Irony

As reported in the Washington Post, the UN released it's report on global warming a few days ago. As was expected, it paints a grim picture for the future of the planet-

The world will have to end its growth of carbon emissions within seven years and become mostly free of carbon-emitting technologies in about four decades to avoid killing as many as a quarter of the planet's species from global warming.
"The scientists now have done their work. I call on political leaders to do theirs," U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

But wait. Today, just two days later, the Washington Post reports on the UN's admission that they grossly overestimated the AIDS epidemic.

The latest estimates, due to be released publicly Tuesday, put the number of annual new HIV infections at 2.5 million, a cut of more than 40 percent from last year's estimate, documents show.

Aside from the good news that less people have a deadly disease, the huge question this raises is how could they be so far off in their estimates. Was it human error? A software glitch? It may have been simple human greed-

Some researchers, however, contend that persistent overestimates in the widely quoted U.N. reports have long skewed funding decisions and obscured potential lessons about how to slow the spread of HIV. Critics have also said that U.N. officials overstated the extent of the epidemic to help gather political and financial support for combating AIDS.

Now think back to the UN report on global warming. Think of the billions of dollars involved not only in researching global climate change, but all the money in 'green' products, carbon offsets, and the number of jobs around the world that depend on global warming being a real and urgent crisis.

The UN asking for more money to fight global warming is just as much a conflict of interest as the teacher's union asking for more money 'for the children'.