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!!
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
“If you ever injected truth into politics you would have no politics.”
Will Rogers
Mike says:
January 5, 2012 at 3:56 pm
Good old George Bush.
Right, he couldn’t stop Freddy Mac and Fanny Mae from creating a gigantic market for “bad paper”, he couldn’t get Gov’t funded scientists to do real science, he couldn’t simply defund the U.N….All in all, he just didn’t have either the will or the mechanisms in place in America to be a Great Dictator! But at least the IPCC and Barack Obama, enc., are trying!
Alan Watt says:
January 5, 2012 at 5:55 pm
all his good intentions will take a back seat to his desire to be re-elected.
————-
We select juries at random to make life and death decisions. Why not do the same with the political process? I would immediately be suspicious of anyone that spend 100 million to become a jurist with a salary of 100 thousand. Yet that is exactly what happens at election time.
Unfortunately, the ballot box does not have the choice “none of the above”.
highflight56433 says:
January 5, 2012 at 11:32 pm
We are victims of “How to catch a pig.”
He asked, “Do you know how to catch wild pigs?” The professor thought it was a joke and asked for the punch line.
The young man said this was no joke. “You catch wild pigs by finding a suitable place in the woods and putting corn on the ground. The pigs find it and begin to come everyday to eat the free corn. When they are used to coming every day, you put a Fence down one side of the place where they are used to coming. When they get used to the fence, they begin to eat the corn again and you put up another side of the fence. They get used to that and start to eat again You continue until you have all four sides of the fence up with a gate in the last side. The pigs, who are used to the free corn, start to come through the gate to eat, you slam the gate on them and catch the whole herd.
Suddenly the wild pigs have lost their freedom. They run around and around inside the fence, but they are caught. Soon they go back to eating the free corn. They are so used to it that they have forgotten how to forage in the woods for themselves, so they accept their captivity.”
The young man then told the professor that is exactly what he sees happening to America. The government keeps pushing us toward Communism/socialism and keeps spreading the free corn out in the form of programs such as supplemental income, tax credit for unearned income, tobacco subsidies, dairy subsidies, payments not to plant crops (CRP), welfare, medicine, drugs, Obaba Care, etc. While we continually lose our freedoms-just A little at a time.
Willis claimed: “US General Accounting Office, says US has been secretly hiding their funding of the IPCC for the last decade.”
The GAO found: “Regarding State [Dept.] funding, GAO determined that the information it provided to the committee incorrectly included about $3.5 million (in constant 2010 dollars) that was passed through the IPCC account but was not used for IPCC activities.”
Willis replied: “Nope. The report says that in what looks like a typical UN scam, money listed for one organization is “passed through” to another organization to avoid oversight. That doesn’t make it better, that makes it worse.”
Worse than what? Worse than what you claimed? It would indeed be interesting to learn where the “passed through” money went. If it was diverted for weapons to the Contras, that would be worse. If it was accidentally given to UNICEF, that would not be worse. Maybe it went to Solyndra! OMG! But it seems clear that your claim is false.
with all that is coming out about the govt, why are they still in power? i wish the people would grow some balls already, a handful in OWS doesnt cut it. there has to be more than just a few thousand who are willing to fight, its a country of 300 million people. this country is doomed not because people are just waking up but because they will not go out and force the change. hell the arab nations are willing to put their lives on the line to remove their govts, they have balls, we are just a bunch of cowards we need to change our anthem to home of the cowards.
Russ Steele says: January 5, 2012 at 12:46 pm
“I did not it send to my CA Senators, as both are rabid warmers. You cannot imagine the junk responses I get back from Sen. Boxer when I send her some climate change facts. Well, maybe you could as a WUWT reader.”
YES I CAN! Senator (Box-of-Rocks) Boxer is my Senator, too. When they shake the stupid tree, most of the fruit will hit the ground after a few seconds. Box-of-Rocks is so far up the tree, she won’t hit the ground for a week.
maybe we can get the arab nations to arm a bunch of rebels here to help take out the real criminals. after all, we did it for the rebels in libya and syria. mind ya the libyans were not bad off people. they did not have taxes, they had interest free loans from the state controlled banks, they got free healthcare and schooling. and if they needed to go outside their countries for school or medical care the state paid for it. seems to me all that we get is war and less freedoms and more dbt. and so many people here think the arab world is real bad. they need to step back and realize that everythign the govt claims about those nations is false, we are the oppressed people.
Brilliant post with countless great comments, with only a couple of clueless enablers still willing to bend over and take one more for the team.
The IPCC enjoys my complete support, as does the railway engineer. It, like him, is a wonderful albatross hung around the neck of the global warming cult. Long may they both fester.
Pointman
LazyTeenager says:
January 5, 2012 at 11:38 pm
You’re right, Lazy, the conferences are funded by the parent body, the UNFCCC. However, no one has ever heard of them, so I kinda elided over their name to avoid confusing folks.
w.
Mike says:
January 6, 2012 at 8:41 am
It is worse because instead of telling the truth about where the money was going, they lied about where it was going and spent it on something else. Nor does what it was spent on change things.
It’s as if when you were a kid you asked your mom for ten bucks to buy school supplies. But say you didn’t buy the school supplies, you spent the money on something else.
Will your mom think that the important issue is what you spent the money on … or will she see the important issue as being the fact that you lied to her?
So yes, Mike, it is worse, no matter what it was spent on.
w.
PS—Curiously, you point out an issue. You say it would be fine if the funds went to UNICEF. But the US is legally barred from giving funds to UNICEF, so that would be much worse … and that’s the problem with lying about where it’s going. It can end up anywhere, including places where it’s illegal for the money to go.
19 million bucks is peanuts compared to the $600 Billion spent on trying to indoctrinate the planet to adopting ‘the american dream’
lairdglencairn,
So what do you propose? Spending money indoctrinating the planet to adopt the Soviet dream? The North Korean dream? The Cuban dream? The UN nightmare? C’mon, help me out here.
Our own Gov. makes me sick. We have many MANY problems and climategate isn’t one of them. Throw them all out!!!
I think this is a great idea!
Todos prometen
Nadie cumple
vota por Nadie
Defundda Ipcc says:
—-
I wish I had thought of a cool nom de plume like yours! You’ve made me jealous. 😉
Lol, I tried a few other possible names…but I got this one…and they haven’t ‘banned’ me yet…but I haven’t said much publicly…yet…
jae says:
January 5, 2012 at 7:03 pm
GO, WILLIS! I pray all the time that the general public finally understands that they have been completely SCREWED by a MINORITY of idiot progressives…
___
The implication of course is that “your” candidates are beyond big money politics and are truly serving only for the public good. In case you haven’t noticed, the IPCC has been funded across multiple administrations, and it takes a boat load of money for anyone to make it to Washington, and that money always has nice little strings attached. It is only a difference of who pays whom when a new member joins the ranks, and so in the current state of American politics, party matters not as they all march under the banner of big money, and most of all, it sure is convenient to keep the progressives and conservatives battling over meaningless issues, so long as the gravy-train keeps flowing to one and all in Washington.
Willis in his recent post (Jan 6 at 10:08) said the US is legally barred from giving funds to UNICEF.
The US UNICEF site is thanking Congress for giving them funds:
http://volunteers.unicefusa.org/activities/advocate/unicef-funding.html
That’s about forty times more in one year than the annual US funding for the IPCC, according to the GAO report.
Is he now going to complain about the US government helping the children of the world?
The main article does seem riddled with silliness and wrong statements. (Just one example – Durban and Cancun are not IPCC meetings.)
The fear is, that they’re red herrings, not albatrosses. The Big Money continues to flow, elsewhere.
I want to comment in responce to the rather cynical statement above referring to Ron Paul. To his credit he says he knows nothing about Ron Paul, and assumes that all politicians are devoid of character. He also calls it the folly of youth to believe otherwise. I am 65 years old and I have looked at Ron Paul and I support him without reservation. I think the above comment is understandable when applied to politicians. But Ron Paul is a statesman, one of the few remaining in government. In thirty years he has never taken a government junket, or voted for a salary increase for government. Ron Paul is incorruptabe which is why he is opposed by all politicians.
He does not seek power which is at the root of corruption. He seeks to return our country to the rule of law. So let go of your cynicism long enought to really investigate the only man of character in this election. Perhaps you can actually learn something of value.
REPLY: That’s enough about Ron Paul – this article isn’t about him – all further off-topic discussions will be snipped – Anthony
this is what obama and the democrats are trying to do – set up these bureaucracies with their own funding streams independent from Congressional oversight (and free from taxpayer retribution). These latest crooks he appointed in the last few days, at least one of them is supposed to head up some “consumer ‘PROTECTION’ Bureau”, lol and HE ALONE will decide how much taxpayer money his bureau is entitled to. They really think they are kings and aren’t at all concerned about you little people.
Well Joe, you are absolutely correct. What often puzzles me is that these things come as a BIG surprise to anyone. Considering all that is already exposed and knowing the it is only the tip of the iceberg, people still have not awakened to the truth.
A complete systematic replacement is what is needed. And this will not come from TPTB. Only when the people wake up and demand that this nonsense is stopped, will the desire to get on track will be fulfilled.
It will not happen any other way.
Shevva says:
January 6, 2012 at 3:33 am
Can we play the what’s IPCC stand for game as it’s the weekend.
I’ll start.
Incompetent Pile of Consensus Cronies.
How about Inept Patronising Crooked Conmen?
Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Concealment ?