Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach
Well, I woke up to some bad news this morning. It turns out that the GAO, the US General Accounting Office, says US has been secretly hiding their funding of the IPCC for the last decade.
They were already told not to do that by the GAO. In the 2005 GAO report with the swingeing title of “Federal Reports on Climate Change Funding Should Be Clearer and More Complete”, the GAO said … well, basically what the title said. But noooo, those sneaky bureaucrats didn’t do that at all.
The latest 2011 GAO Report says the US government has not changed their ways. They have been clandestinely providing about half the operating funds for the IPCC for the last decade. In other words, the IPCC funding arrangements are of a piece with their “scientific” claims and their other actions—secretive, shabby, with a hidden agenda, and full of disinformation.
The report says that the State Department provided $19 million dollars to the IPCC. Thanks, guys. Foolish me, I hadn’t realized that paying for bureaucrats to go party in Cancun and Durban was part of the function of the United States Department of State.
I also found out that the IPCC got $12.1 million dollars from the US Global Change Research Program. That one really angrifies my blood. The IPCC flat out states that they do not do a single scrap of scientific research … so why is the US Global Change Research Program giving them a dime, much less twelve million, that was supposed to go for research? I could use that for my research, for example …
The 2011 GAO report had some strong advice for the climate profiteers behind this secretive funding. They said:
“Congress and the public cannot consistently track federal climate change funding or spending over time,”
Oh, no, wait, that’s what the GAO said back in 2005. Unfortunately, they have no enforcement powers. What they said this time around was that the funding information:
“… was not available in budget documents or on the websites of the relevant federal agencies, and the agencies are generally not required to report this information to Congress.”
In other words … no change from 2005.
Congressfolk, you are not paying attention. These guys are taking money for research and using it to party in Durban and other nice places around the planet. And the US has been secretly funding them for a decade.
Can anyone name for me one valuable thing that the IPCC has done? Can anyone point to an accomplishment by the IPCC that justifies their existence? Because I can’t. They throw a good party, to be sure, their last global extravaganza had 10,000 guests … but as for advancing the climate discussion, they have done nothing but push it backwards.
And the next Assessment Report, AR5, will be even more meaningless than the last. This time, people are watching them refuse to require conflict-of-interest statements from the authors. This time, people are watching them appoint known serial scientific malfeasants to positions of power in the writing of the report. This time, people are keeping track of the petty machinations of the railroad engineer that’s running the show despite calls from his own supporters to step down.
As a result, the AR5 report from the IPCC has been pre-debunked. It will be published to no doubt great fanfare and sink like a stone, dragged down by the politicized, poorly summarized bad science and rewarmed NGO puff pieces that the IPCC is promoting as though they were real science.
Folks … can we call a long overdue halt to this IPCC parade of useless and even antiscientific actions? Can we stop the endless partying at taxpayer expense? Can we “trow da bums out” and get back to climate science?
Please?
I say DEFUND THE IPCC NOW!
w.
PS—The GAO report is available here. And all is not lost, at least one Congressman is working to defund the IPCC:
Wrapped into the many amendments recently passed by the House of Representatives — a total of $60 billion in spending cuts that the president called a “nonstarter” — was one by Republican Missouri Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer that would prohibit $13 million in taxpayer dollars from going to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the group whose occasional missteps have been the source of countless confrontations among climate scientists over the past year.
…
A congressional aide told FoxNews.com that he plans to pursue the bill — regardless of whether it is passed in the larger Republican budget.
“The congressman plans to continue his effort to stop taxpayer support of the IPCC and remains cautiously optimistic that the Senate will take the amendment,” said Keith Beardslee, a spokesman for the congressman. “Failing that, Blaine has reintroduced separate legislation he first introduced in the 111th Congress to halt funding to the IPCC.”
GO MISSOURI! GO LUETKEMEYER!!
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I completely agree, but unfortunately the US Congress is currently pretending that we can spend more than we take in in revenue indefinately and that the cost to service the debt is meaningless. That won’t last of course, but it is getting harder to fix without ever greater pain
“…people are keeping track of the petty machinations of the railroad engineer that’s running the show…”
I rode on a train once in India…. “HE” could have been my driver…!
Surely that qualifies me for some grade of position at the IPCC.
(that’s a sarc by the way)
Willis: “Congressfolk, you are not paying attention. These guys are taking money for research and using it to party in Durban and other nice places around the planet. And the US has been secretly funding them for a decade.”
Back to the basic fundamental problem we humans can’t seem to get straight. Politics and politicians, rather than ethical servant leadership.
The report says that the State Department provided $19 million dollars to the IPCC.
Could someone explain how the IPCC fits within the the mission of the US State Department? Is it the “Intergovernmental” part of IPCC?
Again – for all US citizens who are reading these comments. Please , remember this (and the many, many other instances of misspent climate funding) in November – the ONLY way to defund anything in the government is to have representatives with the backbone to do something (or at least speak up).
Personally, I would like to see this issue of funding cast in terms of choices. For example, do we want the IPCC funded or, instead, programs to fight poverty, disease, crime, etc. ??
I haven’t looked at every Federal government agency budget but have looked at several over the past year and noticed that AGW funding is quite common. DoD, DOE, NASA, and EPA all have significant programs… some of which are obviously related to “climate change” and others where it is somewhat hidden (e.g., biofuel research). I also knew that the State Department had a budget for climate change but until reading this post, I had no idea what it was for. To call this pathetic would be an understatement. I suspect that if you looked, the Department of (indoctrination) Education has global warming in its budget as does every other agency. It’s time to clean house in Washington.
Doesn’t this count as part of the green jobs creation scheme?
“Folks … can we call a long overdue halt to this IPCC parade of useless and even antiscientific actions? Can we stop the endless partying at taxpayer expense? Can we “trow da bums out” and get back to climate science?”
oh, sure!
Theres nothing really surprises me anymore about this whole climastrology lark.
Matters not how deep the depths, they will plumb them.
the only time this will al change is when the worms finally get out the can.
Mr FOIA, do your thing huh?
defund the whole UN!
Willis, great reporting as always. I’m from Calif. so it is a waste of my time to contact my representatives on this issue. However, I will try to persuade my out–of-state friends and relatives to contact their representatives.
FYI, in the spirit of the global warming > climate change > climate disruption name game, the General Accounting Office(GAO) is now called the Government Accountability Office. Whatever, they call it, it frequently does a good job ferreting out government waste and corruption. The unfortunate part, as you state, it doesn’t have any enforcement powers.
Now thats what I call great timing Willis!
Please add your voices to the latest post at the talkshop calling for the IPCC to stop calling itself a scientific organisation.
http://tallbloke.wordpress.com/2012/01/05/i-am-spartacus-stand-up-and-be-counted-for-science/
Nothing will be defunded, as this year there will be another happy “jamboree” at Rio de Janeiro……Samba!!!
If you want an invitation it´s very simple: You must be cool, gay, atheist, believing that most of the humanity-those peaky ,bad smelling, and dirty working for life individuals must die (and to cooperate to do it asap by giving them a convenient newly developed “flu vaccine”), have white and powdery and sustainable “aspirations” through your non polluted by CO2 nostrils, be a faithful follower and if possible slave of your elite masters (members of the holy “White Brotherhood” who care about the sustainability of their own also holy profits), etc.etc.
http://www.earthsummit2012.org/
FOIA action called for here.
I’m compiling a list of research grants received by UK universities for climate change related projects. Still waiting for most FOI’s to come back in, but the amounts so far in are quite startling.
Synthesis Repork – Snouts feeding at the trough?
Can anyone name for me one valuable thing that the IPCC has done?
Yes, they proved they aren’t ready nor are likely to ever represent the Scientific Community on global issues. They are the low bar to use for future policy related to science funding — assuming the politico boobs finally wake up and see it for what it is.
It is the ripple effect. America dumped 320 million into a cellulosic ethanol plant in Georgia because of these fearmongering studies and claims. That plant never produced and was just sold for 5.1 million.
The collateral damage for the carbon Climate cartel is still hitting the trillions.
tallbloke says:
January 5, 2012 at 11:28 am
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Happy New Year — did the wankers finally return your laptop?
The U.S. are paying a lot of money for decades now to fund a platform for US and capitalism haters to get organized. Was originally thought the other way around, probably.
I really imagined you guys would be smarter.
Great stuff! …. Umm… Except for that whole confusion between the IPCC – a relatively small office in Geneva, and the UN FCCC which runs the COP meetings in Durban and Copenhagen. Don’t get so caught up in your rhetoric that you throw facts to the winds now….
WillieB – while your senators are useless, not all your representatives are, depending on your location. I don’t know if this would fit on Issa’s plate, for example, but I’m sure it’s the kind of thing he’d oppose.
Frankly, everyone involved in hiding political funding like this needs to be ON THE STREET tomorrow, looking for a job in the private sector, but that won’t happen unless we have a MAJOR shake-up this November at the polls.
Frankly, I worry that corruption has become too institutionalized, and the practice of using the law as toilet paper too widespread. “Fixing” things like this is no longer a simple thing, if it ever was.
“Climate Change 2007 Synthesis Repork”
cute.
Out of the UN too!
Neil says:
January 5, 2012 at 11:48 am
Great stuff! …. Umm…
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Very little confusion about a fop Science arm for the UNFCCC? I completely agree if that was the drift of your comment.
We shouldn’t be funding the UN FCCC either. In fact I am ready to say we should stop funding any UN programs at all. If something is worth doing we should fund it directly and avoid the corrupt middle men.
The 2011 version of Mr. Luetkemeyer’s bill is H. R. 680, http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c112:1:./temp/~c112YbGCYl::