Milloy, et. al, Start To Trash UK Climate Report Even Before Release - Guardian

[hatrack]

Even before the government's comprehensive report on the global economic impact of climate change is published later today, rightwing commentators and bloggers on both sides of the Atlantic have already begun rubbishing its contents. The Stern review, which was commissioned by the Treasury and carried out by the former World Bank chief economist Sir Nicholas Stern, is expected to say that the world economy faces an economic downturn comparable to the great depression of the 1930s if it fails to curb greenhouse gas emissions.

But it is already easy to find a foretaste of the debate that is sure to accompany Sir Nicholas's US tour to present his report to political and business leaders there. Under the headline Bad Climate Science Yields Worse Economics, Stephen Milloy, who is a scholar with the rightwing thinktank the Cato Institute, wrote on his "junkscience" blog: "The British government is preparing to fire a new round of global warming alarmism at the US next week." The piece, which also appears on the Fox News website, dismisses the study as " Gore's junk science shaping Stern's junk economics".

Climate change sceptics in the UK had a pop at Stern in January when he released three papers that served as a preliminary report into the review's progress. A critique by a group of nine rightwing economists, including the former chancellor Nigel Lawson, described the Stern review as a "misdirected exercise". "By taking as given hypotheses that remain uncertain, assertions that are debatable or mistaken, and processes of inquiry that are at fault, the review has put itself on a path that can lead to no useful outcome," they wrote.

But Neil Adger, an economist at the Tyndall Centre for climate change research, said: "The sceptics have been trying to rubbish the Stern report from the start because they know that it is so important who is actually saying these things. Stern is the chief economist, he is the man who designs our tax system, he is Gordon Brown's right-hand man ... is going to hold a lot of sway both in the Treasury and the prime minister's office." Despite the apocalyptic nature of Stern's conclusions, Prof Adger said the real cost may be even higher because the impact of some consequences of climate change, such as extinctions of species and cultures, cannot be quantified. "Those additional risks make even Stern's figures look conservative," he said.

EDIT

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1934989,00.html

[eppur_se_muova]

1. For some analysis of Stern report ... (BBC)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=103&topic_id=243226&mesg_id=243226

on edit: called it the "Stark Report" ... not inappropriately.

[Eugene]

2. OPEC says British climate change report "unfounded" (Reuters)

OPEC says British climate change report "unfounded"
31 Oct 2006 08:43:29 GMT
Source: Reuters

By Tanya Mosolova

MOSCOW, Oct 31 (Reuters) - A hard-hitting report on climate change published
by the British government on Monday has no basis in science or economics,
OPEC's Secretary-General Mohammed Barkindo said on Tuesday.

The report written by former World Bank chief economist Nicholas Stern said
that failure to tackle climate change could push world temperatures up by 5
degrees Celsius (9 Fahrenheit) over the next century, causing severe floods
and harsh droughts and uprooting many as 200 million people.

The study recommended taking action now to offset the far greater cost of
dealing with climate change later.

But Barkindo told an energy conference in Moscow that the Organisation of the
Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) -- which holds around two thirds of the
world's oil reserves -- opposed such research efforts. "We find some of the
so-called initiatives of the rich industrialised countries who are supposed
to take the lead in combating climate change rather alarming," he said.

-snip-

Full article: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L31174050.htm