Jessica Weinkle’s Substack, Conflicted has an informative article on the concentration of influence among a few individuals in climate science and policy.

The Power Dynamics of Climate Change Research

In the realm of climate change science, it appears that a select few wield significant power. As highlighted in Jessica Weinkle’s article, there’s a concentrated influence in the hands of a handful of individuals. These individuals not only shape the narrative but also control the trajectory of global climate change research.

“In a video of an April IPCC scenario workshop, a panel discussion argued that the IPCC does not have any scenarios it merely assess scenarios. Professor Tejal Kanitkar called it out as nonsense in practice. There are too many (i.e. a powerful few) who design, select, and prioritize scenarios while also being influential authors of IPCC reports.”

The Bottleneck in Global Climate Change Research

The symbolic power of the IPCC seems to be exacerbating a significant bottleneck in global climate change research. This bottleneck is further intensified by the organization of careers and research trajectories around the development of assessment reports.

“Global climate change research suffers from a rather significant bottleneck and the symbolic power of the IPCC exacerbates the issue by organizing careers and research trajectories around the development of assessment reports.”

The Role of ScenarioMIP

ScenarioMIP, or the Scenario Model Intercomparison Project, plays a pivotal role in the selection and prioritization of scenarios used in climate change science. Its influence is so profound that it’s challenging to overstate its importance in shaping our understanding of climate and climate policy.

“In its selection and prioritization of scenarios, ScenarioMIP has profound implications for climate research and policy. It is hard to overstate how important the work of this small group is for how we ultimately think about climate and climate policy.”

The CMIP Influence

The Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP) stands as a global bottleneck for climate change projections. Its influence is so vast that it’s described as one of the foundational elements of climate science.

“By coordinating the design and distribution of global climate model simulations of the past, current, and future climate, the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP) has become one of the foundational elements of climate science.”

The IAMC and Its Growing Interdependency with the IPCC

The Integrated Assessment Modeling Consortium (IAMC) was created in response to an IPCC call in 2007. Its role? To lead the IAM community in the development of new scenarios used by climate modelers.

“The Integrated Assessment Modeling Consortium (IAMC) was created in response to an IPCC call in 2007 for a research organization to lead the IAM community in the development of new scenarios used by climate modelers.”

The Concentration of Power

One of the most striking revelations from the article is the overlap of individuals involved in various committees related to climate change research. This overlap suggests a concentration of power in the hands of a few.

“It’s the same people over and over again. This is concentrated power; a handful of people that shape the entire world of climate change research.”

The Need for Structural and Cultural Change

The article concludes with a call for structural and cultural change, emphasizing the importance of transparency and accountability in the decision-making processes related to climate change research.

“This is not a problem that is resolved by a systematic pursuit of knowledge developed through a new research program, as Skea suggests. It is a problem that is addressed through structural and cultural change.”

It’s essential to understand the underlying power dynamics that shape the narrative. The article by Jessica Weinkle sheds light on these dynamics, revealing a concentrated influence in the hands of a select few. As with any scientific endeavor, transparency, accountability, and a diversity of voices are crucial for ensuring that the research serves the greater good and not just a select few.

Jessica Weinkle’s full article is well worth a read and she runs an excellent substack worth subscribing to.

The wind industry has just been caught out lying about a technology that was meant to prevent Eagles being slaughtered by their turbine blades. Cars, cats and skyscrapers don’t kill Eagles, but 60-80 m wind turbine blades with their tips travelling at 350 Kph routinely smash them out of existence.

The rampant slaughter of millions of birds and bats – includes rare, endangered and majestic species, like America’s iconic bald and golden eagles, and Tasmania’s extremely rare wedge-tailed Eagle.

Faced with outrage from real environmentalists, to date, the default response from the wind industry is to lie like fury and – when the corpses can no longer be hidden and the lying fails – to issue court proceedings to literally bury those facts (see our post here).

However, a couple of years back its spin doctors began seeding the narrative with the claim that the industry had developed a new, whizbang technology – IdentiFlight – that would prevent so much as a feather from being ruffled, by shutting off turbines as eagles, hawks and kites etc approached them.

Well, surprise, surprise, it turns out that the IdentiFlight system is yet another cynical ploy by the wind industry to placate those concerned about the fate of our apex avian predators, by pretending to actually care about the critters it’s been killing, en masse, for decades now. Matthew Denholm has this report on how the wind industry’s latest enviro-spin effort has unravelled, with a mounting pile of rare and endangered wedge-tailed Eagle carcasses to prove it.

‘Cutting-edge’ Tasmanian wind farm still a wedge-tailed eagle killer
The Australian
Matthew Denholm
17 August 2023

A wind farm with so-called “industry-leading” bird avoidance technology has killed at least eight endangered Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagles, prompting calls for an urgent moratorium on new turbines in eagle zones.

Cattle Hill Wind Farm in Tasmania’s Central Highlands uses IdentiFlight camera technology – which it describes as a “cutting-edge avian detection system” – to stop the wind turbines when birds approach.

However, the system – which is spruiked by the industry and regulators as the foremost solution to wind turbine bird deaths – has failed to prevent the deaths of at least eight eagles in less than four years.

The Australian understands that figure – confirmed by Tasmania’s Environment Protection Authority – includes five eagle deaths in the past 12 months.

“We should be very concerned about this because what we’re looking at here is the start of a planned huge industry,” said eagle expert and wildlife biologist Nick Mooney.

“Everybody has ignored rule 101. That is, if you’re worried about eagles, don’t put wind farms where there’s lots of eagles, and the overseas (scientific) literature stresses that.”

He was aware of 61 wedge-tailed eagles and five white-bellied sea-eagles being found dead or incapacitated during periods of formal mortality monitoring at Tasmania’s existing wind farms.

This was likely the tip of an iceberg, with some wind farms no longer required to monitor for bird deaths and formal monitoring restricted to areas under ­turbines, missing birds that die further afield after being struck.

He was aware of another nine large-scale wind farms proposed for Tasmania, which was concerning given that cumulative impacts of multiple wind farms was still not factored into federal environmental approvals.

Cattle Hill Wind Farm confirmed the deaths. It said its modelling had predicted its turbines would kill 14 eagles after four years and this was allowed under its permit conditions.

Mr Mooney said the system’s shortcomings and any solution should be independently verified.

He said he believed several turbines at Cattle Hill may need to be shut down in the interim, and the massive industry expansion in eagle density areas put on hold until an effective bird avoidance system was developed.

The wedge-tailed eagle recovery plan was due to be updated in 2010, but a promised revamp was yet to materialise, despite the proliferation of wind farms since.
The Australian