PIK Potsdam Institute Drifts, Forms Alliances With Religious Organizations – Target: Redistribution, Global Justice

When scientists drift away from research and involve themselves with religious groups in order to focus on the mission of reshaping society, then you’ve got to wonder. Was that the original idea of our tax money?

Today, scientists at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) are claiming that the Green Economy has the potential of destroying the progress that has been made over the last 10 years, so writes alarmist site Klimaretter here. You read that right.

This does not mean the PIK has changed its mind. To the contrary, it simply views the current path to Green as being totally inadequate and that a much more radical one has to embarked on.

PIK chief economics scientist Ottmar Edenhofer has warned of failure for the upcoming Rio+20 conference, which is taking place in 2 weeks:

“We’ve got to start opposing the Green Economy.The Green Economy paradigm has the potential to destroy the progress of the last ten years. We’ve got to destroy the illusion that a few actions in energy efficiency and renewable energies at national levels will be enough to reduce the emissions to the necessary extent. We’ve got to oppose the ‘big proclamation’ of the Green Economy. What we need is a ‘big proclamation’ of Justice.”

For Edenhofer, the issue is not about climate change at all – it’s about social justice and redistribution. Edenhofer now demands:

The atmosphere must not be viewed as a free territory, but as a global common whose ownership and usage rights have to be negotiated. Distribution conflicts here are inevitable, and thus strong international agreements are needed.”

According to UNEP, global economic growth in the future must not be powered by fossil fuels fossil in order to stabilize the climate, protect the environment and to maintain species diversity.

But as Klimaretter writes, the opposite is now actually happening:

Indeed today we are experiencing a Renaissance in the use of fossil energies instead: The rising price of oil and gas has not only led to a Renaissance in coal, but is also making the tapping of unconventional oil and gas reserves lucrative. The international Energy Agency (IEA) is already celebrating the ‘Golden Age of gas supply’.”

So much for the shortage of energy we are always told about. The problem today is actually an oversupply of energy. Edenhofer criticizes:

Over the past years we have limited ourselves too much to the topics of energy efficiency and renewable energies. Here we have under-estimated the supply side of fossil energies.”

That energy surplus problem has to be dealt with. So Klimaretter chimes in:

With respect to the amounts of coal, oil and gas into consideration that are still in the ground, an effective restriction of their extraction is needed.”

For Edenhofer the whole climate issue gets down to one objective: justice. And to move to that target, the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, an organisation that claims to be scientific, has taken an unusual step: working together with environmental NGOs and religious groups. Klimaretter reports that (my emphasis added):

…the PIK together with development aid organisation Misereor are asking that sustainability focus more on the questions of justice. Energy efficiency and renewable energies here are not enough. One thing is clear: If we are to take climate protection seriously, then the fossil fuel industry must lose.

To get the debate rolling, Edenhofer and his colleagues of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research have entered an unusual alliance. Over three years the scientists have been grappling with the relationship between climate change and development policy. To do this they brought NGO representatives on board – and also a partner of the Jesuit-founded Institute for Society Munich, Catholic development aid organisation Misereor and Munich Re reinsurer. The result of the cooperation: a book called “Climate Change, Justice, and Sustainability”. The book’s main message: The debate surrounding climate change must be carried out as a debate over global justice.”

The PIK charter has become religious. Edenhofer himself was  a member of the Jesuit Order from 1987 to 1994.

Obviously the PIK is not quite an organization of scientists, rather it is becoming one of religious zealots. What’s tomorrow? An alliance with jihad groups?

I don’t have anything against religious groups and faiths. But we do need to really worry when dogmatists start running institutes of science.