When Oxburgh produced a 5 page report on the UEA/CRU Climategate issue, we immediately say it as “spartan”, while some called it “efficient”. We wondered how such a small report could be done with a team of people and 2-3 weeks of time. The secret it turns out, is to focus on making sure that coffee, lunch, and “working dinners” are prominently part of the whirlwind schedule. Oh, and to be sure not to interview anyone one-on-one. Josh of Cartoons by Josh writes:
Steve’s post yesterday had me chortling away this morning. I too had got the impression that the whole Oxburgh team were in Norwich for around 2-3 weeks. To see the actual schedule was just too funny.
Yeah, I’ll say. See Josh’s new cartoon below.
Steve McIntyre writes:
Through FOI requests, we have obtained the actual schedule of the Oxburgh panel online here.
Here is the actual schedule for the panel hearings in Norwich on April 7-8.
9:30 a.m. – 9.45 a.m. Taxi to CRU (drop off Zicer Layby) Met by Acting Director, CRU Prof Peter Liss and Jacqui Churchill, VCO Coffee and Tour round CRU
9.45 a.m. – 10.45 a.m. Meeting with Phil Jones, Tim Osborn and team in CRU Library 30 minute presentation by Phil Jones followed by questions
10.45-11.00 am Coffee served in CRU library
11.00-12:30 pm Discussion – CRU Library
12:30-1:30 pm LUNCH for panel members – room number 00.2 CRU
1:30-3:30 pm Discussion – CRU Library
3.30-4.30 pm If needed: follow-up meeting with Phil Jones and Peter Liss
4.30-5.30 pm Panel private meeting
5.30 pm Peter Liss to chaperone Panel to Zicer Layby for taxis to hotel
7.00 p.m. Working Dinner at Caistor Hall
Thursday 8 April
8.45am- 9.00 a.m. Taxi to CRU (drop off Zicer Layby). Met by Acting Director, CRU Prof Peter Liss Coffee in CRU
9.15 a.m. – 10.45 a.m. Meeting with Phil Jones, Tim Osborn and team in CRU Library
10.45-11.00 am Coffee served in CRU library
11.00-12:30 pm Discussion – CRU Library
12:30-1:30 pm LUNCH for panel members – Sainsbury Centre, Garden Restaurant – Jacqui to collect and escort
1.30 p.m. – 3.00 p.m. Final Meeting
3.00 p.m. – 3.30 p.m. Coffee + Depart in taxis from Zicer Layby
Travel arrangements (obtained through FOI) show that this schedule was adhered to. Oxburgh arrived in Norwich at 6:30 pm on the evening of April 6 and had a train reservation back to Cambridge at 3.40 pm on April 8.
More here.
And of course, Oxburgh never interviewed anyone who was critical of CRU.
Will you all please lay off the British Coffee, the only reason you mercans are drinking the stuff is because we cut off your tea supply a while back 😉
@Huxley, 10:47 am: This has always been primarily a wide-ranging public policy debate and only tangentially about science, although obviously, the science was chosen to conform to pre-existing notions. Therefore, there can be no “debate” in the true sense of the word. If one breaks out on one of their websites, of course they quash it. Once they declared the debate over, their response could only be scorn, insults, a few cherry-picked facts and finally, censorship.
Truth, transparency and the scientific method have long ago left the barn.
I really really hope EAU is reading all this….
So they understand how low their reputation is sunken….they just can`t help themselves embarrassments comes natural to them!! 🙂 Is England totally corrupt these days ??
Me and Mr.Jones…..
we got a thing going on
We both know that it’s wrong
But it’s much too strong to let it cool down now. ….
Be afraid, be very afraid. From Oxburgh’s current bio..
http://www.parliament.uk/biographies/ernest-oxburgh/27143
So he’s a ‘peer’ of the committee that interviewed him yesterday. Establishment man, safe pair of hands, bit under the weather yesterday so didn’t manage a blinder that day. Not to worry, we’ll produce a corrected response in a few days.
Or we should worry, especially given closing comments about how the upper and lower houses could prevent this kind of mess repeating by changing our FOI rules. That way they can try to hide the decline in science a while longer. Hopefully.
(Oh, and we can make decent coffee. We do have whole milk. We’re not usually allowed to drink it in a library though, especially if our work can’t be reproduced)
I am indebted to Jimbo for providing the intriguing link showing the interests of Lord Oxburgh.
Let us try to find a way through the convoluted path this reveals.
Lord Oxburgh is Honorary president of the CSA (Carbon Capture and Storage Association)
http://www.ccsassociation.org.uk/about_ccsa/staff.html
and also of the renewables co Falk renewables
http://www.falckrenewables.com/
According to its website, as of November 2009 ‘the Association benefits from a close working relationship with the UK Government and European Commission in developing an appropriate regulatory framework for CCS and influencing policy developments on an international level.’
http://www.powerbase.info/index.php?title=Carbon_Capture_and_Storage_Association#Funding
The co secretary of the CSA is David Green o.b.e who is described as a renewables lobbyist
http://www.powerbase.info/index.php?title=David_Green_(renewables_lobbyist)
Interestingly he is also Chief Executive of the UK Council for sustainable energy
http://www.powerbase.info/index.php?title=UK_Business_Council_for_Sustainable_Energy
‘The UKBCSE was established in May 2001 as a business lobby to the World Summit on Sustainable Development. Representing the main energy providers in the UK it has become a reputable body on the potential for renewable energy in Britain and has close government connections.’
As stated in the link above;
Quote: ‘he (David Green) is also company secretary to the Carbon Capture and Storage Association (since 2005) also in the same building suggesting a revolving door with potential conflicts of interest.’
To complete the story we can do no better than repeat the comments of our poster Tenuc.
“Lord Oxburgh Appointed Non-Executive Director and to become Chairman in 2007
D1 Oils plc (D1), the UK-based global producer of biodiesel, is pleased to announce the appointment of Lord Oxburgh as a Non-Executive Director of the Company with the intention that he becomes Chairman in early 2007. When Lord Oxburgh succeeds to the Chairmanship, the present Chairman, Karl E. Watkin, will remain as a Non-Executive Director of the Company.
Lord Oxburgh is a long-standing public advocate of the need to address climate change issues. He served as the Non-Executive Chairman of Shell Transport and Trading plc from 2004 to 2005, during which time he took a close interest in the company’s environmental technologies. Since then, Lord Oxburgh has been an adviser to Climate Change Capital, a specialist investment banking group focused on companies and financial institutions affected by the policy and capital market responses to climate change.”
If we follow the virtuous circle this reveals, we have Lord Oxburgh-the Honorary President of a lobby group for carbon capture (CCSA) who is Chairman of two renewable energy companies-windfarms and biofuels- and is an investment adviser for companies involved in climate change. He has strong UK Govt connections and operates from the same building as the UK council for sustainable development-whose Chief Executive is Co secretary of the CCSA. He was chairman of an enquiry set up to examine CRU, whose ‘evidence’ that the world is warming would benefit the aims of …err.
You fill in the missing sentences but I am sure it is all entirely innocent
Tonyb
Milwaukee Bob said :
Bob, your imperialism is showing! The Queens Lane Coffee House (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen%27s_Lane_Coffee_House), established in 1654, is still in operation today.
Of course the coffee served at these types of gathering is usually cra.. rubbish. Much like it is here in the states.
I am sure the 5 pages were written before the meeting. Can’t allow clerical work to distract from a fun that was had by all at a mutual addoration society meeting.
@Ken (“It must have been quite an effort to stretch out that report to a full five pages.”)
Nah. I can knock out five pages on any topic you care to name easy…
1. Cover Page
2. Revision History
3. Table of Contents
4. Introduction
5. Summary
I’m English, although I don’t know M’Lord Oxburgh personally. I drink ‘coffee’ as we poor souls – survivors of the Siamese Twins – Blair Brown – experiment in enriching through pauperisation – know it (probably grated roast squirrels dangley bits, if I look at the label, according to some of our non-English correspondents, possibly correctly – but it does perk me up in the morning!).
I still find the Oxbrugh report – much highlighted in the media as, mostly, “CRU Innocent but dilatory” – one of the best whitewashes since the Kelly murder or suicide report. NB Tony B.Liar is Innocent. His book proves that. Of course you believe him.
It is sad that the [am I using the term correctly?] scientists behind the CRU/UEA etc AGW are so concerned for their skins, their jobs and empires and prestige, that they seemingly have to resort to, well, tactics. I must not be libellous – just good debating tactics. Plainly.
NoAstronomer says:
September 9, 2010 at 12:25 pm
For an honorable English gentleman not drinking tea it is indicative of the worst things you can imagine.
Autochthony says:
September 9, 2010 at 12:48 pm
(probably grated roast squirrels dangley bits, if I look at the label, according to some of our non-English correspondents, possibly correctly – but it does perk me up in the morning!).
I do think we need to have more studies into this expensive new shade-grown Fairtrade coffee and tea. A lot of things flourish in the shade.
Well, climate science for one!
Apart from the Dinner & Lunches, they would appear to have divided most of their time between the Library and the Layby
morganovich says: “can’t they just adjust the data until it says ‘weeks’? seems to have worked in the past.”
First the ad hominems, then the castigation of FOI laws, THEN the alteration of the data. These things must be done in proper form, dontcha know?
Slabadang says: “…Is England totally corrupt these days ??”
No more than it was in Sir Walter Ralegh’s day under the first Liz.
Milwaukee Bob says: “COFFEE?!? You can actually get coffee in England?”
No, Bob, that is an unsubstantiated rumor, doubtless put into circulation by Big Oil. The latter produce something suspiciously akin to British pseudocoffee; it’s called BTX or dripolene C. British pseudocoffee is not merely hideous; it’s actually insidious. The first sip leaves the sippor incredulous. “Nothing could possibly be as bad as what I just tasted,” he thinks. The sippor then goes on to take several more sips of the stuff, in lingering denial about how bad it could be. It’s every bit as bad as you thought the first time.
There may be exceptions, though. In 1960, a waitress followed us out the door to enquire, “Didn’t you like our coffee?” We informed her that coffee should never be boiled or anything close to it. Word may be seeping out slowly, if at all.
Reply: I hope without opening a can of worms that I may note on my last visit to London I spent an inordinate amount of time in an establishment known as “Starbucks”. The coffee there was quite tolerable. I suspect if someone were to try and bring such an establishment to the colonies it might show some modicum of success. ~ ctm
an aussie icon bites the dust! during the recent election campaign in Australia, Ross Garnaut and Nicholas Stern met with the two rural independents, whose conservative constituents are up in arms after the pair gave the Labor govt their support and decided our recent election, claiming “climate change” was one of the deciding factors. last nite ABC reported on Garnaut’s hypocrisy and Andrew Bolt has the details here:
Garnaut’s dirty secret
How often we’ve had to endure having Professor Ross Garnaut exaggerate the global warming threat and lecture on our moral duty to do something useless about it?
But has he just been working off his own guilt?…
KERRY O’BRIEN, PRESENTER: Perhaps best known as chairman of the Rudd government’s climate change review panel, Ross Garnaut has in recent years urged Australians to take decisive action to reduce carbon pollution in the atmosphere…
GREGY HOY, REPORTER: …. Lihir Gold Limited, on the island of Lihir off PNG’s north coast, has built one of the world’s biggest goldmines over 15 years under leadership of its founding chairman Professor Ross Garnaut, AO, or Officer of the Order of Australia… Though our requests for pictures and precise figures were simply ignored by the company, each year Lihir is known to dump millions of tonnes of its mine waste and chemically treated metalliferous tailings into the sea; replete with significant traces of cyanide and heavy metals. …
GREGY HOY: Professor Garnaut also serves as a director of the infamous Ok Tedi gold and copper mine in western PNG ,which continues to discharge 56 million tonnes of metalliferous waste into the nearby river systems each year. …
http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/garnauts_dirty_secret/
jorgekafkazar says:
September 9, 2010 at 1:17 pm
I don’t know who made that REPLY, but, come on! do you call that dirty colored water, self-served in a Styrofoam glass coffee?. That’s for cleansing shoes!
Tenuc says:
September 9, 2010 at 9:44 am
From D1 Oils website”:-
“Lord Oxburgh Appointed…… Shell Transport and Trading….
__________________________
I found that VERY interesting. Seems “Shell” Transport and Trading was “delisted” in 2008 according the royal dutch shell website when you search for Shell Transport and Trading and the share converted to Royal Dutch Shell plc ‘B’ shares.
” 14/05/2008 The “Shell” Transport and Trading Company, p.l.c. (converted to Royal Dutch Shell plc ‘B’ shares) (archive_ – Shell Worldwide)
This is historic information relating to The “Shell” Transport and Trading Company, p.l.c. which delisted on 19 July 2005.” http://www.search.shell.com
Yet googling for Shell Transport and Trading you find according to: http://www.business.com/directory/energy_and_environment/oil_and_gas/refining/shell_transport_and_trading_company_plc_the/profile/
“Website: http://www.shell.com
Phone: +44 20 7934 5293
Address:
London, SE1 7NA
Company Description
Shell Transport and Trading Company PLC (The). The Group’s principal activities are the exploration, production and marketing of oil and natural gas, as well as the production of chemicals. The Group has operating companies in more than 100 countries worldwide. The Group’s shares are listed and traded on stock exchanges in several European countries and in the United States. Oil products accounted for 78% of 2004 revenues; chemicals, 10%; exploration & production, 8%; gas & power, 4% and other, nom
Key People
Non Executive Chairman Lord Oxburgh
Managing Director & Chief Financial Officer Peter Voser
Managing Director Malcolm Brinded
Secretary Jyoti Munsiff
A nice reward perhaps??? It sure looks like the resurrected a defunct company just for Lord Oxburgh.
And speaking of Shell, you also have:
Climategate e-mail on Global Governance & Sustainable Development (B1) And Ged Davis who wrote B1
Here is who Ged Davis is (Shell Oil executive with IPCC connection)
Talk about a spider web. I laugh myself silly every time I hear a Warmista accuse “deniers” of being funded by Big Oil.
Zeke the Sneak says:
September 9, 2010 at 1:09 pm
Please explain that “Fairtrade”, that’s a sophism, as trade being trade, it’s alway fair.
Aw, c’mon, people. Give credit where it’s due. They worked a lot harder applying that whitewash than Tom Sawyer ever did.
further to the ross garnaut post, note one of the rural independents, tony windsor – for whom action on climate change is so important – got a great deal selling his farm to a coal mining company!
28 Aug: Australian: Independent MP Tony Windsor in league of his own on farm sale
THE sale of Tony Windsor’s farm to a coalminer delivered the kingmaking MP a windfall about three times greater than nearby farmers who sold to the company.
Mr Windsor’s family was paid $4.625 million by Werris Creek Coal in February for the sale of 376ha Cintra, south of Tamworth, reaping about $12,300 a hectare…
Mr Windsor leases back from WCC the property and homestead, which sits about 1km north of the mine…
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/independent-mp-tony-windsor-in-league-of-his-own-on-farm-sale/story-fn59niix-1225911091227
Joe Spencer says:
September 9, 2010 at 1:15 pm
they would appear to have divided most of their time between the Library and the Layby
The English Establishment is well know for their proclivity for “pulling it off” in a Layby… preferably when its dark… perhaps thats why so many think this is a whitewash… especially as the hand written draft was a bit shaky.
Personally, I think Hogwash is a far more appropriate term.
Hogwash has two meanings: 1) pig swill: 2) a slang for nonsense
Both seem appropriate in this context… and far more English.
~ ctm
on my last visit to London I spent an inordinate amount of time in an establishment known as “Starbucks”. The coffee there was quite tolerable.
Personally, I can’t tell the difference between Starbucks and Whitewash… you have to travel across the English Channel to get a good cup of coffee 🙂
Don’t start about coffee and include the term “Starbucks” in the same sentence.
Coffee is supposed to be : black, strong and made of grinded coffee beans and hot water.
Anything else is like an IPCC report; A luke warm extract of the real thing.
Enneagram says:
September 9, 2010 at 1:57 pm
Please explain that “Fairtrade”, that’s a sophism, as trade being trade, it’s alway fair.
Absolutely, I see your point. The choice of the term “Fairtrade” should tell you that something very very shadey is going on.
For one, they pay coffee farmers to replant with native trees, citing global warming studies that show their future coffee crops will fail anyway. Result: less coffee grown
For another, they insist that shade grown coffee is environmentally a better practice.
“[O]ver the past 30 years new sun tolerant trees have been developed to yield higher production rates. As a result, sun tolerant trees can produce three times more coffee than a shade bush in a year…” Result: less coffee grown
For another, other things grown in the shade may get in the coffee, as Autochthony pointed out with his “grated roast squirrels dangley bits” theory.
@ur momisugly ctm on Starbucks. Assuming you can bear up under richer coffees, you have to try the Marble Mocha Macchaito, preferably with extra foam (which absolutely makes the taste flavor) and mocha drizzle topping (stir with wooden stick before drinking to mix the slug of coffee that will sit in the center). If made correctly the microfoam will last until the entire drink is gone. I’ve have only found one place out of 6 in this city that can make it properly and that is at a Target Starbucks.
BFL says:
September 9, 2010 at 3:23 pm
Starbucks…. Marble Mocha Macchaito… with extra foam…. mocha drizzle topping… mix the slug… microfoam.
Sounds like a recipe for a Polystyrene based Pesticide … I rest my case milord….
On second thoughts it sounds perfect for the 10.45-11.00 am Coffee served in CRU library session provided it was served hot – just like CRU serves up its numbers….