Psychological projection anyone?
Remember how some climate scientists wanted to give up debating science and potentially jail skeptics instead? These were the 20 “scientists” who reasoned by looking for “tobacco tactics” in opponent’s arguments. They called for a RICO investigation — a the kind of racketeering investigation done on the mafia. I pointed out their team used more “tobacco tactics” against skeptics than anything the skeptics did, but looks like that may have been only the minor part of their projection of their own flaws.
It turns out that the scientist driving the letter, along with his wife and daughter, has made over $5m above his university salary, and now questions are being raised in Congress about his “double dipping”. The National Science Foundation is very unhappy about scientists who blur the line between their university and their outside consulting, and earn twice for doing the same job. I hear people have been jailed for this sort of thing.
Have a look at how well the leader of the group-of-20 has been doing: meet Jagadish Shukla, professor of climate dynamics at George Mason University, who must now be wishing he hadn’t called for an investigation.
Their letter was posted on the website of Institute of Global Environment and Society (IGES), a non-profit, tax-exempt research institute led by Shukla. Oddly, after the media attention, the RICO request letter suddenly disappeared off the website in late September, with a note saying it was “inadvertantly posted“. Oops? This is about the same time the investigation he requested turned around to bite him. Roger Pielke Jr investigated Shukla’s 990 filings and the odd way a Prof at a public university was also earning millions on the side. That was reported and expanded upon by Steve McIntyre.
Ian Tuttle at the National Review picks up their story:
The curious disappearance set several people inquiring. It turns out that heading up IGES is nice work if you can get it. The Washington Free Beacon reports that since 2001 the organization has received more than $63 million — 98 percent of its total revenue — from taxpayers, mainly in the form of grants from the National Science Foundation, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. And an astonishing amount of that money has ended up in Dr. Shukla’s pocket.
Not only did a lot end up in Dr Shukla’s pocket, but a lot ended up in his wife’s and daughter’s pockets too. His family has gained some $5.6million in compensation from IGES since 2001, plus his daughter’s salary (whatever that was). Shukla also earned a salary from George Mason University, a nice $314k last year.
This “double-dipping” — receiving compensation from a research organization on top of academic compensation — is prohibited by the federal agencies from which IGES receives money, as well as by George Mason University, as detailed by Climate Audit’s Steve McIntyre. Yet IGES officially joined the university, as part of the College of Science, in 2013.
Over the years, as Shukla earned more from his university, he and his wife earned more from the non-profit too. Too much is never enough?
As Steve McIntyre reported:
“Despite the various changes in grant structure, one constant (or rather steadily increasing amount) has been the several sources of compensation to Shukla and his wife.
In 2001, the earliest year thus far publicly available, in 2001, in addition to his university salary (not yet available, but presumably about $125,000), Shukla and his wife received a further $214,496 in compensation from IGES (Shukla -$128,796; Anne Shukla – $85,700). Their combined compensation from IGES doubled over the next two years to approximately $400,000 (additional to Shukla’s university salary of say $130,000), for combined compensation of about $530,000 by 2004.
Shukla’s university salary increased dramatically over the decade reaching $250,866 by 2013 and $314,000 by 2014. (In this latter year, Shukla was paid much more than Ed Wegman, a George Mason professor of similar seniority). Meanwhile, despite the apparent transition of IGES to George Mason, the income of the Shuklas from IGES continued to increase, reaching $547,000 by 2013. Combined with Shukla’s university salary, the total compensation of Shukla and his wife exceeded $800,000 in both 2013 and 2014. In addition, as noted above, Shukla’s daughter continued to be employed by IGES in 2014; IGES also distributed $100,000 from its climate grant revenue to support an educational charity in India which Shukla had founded.”
Perhaps not so coincidentally, the other signatories have links to George Mason University or IGES.
Five other George Mason employees were RICO20 signatories, four of whom are long-time Shukla associates: Dirmeyer, Straus, Paul Schopf and Barry Klinger. The other George Mason RICO 20 signatory, Edward Maibach, is in some sort of climate communications and, together with Heidi Cullen, holds a $2,998,178 grant from NSF. Many of the other RICO20 signatories had previous associations with IGES. Kevin Trenberth and Mike Wallace had both been on its “Science Advisory Committee” in the past. Nearly all of the RICO20 signatories, including Trenbeth andWallace, attended a large symposium in April 2015 to honor Shukla – see picture at link.
IGES’ webpage says that its corporate objective was to share “the fruits” of its research “with society as a whole”, though, in practice, an equally important objective seems to have been to share the fruits of its research funding with Shukla (and Kinter). The sheer lucrativeness of Shukla’s deal raised some eyebrows in skeptic blogs, but none so far at warmist blogs, not even at Michael Tobis’ aptly named Only In It for the Gold or among Barry Klinger and the RICO20.
The non-profit status of a group that calls for RICO investigations of scientific opponents is also coming into question.
Anthony Watts has more: “Uh, oh. Jagdish Shukla and the #RICO20 has captured the attention of Congress, and FOIA documents are coming out.”
The press release today from the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology and chair Lamar Smith…
“Chairman Smith: “IGES appears to be almost fully funded by taxpayer money while simultaneously participating in partisan political activity by requesting a RICO investigation of companies and organizations that disagree with the Obama administration on climate change. In fact, IGES has reportedly received $63 million from taxpayers since 2001, comprising over 98 percent of its total revenue during that time.”In light of the non-profit’s decision to remove the controversial letter from its website, Smith directs IGES to preserve “all e-mail, electronic documents, and data created since January 1, 2009, that can be reasonably anticipated to be subject to a request for production by the Committee.”
RICO means Racketeer Influences and Corrupt Organizations.
It Mr. Shukla investigated but somehow I have doubts that will ever come to pass.
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Nah, there’s just too much personal greed here. That won’t be tolerated and I predict he will be prosecuted.
Meanwhile, I’m sure a few other climate scientists are checking their records for inconvenient emails and documents that might need to be disappeared.
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If I had my way Shukla and other top climate scientists would stand trial for treason against the United States of America. Their deceptive reports on CO2 dangers have damaged our national security through causing vast resources to be diverted to fight a non-existent danger. We need a federal prosecutor with some balls to make this happen. Treasonous bastards. This would necessarily include the present POTUS.
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It would be nice to see Mr Shukla investigated but some how I do not see that coming to pass.
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Let’s hope instead that it accomplishes a little honest justice. We could sure use some. I’d settle for his being so thoroughly discredited that no one would pay any further attention to him.
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Make that:
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No more attention certainly implies no more money. But if it could be that he’s prosecuted for what he’s done… …well, I would love that outcome even more.
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Only if you, and people like you, are to lazy to get of your a$$ and MAKE them pay. Why don’t you get busy helping the cause, instead of just typing whiney posts?
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I disagree, I think there will be the usual type of whitewashing investigation, typical of ‘climate science’, where the wrongdoing is just tut tutted and not condemned outright, thereby effectively exonerating the guilty culprit in the eyes of the faithful – those investigations of the great Mann’s data gymnastics is a classic instance of this.
Shukla’s first defence is likely to be, “This is an unprovoked racist attack on myself and my family.”
The second will be, “I never realised any of this was going on, so you can’t blame me.”
The third will be, “We are conducting invaluable research, which takes time, and this is just a baseless attack by those evil deniers, who should all be locked up.”
What really upsets me is all the good and useful things that could have been done with the money given to this clown.
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Corruption by a climate scientist – say it isn’t so!
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OK! It isn’t so.
Now if you believe that — I’ve got a big beautiful bridge in the heart of New York City, more than 100 years old and in perfect condition and I’m being forced to sell cheap, only $250,000,000 US. You could easily make a few billion at today’s prices. It’s a bargain so get it while it lasts. The tolls alone will make you rich.
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Are there any Trolls under the bridge?
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Probably, Greg . Doesn’t every bridge have trolls?
I’m sure you could manage to get them to stay out until after sunup if you’re clever, thus turning them to stone. They would look good as statues lining the bridge – instant artwork. Or you could anchor a boat with them. 😉
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Only those from NOAA and Columbia University.
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What is really interesting about this is to note the sort of money the US government is throwing at them. How many thousands upon thousands of such grants are being paid to academics across the country and even outside the US?
The same thing is happening in Australia on a proportionate scale. It corrupts people and therefore science.
The tragedy of it is that the current government has adopted a ‘small target’ approach under which it will just continue to throw our money away but will keep quiet about it in the expectation that voters won’t hear about it and therefore won’t be outraged by it. And, of course, their leftist mates in the media are only too happy to help them carry out this deception.
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Correction: It potentially corrupts people and therefore science.
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Only a small fraction of the population is incorruptible. About 2% according to WA Police’s white-collar crime unit. Figures provided to a computer interest group meeting by a Police officer in the 1980’s.
It made me pretty uncomfortable as there were about 50 people in the room and I know that I’m incorruptible. 😉 Statistics are population-wide; not valid for a self-selected special interest group.
About 80% of people will do something that they know is wrong if they think that they can get away with it. 10% will do it anyway. That leaves about 8% “swing voters”.
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Things are changing quite rapidly in America. Look at the support for Trump. The guy is a major dickhead, and yet people including myself are ready to vote him in. America center to right is mad as he11. The rightous right is about to rain down a shitstorm on Shukla and the Rico20. This is serious criminal fraud, they got a taste of blood and they want more. This joker is looking at serious prison time if the reports about him are proven in court. Where there’s smoke there’s fire. If Shukla get’s charged with a crime an army of federal bean counters will descend like locusts from hell on other high dollar grant recipients. My bet is that this is just the tip of the iceberg. This isn’t just a leak in the climate boat, they just got hit with a torpedo.
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The convenient thing about climate “science” is that generally no equipment is required, it is a purely desktop pursuit (“chalk and talk” as they used to say), no labs required so you don’t even have to demonstrate any competence in the lab to get a grant.
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I forgot to say – you do get lots of free trips to exotic tropical islands looking for evidence of them sinking…
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Here is another well known Climate Scientist. Judith Curry.
I was curious and about a year ago did a bit of research. Please bare with me as I lay out the whole story.
As far as I can tell Judith is a died in the Wool Warmist who wants to be ready to jump to a soft landing if/when problems with CAGW crop up.
Just before the Climate talks in NYC in September of last year she was at the at the National Press Club.
judithcurryDOTcom/2014/09/16/jc-at-the-national-press-club/
That link to her website provid is a link to a November 2010 article Uncertainty gets a seat at the “big table:” Part IV
STATEMENT TO THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT OF THE UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
This makes it very clear the lady is as much a politician as she is a scientist and she has no intention that ‘Climate Scientists’ lose their limelight (or $$$$)
It is useful to put the events of that time up front to understand WHY she might have decided to ‘adjust’ her thinking and climb up onto the fence.
1. In November of 2009 the Climategate e-mails were released.
2. On February 2, 2010 on the BBC nightly news of all places it is announced: “The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has presided over a series of damaging blunders, but how and why has so much gone wrong?” news(DOT)bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/8494793.stm
3. On March of 2010 Donna Laframboise called for crowd-sourcing help in going over the 2007 IPCC report. In mid April the report card is delivered: “21 of 44 chapters in the United Nations’ Nobel-winning climate bible earned an F “ for using gray literature.
In other words the IPCC and its related ‘Scientists’ went from Nobel Prize Winning to a laughing stock. So in November Judith is called on to testify “TO THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT OF THE UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES”
At that point she has made the decision to hop up onto the fence and she does so.
She also decides that muddying the waters with the truth which is an excellent idea.
So she is NOT saying there is no problem she is just saying it is a complex problem and ‘Climate Scientists’ are needed more now than ever. As I said she is a very savvy politician unlike Mann who only knows how to use a hammer.
She also recognizes the threat of the blogosphere and the need to neutralize them.
In her own words, Judith Curry makes it clear her goal is to <b.Rebuild Trust and she is smart enough to realize the sledge hammer tactics of the likes of Joe Rom and Cook and Loony Lew do not do that. This does not however mean she is not still on board the goal of the ‘Radical Transformtion of America’ and Western civilization.
Remember she was part of the BEST team and was well aware of all the underhanded goings on. She also hosted Zeke Hausefeather hatchet job on Steve Goddard (Tony Heller) in July of 2014.
We all know who specializes in US temperature trends.
And just in case you wonder about CLIMATE FORECAST APPLICATIONS NETWORK, LLC
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“As far as I can tell Judith is a died in the Wool Warmist who wants to be ready to jump to a soft landing if/when problems with CAGW crop up.”
No, you could not be more wrong. If you must “classify” her, I’d say “luke-warmer” comes closest. Like so many, she started by believing the “mainstream”, but has shifted significantly as she has investigated and found issue after issue – much like our host, she was expecting honest, unbiased science and has been more and more outraged the further she “digs” on each issue she investigates. Like Pielke Jnr, she is harassed and pilloried for telling the truth, and is often misquoted and misrepresented by the real died in the wool warmist activists like RC, SkS etc.
Do not forget that:
1) Judy is classed as a denier by the frothing mouth end of the warmist clique because she is showing what happens when you propagate uncertainty (search her site for “uncertainty monster”);
2) The testimony you quote was an invited evidence for a republican (right wing) committee and is used “against” her;
3) Judy was the climate scientist who supported Steve McIntyre’s position against the hockey stick because she actually had a look at the facts;
4) She continually asks for “honest broker” responses from scientists and deplores the clearly political actions of, eg, Mann et al
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I interviewed Judith a while back and asked the appropriate questions, see
http://quadrant.org.au/opinion/doomed-planet/2014/05/chatting-climate-heretic/
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Any doubts I had about where Judith Curry stood were dispelled when I looked into her co-founding business Partner, Peter Weber.
Peter Webster a member of the Aspen Global Change Institute.
When you pull the Aspen Global Change Institute thread things get real interesting.
WHAT WE DO
And guess who is on the staff of Climate Communication?
Peter Gleick
Katharine Hayhoe
Michael Mann
Jeff Masters
Michael Oppenheimer
Naomi Oreskes
Jonathan Overpeck
Benjamin Santer
Kevin Trenbreth
Don Wuebbles
To name just a few.
>>>>>>>>>>>
How did I find this connection? You will die laughing – From Judith Curry’s website!
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Gai, I think you have to read more of Judith’s stuff. Yes, she’s somewhat equivocal about some aspects of climate change but I feel she’s much more likely to get an audience than would a shrill ‘denier’. THe bottom line is that she’s advanced awareness of good science, done lots of good science, and despises science by hysterical press release. Look at recent, rather than dated material. /mark fraser
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gai I have listened to her recorded testimony before congress. She believes CO2 causes some warming, but not a dangerous amount. She was a warmist alarmist until Climategate, that changed her, she has written about it (search her blog it’s on there).
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Look on the bright side – the money on those cheques from Big Oil presently winging their ways to us (or so we have been assured by the likes of… err… Shukla) is beginning to look small beer in comparison, so perhaps they will not be raised so easily, in future.
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Poetic justice if it ever comes to pass
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Shukla may have his financial problems, but also keep in mind that the RICO letter itself, regardless of who wrote it, has a FATAL fault within its core premise: it claims that industry corruption which led to lies about AGW to the public are “well documented.” At my AmericanThinker article 10/1, I detailed how that assertion is little more than a much-repeated unsupportable talking point, and that there is only one highly questionable source for the baseless notion that skeptic climate scientists are ‘paid industry shills’. Please see “Those scientists who want to use RICO to prosecute AGW ‘deniers’ have a big problem“
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Thanks for this, Russell. Well done & keep plugging away.
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If AGW were a big conspiracy, you’d think they’d be a lot better coordinated so they didn’t end up believing each others’ propaganda. Or maybe they’re just amazingly stupid.
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Actually they are very well organized. look at my comment on Peter Weber and the Aspen Global Change Institute.
I also found some other interesting tidbits that I may forward to Jo for an article instead of having them get lost in a comment.
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American Thinker. Where is the Pope’s contribution going to lead to? He seems to have, as you say, taken bad advice. He is not supposed to do that.
The Church in my view did a very smart thing twice lately in appointing an elderly man as Pope. These are tumultuous times, and the last thing needed is a Pope who might have to wear his damage for 30 years.
Francis may be thinking this as he speaks. i.e. I am temporary. Keep sending better information his way.
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To have skeptics kept under control,
Is what warmists assumed was their role,
Using criminal laws,
Have exposed their own flaws,
Thus scoring a mighty own-goal.
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If I was a writer of science fiction and decided to write a book poking fun of AGW and its many questionable proponents, there’s no way I could have
ideatedconcocted anything as good as this. If while riding an ethically questionable gray train to fame and fortune one of their fair-haired boys can’t see the inherent risk of rocking the boat, I have to wonder how the whole AGW scam even got off the ground.281
OT,
did you get the shells thing?
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Will,
I’m working on it. Probably have the results posted by end-of-day tomorrow.
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Will,
I posted my “shell results” on the original thread. See my comment dated 3 Oct, 2015, 10:37 am.
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Reed,
Your comment caught my eye because you said,
and I wonder if they even care enough to think about the risk of rocking their boat. They seem to accept having to frantically bail out the water for so long now that I’d have abandoned the boat years ago in favor of an old innertube, even if I had to keep it inflated by blowing into it through a piece of rubber hose. I’m hard put to imagine stuff like what they try to get away with. It’s better than fiction any day except they’re so damned serious about it.
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I write SF under a pseudonym and I can tell you now that this scenario would be still viewed as too far fetched if pitched today, but let’s see what tomorrow brings.
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UUTTERLY OFF TOPIC James, but as an author of SF perhaps you can help me. I am trying to find the name of an SF book written in the early 1970’s in which “telepathic” twins are used for communication between Earth and a distant space craft, the premise being that the telepathy is instantaneous and radio takes a long time. Any ideas? None of my SF friends know and can’t find it on the Net.
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David,
I think you’re looking for Time for the Stars by Robert A Heinlein.
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Thanks so much James! I’ve been trying to work that out for a long time.
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I immediately remembered the theme and the author but couldn’t remember the title.
Even more off topic — I’ve had an idea for a SF novel and started on it several times. But no matter what I do I can’t figure out all the details of getting the sequence of events to come together and make sense. How do you who write manage to do that?
It’s got aliens, alien technology with unimaginable power, government corruption, murder and revenge, even a surprise ending, all the right stuff. And the idea makes sense to me. But I’m not getting all the details lined up right. I write myself into a blind ally every time.
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I will get my husband to answer, but a rough outline will probably help a lot
Also jump in to the story even if it is jumbled bits and pieces. You can organize it a bit later and tie it together. Just sit down and write that is the main thing.
There are certainly books out there that will help. I will ask what he recommends.
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Husband’s bullet list: (written by Husband)
* Do not show it to anyone. All that will happen is your critics will throw you off track
* See if you understand the theme of your story. Your theme may change. You may find you have two separate stories to tell. An example of a changed theme appears in the book versus the movie of Enid Bagnold’s National Velvet. The book’s was dreams can come true, the film’s was bad boy makes good.
* Get to know your characters. Make lists of their qualities… their talents, faults, hopes, likes, dislikes, etc. Some authors simply let the characters tell the story.
* For science fiction you need to have your knowledge of science quite solid, but allow maybe one or two things to get loose. If you need FTL or time travel you’ll have to invent something (Harry Harrison’s cheddite and Dr. Who’s tardis come to mind), and have either plausible science or deliberate hand-waving to make it work.
* Most successful authors work steadily, often first thing in the morning. This was Victor Hugo’s method. They normally do not allow interruption.
* Some writers throw away tremendous amounts of material before coming up with a final manuscript, and some work from detailed outlines. Others (Isaac Asimov comes to mind) write a final version without writing prior drafts.
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Maybe the alarmists go by Harry Harrison’s “Deathworld”.
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The alarmists need Harry Harrison’s Stainless Steel Rat up ’em.
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Oh, I love the Stainless Steel Rat series. And of course Heinlein and….
(I met my husband at a BosCon and through him had the privilege of watching Isaac Asimov and Hal Clement (Harry Stubbs) roast a friend at his 50th birthday party.)
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How many others are doing the same?
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97%
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I loved reading about this at Anthony’s, bh, ca and elsewhere, but one thought occurred that hasn’t been made.
We know there are paid trolls and hacks out there. They must be being paid by some rich vested interest, rolling in dough, who would go to any lengths to shut us up.
Steve mc has looked at his income, is there any way we can look at his outcome?
[“Income” juxtaposed with “outcome” as you’ve stated it seems to be a non sequitur. Please elaborate on what you mean? Also, do we really know there are paid trolls or do we have only a suspicion?] AZ
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I haven’t seen any troll that would be worth paying !
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It is all about personal gain and fame and world governance under the UN. At local or national scale the goals are the same but add communism/socialism. There is nor ever was any legitimate science intended or involved. Greed, power, money, revenge, domination of millions to billions of people–yes, but never real science.
With Hillary stumbling, AlGore is hinting he might run for president. These are they who worship mammon.
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Isn’t Al too busy running Australia since July 1, 2014?
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I heard mutterings that ‘The Fat One’ was contemplating running.
Unlikely I think. Why disturb the well greased train that is well down the line to UN eco-marxist governance by 2030? Why jeopardize the green money spigot and place oneself under the microscope of intense, unrelenting public scrutiny?
Why not, indeed?
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Absolute power corrupts absolutely…
Money does it faster.
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I turned on my TV this morning and “what to my wondering eyes did appear?”
“Ladies and gentlemen, via a generous grant from the American Tax payer and in cooperation with George Mason University, for your viewing pleasure we now join the “Trials and Tribulations Of Shukla, Fran, and Ollie” a program already in progress. For readers new to the program, Shukla and Ollie are sock puppets who working with Fran have for personal gain devised various and sundry lucrative schemes to dip into the vast reservoir of US tax dollars. Everything was sailing along smoothly until Shukla decided his share of the gravy was being depleted by tax dollars being funneled to skeptical ogres via a heretofore little known ‘Big Oil Pipeline’. Shukla convinced 19 other sock puppets to petition the Federal Government to via criminal prosecution seal this obviously corrupt pipeline and jail the evil participants. After posting a letter on his Blog, Shukla confidently put a third cousin from a backwater of India on the payroll and opened a new off shore bank account to hold his soon to be new found wealth. Alas, a few Big Oil ogres sent Shukla a mirror with copies to a few ogre Blogs and US Congressmen. Last seen, Shukla was scrambling for cover; and Fran, Ollie, the infamous 19 and other Shukla disciples were seen scurrying for their
rat holeshome bases to make sure any incriminating evidence of similar behavior was promptly “removed” in a manner similar to Shukla’s original Blog letter. Stay tuned for the continuing saga of Shukla’s attempts to thwart the evil Big Oil Ogres.242
“Federal Money – and how not to spend it “
If one reviews the rules and recommendations from the National Procurement Fraud Task Force – NPFTF, especially the part about “who typically commits the fraud” it is often the recipient , or family members or close friends.
After reading the article it would appear that as president of IEGS employing your wife AND your daughter and your close friend whilst it receives 98% of its revenue from the U.S. Government is definitely going to peak the interest of Federal Agents.
but in truth I think the explanation of why IEGS funneled money to his hometown in India is going to be much more entertaining.
I do think it strange though that his choice of destination was India , the bank of choice for Climate Scientists and family are in Switzerland , perhaps the Banks were full 😮
In cases like these I often like to use a Mark Steynism … as he did with the now “ex head” of the IPCC, when talking at the 10th ICCC conference.
Rajendra Pachauri – Rajendra “Pantsdownie”
“Shukla” definitely has a “huksterish” sound to it , but requires a little more thought…
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Shucks, that’s easy. Jagadish Shuckster.
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“Perhaps the banks were full.”
That made me laugh outright.
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Oh dear, it would seem poor old Shukla is the Climate Trougher’s equivalent of a suicide bomber with a chronic hand motor tic.
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This is going to be a big deal, at least in the US. There are at least three aspects now. The first two fall under the direct jurisdiction of Lamar Smith’s congressional committee, whichnoversees both NSF amd NASA, two of three grantors.
1. Shukla’s letter posted from his IGES involves political activity prohibited to tax exempt non-profit IGES. And IGES used NSF grant money prohibited under the grant teems.
2. Shukla’s double dipping ($300k from IGES plus $$314from George Mason University (GMU)) is an express violation of NSF written grant terms, and calls into question NSF administration as well as misappropriation of federal funds. (Not peanuts. We are talking Shukla and Family skimming at least $5.3 million since 2001 on total federal grants of $63.1 million). The NSF OIG will get involved to save its own credibility now that a congressional investigation has started.
3. As a GMU prof, Shukla is a state of Virgina employee, who has filed false anual state disclosure forms to hide the double dipping. Not only is that likely perjury, it is a criminal violation of Virginia state law concerning permissable state employee outside activities meant to prevent exactly what Shukla has been doing for years. Thatnis a matter the Virginia attorney general will follow up on. Cuccinelli tried but failed to get UVA to release Mann’s emails comcerning hockey stick after climate gate. Failed at the Virginia Supreme Court. This a much simpler, more criminal, target. Irrestivle way to curry votes amongst Republicans and skeptical independents in a swing state.
All three factors say this is not going to be buried, and will eventually get some MSM traction.
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Thanks Rudd. A very interesting analysis. Can you put any sort of timeline on what happens next? My fear is that the wheels of justice grind too slowly to have any impact on the Paris event. Unless the media latch on to the story in a big way.
Cheers,
Dave B
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Mr Istvan
since I don’t follow sports, I follow climate
my bet is that you’re wrong on this one
this letter seems to have never made it very high up the flagpole
the warmunist will claim it as their internal musings
that they were never serious
GMU will nip in the bud
Congress will demure ’cause GMU has a ‘special’ relationship with many of the DC/VA elite and their less than special children – though I’m sure it’s a fine school 🙂
I lived between them for many years
this clmate thing I fear has become too big to fail
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Well John , if you are proved correct then the USA has some real issues and the Government and the bureaucrats will be handing Trump and others like him, a platinum plated opportunity.
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Trump is certainly clear about his attitude to global warming….
But if you Google “Trump climate change” everbody is attacking him severely for his correct beliefs, even saying that cooling is proof of warming….
(I added the asterisk and removed the “u” from the expletive.)
https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/418542137899491328
This very expensive GLOBAL WARMING b*llshit has got to stop. Our planet is freezing, record low temps,and our GW scientists are stuck in ice
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Ooops, should have removed the i and not the u….
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The letter was sent to Obama and AG Lynch. It was signed by several GMU professors, and by Trenberth. Lamar Smith is to be taken seriously. So is Birginia state law. They just sent the previous governor to prison for allowing his wife to accept $100k in favors from a businessman seeking state contracts. This appears significantly worse.
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I think it won’t be latched onto by the US press for a while. They seem to like stories that have a conclusion or will conclude soon. I think they’ll start getting interested if congressional hearings are held, and I think that will happen.
Congress has already taken note, stunningly quickly, as far as I know. Receiving mail from our IRS (the tax man) is rather stressful. I can’t imagine what it must be like to get a letter from Congress, especially when reading these contents. https://science.house.gov/sites/republicans.science.house.gov/files/documents/10-1-15%20CLS%20to%20Shukla.pdf says in small part:
“It is reasonably foreseeable that the Committee will request documents from IGES at some point during its investigation of the aforementioned allegations. IGES’s recent decision to remove documents from its website raises concerns that additional information vital to the Committee’s investigation may not be preserved.”
We know what you did, we don’t trust you, and we’re watching you. Nope, not a good letter to have to read.
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The Committee’s letter refers to http://dailycaller.com/2015/09/21/climate-scientists-asking-obama-to-prosecute-skeptics-gets-millions-from-u-s-taxpayers/ which I hadn’t read before. Worth reading.
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Thanks for that Ric. The return date, October 8, is great.
Cheers,
Dave B
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Perhaps somebody should shine a light beneath some local stones – Australia’s counterparts. After all, look what their high priced wisdom given us:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/state-politics/billions-in-desalination-costs-for-not-a-drop-of-water/story-e6frgczx-1227094416376?sv=127c70f7ae41111d448ae3ffaca5f058
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There was a lot more than AGW to those (stones). They do indeed need investigating.
In NSW they were rushed through in a very strange manner. Somebody must have had plans already in place outside of government. Somebody in government ensured that the impediments normally placed in the way of development didn’t surface.
The ALP government in NSW was subsequently found to be corrupt in other areas, and had other strange dealings involving water.
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Martin, that story is behind a paywall.
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The RICO law must be applied to investigate the 20 of them.
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some may recall Nuccitelli’s Guardian piece directed readers to a petition:
29 Sept: Guardian: Dana Nuccitelli: Is the fossil fuel industry, like the tobacco industry, guilty of racketeering?
Journalists investigated Exxon’s rejection of its own science to deceive the public. Scientists call for the Justice Department to investigate
Climate Hawks Vote has created a petition asking the Attorney General to launch a RICO investigation of Exxon and other fossil fuel companies.
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2015/sep/29/is-the-fossil-fuel-industry-like-the-tobacco-industry-guilty-of-racketeering
929 signatures, and counting. doubt anyone signing has a clue about the Shukla/GMU revelations:
ClimateHawksVote Petition
Tell U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch:
Launch a RICO prosecution of Exxon and its fellow fossil-fuel companies for deliberate and malicious climate deception.
http://www.climatehawksvote.com/prosecute_exxon
Wikipedia: Climate Hawks Vote
Co-founder and chair RL Miller is an activist, blogger, and chair of the California Democratic Party’s environmental caucus. The other founder is Hunter Cutting, Director of Strategic Communications at Climate Nexus…
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hopefully, Paris will fail if India stands firm. 2 of India’s INDC targets:
– To reduce the emissions intensity of its GDP by 33 to 35 per cent by 2030 from 2005 level…
– To achieve about 40 per cent cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel based energy resources by 2030 with the help of transfer of technology and low cost international finance including from Green Climate Fund (GCF).
2 Oct: BBC: Matt McGrath: UN battle looms over finance as nations submit climate plans
Divisions over money between rich and poor countries re-emerged as nations submitted their plans for tackling climate change to the UN.
India, the last big emitter to publish its contribution, said it would need $2.5 trillion to meet its targets.
The Philippines said that without adequate climate compensation, their cuts in emissions wouldn’t happen…
The plan says that India’s transition will cost $2.5 trillion, a “scary number” according to one observer.
It is unclear how much of this money will come from India’s own resources and how much from the international community and investment…
In their written submission, India’s proposed climate actions appear to be contingent on getting much of this money from richer countries: “The successful implementation of INDC is contingent upon an ambitious global agreement including additional means of implementation to be provided by developed country parties.”…
Developed countries have committed to $100bn funding for developing countries to deal with climate change by 2020, but India’s environment minister suggested the bill was going to a lot bigger than that.
“I am telling the world that the bill for climate action for the world is not just $100bn, it is in trillions of dollars
per year,” said Prakash Javadekar.
“Countries will take up their own responsibility but the world which is historically responsible for carbon emissions, what we are suffering today, the climate change, they must at least walk the talk on $100bn.”…
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-34412647
on BBC, and in other MSM, there is a reluctance to quantify the planned future coal usage;
***AFP includes it though:
2 Oct: AFP: India vows ambitious green targets but defends coal use
***Yet India also vowed to continue expanding its use of coal — it plans to double coal production to one billion tonnes by 2020 — saying it was vital to meet the needs of its burgeoning economy, which grew seven percent last quarter…
While the new goals would take India’s capacity for renewable energy by 2030 to more than double the 175,000 megawatts currently targeted, coal will “continue to dominate power generation” in the future it said in its UN submission…
“India’s continued commitment to expand coal power capacity is baffling,” said Pujarini Sen, a senior Greenpeace India campaigner…
India sits on the world’s fifth-largest coal reserves and already depends on coal-fired plants for more than 60 percent of its power, while the country’s population is set to overtake that of Asian rival China in the next two decades…
http://news.yahoo.com/india-confident-cut-emissions-35-2030-minister-072456287.html
from The Hindu 2 Oct: India to cut emissions intensity
India has also stated its challenges in terms of human development goals, for which higher energy production and consumption is a must.
“No country in the world has been able to achieve a Human Development Index of 0.9 or more without an annual energy availability of at least 4 tonnes of oil equivalent (toe) per capita,” it said…
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Add this too India’s coal use
http://realclimatescience.com/2015/10/netherlands-massively-increasing-their-coal-capacity/
There are more countries increasing coal use than there are reducing it, in my view. The whole circus has become a joke
(unfortunately the numbers being talked about are trillions, as your post mentions, so it is a serious joke)
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O/T I know probably should be in Weekend unthreaded.
“This was sent to all MPs:
It shows plans for climate change briefings and meetings in Canberra, co hosted by Greg Hunt (Liberal), Mark Butler (Labor) and Larissa Waters (Greens). There is a bipartisan movement between the three parties to move forward with plans to sign the UN Climate Change Agreement in Paris in December. They’re all in this together. “
https://www.facebook.com/groups/108655705888371/permalink/895756020511665/
R-Coo- K+
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Ron, can you repost, the link requires a facebook login to see.
I want to send this to my Lib member with a request for an explanation
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bobl
Try this link
http://theclimatescepticsparty.blogspot.com.au/
Cheers
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Thanks Ron, I have sent off a zinger to my member about this but also comrade Mal’s dragging back of off-the-table taxes on the middle class – super, and negative gearing, both of which ultimately take money out of the mouths of Pensioners and renters.
What is it with the left and wanting to slug pensioners and middle class savings. Of course those same people get slugged again by the PM for goldman sachs’s favourite leftie tax, the ETS which drives up energy cost disproportionately harming the poor, while the rich grab the subsidies and install solar panels (and diesel generators) to avoid the tax, and shift the real costs onto the poor.
It’s hard having a two party system when you have Labor and Labor-lite
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“What is it with the left and wanting to slug pensioners and middle class savings.”
Do a search on “The Real Bernard Shaw”
From the Fabian point of view if you are no use to the state they would prefer to be rid of you.
Also check out this for why the middle class is targeted. The middle class has always been challenging the position of the Top Dogs so they would much prefer there was no middle class just ‘workers’ aka serfs.
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That was “The Real George Bernard Shaw”
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Tri-partisan?
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No, its the extreme left, the left and left-lite
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🙁 Depressing
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That’s still three though, hence tri, not bi partisan.
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Great article. Funny, but also serious; what an arse is he.
Minor typo correction, Jo. RICO is:
Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act
Ta. Will fix – Jo
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19 other people also signed that RICO letter. I’d love to hear their views and weather they believe the letter was “inadvertantly posted“, or if they expected it to be posted.
Perhaps they expected it would be sent to the Obama administration as a private correspondence not as a public discourse.
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excellent analysis:
2 Oct: notalotofpeopleknowthat: India’s Climate Plan Will Triple Emissions By 2030
The following points stand out:
*No actual CO2 target has been set.
*Although the talk is of “increase the share of clean energy in its total energy mix by as much as 40%”, when you get down to the small print, as we will shortly, the commitment is only to 40% of capacity, and not generation. As we know, renewables give very poor utilisation, so the amount generated will be much, much less than 40%.
*Also, this 40% is not of its total energy mix, as reported, but only of electricity mix…ETC
Commitment is given about reducing carbon intensity of GDP, but nearly half of this has already been achieved since 2005.
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2015/10/02/indias-climate-plan-will-triple-emissions-by-2030/
compare to BBC spin:
2 Oct: BBC: Navin Singh Khadka: India’s ‘ambitious’ pledge to slow emissions rise
India, the world’s third largest carbon emitter, has pledged to the UN to reduce the rate by which its greenhouse gas emissions increase by up to 35% by 2030, compared with 2005.
It says it aims to generate 40% of electricity from non-fossil fuel sources, mainly solar and wind…
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-34424930
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Homewood has another signatory in his sights:
1 Oct: notalotofpeopleknowthat: RicoGate
By Paul Homewood
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2015/10/01/ricogate/
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Ricogate…..very good.
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I’m advocating for RICOchet.
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The famous Irish Olympic shooter?
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That’s hilarious Yonnie 🙂
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From 2010:
“Top Scientist Resigns Admitting Global Warming Is A Big Scam”
EXTRACT FROM HIS LETTER TO AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY:
It is of course, the global warming scam, with the (literally) trillions of dollars driving it, that has corrupted so many scientists, and has carried APS before it like a rogue wave. It is the greatest and most successful pseudoscientific fraud I have seen in my long life as a physicist. Anyone who has the faintest doubt that this is so should force himself to read the ClimateGate documents, which lay it bare. (Montford’s book organizes the facts very well.) I don’t believe that any real physicist, nay scientist, can read that stuff without revulsion. I would almost make that revulsion a definition of the word scientist.
http://yournewswire.com/top-scientist-resigns-admitting-global-warming-is-a-big-scam/
[Editing note, date corrected at the top. — Jo]
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Thanks Jo.
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2 Oct: ReutersCarbonPulse: Ben Garside: Poorer nations face let-down as INDCs lack carbon market buyers
Dozens of poorer nations seeking to sell emission reductions to help decarbonise their economies are likely to face disappointment because barely any rich countries are willing to outsource their abatement efforts through buying carbon credits…
There are at least 70 countries that are seeking to use, or considering using, market-based mechanisms, according to INDC data compiled by Carbon Pulse.
But the vast majority of those are developing nations looking to sell emission reductions to richer governments, with barely a handful of willing buyer countries and no interest from the major economies of China, the EU and US.
“The seller countries would be disappointed, and as the INDCs are the result of hard-won national compromises they are not subject to negotiation in Paris,” said Frank Melum, an climate policy analyst at Thomson Reuters Point Carbon…
The remaining buyer nations are relatively small emitters with limited demand, such as Canada, Japan, New Zealand and Switzerland…
As a result, the prospect of a burgeoning transnational carbon market or a resurgence of a global crediting mechanism such as the CDM seems slim in the near-term, but a Paris deal could set a course for more trade in future, observers say…
http://carbon-pulse.com/poorer-nations-face-let-down-as-indcs-lack-carbon-market-buyers/
LOL:
2 Oct: ClimateChangeNews: Alex Pashley: Hall of shame: Who hasn’t pledged yet to UN climate pact?
Nearly 50 countries missed the UN deadline for carbon-cutting plans. Whether due to limited means, sloth or belligerence, here are the big ones not playing ball
In the world of climate diplomacy there are no penalties, just reproachful gazes…
http://www.climatechangenews.com/2015/10/02/hall-of-shame-who-hasnt-pledged-yet-to-un-climate-pact/
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2 Oct: UK Daily Mail: Hugo Duncan: Is that you or your eco-warrior wife speaking Mark? Carney feels heat after saying ‘climate change could cause new crash’
Bank of England boss Mark Carney under fire for climate change comment
He claimed that the environmental issue could trigger a financial crisis
But critics say he is ‘politicising’ the job and operating outside his remit
But critics dismissed his views, with the Financial Times saying Mr Carney’s intervention ‘comes dangerously close to taking sides’.
The newspaper said his views received ‘derision and praise in equal measure’ with the Governor appearing to be ‘either a far-sighted visionary or a dangerously deluded fool’ depending on your point of view…
Dr Richard Wellings, of the Institute of Economic Affairs think-tank, said: ‘There is little evidence to support his alarmist views on the impact of climate change. Indeed, Mr Carney should be far more worried about the harmful effect of the green policies designed to prevent global warming.
‘Green taxes and regulation are already suffocating economic growth in the West by driving up energy and transport costs, yet by pushing industry to China and India they do little to cut overall emissions.’…
(CHECK SOME OF THE COMMENTS)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3256918/Is-eco-warrior-wife-speaking-Mark-Carney-feels-heat-saying-climate-change-cause-new-crash.html
1 Oct: UK Telegraph: Jeremy Warner: Who put Mark Carney in charge of our climate policy?
Like it or not, the whole of modernity is based on hydro-carbons. We’ll never convince anyone to leave fossil fuels in the ground
Like virtually everyone else, central banks failed to see the financial crisis coming. For ordinary mortals, it was excusable; they were entitled to think the authorities had matters under control. For central banks, guardians of the world’s monetary system and supposed keepers of the deep knowledge on banking crises, it was not.
Their reward for this failure was…er… to be endowed with even more powers and responsibilities than they had before…
You’d have thought that managing the economy would be quite enough to be going on with, but no, if elevated to the position of demi-god on the global stage, then some degree of over-reach is only to be expected. By this week wading into the climate change debate, Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England, has signalled that there is almost no area of public discourse that can be considered off limits. What next? The war in Syria? Come to think of it, why not put the Bank of England in charge of everything? …
There was, however, also something faintly reckless and naive about the Governor’s intervention. It is no exaggeration to say that the whole of modernity is based on hydrocarbons. Without coal, oil and gas, we’d still be in an age of limited life expectancy, subsistence farming and riding to market on horse and cart. However much we might wish it, this dependence is not going to change for a long time to come…
Thirty years of extraordinarily costly research and development has resulted in a renewables industry that today accounts for a stunning – wait for it – 1 per cent of global energy supply…
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/jeremy-warner/11905076/Who-put-Mark-Carney-in-charge-of-our-climate-policy.html
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The day climate scientists who are peddling the global warming scam are charged and found guilty in a court of law and governments subsequently reverses the trillions of dollars wasted on trying to stop global warming will be the day when people like Al Gore admit they got it wrong or confess it’s the greatest fraud in the history of mankind. I won’t hold my breath. Meanwhile the scam continues to grow and grow like a cancer.
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I’ve maintained for many years that those who cast aspersions are almost always guilty of the deeds they talk about. I don’t mean when someone dobs in a guilty person but rather those who ‘out-of-the-blue’ suggest others are doing bad things.
If someone accuses another of something with no apparent evidence, the best thing to do is look into the actions and background of the accuser.
vis-a-vis AGW proponents accusing the sceptical Scientists of being paid for when in reality the money is overwhelmingly going to the pro-AGW side. Undue influence accustaions in the Climategate emails when in reality the undue influence is coming in the form of preventing the non-AGW side from publishing.
And so on… always check the accuser FIRST.
And here we see it again – calls for criminal investigation of the ‘other’ side by someone indulging in criminal behaviour themselves.
I am unsure if they do it because they think it will divert attention from themselves, or it will cause the accused to lose credibility or whether their behaviour is so ingrained they believe everyone must be doing the same things in which they are personally indulging.
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As noted a few times before, the core issue is Noble Cause Corruption. These people have convinced themselves beyond any doubt that they are on the side of the angels … so they can do no wrong. They really are that deluded
So the situation is simultaneously that of their quite tragic sadness irretrievably mixed with doing real damage to innocent people. Human history is replete with this
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The Shukla Affair is a timely reminder to all those who are funded by taxpayer money:
1 They reside in a glass house.
2 Those who live in glasshouses shouldn’t throw stones.
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3. Especially if the glass house is a greenhouse.
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Is that the same Heidi Cullen as at The Weather Channel who spreads alarmist trash?
I got a lot of hits by putting her name into the search box at http://wattsupwiththat.com
thanks
JK
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Where are the warmists rushing to defend “Double-dip” Shukla?
They must have all have been silenced by those co-ordinated and massively funded attacks by the fossil fuel industry.
Come on warmists! Bring it on!
Right, I’m off to sit by my letter box and wait for that cheque from Big Oil that the warmists keep telling me I’m due to recieve.
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Unfortunately, corruption is endemic in India, orders of magnitude worse than in the United States. This from Wikipedia:
“Corruption in India is a major issue that adversely affects its economy. A study conducted by Transparency International in year 2005 found that more than 62% of Indians had first hand experience of paying bribes or influence peddling to get jobs done in public offices successfully. In its study conducted in year 2008, Transparency International reports about 40% of Indians had firsthand experience of paying bribes or using a contact to get a job done in public office.”
We have enough problems of our own here; we don’t need anyone bringing their cr*p like this with them.
If Shukla is not a U.S. Citizen, deport him and any other non-citizens with him who has broken U.S. law. If he is a citizen, give him a choice between renouncing his citizenship and going to India, or a life term in U.S. federal prison. Follow the same procedure with the rest of his gravy train-ers.
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Could the Shukla clan will be visiting India for a long stay if they haven’t left
yet .
Pay ill-gotten gains back , do a few years of wall research in a federal slammer , then permanently relocate your act to one of the most corrupt countries on earth, India .
$$ Billions have been paid out in goofy grants to promote a scam . Time to shut down the artificial world of global warming promoters.
How many other schemes like this are going on all over the world ?
When” non profit ” researchers become lobbyists they lose their tax free status and are required to pay taxes on their business .
Who is going to be going to jail now Science Silencers ? Thank you for bringing this to the Federal Government . Don’t go to far now .
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