Wednesday, 19 September 2007

Just a clown. Still no climate refugees.

Tim Blair proposes a new title. Warmist isn't enough. For people like this, only "climate clown" will do. Who?

Jane McAdam - senior lecturer and director of international law at the University of New South Wales, director of the Climate Changes ‘Refugees’ and International Law Project, associate rapporteur of the Convention Refugee Status and Subsidiary Protection Working Party for the International Association of Refugee Law Judges, member of the Executive Committee of the International Law Association (Australian Branch), author of Complementary Protection in International Refugee Law (Oxford University Press, Oxford 2007), former general editor of the Oxford University Commonwealth Law Journal and a former member of the editorial board of the Sydney Law Review – is also a climate clown. [Says McAdam] :

On Christmas Eve last year, the first inhabited island disappeared underwater as a result of global warming. The residents of Lohachara island in the Bay of Bengal had already fled to a nearby island …

Wrong. 'The Independent' reported on Christmas Eve that global warming had claimed Lohachara (in a piece apparently removed from the paper’s archives), but omitted any actual submersion date. That’s because the island went under some 20 years ago, for reasons apparently not related to warming [probably because the Indian Tectonic Plate is pushing up against the Eurasian Plate, causing the Bay of Bengal to slowly sink].

So despite her glowing credentials, McAdam is either offering evidence for why her family name is derived from a utilitarian roading material, or she's lying to deceive -- as US Congressman Dan Rohrabacher describes her ilk,
part of a movement that feels they have a right to lie and they have a right to frighten people, because they have a higher calling; their higher calling is to save the environment."
Place your bets on which one it is.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gosh, the link between McAdam and tarmacadam is a bit tenuous. Learned a few things about tarmac though.

Making stuff up for a “good cause” is a time-honoured tradition. The foundation of all religions I’d wager.

Captain Calculus said...

As usual, good sir, an excellent post on an excellent blog.

One think I would love to do, once I have some time on my hands, is to go back to the nwspaper archives of 10-12 years ago (when this global warming/climate change became en vogue) and get a list of all the dire predictions that should be showing up by now.

By now, New York city should be under 20 feet of water, the Thames should have flooded London, Samoa, Tonga and the Netherlands should be no more, parts around the equator such as Singapore would have been abandoned because they are too hot to live in, The Sahara should have swallowed Africa, Hillary would be president, ....D'oh.

Honestly, it wold be a really worth while excercise and I am very tempted to do it

Gman

Peter Cresswell said...

AngloAmerican:

The McAdam/tarmacadam joke was sort of pinched from David Lange's pithy line that Winston Peters was the only politician he knew who was named after a concrete block -- and it was becoming obvious why.

Maybe my wee jest didn't work as well as David's?

In any case, the invention and use of asphalt by engineer John Loudon McAdam (the Colossus of Roads) was a great moment in human affairs, and the beginning of modern roading.

Something that significant is not really something to joke about -- but I'm sure the great John Loudon would look with disgust upon his lying namesake Jane.

Anonymous said...

I was probably a bit confused because the Wikipedia article didn't mention John Loudon McAdam.

Anonymous said...

Gman I have a "Press" cutting of 23 Feb 2004 detailing key findings of a secret report of the Pentagon, supressed by US defence chiefs and obtained by the Observer, in which climate change over the next 20 years could result in a global catastrophe costing millions of lives in wars and natural disasters. Some highlights:

* Riots and internal conflict tear apart India, South Africe and Indonesia.

* By 2007 violent storms smash coastal barriers rendering large parts of the Netherlands uninhabitable. Cities like The Hague are abandoned. In California the delta island levees in the Sacramento River area are breached, disrupting the aqueduct system transporting water from north to south.

* Between 2010 and 2020 Europe is hardest hit by climate change with an average temperature DROP of 6degF. Climate in Britain becomes COLDER and drier as weather patterns begin to resemble Siberia.

Captain Calculus said...

Barry, is this from the Press (as in the Chch Press) or from the press as the print media?

I have access to pretty much anything that has been printed in New Zealand and the english speaking world since @1990 in electronic form, that includes magazines, research papers, periodicals and conferences. If it's not in electronic form then it's easily getable.

If you have anything at all which might interest me, just point me in the right direction and I'll hunt out.

I'm actually thinking of starting with the Greens' maiden speeches, their press releases and working out from there. Although I don't want to limit it to NZ by any extent.

G

Anonymous said...

Gman

Yes, please! Please collect them and publish. That's a very good idea.

LGM

Anonymous said...

Hi Gman, yes my quote was from The Press [Christchurch] 23 Feb 2004. "KEY FINDINGS OF THE PENTAGON".
Three columns, about half a page.

Good luck with this project, do you wish to have other predictions reported? By direct Email to you?

Anonymous said...

How about calling them members of the Klimate Krux Klan or the Klimate Flux Klan?

Anonymous said...

On the radio talkback they were calling them "climate pimps" and "climate pornographers". Their assertions are known as "climate porn". Quite indecent it is too.

LGM