Swiss climate scientist Thomas Stocker, joint chairman of the IPCC’s Working Group One, is in New Zealand for a few days, and the NZ Climate Change Centre and the Royal Society of NZ have taken the opportunity to put together a stakeholder workshop to allow Stocker and NZ lead authors to present the key findings of the recently published AR5 WG1 report. The workshop is being held tomorrow, Friday 11th, from 9am to 1pm at the RSNZ in Wellington, and is open to the public (spaces limited, register here). For the geographically challenged, the event will be web-cast live.
The workshop will open with an introduction by Richard Bedford, a council member of the RSNZ, and an overview of the IPCC process by WG1 vice-chair David Wratt. Stocker will present the key Working Group I report findings from about 9-10am. NZ’s coterie of lead authors — Dave Frame, Tim Naish, and Jim Renwick — will provide snapshots of the parts of the report they were involved with. From midday on, the Science Media Centre’s Peter Griffin will chair a “stakeholder panel” including Rod Oram, Federated Farmers vice-chair William Rolleston and Frances Sullivan from Local Government NZ to discuss how the report has been received and what it means for New Zealand.
Stocker is also being interviewed by Radio NZ National’s science correspondent Veronika Meduna, and that should be broadcast in her show next week.
I hope they will record the talks too for those of us that can’t watch live!
BTW – Aren’t the federated farmers a bit climate skeptical (or have I got that wrong)?
With luck, you may be able to watch after the event – I’m not sure how their streaming service operates.
Since the change of president last year(?), the Feds have been notably less sceptical, but you’d hardly say they were keen on action to reduce emissions.
If you check the figures for membership of FF , you will see that they cannot claim to represent much of agriculture. It has been that way for a long time.
And I, as a long-time member , can say that I have never been asked for my view on this.
The point is that FF may not be in a position to say that it represents the views of the majority of farmers.
Richard Nottage of the NZCCC said at the beginning of the session that the video would be available on the web after the event. It will be worth watching – Stocker was good, but just as valuable were the “chapter snapshots” from the underlying report by Frame, Naish and Renwick. The panel discussion at the end was lively too…
Watching that discussion it’s hard not to come to the conclusion that these academics are so conservative in terms of communicating the science well enough that they risk becoming irrelevant.
One gets that sense that they are chuffed with themselves for producing another series of reports that the average person, or politician, will never read. That’s not good enough.
*breaking*
Remember Andy (Dr Check-knob)?
he informs Ken at Open Parachute:
By the way Ken and others interested, the NZ CSC are appealing the NIWA court decision tomorrow. I just heard this at RT’s blog
popcorn
Hahahahhah! Well, another wagon of salt for their old wounds. Some people simply never get the message. What a hoot!
Indeed: The Cranks did not have enough last time. Even though their original case was suitably labelled ‘Prolix’ by the judge, they are going for another round:
http://www.climateconversation.wordshine.co.nz/2013/10/coalition-appeals-niwa-case/
This is beyond parody! This Monty Python scene with the ‘Black Knight’ comes to mind:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eMkth8FWno