Richard Tol is being oppressed!

Posted by William M. Connolley on June 13, 2010
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Poor Richard Tol. He has been invited (nominated by the Oirish Gummit, apparently) to be a convening author, though only for WG II.

But all he can do is whinge that “Political interference in the IPCC continues” because they won’t provide him a blank cheque for his travel costs. Diddums. I’m sure you can all see the interference inherent in the system. Still, at least he is better than RP Jr, who refuses (for some reason he does not trouble to explain) to take part. So he can be outside the tent pissing in, would be my guess. Or he might be jealous of Tol getting *convening* lead author, perhaps [update: scuttlebutt confirms this interpretation].

OTOH, this one on fossil fuel subsidies is worth reading.

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Comments

  1. #1 Tony Sidaway
    2010/06/13

    I don’t get Richard Tol. Earlier this year he was heavily involved in a campaign to displace the head of the IPCC, and was still permitted to promote that campaign on the Wikipedia talk page of the biography of that leader.

    The “being permitted” part isn’t what upset me really. It was that anybody would even begin to think that such behavior was defensible. I just cannot fathom how such thinking works. My instinct is to move away, to disengage. It’s completely beyond the pale.

  2. #2 Tony Sidaway
    2010/06/13

    Going back to Tol’s complaint, it seems to revolve around the fact that they nominated him for an IPCC role in AR5 despite their substantive political differences with his positions. In this Tol nevertheless reads political interference because they decline his request for money.

    Maybe we need to go back to first principles on this.

    Which bodies are empowered to nominate candidates for such positions?

    [Interesting question. I was never involved, in my time, and perhaps the rules have shifted. I think any national government can nominate people. Quite who gets to choose is less clear. Formally, I imagine that any disputes are resolved by the actual Panel - i.e., by govt reps. But I also think that it is not the practice for disputes to need resolving. Certainly in terms of WGI there are few enough credible coordingating lead authors, and the task is more a matter of persuading these few people that they really do want to give up all their time for little gain -W]

    Do such bodies include Tol’s own government, or any professional associations he may belong to?

    [I think only goverments -W]

    Have any such bodies, besides the Irish government, ever nominated Tol for such a position?

    Is it the practice of such bodies to grant a bursary?

  3. #3 Richard Tol
    2010/06/13

    Tony:
    IPCC authors are nominated by their governments or by the IPCC. I have been nominated by Germany, the Netherlands, the USA, and the IPCC in previous rounds, and by Ireland and the Netherlands in the current round.

    Travel costs for LAs are covered by their government (for rich countries) or the IPCC (for poor countries). CLAs get additional support, because it is six months work.

  4. #4 Nils
    2010/06/14

    Wouldn’t it be just the same political interference when the Irish government would have said: Go on Richard, we like your style, here’s your travel grant? Of course, but I doubt Tol or Pielke would’ve complained then. The obvious solution would be to boost IPCC funding, and let the secretariat reimburse everyone who travels on behalf of the IPCC.

  5. #5 Eli Rabett
    2010/06/14

    See Rabett Run