In the aftermath of Monday's Haida ocean fertilization story (see OIF Accusations Fly at CBD COP11, 10/17), John Disney, (non-native) president of the Haida Salmon Restoration Corporation (HSRC), has indicated in a CBC Radio interview that his company was comprehensively engaged with the Canadian federal government prior to its July OIF experiment, and will cooperate fully with the government going forward. Armed with these statements, the Guardian is strongly suggesting that the Canadian government granted approval for the field test. The ETC Group is predictably outraged--in the words of Jim Thomas, Research Program Manager, "To clear these serious allegations of complicity the Canadian government needs to speak out and account for these events. Officials need to condemn this dump as a breach of Canadian laws and take swift action against geoengineering: in Haida Gwaii that means initiating measures against Russ George and any Canadians involved, while in Hyderabad that means backing a global test ban."
Meanwhile, in Hyderabad, the ETC Group has branded Canada one of the "four horsemen of geoengineering," along with the UK, Australia, and New Zealand, for resisting attempts to enhance the CBD moratorium and institute a test ban. The CBD Alliance, a civil society network that shares ideological affinities with ETC Group, presented "Dodo Awards" to both Canada and the UK for supposed damage done to biodiversity resulting from their receptivity to climate engineering research. A contact group of government representatives continues to discuss outstanding technical and legal issues.
People who would like to get the full flavor of how whacked out ETC is should visit the ETC website to read their "Geopiracy: The Case Against Geoengineering" webpage.
ReplyDeleteOn it, readers will be informed there is a giant conspiracy involving the world's leading scientific institutions, i.e. the US National Academy of Sciences and the UK Royal Society and others, acting in collusion with conservative think tanks. This unlikely alliance, we are told, is actually a front group for the real villains, i.e. large energy, aerospace and defence companies, who are waiting in the wings for now.
The role of the front group, i.w. the world's leading science academies and the conservative think tanks, according to ETC, is to soften up the general population by telling them its too late to save the planet without geoengineering it. Once the population is suitably receptive, the energy, aerospace and defence companies will step forward with their geoengineering schemes.
Jim Thomas complained to the Google Geoengineering Group moderator about my satire of ETC published there, until I described the ETC Geopiracy page to the group after which Jim suddenly was very busy, too busy to respond apparently.