Tuesday
Jul082014
by 
Bishop Hill
Bishop Hill Light blogging
I'm off on my travels today, so blogging will be light for a few weeks. I may be able to check in once or twice and Josh and Messenger are going to mind the fort in my absence and post links to topical stories if they get the chance.
In the meantime you could do much worse than taking a look at Richard North's must-read review of the EU's recent publication of grants to outside organisations.
The database is a goldmine of information, telling us, for instance, that the EU paid the BBC €6,100,987 last year, Friends of the Earth (in all its incarnations) €4,188,230, WWF €5,344,641 and the RSPB €3,802,544. What is also of very great interest is that the EU subsidised UN institutions to the tune of nearly €140 million.
Reader Comments (17)
Happy holidays!
"A few weeks"? Lucky man! I hope you're going somewhere nice and that the sun shines on you.
Watch out for the increased storms, rising sea levels and acidic oceans though!
Richard North has provided a free PDF download of his book (coauthored with Booker) The Great Deception, which is the definitive history of the EU
Available on EURef somewhere
I highly recommend this book.
The site linked by Richard North
http://ec.europa.eu/budget/fts/index_en.htm
goes to the top of my list of sites to explore. My first attempt was unsuccessful. I know the European Commission financed Steven Emmott's pathetic doomfest at the Royal Court in 2012, because the Royal Court says so, but I couldn't find it. No doubt a shell company (or should that be a Shell company?) in the Seychelles was involved.
The little research I've done in this field reveals a situation of mind-boggling surrealism. The UK Climate Change Coalition (a group of youngsters groomed by WTF Commissars) has its trips to wave banners at international conferences financed by a Canadian Trust which receives money from a Spanish regional government where youth unemployment is over 50%.
Al Capone was finally caught by accountants. ;-) We're after bigger fish, with far more at stake.
So let's put that all in to context then. In one year alone catastrophilia was paid nearly twenty million euros for just FOUR groups yet somehow the catastrophiliacs want you to believe that the $25million the Heartland Institute received over TEN YEARS to fund all of its various activities that aren't all related to the weather is a problem that must be exposed?
Mailman
geoffchambers,
The 10 billion play may have found its funding via a Calls for Proposal. There are some there listed as 'cultural activities'. They are announcements that the UK arm of the Commission will be receptive to proposals, I've no idea if the successful proposals get published anywhere.
Clever stuff Bish
Obviously by highlighting the grants to such as the BBC and Fiends of the Earth you are trying to hide that somewhere in the book will be buried a huge grant to this Blog. Tens of millions I would guess. That's how you are holidaying somewhere warm and exotic I expect....You wish.
Happy holidays Bish!
tonyb
due to increased sea levels and temperaatures, the Bish is having a beach holiday in tropical Birmingham
Anyone listen to The Life Scientific this morning with Zoe Shipton, Geologist?
Fantastic.
When JA asked her about the "controversial" subject of fracking, and played some voices of the Balcombe protesters expressing their concerns for the environment, her response was a revelation, but I suppose I should not have expected anything less from a geologist. Sensible, considered, measured.
Listen to it if you can, or perhaps we can ask the wonderful Alex cull for a transcript.
Why on earth is the Dutch government paying $8.6m to these American research and lobbying ecotards?
A good point about the need to be careful about the acidic oceans. Don't go on holiday by boat if it has a steel hull. Acid will rot the hull, the boat will sink and everyone will die. A pH of 8.1 (down from 8.1 in the 1990's) is as acidic as it gets. Handle ocean water with butyl gloves is my advice. And I know because I done science at school.
My guess is that the Bishop will be holidaying in Antarctica to escape the Scottish sunshine which is destroying his red hair genes.
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/climate-change-could-make-red-3814089
Profits of doom
The European Commission has paid environmental campaigners directly to carry out its political agenda. In 1999, at a cost of about EUR500,000, it set up a new group, the European Environmental Bureau, while also paying both the Friends of the Earth and the WWF EUR250,000 each to set up offices in Brussels. On another occasion, the Climate Action Network was given EUR140,000 for "capacity building". In fact, the Commission funnels about EUR3 million (£2.48 million) a year to environmental groups that it favours.
But that's a drop of oil in the Gulf of Mexico compared with the amounts that private foundations in the US are estimated to provide each year to environmental causes. The sums involved run into the hundreds of millions of dollars. One green organisation - the Tides Foundation - had net assets of $142,007,356 in 2006. Local green groups may rely on "flapjack and organic-soap fundraising mornings" - but real campaigns are funded by a very different and largely invisible mix.
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=412726&c=2
Anything is possible
Climate change made my Scottish red hair turn grey. I am not at all pleased.
esmiff
You got off lightly. Mine fell out!
"The database is a goldmine of information, telling us, for instance, that the EU paid the BBC €6,100,987 last year, Friends of the Earth (in all its incarnations) €4,188,230, WWF €5,344,641 and the RSPB €3,802,544. What is also of very great interest is that the EU subsidised UN institutions to the tune of nearly €140 million. "
Since BBC is servicing the environmentalists more than their People its probably time for the People to stop funding the BBC?
The European Union $2 million+ contract for "designing the 2015 global climate change agreement" with the US based World Resources Institute, is interesting. Was it a competitive award I wonder?
"WRI’s mission is to move human society".
Their "Governance Center... works to empower people... to foster ... sound decision-making". (Eliminate Badthought)
Their "Business Center... harnesses the private sector to spur action, innovation, and ambition" (Harnessing is good!)
Their "Finance Center...aims to mobilize and shift public and private sector investments" (Move the money, don't follow it)
Such a convenient one-stop-shop! Why suffer the substandard results of do it yourself government? Follow Obama's example and leave it to the professionals.
http://www.wri.org/about/mission-goals
Jon
" Since BBC is servicing the environmentalists more than their People its probably time for the People to stop funding the BBC? "
Totally agree. Watching the Board defend that statement would be worth the pop corn.