George Monbiot has harrumphed yet again on his blog to the effect that he asked those who were accusing Mr. Pachauri, chairman of the IPCC, of corruption should send in evidence or shut up. As he had received no evidence it appeared to him that there was none, so the matter should end now. However, apparently some readers did leave comments doing just that but the ever-so-liberal Guardian censored them all. When this was brought to little Georgie's attention he squealed in protest that 'it was nuffin' to do wiv me, guv' and that The Guardian had told him that some of the comments had been deleted because they were libelous. Well, if you offer up evidence of corruption then it is obviously potentially libelous but it was little Georgie who asked for it! He claims that he has never seen any of those helpful comments on The Guardian blog, and, honestly, guv, he doesn't approve of censoring his critics but he continues to take The Guardian's shilling who do. However, he is now definitely aware of this information because he draws attention to it, himself, by pointing to the blog-post at 'Bishop Hill's' site in which it was printed:
Monbiot asked visitors to his Guardian thread to come up with evidence of Dr Pachauri’s unreliable bookkeeping. He must have thought this impossible. The one account unable to be veiled from public scrutiny was Pachauri’s TERI-Europe’s and that had 85% of income missing from the books until prodded. I provided Monbiot with what he asked for.
Monbiot declared Pachauri's personal accounts and financial practices were shown by KPMG as being clean. In the light of the above however, Monbiot's unquestioning confidence in such conclusions were puzzling.
About midday the inconvenient evidence that I provided at the Guardian forum, along with discussions of that evidence with aghast Monbiot fans were removed from the thread. The thread was closed down.
It is true, of course, that this is not proof of corruption, only of spectacular, almost Enron-class, careless book-keeping which I trust will be of interest to the Charity Commission and the Inland Revenue, even if it is no interest to 'little Georgie Moonbeam'.
Additional: Interesting comment from Rajan below who links to his own blog and I trust he will forgive me if I nick this witty little cartoon from his site - sorry, your Honour, I couldn't resist it:
Salute this man! Pachauri did what no climate sceptic is able to do. A Trojan Horse that destroyed the IPCC from the inside.
If Pachauri did not exist, we climate sceptics would have had to literally invent him. He is in fact every sceptic’s dream. How could we have asked for more when he embodies the UN Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in all completeness? Interestingly, he also strongly epitomizes the typical climate activist and their organizations that they are attached. Did he mould both in his image or its vice versa is however for history to judge.
Next month 194 governments of the IPCC are scheduled to meet in Busan, South Korea. This is where a plot to ouster Pachuari could be unleashed. Pachuari remains defiant: “At the moment, my mandate is very clear. I have to complete the fifth assessment” The Indian Government who Pachuari is their candidate is equally defiant, backing him to the hilt. If Pachauri goes, we leave the IPCC! And if India leaves the IPCC, it can trigger an exodus.
Read More: http://devconsultancygroup.blogspot.com/2010/09/salute-this-man-pachauri-did-what-no.html
Posted by: Rajan Alexander | Monday, 20 September 2010 at 16:15
Rajan, welcome to D&N and thanks for your, er, feisty comment. I have bookmarked your site for future reference.
(Sorry about nicking your cartoon but I just couldn't resist!)
Posted by: David Duff | Monday, 20 September 2010 at 17:27