On one thing, Mark Lynas is right – the world cannot cope with more large hydropower dam projects – just look at what Rainfall Change has meant for power blackouts in South America.
However, yet again, he blurs the value of one of the central principles guiding the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – inclusivity :-
https://www.marklynas.org/2011/06/new-allegation-of-ipcc-renewables-report-bias/
Who are the experts on climate change and energy ? We need to make sense of the various voices, and for that, we need to hear them all. The IPCC is the best platform we have – it is as neutral as it is possible for a host organisation to be.
Mark Lynas has just joined the Delayers-and-Deniers club, whose agenda has moved on from trying to take down Climate Change science to taking down any organisation that could help the policy and industry situation improve.
His contributions, including this comment at JudithCurry.com, betray his unwitting complicity in a destructive agenda :-
https://judithcurry.com/2011/06/17/an-opening-mind-part-ii/#comment-76593
Mark, they’re Americans. Americans believe in Free Speech. Americans are legally permitted to say anything they like, even if it has no factual basis. I know, there are lots of Canadians, Britannians and Australians in the Delayers-and-Deniers club, too, but the central point stands – all this grunting and dismissiveness about the IPCC is their way of distracting the public mind from the real problems we must face in changing the energy systems while we still have time – before it becomes a genuine crisis situation, where we can no longer act.
Who is completely independent, neutral or unbiased about Climate Change ? Who is completely independent, neutral or unbiased about Energy ?
Solving Climate Change requires solving Energy, and that requires solving the problems in democratic dialogue. The so-called Climate Change “skeptics” do not engage in forthright, honest, transparent dialogue, not even about energy. Back away from the grumblers, Mark !
I have my criticisms of the “corporate steal” of the United Nations Climate Change Framework Convention – issues of economic development and industrial investment have dominated the international conferences, and unworkable economics theories have snuck into the Kyoto Protocol and any other initiative you think of – including the emergence of proposals for Carbon Taxation and Carbon Trading schemes.
I also have criticisms of the communications structure within and around the IPCC – I think the IPCC reports should be written in such a way as to make sure that everybody can take in the full seriousness, urgency and momentum of what they are discussing.
Why are executives of major energy companies bothering to take part in the IPCC process ? Because they perceive that things cannot go on like they are. This is the same perception as held by those in Greenpeace and other non-governmental organisations and charities.
Nominate for me a set of people who are entirely independent, who cannot have a biased opinion about the future of energy and the environment, and I will place my trust in their review of the literature on Climate Change and Renewable Energy.
Failing that, I stick with the collage produced by the multi-viewed expert panel, corporate and non-corporate, part of the IPCC. There is nothing better than a totally open forum. Maybe International Rivers want to take part in future IPCC work ? If important views are being ignored, they need to be included from now on.
Allowing the Delayers-and-Deniers to keep setting the agenda is dangerous and disabling. We’ve already seen the success they had in derailing public acceptance of Climate Change science. Their latest plans include telling us that wind power and solar power don’t work. It would be laughable, except that the mainstream media keep repeating the lies :-
https://thinkprogress.org/romm/2011/06/20/248246/solar-beats-peak-gas-today-cnbc/
Mark, your allegiance to the failing nuclear industry demonstrates that you have not understood that its promotion is one of the tactics of the Delayers-and-Deniers club to keep us from effective, long-term energy change.
By attacking anything that has the possibility of succeeding, they have a stranglehold on progress. Don’t give in to their agenda. We shouldn’t be fighting each other.
2 replies on “Mark Lynas : Dam Right”
Motives – for Delayers and Deniers?
Jo: “Mark Lynas has just joined the Delayers-and-Deniers club, whose agenda has moved on from trying to take down Climate Change science to taking down any organisation that could help the policy and industry situation improve.”
Have you ever stopped and thought, why would anybody have these alleged motives and agendas?
Why on earth would someone like Mark (custard pie)Lynas try to take down ‘climate science’
“all this grunting and dismissiveness about the IPCC is their way of distracting the public mind from the real problems we must face in changing the energy systems while we still have time – before it becomes a genuine crisis situation, where we can no longer act.
again, what possible motive would anybody have, especially Mark, of distracting the public form a genuine crisis.! Mark Lynas clearly believes that man made climate change is potentially very serious.
Jo: “Mark, your allegiance to the failing nuclear industry demonstrates that you have not understood that its promotion is one of the tactics of the Delayers-and-Deniers club to keep us from effective, long-term energy change.”
So what are you saying, in the pay of BIG nuclear? 😉 ! From his writing he clearly believes that to be able to reduce CO2 emission that nuclear needs to be part ofthe mix, especially on the realtive short time scales demanded to reduce EU emissions for example.
Serioulsy what motives do ‘delayers and deniers’ have?
@BarryWoods
I think that Mark Lynas still accepts Climate Change science, but I don’t think he realises the pitfalls of joining the nuclear cheerleaders bench.
The change the UK needs in electricity generation is tomorrow, not in ten years time, when the first new nuclear power plants would start generating (if they ever get commissioned).
What is required is massive efficiency savings, both in the ways that end users manage their energy, but also in the energy delivery systems.
The new wind farms and gas plants can be brought on-stream in a couple of years, given enough commitment to a sensible plan, and they can cover the shortfall in electricity supply that has already begun.
Over the next 20 years, the UK generation profile will have to become more localised and more efficient because of the worldwide energy situation.
Building some new nuclear power stations and leaving everything else the same is a ridiculous idea.