From the Chicago Tribune, August 3, 2008
PERSON OF INTEREST RAJENDRA PACHAURI
By Michael Hawthorne
Story link: Blunt answers about risks of global warming
Note: Photo changed to this one at 4:40PM PST 8/3/08 due to previous one inviting negative comments about Pachauri’s personal appearance. – Anthony
Rajendra Pachauri isn’t nearly as famous as Al Gore, who shared the Nobel Peace Prize with an international panel on climate change that Pachauri, an Indian scientist and economist, has led since 2002. But as chairman of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Pachauri has an urgent message for world leaders about the perils of global warming. He talked to the Tribune recently while he was in town to meet with Mayor Richard Daley and Chicago civic leaders. An edited transcript follows.
Excerpts:
Q: What do you think about the small but vocal group of doubters still out there
Pachauri Answer: There is, even today, a Flat Earth Society that meets every year to say the Earth is flat. The science about climate change is very clear. There really is no room for doubt at this point.
Q: What have you done personally to shrink your carbon footprint?
A: I’ve become a vegetarian. I try to minimize the use of cars. Where I’ve failed is my impact with regard to air travel. I tell people I was born a Hindu who believes in reincarnation. It will take me the next six lives to neutralize my carbon footprint. There’s no way I can do it in one lifetime
Climate Diversity
Do you have any stories that illustrate how any of your ancestors adapted to the climate diversity of the past? Of course this includes parents, grandparents and others from journals, letters or other family documents? I’m sure i am not the only person that would like to hear these stories of climate variety that our families endured.
Mr. Corcoran, you write to me:
“Paul K: For my own part I don’t engage in uncivil, ad-hominem attacks… except against those like Dr. Pachauri & Dr. Hansen, who want me in an eco-gulag along with anyone who can read a thermometer or interpret a chart.”
Hmm, very similar statement was given by Mr. Bill O’Reilly, who appears on Fox News (unfortunately supported by my money, because I subscribe to a cable TV package):
“I don’t want to go on a lynching party against Michelle Obama, UNLESS of course, this is how the woman really feels!” He then goes on to explain why she deserves it.
And so we have one of the most popular news figures of our day, who wants to lynch the WIFE of a Senator and presidential candidate. Do you know what lynch means? It means he wants to participate in and incite a mob of people to chase down and murder a woman he doesn’t like!
[snip -sorry, moveon.org is not a site we link to here]
Is that what America has come to? We can now treat anyone we don’t like in an inhuman way? This is what you seem to be advocating.
REPLY: Ok everybody, lets all settle down a bit, we are getting too much ad hom and too far offtopic on both sides – Anthony
Charles the moderator:
I was remarking on what I mistakenly thought was your request for posters not to comment on Raj’s religeon, but then re-read your request an realise that you requested no comments on his appearance, sorry. It was others who claimed these remarks on creed were out of line. My error.
Isn’t that great? We can wait till the next life to repay our carbon sins.
Paul K, I’m leaving that second post embargoed as well. As far as I’m concerned it adds nothing, brings in irrelevancies, and projects the general from the specific. But again, I’ll leave it to Anthony to decide.
But I do agree with the point that a more civil, respectful discussion is warranted.
The criticism of ad hominem attacks would be apropriate in normal circumstances but, in this case, the head of the IPCC started it with his flat earth denunciation. Turnabout is fair play.
In response to Mike Bryant (13:48:17) :
“Pachauri needs seven lifetimes, Gore says WE need only ten years.”
Ten years can be several lifetimes if one is reincarnated in a lower form of life; to be honest, I can’t think of one lower than the head of the IPCC at the moment.
Regarding an earlier post about the July CO2 from Mauna Loa, I checked the link and the actual data:
Oct. 2007 384.46 ppm
July 2008 384.54 ppm
Up only 0.08 ppm in last 10 months. It’ll be interesting to see the Aug. data.
Amen Aviator
Jeez thanks for the moderation because we are so often immoderate…
Hey, if I can give Anthony time with his kids that’s worth it.
Also, I built a modeling website for a friend of mine while doing this today so it’s not a total loss.
Tom in Texas,
How many times has the July number been LESS than the January number?
CO2, that is.
Adapting to Climate Diversity,
Mike in Texas
This chap has already been discredited by his own government and academy of science. See Larry Solomon’s report on the G8 discussions with India. The conclusion of the Academy was that here is no proof of AGM, India’s climate has varied over the past, some himalayan glaciers are growing some shrinking and the monsoon is no more drier or wetter than normal. Further more the Govt is not willing to give up growth and prosperity for ephemeral benefits which could hurt millions of people. They say the west should do it and leave India alone until it attains western affluence. Vegetarian indeed!!
It is interesting to note that this blog seems to always draw a troll or two from MoveOn or one of the other AGW propaganda sites whenever there is a outrage thread, but these trolls never seem to never participate on the threads that focus on the science supporting the need to take a skeptical approach to AGW. In fact, they act as if they deny that those threads have even existed.
Humor aside, I take offense at being labeled a denier, a climate criminal, a flat-earther, etc… These context loaded labels are intentionally used to imply that I refuse to evaluate the facts supporting AGW as spoon-fed to the masses by Gore, et al. But the truth of the matter is that I force myself to be open to being convinced by the pro-AGW arguments and despite this willingness, I remain unconvinced.
I am a skeptic and that means I think for myself. If that threatens some people and they don’t like it, too bad.
I looked up the CO2 monthly means at Mauna Loa. It seems that the July mean has never been less than the preceeding January mean (in recorded history), except for this year.
Adjusting Myself to Climate Diversity,
Mike
REPLY: I’ve been looking the data tonight and have come to the same conclusion, look for a post soon. – Anthony
Below are the comments I posted on chicagotribune.com.
This interview perplexes me for several reasons, some of which are listed below.
1. Dr. Pauchari refers to scientists such as Drs. Lindzen, Pielke, and Spencer as “Flat Earthers”with nary a rejoinder from you.
2. He implies that the US (our country) should immediately take draconian measures while developing countries like India (his country) be given a pass for some indefinite time, using a rationale based upon his sense of social justice. Assuming that the rise in greenhouse gasses is a danger to our planet, it makes no difference where it originates! How serious can he be about his stated sense of danger?
3. I suggest you get the available information about the time-dependent frequency of severe weather events so you can challenge these claims that we are currently experiencing more of them. Most of the claims are conditional, for example if the temperature rises, we may experience more severe hurricanes. In point of fact, there is no trend in hurricane severity.
If Mauna Loa CO2 has indeed dropped, it will be interesting to see if the AGWers claim 1) Kyoto is working, 2) this is why 2008 was a cool year and 3) we need to cut even more C02 now that we know it is working to keep the planet cool!
AIRS will soon be turning the assumptions of uniformity of atmospheric CO2 on its collective head and so I am holding my breath before speculating on a cause for any CO2 drop.
The July CO2 mean has actually been a little more than the FOLLOWING January mean more than several times especially in the earlier years.
Acclimatizing to Climate Acclimatization,
Mike Bryant
Dee
I don’t think the drop is enough to support those claims. But who knows? It doesn’t have to be logical only saleable.
Becoming Fit for all Climate Outcomes,
Mike
Leif beat me to it.
(The guy who believes in reincarnation is going on about flat-earthers, is he? Oh, the irony.)
Never met an economist who was right more than 50% of the time.
Actually, Herman Kahn’s economic predictions were astoundingly accurate. (No, wait. He wasn’t an economist, he was a physicist!)
@Mike
Agreed. Saleability is the key concept in propaganda. weither you are selling snake oil or AGW, you still need to dress the product so the buyer wants to believe it.
I doubt the drop even exists globally. The whole concept of assuming that CO2 is uniformly distributed in the atmosphere is starting to become questionable.
If the drop is confirmed, my gut says cooling SST, but I hesitate to jump on that ship until a single drop becomes a trend.
Pauchari is one of the people atempting to recast any possible debate as one between sensible normal people and “others.” He will probably succeed. In recent history there has been an ongoing attempt by creationists to “debate” evolution. Scientists of any repute whatsoever refuse to do so; it’s pointless (you can’t exactly debate fact.)
On the NYT dot earth site there is a telling post from a Sociologist PhD named Brulle from Drexel Univ discussing media failure, who says “The right wing strategy, well documented in numerous studies, is to try to sow doubt, highlight the conflict between different scientists (even over trivial items), in an attempt to convince the public that global warming is not a certainty. “
This dovetails Pauchari. On the one side we have science and ideological purity, and on the other, the right wing. Don’t believe me? Replace “global warming” in the quote with “evolution.” Oh dear. I’ve heard this before. So have you. And when this statement is about evolution, it makes sense, and it’s true to a point (well, not really true but the right wing *is* bad about hopping into the sack with fundamentalists and the media portrays this constantly, so it’s true enough.)
So what we have here is the mechanism by which this is known to be a left/right type of problem. Yeah I know there are skeptical lefties, and so does he. But that’s not the point. He’s painting (with a broad brush) the big picture of skeptics being the same group as creationists. Since the media already pounds this image and this is an article of faith (heh) among many of the left, it’s working… and it will continue to work.
I can guarantee this — it’s going to continue to work and because it does we will all continue to hear this same recasting. It will even get worse, and this will continue until such time as the right is no longer associated with the fundamentalists.
The Viscount Monckton of Brenchley (hereafter referred to as TVMOB), who inherited his title, has been challenging Al Gore, who won a Nobel prize, to a debate for years now.
Actually, the Monck is an official IPCC reviewer and had pointed out factors which resulted in substantial changes in the AR4 supplement earlier this year (a large reduction in sea level predictions).
So he is a co-winner of that same IPCC Nobel Beauty Prize. (Unlike Gore, he actually earned his piece of it.)
How can I check to see if I have a carbon credit carry forward from my previous 6 lives?
be sure you use the discount rate from the Stern Review. That way you get the most future bang for your bucks!
Evan Jones
Didn’t Monckton find some sums that had apparently been trifled with to make the results a little more catastrophic?
MIke
all congratulate themselves on how smart they are, and complain about how foolish scientists look.
Our scientists can beat up your scientists.