The truth about Vladimir Putin's friend and supporter Valery Gergiev is finally out

Finally music writers and others have realized what kind a person the London Symphony Orchestra's present Principal Conductor Valery Gergiev is:

Last Thursday the human rights activist Peter Tatchell gatecrashed the opening night of the London Symphony Orchestra's Berlioz season at the Barbican to protest against Valery Gergiev, calmly walking onstage before a note had been played to make a speech denouncing the LSO's principal conductor's support for Russian President Vladimir Putin. "Gergiev is a great conductor," Tatchell said, "but he colludes with a tyrant and shows little respect for freedom and equality."
The tipping point for Tatchell, and also apparently for the organisation Queer Nation who interrupted a Gergiev performance at New York City's Carnegie Hall in early October, were comments Gergiev had made to a reporter in Rotterdam. Legislation Putin signed into law earlier this year banning the promotion of homosexual "propaganda" was, Gergiev said, about protecting his fellow countrymen from paedophilia, remarks that crossed a boundary by equating homosexuality with child abuse.
Were Gergiev's words merely dim-witted and ill chosen? If you're feeling charitable you might like to think so, but his quote makes for an unnerving read in the context of everything else Gergiev has said about Putin, and his point-blank refusal to speak up about other breaches of basic political freedoms in Russia. After members of the punk band Pussy Riot were imprisoned for staging an anti-Putin protest at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow in February 2012, Gergiev implied, bizarrely, that the band were motivated merely by increasingly their profile and "earning millions and millions". But consider this. In 2012 Gergiev, along with 549 other prominent Russians, signed a petition in support of Putin's re-election. And earlier this year, Mariinsky II, a state-of-the-art new opera house in St Petersburg, Gergiev's centre of operations in Russia opened – bankrolled by the state to the tune of a cool 200bn roubles (£450m).
Gergiev and the LSO's problem is that political actions have musical consequences. I've spent life-changing evenings at the Barbican listening to the LSO. Concerts by Leonard Bernstein, Dave Brubeck, Michael Tilson Thomas and Colin Davis will stay with me forever, but now the LSO brand feels tainted through association.

Read the entire article here

I totally agree with Philip Clark. The LSO made a huge mistake by choosing him as Principal Conductor. Having had the privilege to attend many of the unforgettable LSO/Colin Davis concerts at the Barbican in the 80's and having had the even great privilege to meet him a few times, I cannot imagine that Sir Colin would have welcomed a person like Gergiev to take up the position he used to have. The LSO cannot for long have a Principal Conductor with no integrity and credibility.

Next UN global warming jamboree to begin in Warsaw amid signs of some real progress

“If you look at the emissions that the Kyoto Protocol has cut in Europe, it is around 200m tonnes of CO2 a year, and we are leaders? In the US, which has half the population, they have reductions from the switch to shale gas of 500m tonnes a year. We have a tendency to say we are leaders, but we are not”

Martin Korolec
President of the COP19, Polish Minister of Environment



Another UN global warming mega jamboree, COP19, is opening next week in Warsaw bringing together 40,000 attendees. All previous meetings have been useless, but this time there are some signs of real progress:

Tony Abbott's new government has will not send its environment minister to Warsaw:

It is official: Australia’s new government denies global warming.  The Coalition Government will not send its environment minister to the 19th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 19) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) which will kick off  in Warsaw, Poland from 11-22 November 2013.

Climate observers said this will send a wrong signal of Australia walking away from its commitment on climate action and it may set a precedent for other countries to backslide.

Indeed, one can only hope that Australia sets an example here. Heads of state and government of the major countries have already long ago dropped the COPs from their agenda. Why should the ministers of environment waste their time on these completely useless gatherings? There are more than enough of real environmental problems to keep them busy for years.

For those still in attendance, the President of the COP19, Polish Minister of Environment Marcin Korolec, may have something meaningful to offer:

Marcin Korolec prides himself on not being like other politicians. Indeed, he prides himself on not being a politician at all, defining himself as a civil servant. Yet he is Poland's environment minister and he has accordingly been masterminding Poland's preparations to host international climate talks that begin in Warsaw next week.

He therefore has the same role as Connie Hedegaard in the 2009 climate talks, when, as Denmark's minister for climate and energy, she presided over the Copenhagen climate change summit. For her, it was the prelude to becoming the European commissioner for climate action.

It is a safe bet to say that Korolec will not be pursuing the same career trajectory. Indeed, environmental campaigners are horrified at Korolec's influence over this year's climate-change talks. They see him as the chief obstacle to the European Union adopting a more ambitious approach to climate change.

In March 2012, it was Korolec who exercised Poland's veto at a meeting of the EU's council of environment ministers preventing adoption of a low-carbon roadmap. Poland objected to the long-term emission-reduction milestones suggested.

Afterwards he told Polish journalists: “The problem of the EU environment ministers is that they rarely discuss issues carefully and in detail, considering the wide range of opinions and positions.” He said his experience as a civil servant in an economics ministry gave him a different understanding.

Another useless UN global warming study: "Some of the women noted that they have trouble with the weather"

“It is misleading and just plain incorrect to claim that disasters associated with hurricanes, tornadoes, floods or droughts have increased on climate timescales either in the United States or globally,”

“It is further incorrect to associate the increasing costs of disasters with the emission of greenhouse gases.”

Statement in a Congressional hearing by Professor Roger Pielke Jr.
Environmental Studies Program, University of Colorado



The United Nations University has released the second volume of "Pushed to the Limit", a study "that examines evidence of loss and damage caused by climate change from the perspective of affected people in nine vulnerable countries".

The lead author and scientific author of the study, Dr Koko Warner (who also is a Lead Author for IPCC´s 5th Assessment Report, Working Group 2 on Adaptation) describes the study:

Our job was to go and find out what loss and damage is, what kinds of problems people are experiencing now, what they do if they have too little or too much rain, or if they have floods, or hurricanes, cyclones, sea level rise. What they are doing, and what do they need in order to be able to adjust or adapt better. The countries that we came up with were Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, the Gambia, Kenya, Micronesia, Mozambique, and Nepal. So as you can see African countries, island countries, mountain countries.--

I was in Bangladesh recently, doing fieldwork, and had a chance to sit down with women and children. Some of the women noted that they are having trouble with the weather, some of these particular women had lost their farms because of river bank erosion.

Some of the families had other relatives in the area so they went and lived with relatives. One of the women said, it's really hard because I lost my farm and the impact of that is we don't have enough food to eat and we don't have enough income, but what's really hard is that I don't have work to do during the day. People's work and their livelihoods are really a part of their identity.--

In the Satkhira district in Bangladesh, they had trouble with salt in the water and in the soil. Pregnant women were consuming the water - what else can you do, you have to drink water. They were having trouble with waterborne diseases because of flooding and cyclone activity, but they were also having trouble with their reproductive health, in part because of the high saline in the water that they were drinking. Children were having trouble with malnutrition, there were problems with eyesight and skin lesions, a whole number of health problems that they attributed to higher salt content in the water and in the soil, that had both to do with the cyclone that came through, and maybe as well incremental sea level rise - those things working together. --

When you look at all of this evidence, you see that the things that we care about the most, our identities, our cultures, poverty reduction, food security, livelihood security, safety and integrity of rural and urban areas where we live, are compromised by loss and damage that's related to climate change, and that's happening now.

Next week in Warsaw, countries will come together and discuss that big challenge for humanity. How do we avoid dangerous climate change, and what do we do about it? Because we see that loss and damage is already happening, it creates greater urgency. If we don't avoid dangerous climate change, the things that we care about most could be compromised.

It is easy to feel sympathy for the suffering people Dr Warner and her colleagues have met on their numerous trips to nine underdeveloped countries. However, Dr Werner and the United Nations University "scientists", who have wasted a lot of tax payers' money on this pseudo scientific "study" deserve no sympathy.

They must know there is no proof that global warming is causing more extreme weather, but still they choose to peddle their alarmist propaganda to weak and vulnerable people in the third world.

"From Brussels with love" - The European Union wants to have a spy agency of its own

In a time of belt tightening the EU might settle for this overcoat as the official
European Intelligence Service uniform. The special KGB coats are now on sale at
the "best Russian military surplus store" for only 499.95 USD!
 

"Europeans spy just as much, US intelligence chiefs say"

By this time it has - surprise, surprise - become clear the everybody is spying on each other, and also accusing others of spying. While this crazy security circus continues to catch the headlines, the bigwigs in Brussels are not prepared to sit on the sidelines.

They now want their own spy agency!

EU justice commissioner Viviane Reding has said the Union should create its own intelligence service by 2020.
Speaking on Monday (4 November) to Greek daily Naftemporiki on the US snooping scandal, she said: "What we need is to strengthen Europe in this field, so we can level the playing field with our US partners."
She added: "I would therefore wish to use this occasion to negotiate an agreement on stronger secret service co-operation among the EU member states - so that we can speak with a strong common voice to the US. The NSA needs a counterweight. My long-term proposal would therefore be to set up a European Intelligence Service by 2020."

Judging from the fact that the EU already has an extensive (and more or less useless) foreign service  and a plethora of other common "services", it is more than likely that we will soon be blessed with an European Intelligence Service, with hundreds of agents operating all over the world. And as the new EU Bonds will be recruited from all the (now) 28 member countries, they will of course all be spying on each other!

Vladimir Putin did not get the Nobel Peace Prize, but the head of the Russian Orthodox Church hands him a consolation prize

Vladimir Putin, dictator of the mafia state called Russia, did (fortunately) not get the Nobel Peace Prize, but his humble servant, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church was quick to give him a consolation prize:

The head of the Russian Orthodox Church on Monday awarded Vladimir Putin with a prize in recognition of the president’s policies intended to make Russia a leading world power.
The award was established this year by the World Russian People’s Council, a public organization under the aegis of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill, who chairs the council, said the prize was to honor Putin’s efforts to turn Russia into “a powerful and strong country that has self-respect and is respected by others.”

Patriarch Kirill, who has called Putin's long rule a "miracle of God", backed Putin in last year's presidential election.

Time for "leading scientific organizations worldwide" to admit that global warming has stopped!

Global warming has stopped. There has been no warming during the last 15 - 17 years. Even the IPCC, has - reluctantly - had to admit that fact.

But what about the scientific organizations, which have issued public statements endorsing the claims about increasing human caused warming? One would expect that they have adjusted their statements accordingly.

However, it seems that all these organizations have chosen to remain silent on the issue. The Vatican of the global warming religion, taxpayer funded NASA, still proudly displays the same old statements of all  "leading scientific organizations worldwide" in support of human induced, continuing global warming.

Here are some examples:

American Association for the Advancement of Science

"The scientific evidence is clear: global climate change caused by human activities is occurring now, and it is a growing threat to society." (2006)
 

American Geophysical Union

"The Earth's climate is now clearly out of balance and is warming. Many components of the climate system — including the temperatures of the atmosphere, land and ocean, the extent of sea ice and mountain glaciers, the sea level, the distribution of precipitation, and the length of seasons — are now changing at rates and in patterns that are not natural and are best explained by the increased atmospheric abundances of greenhouse gases and aerosols generated by human activity during the 20th century." (Adopted 2003, revised and reaffirmed 2007)
 

American Physical Society

"The evidence is incontrovertible: Global warming is occurring. If no mitigating actions are taken, significant disruptions in the Earth’s physical and ecological systems, social systems, security and human health are likely to occur. We must reduce emissions of greenhouse gases beginning now." (2007)

 

The Geological Society of America

"The Geological Society of America (GSA) concurs with assessments by the National Academies of Science (2005), the National Research Council (2006), and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2007) that global climate has warmed and that human activities (mainly greenhouse‐gas emissions) account for most of the warming since the middle 1900s." (2006; revised 2010)

 

International academies: Joint statement

"Climate change is real. There will always be uncertainty in understanding a system as complex as the world’s climate. However there is now strong evidence that significant global warming is occurring. The evidence comes from direct measurements of rising surface air temperatures and subsurface ocean temperatures and from phenomena such as increases in average global sea levels, retreating glaciers, and changes to many physical and biological systems. It is likely that most of the warming in recent decades can be attributed to human activities (IPCC 2001)." (2005, 11 international science academies)

 

NASA also links to a list of  "nearly 200 worldwide scientific organizations that hold the position that climate change has been caused by human action".

 

Time to put some pressure on all these (formerly) venerable institutions!

WWF: "world is warming more quickly" - despite the fact that warming has stopped even according to IPCC

The facts:

Met Office Data Shows Global Warming Standstill As IPCC Confirms Global Temperature Has Stopped Rising

The global warming ‘pause’ has now lasted for almost 17 years and shows no sign of ending – despite the unexplained failure of climate scientists’ computer models to predict it.

WWF propaganda:

It's nearly impossible to overstate the threat of climate change. Greenhouse gas emissions are rising more rapidly than predicted and consequently the world is warming more quickly.

Global warming will have catastrophic effects such as accelerating sea level rise, droughts, floods, storms and heat waves. These will impact some of the world's poorest and most vulnerable people, disrupting food production, and threatening vitally important species, habitats and ecosystems.

Despite compelling scientific evidence, governments and businesses have responded very slowly. Even if countries fulfill all current mitigation pledges, the world will still face between 2.6 and 4 ºC of warming.

WWF, the "world's largest independent conservation organization" is clearly not telling the truth when it says that "the world is warming more quickly". Regrettably mainstream media allow WWF (and other eco-fundamentalist organisations) to get away with their untruthful  and misleading scaremongering.

The BBC surprises: Reports that it is "more likel than not" that the Earth is cooling

The Edmontons Sun's columnist Lorne Gunter writes about the BBC's climb-down on global warming:

The BBC has reported it is “more likely than not” that the Earth is entering a period of intense cooling.
Why is this so remarkable? Because as much as any news outlet in the world, the British Broadcasting Corporation has been a cheerleader for global warming alarmism for the past 15 years.
No, that’s the wrong analogy.
Cheerleaders are largely appealing characters. The BBC has been more like an inquisitor, cruelly enforcing the alleged global warming consensus with a sadistic glee.
The Brit equivalent of our own CBC, the Beeb has, if anything, been even more sneering, smug and condescending than Canada’s Mother Corp toward those who dared question the “settled science” about climate change.
The use of the word “deniers” to discredit global-warming skeptics — a word designed to smear doubters as the moral and intellectual equals of Holocaust deniers — appeared early and often at the BBC. --

So it was gobsmacking this week to see the BBC report on the work of scientist Mike Lockwood of Reading University in the U.K.
Lockwood (and dozens of other scientists) believes the sun is about to enter a period of low activity unseen in the past 10,000 years. This could, in turn, lead to a prolonged period of global cooling the likes of which the Earth has not experienced in at least two or three centuries — long, brutal, snowy winters coupled with cool, wet, pathetic summers.
In other words, our climate might be in for a Little Ice Age, according to the BBC.
This isn’t simply straight-up honest reporting. This amounts to a huge climb-down by the BBC which as recently as a year ago wasn’t reporting on alternative theories about climate except to dismiss those theories’ proponents as cranks and crackpots.

There are powerful forces in the BBC who are not yet prepared to give up the alarmist 97% "consensus" on global warming. But let's hope that this is indeed a new beginning for the Beeb.