
And lorry, lift, and my personal favorite…aluminium.
Honourable mention for words spelt differently go to colour, flavour, aeroplane, anaethesia, arse, and authorise.
I apologise for any mouldy pretence, but the cheque is in the mail.
I have to go now, before my savoury supper is spoilt.
Oops…cheque in the post.
Glad I own this ‘puter, and do not let it.
And its burgled, not burglarized.
And the reason the British say ” SHEDULE ” instead of ” SKEDULE ” is,
because they have a much better ” SHOOL ” system.
g