Bishop Hill The global warmer's dilemma
Feb 7, 2014 Greens Upholders of the global warming consensus have just been handed an almighty dilemma by Natural Environmental Research Council. Having spent years dismissing any results produced by sceptics as (allegedly) big oil funded and therefore untrustworthy, they are going to have to come to terms with the fact that in future a large chunk of environmental research is going to be done in collaboration with Shell.
NERC has today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with multinational oil and gas company Shell.
The partnership will enable Shell to put NERC's world-leading environmental science at the heart of responsible management of our planet, by providing access to independent, objective advice and information.
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Collaborating with Shell in this way will benefit NERC in a number of ways, such as helping to identify opportunities for joint funding and postgraduate training which align with both partners' requirements.
Reader Comments (37)
Anything, and I mean anything, so long as it kills coal.
So, this was the #radicalplan?
;)
Shell have been funding environmentalists for a long time. This is just another arm of their outreach to the greenies. The greenies have kept quiet about it because of the embarassment and this will not appear in the press or any shell brochures.
I'd ask Alice Bell the inverse question. What right does she have to prevent Shell from having access? Aren’t such resources a public good?
Shell have had Greens close too the top of the business for a long time. James Smith. ex Chariman of Shell UK went on to head the Carbon Trust:
http://www.carbontrust.com/about-us/our-board/our-board/james-smith
It's why they haven't even tried to get into shale in the UK.
“If Shell needs public scientific support, we could offer it some social scientists…” Sounds like an offer Shell can’t refuse!
Shell was, of course, along with BP, a key early funder of UEA CRU, back in the days when they were promoting the ice age scare.
http://business.financialpost.com/2013/12/03/record-breaking-lng-ship-launched-bigger-one-planned/
We don't need no steenkin' fracking....
It gets worse. I've just looked at the top investments of the University pension scheme, which virtually all academics are members of because it's such a good deal. Shell is number 2 and BP is 7. Then there's Nasty Nestle at 5 and BAT at 11. All UK academics are tainted by association, having a direct financial interest in these companies. I feel angry and outraged. You should too. Something should be done.
Paul, the Toyota investment is only for the Prius, and the company assures the USS that any shipping-related CO2 or heavy metal / rare earth ingredients are specifically excluded from the shareholding.
I must say the outrage on the Guardian site is a bit confused.
Some of them love the idea that they are warriors against Big Oil. And that therefore any disagreement must somehow be funded by said BO.
Not only is the opposite clearly the case now, it might eventually dawn on them that it has been the case all along.
Not a problem at all , for years the magic of 'the cause ' has meant that money from 'evil fossil fuel companies ' has become cleansed of all sins by being given to promote AGW, see CRU, IPCC etc
Its the same idea as turning ordinary water into 'holy water' by mumbling some words over it .
In the name of 'the cause ' all things are acceptable .
Where's my money? Shurely shome mistake.
Shell is big into natural gas, whose main competitor is coal. The more money they give to environmentalists, the more they hurt the competition. Enron did the same thing. Shell's oil production, and that of all other oil companies, is above the fray. Nothing will replace oil as a transport fuel for a long, long time, so there's no corporate harm and lots of good PR in giving greenies money to wave their big oil protest signs and scream about it.
Money from "evil fossil fuel companies" does not just flow to activists in the form of direct grants and sponsorship. It is a large component of any government money they get, from public sector jobs or welfare, because royalties and taxes on oil & gas production are essential to the UK economy.
It's not an issue for the Greens.
Money given to nasty deniers (insignificant, but let's not worry about that) = evil, secret attempt to rape nature.
Money given to sweet Greenpeace (huge) = corporate attempt to say sorry for being so evil. It can NEVER be enough, but it should be accepted in order to diminish the money given in 1) above....
I guess for a while at least it will suddenly be deemed relatively unimportant. Like the notion of climate catastrophe this century, or of disappearing snow in the UK, or of relentlessly rising global mean air temperature, or indeed of climate sensitivity (as mumbled recently by Allen at the AR5 inquiry), or even the need to scare the living daylights out of children. They've all served the cause in their time, but then observations intervened and they all seemed a bit counter-productive after that. Now that we have even more Big Oil money going to the funding of environmental research, the idea that the source of funding is somehow more important than the discoveries being made will seem quaint.
Whereas extortion-funded grants for big-scare is always to be trusted...
non-story Big Oil has always supported alarmists as more alarm pushes up prices which pushes up profits on the same margin.. easy choice.
BP Exxon have put billions into US university projects, Shell always tried to jump on the green bandwagon of solar PV etc.
"Tax break", I hear
I always choose integrity over greenwash when buying products
- The idea that Skeptics have received large funding from big oil has always been an unsubstantiated smear ..show me proper evidence ! there isn't any !
- and hypocrisy .. look at the dramagreens record it comes easy to them #greensgobyair, #greensaydoasIsaynotasIdo, #greenstarsCrybutconsumeHigh
r
Oh there is one angle : Shell are rewarding rentacrowd protesters who were on their forcourts 8 weeks ago ?
Nov 2013 Shell forecourts closed due to protest about the GreenFleece ecoterrorists who can be seen on video almost accidentally knocking Russian Oil workers into the sea, as they tried to obstruct Russian oil workers arresting rig borders by recklessly zooming their speedboat into the area , causing the Russians to open fire as a warning
http://lancashirefreepress.wordpress.com/2013/11/13/free-the-arctic-30-greenpeace-demo-at-shell-petrol-sat-16th-nov/
With DramaGreens it's all Dirty PR & "the ends justifies the means" rules
...Paradoxically they show no conscience
Another top Shell Green:
Lord Oxbrugh was Chairman of the board of Shell T&T
Your Grace is mistaken. There is probably no dilemma as far as the Greens are concerned. Giving money to environmental organisations is something that oil companies do to try and atone for their crimes, whereas giving money given to sceptics is something that oil companies do to try and hide their crimes.
It's like the medieval knights in the UK. The very rich used to build churches and abbeys in order that they might slaughter women, children and men but still go to heaven.
"Pecunia non olet".
The Emperor Vespasian taxed the public urinals, but his less prosaic (or more prissy) son Titus said (paraphrasing), "its a tacky idea."
Vespasian held up a coin ostensibly from the collection of waste and said "does this stink"?
Titus had to answer no.
Exactly, said Vespasian, "money does not stink"...
Oh well, that's a brand to avoid from now on. It's not just hippies who know about consumer activism.
The Met Office have been doing R&D with funding from Shell for years, see here for example.
We also do work for the mining industry.
Richard Betts
"The Met Office have been....."
When do you expect to announce your first fracking associated contract? Or maybe it is already on the "hush" books?
I'm not aware of anything for the fracking industry at the moment. Don't see why it would have to be "hush" though, unless the fracking company requested it for commercial reasons.
Coal is the natural enemy of Big Oil (and Gas). The Greens are the natural ally of Big Oil (and Gas) as the Greens and the Cartels cannot control the price of coal as it is too widely spread. There is enough Coal to outlast CAGW, Big Oil (and Gas) and the Greens. Long Live King Coal.
Big Oil buying off the Enviromentalists
Green Sand,
I guess the frackers will be in and out so fast they'll only need the Met Office to help plan their holidays.
More linkage is http://tallbloke.wordpress.com/2014/02/08/shell-game-oiler-links
This starts in Australia, ends citing this BH article.
I forgot to post a link here last night.
After the Rio+20 conference in 2012 the governments did very little.
The businesses, however, changed. They began to accept that climate change was happening. Since then the funding for lobbyists has been dropped and the money has gone into planning for business in a warmer world.
Shell have plans for Arctic oil exploration. The better the Arctic climate changes are understood, the better their chances. Investing in climate research makes good business sense.
"Big Oil" was on the Green bandwagon long before 2012. I do jobs for all the majors now and then and I can't see anything that changed in 2012 so I don't know what you're referring to there..
Breaking news prediction for (say) 2024?
NERC research says that fracking has been good for the environment.
Has there been a subtle editing of the original NERC page since the Bish's quote above?
The NERC link now appears to say:
NERC has today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with global energy company Shell.
(so, not a "multinational oil and gas company" then.)
The arrangement will enable Shell to use NERC's world-leading environmental science to help reduce the environmental impact of their operations and projects by providing access to independent, objective advice and information.
(so, now it's not a partnership, but an "arrangement" to "help reduce the environmental impact" and not so much "at the heart of responsible management of our planet")
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