The political role played by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in fomenting climate and ecological panic to push through a collectivist Net Zero project is starting to attract general and widespread sceptical debate. In recent years, every IPCC climate utterance has sought to ramp up alarm and push the unproven hypothesis that humans are causing the climate to heat up by burning fossil fuel. The recently published Synthesis Report, which compiles IPCC findings from the last five years, was full of extreme projections, most of them produced by computer models. The distinguished climatologist Dr. Judith Curry is unimpressed and notes that UN climate panic “is more politics than science”.
It’s becoming increasingly obvious that the current climate narrative is firmly embedded in most mainstream scientific models, as well as the Net Zero business plan. As Emeritus Professor Richard Lindzen is fond of noting, the current climate narrative is “absurd”, but trillions of dollars says it’s not absurd. Curry notes that the IPCC reports have become “bumper sticker” climate science – “making a political statement, while using the overall reputation of science to give authority to a politically manufactured consensus”.
In addition, as the Daily Sceptic noted last week, the IPCC is rapidly descending into wokedom. The Daily Caller counted 31 variations of the words ‘equity’ and ‘inequality’ in the 36-page Synthesis Report. Variations of ‘inclusive’ and ‘inclusion’ appear 17 times, and there are mentions of colonialism and social justice. A recent set of published minutes for a major IPCC meeting last October was liberally sprinkled with the need to solicit ‘scientific’ input based on identity, gender and age.
Curry notes that the IPCC reports include some good material, but the accompanying Summary for Policymakers (SPM) for the Synthesis “emphasises weakly justified findings on climate impacts driven by extreme emission scenarios, and politicised policy recommendations on emissions reductions”.
What has happened is quite simple to understand. Global warming has run out of steam, while a 40-year climate model history of over-predicting temperature rises is becoming increasingly embarrassing. As a result, extreme carbon dioxide emission scenarios are no longer justified. Curry reports that scenarios known as RCP8.5 and SSP5-8.5 which forecast global rises of 4-5°C degrees within less than 80 years have been quietly dropped. They are now “recognised as implausible”. But most of the extreme responses – as well as the pulpit fulminations from hysterics such as Al ‘Rain Bombs’ Gore and UN Secretary-General Antonio ‘Highway to Climate Hell’ Guterres – are based on these predictions.
Both scenarios have been removed from the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UN Climate Agreement, but, notes Curry, the new Synthesis Report continues to emphasise these extreme scenarios, while burying in a footnote the caveat that “very high emission scenarios have become less likely but cannot be ruled out”. The reduction in temperature projections is huge since it cuts the figure by two thirds. “Rejecting these extreme scenarios has rendered obsolete much of the climate literature and assessments of the past decade,” concludes Curry.
In other words, some of the scientists have moved on, but the activists and government officials who write the headline summary reports have not. The cynic might ask, why would they? A hard left economic and societal transformation via the command-and-control Net Zero project is a prize they will not willingly give up.
Curry adds: “Clearly the climate ‘crisis’ isn’t what it used to be. Rather than acknowledge this fact as good news, the IPCC and UN officials are doubling down on the alarm regarding the urgency of reducing emissions by eliminating fossil fuel. You might think that if warming is less than we thought, then the priorities would shift away from emission reductions and towards reducing our vulnerability to weather and climate extremes. However, that hasn’t been the case. … With its explicit political advocacy, combined with misleading information, the IPCC risks losing its privileged position in international policy debates.”
The capture of large parts of the IPCC by political activists has been evident for some time. Many within the UN don’t even bother to hide the control that is exerted to ensure just one doomsday climate message is presented to the wider public. Last year its Under-Secretary for Global Communications, Melissa Fleming, told delegates at a World Economic Forum disinformation seminar that we “own” climate science – and she thinks the world should know it.
Last year, the retired physicist Dr. Ralph Alexander wrote an illuminating paper that showed how science in the IPCC reports is twisted to fit a political narrative through the accompanying SPM. Further spin is then applied to press releases which are duly reported as fact by an obedient media. The progression from the initial IPCC report to press release provided “ample opportunities” for the message to be distorted “either wilfully or not”.
An SPM produced last year revived the infamous ‘hockey stick’ graph showing little global warming over 2,000 years, followed by a sudden and dramatic uptick over the last 150 years. The hockey stick first appeared in the third IPCC assessment in 2001, but was omitted from subsequent work. It was the creation of the IPCC author Michael Mann, and was widely debunked since it ignored the higher temperatures in the medieval warming period and subsequent cooling in the little ice age.
Alexander noted that Figure 1 above showed clearly how the IPCC’s science can be lost in translation. Figure 1 did not appear in the body of the full IPCC AR6 report. But it is presented in the SPM which was said to be a more concise guide to the full report. Meanwhile, the accompanying press release claimed many recent changes in the climate were unprecedented over thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of years. Alexander noted that there was no justification for calling changes unprecedented – the press release had “no basis” in either the AR6 report or the SPM, he said.
For her part, Curry concludes that the IPCC has increasingly taken on a stance of “explicit political advocacy”, but is misleading policymakers with its emphasis on extreme climate outcomes driven by implausible extreme emissions scenarios.
Chris Morrison is the Daily Sceptic’s Environment Editor.
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There’s also an increase in alcohol consumption, that can raise the risks of gout.
Methinks that’s rather a case of coincidence of consumption of alcoholic drinks and lots of junk food.
High wine consumption is linked with gout – it’s generally believed that high alcohol consumption leads to over-production of uric acid, which causes gout. Some say red wine in particular, and although my father-in-law is only a sample size of one, he has gout and no one else I know drinks more red wine…
High wine consumption is linked with gout – it’s generally believed that high alcohol consumption leads to over-production of uric acid, which causes gout.
The teetotallers will link everything to alcohol, be it dying of thirst, because of their a priori convicton that everything bad which happens to humans must be caused by it. In reality, nobody really knows what causes gout and nobody’s much interested in knowing, either. It’s a fairly harmless albeit painful disease whose symptoms can be handled with the the usual suspects medication.
What is “junk food”?
Food which should be thrown away before eating due to its atrocious quality. This applies to most of everything which can be bought in all of these street food outlets.
“The number of cases has risen by 20% in three years, with 234,000 patients admitted to hospital with gout in 2021/22, NHS Digital statistics show.”
That’s 234,000 candidates for bogus covid-19 diagnosis, then.
Might not be worth reading in full, but I like the image of the character under the headline! Reminds me of the occasion in early 2020 when he was allegedly admitted to hospital in London (St. Thomas?) with C-19. There was a report from that place as to what his weight was; not nice (the value quoted, not the publication of it!). Apart from what the Mail says, I think it is likely that being overweight can screw up one’s immune system in general. In particular, at least one of our important vitamins (D) tends to be fat prevalent.
In simple terms, being obese tends to make one more vulnerable to a range of different infections, such as the, err, common one under consideration.
I am shocked that people diagnosed with gout are hospitalised.
Agreed.
Gout is predominantly a genetic disorder caused by overproduction or reduced excretion of uric acid.
Inflammatory episodes my be triggered by alcohol, certain dietary factors, dehydration (possible with a heat wave and/or water shortage) or trauma.
In my experience outpatient diagnosis is frequently incorrect as a correct diagnosis relies on aspiration of joint fluid and the finding or monosodium urate crystals in the fluid.
Even that can sometimes give an incorrect diagnosis.
Since Covid “vaccines” have become prevalent I have seen a huge increase in presentations with acute joint swelling.
Some of these have been labelled as gout by ED staff.
I have performed multiple joint aspirations on these patients as well as other investigations, and found very few to be caused by gout.
My conclusion is that Covid “vaccines” cause inflammatory joint swelling in a proportion of patients.
I have seen no increase in gout presentations.
It is very rare for a patient to be admitted to hospital for gout.
Many thanks for this in-depth explanation.
Very interesting. A friend gets gout and he doesn’t drink alcohol but has to put up with all the comments that go with being diagnosed.
My first post so be gentle with me.
My first cynical thought was that, as gout is a consequence of excess purine intake (port and red wine, but also red meat and, curiously, fructose – https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16234313/) this story would be yet another flag-waver for the insect diet. I was gratified to find this – as yet uncensored – little gem which notes the high levels of purine in several edible insect species. https://www.wageningenacademic.com/doi/abs/10.3920/JIFF2018.0023
While still playing into the pockets of Big Pharma ref drug based treatment options, the best, cheapest and most effective solution is the phrase ‘oi lard*rse, stop stuffing your face with cr*p and get some exercise’.
Excellent first post so please keep them coming.
Pleased to welcome you aboard.
Thanks!
Seconded!
Gout may be caused by excess histamine consumption and/or production. Foods high in histamine include prawns, seafood, oily fish eg salmon, cured meats, aged cheeses, avocado, pickles, wine, sherry and port, and foods which trigger histamine production include egg whites eg in meringues and macaroons, chocolate, citrus fruits, horseradish, shellfish, strawberries, and some nuts …. basically my favourite foods ( when not eating gluten, at which times my favourite food is pizza!
), and traditionally central to the diet of the rich.
I did think that the swollen and tingling toes said to be part of covid symptoms at one point might be something else.
A very powerful instant anti-histamine is vitamin C, which is a relief! ( I had an attack recently, with the odd nausea it can cause too, after eating a bit more sashimi, seafood, and avocado than I’m used to, and drinking plum wine and sherry with them )
Lemons are very useful as they are usually much richer in vitamin C than in their histamine triggers. And high-strength soluble vitamin C tablets will also usually work to relieve symptoms.
Some people are more sensitive to/prone to histamine “storms” than others.
Histamine is essentially an inflammatory reaction, and can be exacerbated by stress …
Sunshine , and Vitamin D, on the other hand help to down-regulate the immune system’s tendency to inflammation … A lot of people may have lost out on their usual doses of Vitamin D over the last 2 years. ( Rich people used to avoid the sun because white skin was prized as sign that didn’t have to work ( outside )).
Interestingly, ( to me anyway
), in the context of covid, “long covid”, and the changes in behaviour and diet that lockdowns caused, ( less time outdoors and different foods eaten because at home ), excess of histamine consumption and/or production can cause not only the swollen, red, sore fingers and toes and stiff aching joints which may be diagnosed as gout, but also the following:
Chronic inflammation
Tingling/numbness in hands and feet
Difficulty regulating body temperature and an increased tendency to sweating
Hives, rashes, itchy skin, flushing
( Quite frightening ) racing heart/heart palpitations
Low blood pressure
Difficulty/obstructed breathing, sinus issues, bronchitis
Post-nasal drip, persistent throat clearing, weepy eyes
Digestive disturbances/distress
Headaches, dizziness
Anxiety/feelings of dread
Insomnia
Chronic fatigue
Thyroid disruption and all that can lead to; energy and mood disorders among other things
Histamine has a systemic effect on the body. And lockdowns may have had a significant effect on people’s levels of histamine by keeping them indoors, ( out of the sun, with no holidays to top up, with resulting loss of vitamin D which would normally keep inflammation in check ), and by perhaps encouraging increased consumption of the higher-histamine foods which are usually the most expensive or only present in small quantities in restaurant dishes but somewhat cheaper/more affordable when bought in supermarkets.
With adequate exposure to ultra violet B from the Sun being our source of power to create our own vitamin D. Otherwise, we need supplement it via our diet. Not going out enough can therefore be contradictory to good health. Worth noting that other animals that spend time outside, such as grazing the fields, do the same thing – even through their fur, which UV B penetrates.
Did Saint Boris and his merry men expect a nation in perfect health, after he literally criminalised exercise? The consequences of the hallowed lockdowns are coming in thick and fast, just as we said they would.
As for gout: Hyancinth Bucket (lockdown snitch personified) once said “gout comes from an excess of good living”, when she made Richard pretend he had gout, instead of a mere fungus infection.
“Over-Eating and Lack of Exercise During Lockdown Has Triggered Huge Increase…” in illnesses, both physical and mental across much of the UK population.
It is important that the correct perspective is taken when the health of the community at large is under discussion.
Once you accept that many other health issues could be substituted for ‘gout’ it is nigh on impossible to refute the conclusion that all of this is intentional.
Stating the obvious but the government (and opposition) are clueless (or ambivalent) about health issues. Do they even have a policy on orthomolecular (nutritional) medicine? Of course they won’t, it’s not profitable enough to them.
But they probably have shares in the elastane/spandex/Lycra ® industry?
Reminds me of The Fast Show and ‘Does my bum look big in this?’
So nobody thought that sitting around, doing nothing but bingeing on delivered food, whilst boozing to excess would have a negative impact on their health? Truly, common sense is not very common.