Guest essay by Eric Worrall
A rare victory for fiscal sanity; A few days ago WUWT reported on the desperate green objections to “climate inactivist” and fiscal conservative Mathias Cormann‘s bid for the OECD top job. Now their nightmares have been realised; Cormann has been elected head of the OECD.
Climate experts in dismay at choice of Mathias Cormann as OECD chief
Fiona Harvey Environment correspondent
Sat 13 Mar 2021 04.30 AEDTCritics say election of former Australian finance minister with ‘atrocious record’ sends a dangerous signal
Climate experts have expressed dismay at the choice of Mathias Cormann, a former finance minister in an Australian government with a record of strong hostility to climate action, as secretary general of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), an international institution that advises rich countries on policy and poor countries on how to become wealthier.
Jennifer Morgan, the executive director of Greenpeace International, said: “We have little confidence in Cormann’s ability to ensure the OECD is a leader in tackling the climate crisis, when he has an atrocious record on the issue. If the OECD is to fulfil its mandate, it must confront the climate emergency, arguably the biggest social justice issue of our time.”
Nick Mabey, the chief executive of the E3G thinktank, said: “OECD countries have just sent a dangerous signal by appointing someone with a track record of dismantling climate policy to run their main advisory body. This appointment will lower pressure on the leaders of other international institutions to undertake radical reforms to tackle the climate crisis.”
Developing countries were particularly concerned. Saleem Huq, the director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development in Bangladesh, said: “The appointment of a climate sceptic from Australia to head the OECD is very disappointing and will reduce the credibility of the OECD as an institution in the eyes of developing countries.”
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/mar/12/climate-experts-in-dismay-at-choice-of-mathias-cormann-as-oecd-chief
Mathias Cormann will likely be remembered as one of the best secretary generals the OECD ever had, but his long track record of quiet fiscal discipline as Australia’s longest serving finance minister suggests greens looking for an easy handout from the OECD are in for some big disappointments.
Interestingly The Guardian didn’t bother quoting Michael Mann’s reaction to Cormann’s appointment, despite devoting an entire article to Mann in the leadup to the OECD decision.
I suspect Mann’s influence on the global climate movement is in steep decline – and he knows it. In my opinion Mann’s growing baggage of embarrassing predictions is increasingly weighing down on his credibility as an international climate influencer.
My prediction – in less than a decade from now Mann will be retired and mostly forgotten, just as former NASA GISS Director James Hansen was quietly shuffled off the world stage a few years ago, in my opinion because Hansen’s baggage of failed predictions became a problem. Like a snake shedding its skin, the climate movement always seems to be ready to shed old leaders, to regenerate credibility by distancing the climate movement from their failed predictions.
I don’t ever want Michael Mann to be forgotten. In fact I’d like to see chapters in statistics books devoted to his principle component Analysis showing how easily one can be misled by improper use of statistics.
Mann was not misled.
He used statistics improperly in order to mislead. And he was aware of what he was doing.
Exactly. He simply ignored any criticism, knowing the system had his back.
Mann’s climate research group must look something like this:
Areas of Research
Group #1: Responsible for cooling the Medieval Warm Period
Group #2: Responsible for warming the Little Ice Age
Group #3: Responsible for cooling the 1940s Blip
Group #4: Responsible for eliminating the AMO
Upon completion of the thesis, graduate students will have their work checked by the “committee for correctness” against the climate science master equation: f(x) = 2^x
(lol)
I want him and the whole EAU crowd to be the modern Piltdown Mann and used as an example for students for a generation.
One small step for Cormann, one giant blow for Mann kind.
Nice ! One like that every morning to fight the Virus. Thanks.
Brilliant! Thanks.
Hooray!
Mann was, after all, virtually instructed by the UAE/CRU/IPCC cabal to do precisely what he did with the general approval of all. Hadn’t Phil Jones, one of his co-conspirators, famously said; “If the find out what we’ve done they’ll tar and feather us.” or something very like it? I believe it’s all well documented in some files named “Harry_ReadMe“.
This was straight up fraud and malfeasance that our leaders have chosen to cover up for over a decade. They’ve all known for at least that long there’s no “robust” science supporting the GHE, AGW or climate crisis. They’ve already had their success. Covid is just an extension of the political lies.
Here is an article on one of Mann’s other co-conspirators James Hansen.
https://realclimatescience.com/2021/03/hansen-wishes-he-wasnt-so-right-about-global-warming/
There is no long term surface temperature warming but there is data altering.
https://realclimatescience.com/2021/03/climate-forecasting/
Yes, Tony Heller’s site is filled with excellent material. I’ve been following his work since he started. Anyone who reads or has followed the full history of this goat rodeo from it’s most recent beginnings and is not a skeptic is simple minded or a committed Marxist.
Rory, if you are looking for quotes, check this out:
In Their Own Words: Climate Alarmists Debunk Their ‘Science’
One researcher foresaw some very troubling consequences: “What if climate change appears to be just mainly a multi-decadal natural fluctuation? They’ll kill us probably…”
Former U.S. Senator Timothy Wirth (D-CO), then representing the Clinton-Gore administration as U.S undersecretary of state for global issues, addressing the same Rio Climate Summit audience, agreed: “We have got to ride the global warming issue. Even if the theory of global warming is wrong, we will be doing the right thing in terms of economic policy and environmental policy.”
https://www.forbes.com/sites/larrybell/2013/02/05/in-their-own-words-climate-alarmists-debunk-their-science/?sh=7a9f51c68a37
The article is mostly just a conglomeration of quotations like that from politicians, bureaucrats and scientists. (a great Red Pill resource, for those on the fence)
I used to have a whole series of articles with long lists of quotes from the obvious politics and sociopolitical ideology of the globalist architects of the “climate change” fraud … from Maurice Strong to Ottmar Edenhoffer. I’ve found that those who need to read them, won’t and those who do already have. But thanks for taking the time to provide that link. It never goes amiss.
and for thinking a tree is a thermometer
…and for thinking CO2 is a “control knob”.
and for being a world class dork- he should get “dork of the century award”
Or at least three-time winner of the Doofus of the Decade award.
When you are no longer useful to the swamp or if they have someone more useful, they will cut you loose and sleep well at night. But, if you are still useful to the swamp, you are virtually untouchable. Look at Andrew Cuomo in New York. Last year, he was useful and was called a hero, never you mind that he ordered sick people into nursing homes which killed many vulnerable people. Now that he is no longer useful, suddenly there are many accusations of sexual misconduct.
It appears that Michael Mann is no longer useful to the swamp. If he is lucky, the swamp will just cut him loose and he can retire rich. If he is unlucky, the swamp will deem him a liability and destroy him.
Horrors! So they chose someone not a looney tunes green?
I do agree that Mann is long past his sell-by date on bad science and wrong predictions. He should have resigned from his academic position when McIntyre and McKittrick noted his factor analysis produced “hockey sticks” out of red noise.
”Critics say election of former Australian finance minister with ‘atrocious record’ sends a dangerous signal”
I know right!!?? So dangerous!
Yeah.
How come he didn’t reduce Australia’s emissions from 1.4% of the world’s down to say, 1.2%?
Because he’s a Nazi…obviously.
Not appropriate even as sarcasm.
Oh rubbish.
“If the OECD is to [fulfill] its mandate, it must confront the climate emergency, arguably the biggest social justice issue of our time.”
As Tom Nelson often says at his Twitter page, this isn’t about the climate, is it? Greenpeace doesn’t even try to hide the fact that it isn’t an environmental organization when it puts out statements like this.
The relative cost burdens of their supposed CE ‘solutions’ cascades down the income scale falling heaviest on the lowest and that’s called ‘social justice’, how truly Orwellian.
That’s what the activists say the head of the OECD must do. But the actual function of the head, as mentioned by the same activists, is to help make poor countries richer. Quite a contradiction between the two goals.
What they are afraid of is he’ll be incredibly competent and effective, and do his job properly, and be a credit to the OECD.
Why would the extreme left want that to happen?
“Incredibly competent”.. Right.
And at the expense of credibility??? …Cormann will allow developing countries to buy ordinary goods and necessities at affordable prices.
Imagine what will happen if John Kerry gets his way and China, India and Russia decide decarbonize. Developing countries are going to have to pay unaffordable prices for things like aluminum, steel, lumber and anything else that requires large inputs of energy… as well as having green energy costs passed on to things like medicines, grain and other food staples.
That is the madness, and insanity of all of this and the REAL “social justice” issue. How are people living on a few hundred or a few thousand dollars a year going to afford Green Energy and the expensive products that are made from it? (They won’t and will be forever mired in poverty.)
China, India & Russia, by providing affordable goods are the real champions of the poverty stricken Third World, not Greta Thunberg and the Green Movement (which is in reality a social injustice movement). I believe someone in India coined the expression “Eco-Imperialism” to describe what John Kerry et.al. have in mind for the world and it is just that.
Be still my heart! Putting a fiscal conservative in charge is fantastic news for everyone hoping for truth and sanity to return to climate science and policy; GangGreen must be mortified! I can only pray your thoughts on Mickey Mann and James Hansen are correct, Eric! If these two titans of alarmism are being thrown under the bus we may actually be seeing the dawning of a new day!
As an ardent Groucho-Marxist, who believes that life needs more comedy and laughter, and is skeptical of any club that would have me as a member; I have always found the other, lesser forms of Marxism to be destructive and anti-human! Getting fiscally intelligent people into leadership positions anywhere is beneficial, and we need them now more than ever with the president of the US a mere shadow puppet, like Theoden of Rohan; controlled by a cabal of radical leftists with hatred for much of the population they now rule over! Skeptical voices must speak out louder than ever to oppose the destructive policies and wasteful spending of the Church of Climastrology!
What’s wrong with this picture? Something is going on here. I suspect some faction amongst the billionaires may be losing a power struggle with some other faction of billionaires. It’s all about the money.
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The Big Club is having a row, and we’re not privy to the details.
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So we’re stuck playing the penny slot machines while the Whales are hedging their bets.
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I can’t imagine what is going on other than some of the Big Boys are betting against the global version of the Green Nude Eel.
Great wordplay!
And I suspect you may be right.
Have the BOND Villains (Billionaire, Oligarch, NGO & other Despots) overplayed their hand with this Great Reset baloney & there is rising kickback?
Just a wild hypothesis…
Periodically gathering at their Davos mountain hideout to plot their next strategy
Thanks, Nick.
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Having had some sleep, I have a guess as to what’s going on and it’s been here on the pages of WUWT spread out over the years
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The Greenie minions of the GEBs have nearly shut down coal. We’ve read about it here. Also, there was an article several years ago noting that a GEB or two was buying up the coal mines and rights for pennies on the dollar.
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Now we read here recently that China and India aren’t playing the No Coal game. Also the rest of the developing world needs electricity.
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So now is the time for demand for coal to soar because coal power plants will be getting built around the world. That will make those “worthless” coal mines worth a lot.
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All you need is someone like Cormann in place to clear the way for coal projects. So the coal-owning GEBs are in a fight against the wind/solar GEBs and the Cormann appointment is a win for the coal faction of The Big Club.
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Anyhow, that’s my guess.
As an Australian, I was very disappointed when Cormann resigned from our Federal politics. He’s smart, hard-working, sensible and respected by almost everyone. The Greens and other charlatans who try to get stuff past him don’t like him because he doesn’t fall for cheap tricks or rhetorical BS.
FYI he’s Belgian by birth but migrated to Australia in his mid 20’s. English is his fourth language. He would have made a great Prime Minister and will no doubt do well in the OECD.
Wonderful news
Mattias does a great impression of Arnie Schwarzenegger.
So who is going to be the new cult leader of the “climate crisis” Alarmists? Michael Mann, the creator of the discredited “Hockey Stick” and loser of his defamation lawsuit against Dr. Tim Ball who allegedly said that Mann “belongs in the state pen, not Penn State?” Probably not as he has almost as much credibility as John Kerry. Many Alarmists have already disowned Al Gore, a previous cult leader. He was disowned because none of his predictions has ever come true, but also because he was caught sexually harassing massage “therapists” and he’s a hypocrite who travels by private jet, motorcades of SUVs, and owns a house that uses 20 times more energy than the average home. Not James Hansen as he has been sent out to pasture but not for making a ridiculous prediction that Manhattan would be under water by now but because he supports nuclear power. It isn’t Phil Jones as he was caught in ClimateGate fudging data. It can’t be Ken Briffa who based a paleoclimate reconstruction on one single scrawny tree. Ken passed away so he can’t lead the cult (although he’s probably still voting). Peter Gleick, who was caught forging documents? Jacob Harold, the guy with a Master’s degree in Business Administration and a summer-school certificate in “Complex Systems” from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, an author of one of the phony 97% consensus studies? Who? Greta?
Bill Gates has seen the opportunity.
I would say Greta has all the right credentials to be the Climate Alarm leader. She is completely uneducated has no knowledge about life due to her age. Also she is from the right gender to avoid being accused of anything naughty.
Greta for Green Leader!
Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz?
He’s green and repugnant.
If any Global Warming Get-Rich-Quick initiatives are bowled up to Mathias Cormann, they will be met with a totally dead bat and will drop quietly into the too-hard-bin.;;;
Here is Mathias Cormann as Australia’s Finance Minister, answering a question from Senator Malcolm Roberts on 31 August 2020.
You are free to make your own minds up about the substance of his reply. Geoff S
He could only give the answer he did without setting off a political nuclear explosion.
But good on Malcolm for asking.
Mike,
But repetition of the dodge merely loses ground that is quite hard to recover.
At some stage, a person will have to bite the bullet.
Will it be Mathias? Geoff S
M Cornann sounds like a South Iffrican.
Flemish and Afrikaans are close cousins.
It was truly shocking when the BBC promoted Mann alongside Attenboro in their TV documentary Climate Change-The Facts last year. Under the influence of conspirator Roger Harrabin it was a weak attempt to whitewash Climategate. Multiple complaints covered every alarmist factoid. Still A Disgrace to the Profession (Steyn)
Green peace sheds experts the way it sheds crises. A crisis is only promoted as long as it generates revenue. As soon as the public starts to become aware of the misdirection and the lack of any real consequences then a new fake crisis is pulled out of the hat. Michael Mann and his ilk are only useful to the big green money machine as long as they are capable of sowing confusion and distraction. As soon as their tricks start to become widely known they are wheeled off stage and a new assistant is brought on with a new set outrageous alarms that are scary enough that the audience, i. e., the MSM won’t notice the strings and the cobbled together graphs because the precautionary principle requires that you not ask the pertinent questions.
The Cormannator. One of the few good politicians in Australia.
Yay! Stick it to the Mann
“Like a snake shedding its skin, the climate movement always seems to be ready to shed old leaders, to regenerate credibility by distancing the climate movement from their failed predictions.”
Was better before, before they voted for “what’s his name?”
This must be the new world! – X (80’s punk-band)
“ If the OECD is to fulfil its mandate, it must confront the climate emergency, arguably the biggest social justice issue of our time.”
Says everything that needs to be said. The “climate emergency” has nothing to do with the climate, and everything to do with wealth redistribution.
All science, advances, one funeral at a time.
Canada’s PM Turdeau wanted his former climate alarmist finance minister MP Morneau in that position and thankfully the bid failed.
Prior to the bid MP Morneau was thrown under the bus by PM Turdeau to divert attention away from one of his numerous scandals.
While Americans fear Pres. Bidens green policies, Canadians fear all of PM Turdeau’s poliicies.
You mean Gerald Butts’ policies.
Trudeau can’t work out which shoe goes on which foot without his Butt-boi to instruct him.
(OECD), an international institution that advises ….poor countries on how to become wealthier.
Sounds like an excellent choice. If that is one of the main purposes of the OECD then the last thing they should want is someone who wants to stop poor countries developing a reliable and relatively low cost source of electricty.
Climate inactivist. I like that concept. Where can I get uninvolved?
As an Australian, and someone who once dealt professionally with Mathias Cormann before he entered politics, I think it’s a great appointment. And could we point out that Australia actually met its Kyoto commitments for the benefit of Greenpeace and the other Climate fools out there. Many of their countries of origin did not. It’s about time the OECD had someone in charge who can actually add up. And the European Union and OECD itself will not be able to get away with “language difficulties”. Our former Sen Cormann speaks about 6 languages of which English is the last one he learned. If OECD staff are triggered by this appointment, I suggest they resign and join the real world.
Mathias Cormann was a superb conservative Finance Minister in the Federal Government of Australia. Originally from Belgium, he is a no nonsense professional. He doesn’t put up with woke attitudes and political correctness. He is just the right person at the right time to head the OECD.