From the You Just Can’t Make This Stuff Up Department.
[update, yeah the headline is inaccurate, it is simply reflecting the original story headline from BIGGOVERNMENT.com ~ ctm]
Former Apartheid Spy Appointed to Head UN Climate Change Effort
From BIGGOVERNMENT.com
This week, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, South Africa’s tourism minister, was nominated to head the United Nations Framework on Climate Change (UNFCC). Van Schalkwyk is a former apartheid operative who bartered his way into the black majority government by helping it smear its democratic opposition. He is a statist bureaucrat who is one of the most unpopular political figures in the new South Africa. He is just right for the job.
There is no one better to put in charge of the entire political enterprise of climate change as it is collapsing amidst failed negotiations and accusations of fraud. Van Schalkwyk will be sure to hasten the end. He did the same when he took over the rump of South Africa’s National Party, the party of apartheid, and led it to crushing defeat. He gave up and joined the African National Congress (ANC) government in return for his ministry.
That was bad news for South Africans, as Van Schalkwyk encouraged other politicians to defect from the country’s leading opposition parties to join the corrupt and hegemonic ANC. (An angry public began referring to those who crossed the floor for political favors as “crosstitutes.”) But it is good news for critics of the UN climate change bureaucracy, who now have a target who personifies everything there is to dislike about the system.
The worldwide “consensus” on climate change is unraveling amidst mounting evidence that the UN and senior scientists manipulated the data to suit their predictions of rapid warming and their prescriptions for drastic intervention in the global economy. It is, of course, true that carbon dioxide is a “greenhouse gas” that helps warm the earth; it is true that we have pumped more of it into the atmosphere since the industrial revolution.
It is also true that there is evidence of increasing average global surface temperatures over the same time period, and reason to believe that trend could continue over the next century. But it is also true that there are other factors affecting global climate, including some that reduce temperatures. And it is also true that our most sophisticated computer models cannot predict how warmer temperatures will affect our climate in the future.
That wasn’t good enough for those eager to create a sense of alarm. They projected worst-case scenarios and tried to convince the world that the potential costs of future warming far outweighed the costs of shutting down whole industries. They never explained whether climate change could actually be reversed; they did not need to, as long as they could scare people enough to avoid having to answer tough questions.
Read the rest of the article here.
HT/ a friend at Bloomberg ~ ctm
“there is evidence of increasing average global surface temperatures over the same time period, and reason to believe that trend could continue over the next century”
There is no reason to believe that warming would continue for the next century. There is only if you pretend, wrongly, that all natural climate cycles and factors other than CO2 are cancelled. Of course, this is wrong.
Also, correlation does not mean causation. There are several scientific reasons that CO2 cannot drive the climate.
1) Beer’s Law indicates clearly that CO2’s heat-trapping effect (“greenhouse” is inappropriate and wrong) is largely exhausted (90-95%) and doubling it will have inconsequential effects, ignoring its huge greening of the world and added food production we so much need.
2) CO2 and absolute water vapor levels interact such that water vapor varies inversely to CO2 such that the heat-trapping effect is a constant. Voila! CO2 is inconsequential/irrelevant to our climate. See the work of Miskolczi and Zagoni in the atmospheric heat flux, CO2 and water vapor. Its an eye-opener and a very recent development in the last 5 years.
He is perfect. The U.N. has has Iran and North Korean head the human rights commission so he fits right in.
If anyone doubts the UN’s competency, then they should recall this:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/evil/warning/
The UN was informed ahead of time about the possibility of a Hutu extermination of Tutsis, and chose instead to have the informant who was trying to stop the bloodshed report the planned genocide to the President of Rwanda, who was in the group planning it. This is equivalent to the FBI sending a mob informant to his Don to report a crime.
And we are supposed to trust people this incompetent because….?
Charles Higley (19:24:24) :
1) Beer’s Law indicates clearly that if you can pour a Guinness without a head in less than 60 seconds, then the Guinness contains no CO2.
2) Its an eye-opener that Miskolczi and Zagoni will drink it anyway for its heat-trapping effect.
We are, by the way, talking about a genocide event that cost up to 1,000,000 people their lives over a 100 day span. The general estimate is 500,000-1,000,000, but a range that large generally tells me that no one has a clue how many other than a very large number. Still, if we take the low end of this estimate, that is 3.5 people slaughtered per minute. We are talking about women and children involved also.
Thanks UN, for being there when we needed you!
From the South African publication Financial Mail, 18 October 2002 –
[note: kortbroek – definition – In [Afrikaans], means “shorty.” It is the nickname for the spineless rat Marthinus Van Schalkwyk.]
True to his “Kortbroek” nickname, NNP leader Marthinus van Schalkwyk was spotted behaving like a child at Cape Town International airport last Thursday.
Fellow passengers in the VIP lounge say Kortbroek sent a series of minders to insist he be given a row of business class seats to himself on a scheduled flight to Johannesburg. Airline staff tried to explain that business class was full, but the minders insisted someone give up their seat. Van Schalkwyk was too important to have someone sitting next to him, they said.
Finally, when the chief minder growled: “My boss says you will do as he wants,” he was met with the reply: “My boss is not your boss.”
Also, in the vein of the Rwandan debacle for the UN, what is the UN’s purpose? Well, according to Chapter 1, Article 1, Section 1, it is to:
“To maintain international peace and security, and to that end: to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace, and for the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace, and to bring about by peaceful means, and in conformity with the principles of justice and international law, adjustment or settlement of international disputes or situations which might lead to a breach of the peace.”
In South Africa (where I live) this “man” van Schalkwyk is known as “Kortbroek” (which translates as “Shortypants”). A politician in the worst sense of the word, who sold out the party he led in return for a cushy job as minister of tourism. He is very unpopular in SA, and I think he will make himself unpopular no matter where he goes.
I live in South Africa and can tell you first hand that van Schalkwyk doesn’t have 2 brain cells to rub together. He predicted 3 years that Western Cape, where I live, would be drier with immediate effect and that all the farmers in the area needed to move east where the rain belt would move because of AGW. Ever since then we have had 3 of the wettest winters in recent years, the dams are full, and the farmers are smiling. The location east of us that van Schalkwyk pinpointed as the agricultural center has been struck with drought. He got it wrong all the around. The only reason the South African regime is pushing this cause is because they are holding the begging bowl out once again. What will the masses here say when they finally learn that the government that promised them everything under the sun is now trying to withhold electricity and further development all because of some bogus cause?
@Patrick Guinness (15:22:11) :
“9 March: Sify: Scientists figure out way to convert CO2 into carbon monoxide using visible light
“The method was developed by University of Michigan biological chemist Steve Ragsdale, along with research assistant Elizabeth Pierce and scientists led by Fraser Armstrong from the University of Oxford in the UK.
http://sify.com/news/scientists-figure-out-way-to-convert-co2-into-carbon-monoxide-using-visible-light-news-international-kdjpEfjadjj.html
Yes, that makes sense. Take a harmless trace gas / plant food and convert it into an extremely toxic gas using an undisclosed amount of energy.
Then, in turn, you can generate electricity or hydrogen using the CO.
End product of the latter process? Why, a harmless trace gas (CO2) which also
is plant food! How cool is that!
So are they suggesting that this is some kind of magical energy creation process or what?
Buffoons!
Martinus will fit in perfectly at the UN. Take it from a Zimbabwean who knows this clown.
He is an opportunistic, lying, arrogant, ignorant, selfish bastard who continually morphs into the requirement of the day. He will not hesitate to advance the agenda of his paymaster while ignoring facts, truth, ethics or self respect. He is the very personification of the UN man.
The UN is the obvious home for such a man and should ACGW result in sea levels rising then I hope it happens fast enough and in such a localized way that the big box that the 2001 Monolith came in is submerged in seconds.
This guy is scum.
Schalkwyk on the diplomatic shuttle, Ehrlich manning the crystal ball. The climate shell game is in worse shape than it knows. With friends like these ….
Katabasis (16:10:36) :
Sorry, O/T but had to share this. George Monbiot (…)
Of late George seems to be alienating both wings of the church. The zealots because he won’t support their fantasy hobbit world and the more traditional Guardian audience who want their consciences soothed as long as it comes with a guaranteed ROI. (and for both, this latest robbery has it all)
“Enter Van Schalkwyk. He was given the ministry of environmental affairs and tourism in 2004 despite having no prior background or interest in environmental science. He has retained his cabinet position and made a name for himself in the international climate change community through his talent as a deal-broker and his shrewd sense of political opportunity. The occult world of climate change negotiations will suit his skills perfectly.”
“The occult world”. This sent shivers down my spine, cause it is.
A self serving propagandist with smear tactics as his speciality?
Seems just right for a job in the climate industry.
Another Saffer here, and i’m embarrased. Yes, we call this monkey kortbroek, because he is a child.
Unfortunately for climate science, he is a self serving coward. He will do and say whatever he is told to, with preference for his personal comfort.
And yes, not even the ANC want him around here, can’t trust the bugger.
peace
“Katabasis (16:10:36) :
[…]
George Monbiot, when asked by one of the commenters on his latest article, what it would take to persuade him that he was wrong says:
“A preponderance of evidence showing that manmade climate change isn’t happening: ie the opposite of the current situation.”
”
How disgusting – a person who makes his living with personal attacks on skeptics pretends to be open for evidence; spouting venom all the time. So as soon as evidence to the contrary occurs he directs his venomous attacks into the opposite direction? Disgusting.
I have just read this astonishing piece by Monbiot
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cif-green/2010/mar/08/belief-in-climate-change-science
He seems to be having some sort of hysterical episode and asking what it would take to make skeptics believe is just absurd. He surely knows that all we want is some unequivocal scientific proof that . . .
1. The climate is indeed changing by getting warmer.
2. That CO2 is causing this warming.
3. That man made contributions to the atmospheric CO2 content are important.
4. That reducing man made CO2 will result in a beneficial change to our climate.
So far, and I have read a huge amount on both sides of these arguments, there has been nothing of any “solid” nature that does these things. Not for me ,because I am just a dilettante and an amateur, but for those big brains who are able to analyze and understand the claims and then dismantle them effectively and convincingly.
His “woe , woe” the poor scientists are misunderstood is just BS. I understand the folk here at WUWT and elsewhere and their analysis seems very accessible while the waffle and flannel on RealClimate and AR4 and all those places is just insubstantial and lightweight.
I know that this has been a long battle, 20 years or more now, but surely these “pharisees” can be stopped now. They are being backed by politicians , who while being powerful , are just there by the grace and favor of us the electorate.
Grrrrr !
Was he “appointed” or “anointed” by the UN, my glasses are rubbish!
Slightly OT but some classic sitting on the fence, circling of wagons, politically correct comments and leading from behind. You can hear the body language especially at 6:00 into this interview this morning with Sir Martin Rees, President of the FRS in UK when asked about leadership of IPCC.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8559000/8559209.stm
This makes about as much sense as making Tony Blair Middle East Peace Envoy… oh, wait…
re Martyn (01.24)
Neither appointed or annointed. Nominated as a potential appointee is the correct situation.
Therefore, the headline is misleading.
Yes, it takes special characters if you want to screw humanity big time!
Re King of cool,
yeah I heard hansen and the other shill and yup sick bags were mandatory!
trying to post comments to ABC with a pro sceptic view is near impossible.
I am disgusted and embarrassed at our so called non partisan broadcaster.
[snip]
Try again, without the “denialist”language. ~dbs, mod.
James F. Evans (14:25:25) :
“This man is no Nelson Mandela.”
Or Archbishop Tutu.