Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Keele University PHD researcher Ashley Murphy is disappointed that the United Nations is not using its authoritarian might to coerce nations into addressing climate change – though he thinks the UN is moving in the right direction.
Climate change is a security threat – so where is the UN Security Council?
May 16, 2018 12.39am AEST
Ashley Murphy
PhD Researcher, Keele University
Climate change is one of the great security challenges of the 21st century. As the world warms, conflicts over water, food or energy will become more common and many people will be forced from their homes. Scientists, think-tanks, NGOs, militaries and even the White House (albeit under President Obama) all agree that climate change threatens human safety and well-being. Yet the organisation charged with global security has remained relatively silent.
The UN Security Council, responsible for maintaining international peace and security, is comprised of 15 countries. Five seats are reserved for permanent members with veto powers (China, France, Russia, the UK and the US) while the other ten members are elected to represent their region (“Africa”, “Asia-Pacific” etc) for two year terms.
…
The fact the Security Council has helped combat these varied and largely unrelated challenges shows its potential to do good. Yet these interventions also pose the critical question of why it has yet to engage climate change in any meaningful way. Article 41 sanctions would be available to the council in the event of states not meeting their Paris Agreement obligations. Economic sanctions could also be placed upon corporations, that currently operate with relatively little international scrutiny. What the council brings is an ability to coerce – something that is currently lacking throughout international climate law.
…
From one perspective, countries like New Zealand and Germany view climate change as a security issue of immense proportions and worthy of the council’s attention. On the other hand, states such as China and South Africa argue that if the council engages with climate change it will undermine the sovereignty of states, fracturing the international system.
These positions are entrenched, reflecting vastly opposing ideologies in relation to both climate change and international relations, thus precluding any meaningful intervention. Yet this does not necessarily mean that the Security Council is frozen indefinitely.
…
So where are we? The Security Council has access to the tools the world so desperately needs to enforce state and private action on climate change, and although it is taking its time there is some advancement. That does not mean climate change is about to be recognised as a security concern in its own right, but each step taken is valuable and the council is certainly on the right path to identifying climate change as the security threat it so clearly is.
The Article 41 under which Ashley believes the Security Council would be empowered to enforce the Paris Agreement is a reference to the United Nations charter.
“The Security Council may decide what measures not involving the use of armed force are to be employed to give effect to its decisions, and it may call upon the Members of the United Nations to apply such measures. These may include complete or partial interruption of economic relations and of rail, sea, air, postal, telegraphic, radio, and other means of communication, and the severance of diplomatic relations.”
Read more: http://legal.un.org/repertory/art41.shtml
I suspect we shall see more of young Ashley in the near future. With his PHD in international law, and his utter disdain for the sovereignty of nation states when they inconvenience his agenda, Ashley has the makings of a senior United Nations official.
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To paraphrase Stalin: How many divisions does the UN have?
THANK GOD FOR SOVEREIGNTY !!
Good for you. I’d rather say that thanks to ourselves, we don’t have any sovereignity. Sigh.
This is interesting – to call them obligations – as the “agreement” consists of pledges which are wildly different. For some, like China, number #1 emitter in the world, the pledge was not to do any reductions to emissions before 2030, and not to promise anything specific after that. For Obama, the pledge was to pay some tithes (that he wouldn’t pay during his term, funny).
The Paris “agreement” was probably to worserest political scam possible, as it serves only for internal politics in the Western countries, but has provably no effect on what it aims to do.
But remember how the fight between the Vatican and the Politburo went.
Hint: The Politburo can be researched in the History section.
Exactly so.
The fact that someone can get a PhD without realizing how toothless the UN is, is a real indictment of everyone involved. He apparently does not merit a PhD and neither, apparently, does anyone on his committee. Shame!
Why even give daylight to nobodies writing where no one, ordinarily, would likely see their drivel?
These folks think their expertise gives them license to tell us how we should run the country. It’s really important that the general public realizes who is giving the advice … so they can instruct their elected representatives to ignore it.
Perhaps young Ashley ought to read the Paris non-treaty.
It doesn’t say what he thinks it says.
“These folks think their expertise gives them license to tell us how we should run the country. It’s really important that the general public realizes who is giving the advice … so they can instruct their elected representatives to ignore it.”
In the West at this time in history it is the elected “representatives” who ignore the people who voted for them. The entire West is now ground under the heel of what is effectively an extreme left wing totalitarian junta. As a single example, does any person wish to have mass unfettered unchecked migration from Africa into Europe? Obviously not and yet that is what the elected ‘politicians’ of Europe insist upon.
I wish they merely ignored such tyrants. In reality they worked hard to help said tyrants remain in power.
Remember, the majority of nations in the UN are run by tyrants.
Maybe he was the faculty advisor to his school’s “Model United Nations” club.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2060962/
PhD: Piled higher & Deeper
Voluntary targets should be enforced mercilessly.
The US should have made a “voluntary target” on the same basis as the Chinese==>we agree to perhaps do something in the future. Instead, Obama wanted to find a rationale for enforcing his Clean Power Plan, which he did not have the votes to get passed as law.
“Scientists, think-tanks, NGOs, militaries and even the White House (albeit under President Obama) all agree…”
This statement has a factual flaw that requires amending
Scientists, think-tanks, NGOs, militaries and even
the White House (albeit underPresident Obama all agree. The treaty was never presented to congress for ratification so “The White House” (Federal Government) hasn’t agreed to anything.Mr. Murphy, you need to get your facts straight
In the US, we have a voluntary Federal income tax.
That just means we (not the Government) have to calculate what we owe. If we do it wrong, we are penalized – anything from $$ to prison.
https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tips/general/what-does-it-mean-that-taxes-are-voluntary/L5cjhVlhh
With that understanding, the ‘voluntary’ terms of the Paris Accord do not mean that you can ignore your agreed upon terms. However, there still is little risk; if you fail to live up to the terms, and the UN gets intimidating, you just drop out.
Unleash the NGO armies now that they have completed training on grid disruption and autonomous vehicle attacks.
Quick, somebody escort Ashley to the nearest Safe Space, where he might cry-out his anxiety and calm down. Or not.
So- did nobody tell our little snowflake that the permanent members of the Security Council can block any action?
So yah- NOT expecting any action on “Climate Change” any time soon.
Follow the stupidity, even if you could get it thru the security council then what?
The UN ask countries presumably from the security council countries to provide troops to invade non complying countries and do what, occupy them and take over government?
Lets face it the UN and security council countries are too scared to get involved in Syria because of casualties. We are talking about countries with a lot more sophisticated weapons than Syria. Beyond the government civilians in those countries invaded are going to react to any foreign invader and you will have many Syrian style conflicts to deal with.
Take pity on poor Ashley another self guilted, eco-warrior without a clue fortunately mental health services are on the improve in the UK (well at least that is the government line).
Ashley has had his mind abused in an anti capitalist faculty where voluntarily sumitted to hate his culture. “Researcher” of texts written by apatstchiks who poured out into the universities, NGOs, UN, scientific societies, etc. when the Iron Curtain fell. We may not have won indeed from the natiin of chessplayers!
Oh, lawks-a-Lordy. He is in cloud gonzo land. And yet there are so many other sensible people in Staffordshire.
Presumably he expects China to nuke themselves if they don’t meet their Paris non-commitments.
Staffordshire Bull Terriers are famous for their locking jaws.
Ah yes, Michael, how right you are. I live less than half a mile from Keele University and can confirm that the good people of Keele, and even Staffordshire, are generally right thinking individuals who would not recognise poor Ashley’s dilemma. In any event, even if the UN Security Council were to get involved in trying to affect climate change how would they be able to change the celestial mechanics of the Milankovitch cycles? I think that were we to mention Milankovitch, precession or oscillation in Ashley’s presence he would seek a safe place away from such offensive terms and seek to ‘no platform’ us. In any event, Milankovitch is a big word and an even bigger concept so we can’t expect baby PhD researchers to even know about them, let alone grasp them.
Yup! They don’t even want to put up with European bureaucrats telling them what to do. UN? Laughable idiocy. They should fail him back to grade school. Lol!
I’ve got an idea. Let’s disconnect their New York headquarters from the grid and permit them to install all the solar panels the roof will hold. Thus, their shining example could be a beacon to all the world — during daylight hours anyway.
Why don’t we have a war about Climate Change? Is this idiot serious?
Lets nuke them untill they understand how serious it is. What could be wrong with that.
Well, it would certainly cool things down and reduce emissions….
Unfortunately he obviously doesn’t think beyond his pet idiology and think how it would play out in the real world.
Since Rome was corrupted by power-lusting bureaucrats in the Third Century every European experiment in authoritarian government eventually became murderous. The governing classes were adamant that their plans would work and the ultimate enforcement was the death penalty.
Each such experiment had a banner to inspire its followers. Rome used the “Genius of the Emperor”. In the 1500s, the Chuch was corrupted under the “infallibility of the Pope”. The extension of power to the temporal world was through the “Divine right of kings”, of course, advised by an omniscient priesthood.
The current experiment in authoritarian government includes the Communist drive to create the “Perfect Man” as well as the Nazis’ “Perfect” race and land space.
Today’s drive is to create the “Perfect” temperature on the nearest planet.
When the plans don’t inspire the necessary behaviour of the public, the strongest force needed will be used.
Without another great reformation, Europe will again have governing classes granting themselves the privilege of state murder. To cure the health of the planet. “Moscow on the Mastrich” is poised to move. (Geography is not quite correct but the label is good.)
Enough!
Bob Hoye
That kind of authoritarianism led to the invention of the guillotine. And Mussolini didn’t end up to well, or Hitler, or Ceausescu or many others. People will only put up with so much nonsense before they have too little to lose.
Be careful what you wish for. Most of the people who met Madame Guillotine were revolutionaries being murdered by other revolutionaries in the fight for power after the revolution.
The American revolution was pretty unusual in not degenerating into mass murder as soon as it was over.
Keel University – barely registers as a university, one of the new ones with little reputation.
Keene is roughly what people of my generation used to know as a nursery school.
Gasoline station… 🙂
Petrol station
Ashley Murphy (a UK PhD student) doesn’t realize the fact that any of the permanent members (incl. US/President Trump) has veto authority over any Security Council actions. Google ‘Security Council”. He has a lot to learn.
I guess I missed it…when did climate change turn into a UN security issue? So…they will declare CO2 a threat to peace and…attack it? Or attack the oceans if they dare to rise?
Last I checked they are not an economic council.
Last I checked there are no really functional parts of the U.N. at all. Its one giant wasteful hypocrisy.
You’re missing a bit of history: The mission of the United Nations is to pander to all, and attack none. It is the ultimate international comfort-bear. Clawless, toothless, neutered. But it uses up forests worth of trees, making paper, making policy, revising it, debating it and wrapping fish in it.
Its a pity they cannot figure out how really to do things.
GoatGuy
And don’t their men on the ground wear powder blue helmets?
For now…
the carbon tax is the global tax scheme necessary to fund them enough to dethrone international sovereignty. It is coming. I don’t see any of us banding together to eliminate the progenitors of it. They are all murderers and deserve proper punishment.
Its a pity they cannot figure out how really to do things.
Be grateful, very, very grateful that the UN bureacrats are so incompetent that they still haven’t figured out how to really do things.
Its a pity be thankful they cannot figure out how really to do things
didn’t get the strike thru tagging correct on that
Correct, it has no authority.
UN “JOB” security is probably what they are panicking over. Ala Blazing Saddles. “Gentlemen, We have to protect our phony baloney jobs!”
How can the UN Security Council impose “… such measures …” as “… complete or partial interruption of economic relations and of rail, sea, air, postal, telegraphic, radio, and other means of communication …” without “… involving the use of armed force …”. Article 41 is, itself, pretty nonsensical.
This would be a wet dream for the UN.
Is it possible that Murphy has the slightest idea what he is talking about?
No. It is not possible.
“Murphy’s Law?”
Invocation of Article 41 requires the finding under Article 39 of “the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression.” Failure to meet the voluntary limits in the Paris Agreement does not clear that bar.
anything that contradicts or doesn’t supports a leftist worldview is “an act of aggression” in the leftist little mind. where do you think they got the idea of “micro-aggressions” from?
“…disappointed that the United Nations is not using its authoritarian might to coerce nations”…. Poor little Ashley. His dream world must be rather crowded. The UN has zero authoritarian might. It might in fact be more useful if it disbanded itself and everyone went back to bickering over stuff. Oh, wait – they do that anyway. Oh, well, it was just a thought.
I sincerely hope that he does not turn up on my doorstep some snowy, beastly cold day, asking for hot tea and cookies. I’d have to turn him down. Send him back to his street corner and sandwich board. He needs a new hobby, and a real job in the real world. I know it’s harsh, but the benefits will benefit him. And all the roadside diners need someone to bus the tables when customers leave.
re “The Security Council has access to the tools the world so desperately needs to enforce state and private action on …” How about teh security council using those tools on ISIS or Boko Harram, or NOKO?
So this guy thinks the UN should “declare war” on Obama?
Paris was his agreement, not US’s.
He never bothered to even bring it to the Senate for ratification.
(If Obama ever really did study the US Constitution, it was only to try to find ways around it.)
The beauty is, goats, that Ashley Murphy is predictably self-deluded into believing and writing up whatever-all it is that emanates from his various professors’ and university policy apparatchiks’ orifices.
Its a Club of Stupidity. They smell each other’s fâhrts, and declare that it is good and righteous and entirely defensible because so and such saith it too. “We’re all here in a Yellow Submarine, Yellow Submarine, Yellow Submarine…”
But remember — it is good, not bad — so rather than get upset about it, take Ashley’s words with a few grains of salt and a couple of double shots of tequila. And laugh. NOTHING this fellow will do in the short term will have any effect whatsoever on the United Nations, the United States, or anyone at all. The position is as sterile as my neutered dog.
But it is out there, in the open. Ashley bears a mark, on his forehead. Not likely to get washed away soon.
GoatGuy
It would be funny but I suspect some third rate Uni is going to make this idiot a professor before long and turn him loose on unsuspecting kids. And he won’t be alone with his idiot notions and dangerous access to children.
The UN has no authority
yet…
or do they? Agenda 21/2030 is being implemented all across the world, right in front of your eyes, from the ground level up. Smart meters are a part of that, and they are being mandated with threats of no power if not buying it (pennsylvania I vetted as fact)- Colorado, they are attempting to persuade us at the moment by claiming higher prices if we don’t comply. Codes for private land is all based on sustainability. look up public private partnerships. For as critical and skeptical as most of you are on here, much long term vision is lacking in many and it is so daggum frustrating.
if you aren’t doing the research, paying attention to your local and state by-laws…then you are just another pawn on a chessboard (with no hope of survival). It’s all being implemented, right now, in every. single. town. across the world.
this is, has, and always was about installing a legitimate world government, funded through carbon taxation so that not even a newborn could escape indentured servitude, complete surveillance, androgenous society controlled from the top down where you can’t even procreate without permission. The likes of Maurice Strong, Margaret Sanger, that jackwad AI pushing nitwit, on and on and on and on have been working towards that goal. just look up some quotes by David Rockefeller, or Paul Warburg, or Bush Senior, or Clinton, especially Obama, etc. They aren’t even hiding it. Why can’t most people see this is reality, not some “conspiracy”, although, it is genuinely a massive conspiracy. No? Well, you folks tell me how all this sustainability style red tape is being forced upon all of us if it’s not a conspiracy. Did you have a say in it? Can you say No?
exactly.
FWIW, Since the days of Nimrod and Babel certain elements have been trying to build a world government and all have miserably failed. I would be highly suspicious if there wasn’t a continued frenzied attempt for world dominance.
I would be highly suspicious if there wasn’t a continued frenzied attempt for world dominance.
Indeed. There is nothing new under the sun, including the thousands and thousands of years of attempts at “one-world government.”
Alexander…Rome…etc., anyone?
He may have the attitude and ambition of a UN burocrat, but somehow I suspect that he is more likely to experience the effects of Murphy’s Law long before that.
They might want to read the following interesting article:
https://translate.google.com/t…eme-choc-petrolier-202697
in which a French economist lays much of the blame for the financial crisis at the feet of energy deficiency/high cost.
If you use single words to describe something or someone , then when you think about the UN bedsides ‘corrupt ‘ the word ‘ineffective ‘ easily comes to mind because when it comes to creating and maintaining pace that is what they have so often been. Murphy’s views are not informed by reality nor evidenced. A career in climate ‘science’ awaits.
But they’re not ineffective at corruption. Funny how that works. They are excellent at corruption, even when they are observed and monitored.
That squiggly face above ..looks like Cox the nobber
Is that before or after doing something about chemical weapons use in Syria, annexation of Crimea, militarization of the Spratley Islands and claims of all the South China Sea, and various advanced stage nuclear weapons programs?
“…disappointed that the United Nations is not using its authoritarian might to coerce nations”
Ahhhh…. that brown shirt fascist reflex exist in every good UN socialist!
Notice that this fascist reflex always requires the efforts and sacrifice of others to implement their violent vision. You never hear of themselves running point. Of course the intended target of their violence always imagines them as point and are quite willing to provided vivid descriptions of how that force would be countered.