TGO CHALLENGE 2011: DAY 5: The Wake for the Wild

Map & pictures are clickable

 

After a great breakfast with the Sutherlands we loaded the coffin into the back of a van and trundled it down to Errogie, to lean against the chapel wall so that the gathering hordes (surely one or two would show up?) would see it and wait there until everyone arrived. I was then loaded back into the van to be taken back to Ault-na-goire to collect my pack and walk down with it to Errogie.

 

Encouragingly there were phone calls from the Beeb and the Germans & French TV people and very soon we had quite a gathering around the coffin! In all I would estimate that about thirty five people turned up – a great number considering the day chosen was during the working week.

 

We had decided the night before to row the coffin across the lake in great style and so the box was strapped onto the rowing boat. Alex was magnificent in his long black funereal coat and played a lament on the violin before we clambered aboard.

 

 

One chap with quite a few expensive looking cameras slung round his neck asked if he could be a passenger in the boat. I asked his which paper he was from and he answered simply “The Times”. Which “Times” was that? I enquired, thinking it might be something like the Outer Hebridean Times or some such publication.

 

Just THE Times he answered simply…. Of course he could come aboard! So that’s how we managed to get James Glossop of The Times to help row the coffin across Loch Mhor. He explained that he had never rowed before but the feisty lady rower said “You’ll soon get the hang of it” And he did too…

 

 

The rest of the party walked around the loch as we slowly pirouetted mid loch a few times, before all meeting up again on the south shore and setting off for Dunmaglass.

 

 

We all took it in turns to carry the coffin over to Dunmaglass Lodge, over rough heathery ground. At rest stops I was interviewed by the TV people and the coffin carrying party did frequent re-takes as the film crews wanted the perfect shots. Everyone was in great spirits and the weather was really magnificent.

 

There were signs, provided by the estate, guiding us around Dunmaglass Lodge to ensure we kept to the path. There were also signs erected by Dunmaglass Estate, especially for us, headed “Wake for the Wild” which asked us to be careful not to disturb nesting birds and to “avoid damage to the ground.”

 

How crass was that? They are going to bulldoze 20km of new roads up into the fragile peat uplands, bury thousands of tons of concrete, erect huge pylons and 400 feet high turbines that will smash those nesting birds into little pieces!

 

When we reached the Lodge itself we were met by two women police officers and their police car, ensuring that the route to the Lodge was blocked.

 

 

Never having ever organised a demo before (the last one I attended was about thirty years ago at Molesworth) I was not sure what to expect here.

 

I was certainly surprised that even though they appeared to know who I was and what we were doing they *insisted* on taking my name, address, place of birth and telephone number and then proceed to warn me that we were not to litter the countryside with the coffin. It’s interesting that Sir Jack Hayward, sitting on his beach in the Cayman Islands, thousands of miles away, can still rustle up a little help from the bobbies to protect his house from a marauding mob. I wonder who paid for their presence that day? As Sir Jack would know from his days with Wolverhampton Wanderers, football clubs have to pay towards police attending their games. I am sure the two officers could have been more gainfully employed in Inverness that day.

 

 

We had lunch just across from the Lodge where we did another interview to the television cameras and then David Albon very kindly said a few words over the coffin to camera for the BBC and ARD/ARTE to send us on our way for the second leg.

 

At this point the press and TV people left us to get their material off to the studios or whatever they had to do with it and so the rest of the party hitched themselves to the coffin and we headed off once more; this time up to the site of the turbines – quite a slog up the hill.

 

All around us the hillside was magnificent – wild moorland with a tugging cold breeze running through the heavy heather in waves. Curlew & grouse calls were abundant and the splashing burns as pure as could be. Clouds scudding across the high moorland, the dark peat scars like furrowed brows. Amongst the heather, precious, tiny flowers, mosses and all the little crawly beasties at the bottom of the food chain that rises so magnificently to the golden eagles that often fly above here.

 

 

We eventually made the top, where Janet Donnelly said these powerful words which I have transcribed in full:

 

We have come here today because we are the lucky ones. We are lucky because we are the last generation who remember and who have had a chance to be inspired by the Scottish landscape and everything it represents.

Take a moment now to look around you – really take in what you can see because this may be the last time that you will be able to experience that extraordinary feeling that comes when we feel ourselves dwarfed by the magnificence and splendour of the unspoilt wild land around us.

As more and more swathes of the Scottish wilderness are pillaged in the name of sustainability, we mourn their loss as if they were dearly loved friends who taught us valuable lessons in life like the fact that there is more to life than 9 to 5, the daily grind and keeping up with the Jones’s. Up here we permit ourselves to escape just for a little while and allow the splendid isolation to lift our spirits as the realisation dawns that we are indeed just a tiny speck on this incredible planet.

 

This land is in our hands, in trust for our children and our children’s children and if the politicians and the fat cats have their way, they will look back on our stewardship of the land and hang their heads in shame.

The politicians would have us believe that there is no other way and nobody denies that something must be done to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and nuclear power but we contend that the destruction of the Scottish landscape for ever is not the answer.

The technology is flawed, the sums don’t add up and the claims of large scale onshore wind power station supporters just don’t stand up to scrutiny. Add to that the news that we – the taxpayer have paid nearly a million pounds to the turbine owners to switch them off at times of peak output and we have the makings of a first class farce.

It isn’t funny though – nobody is laughing - unless you count those on their way to the bank. Let’s call a halt to the desecration of our wild landscape and the knee jerk reaction that says ‘do something – anything and we’ll think about the consequences later.

John Muir said: “Keep close to Nature's heart... and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean”

I invite you all to look around you now and try to work out where you will go to wash your spirit clean when all of this is gone.

 

Could you all please raise your glasses – hip flasks – mess tins, whatever you’ve brought with you?

A toast:

To the wilderness – may it continue to inspire us, arouse passion in us and provide sustenance for our souls. May those who seek to destroy it hear the voices of those for whom it is an integral part of life and may it long be regarded as an asset rather than a resource.

The Wilderness.

There were few dry eyes at the end of this wonderful eulogy and the whisky tasted all the sweeter.

 

Chris Townsend and the rest of our wonderful supporters, then shouldered the coffin once more and took the coffin down the hill for the next group to use on the next protest.

 

Thanks to James’ wonderful iPhone, (my own phone’s battery had conked out after all the calls to co-ordinate the wake) I managed to be interviewed by The Times reporter right at the top of the Monadhliath so that they now had the words and the pictures. Thanks, James. We made it into the paper the very next morning.

 

I then walked on, up over the top of the Monadhliath, to stand alone and take in, for perhaps the last time ever, one of Scotland’s wild places, knowing that in a few months time, all this would be gone for generations. It was with a heavy tread that I made it down to the Findhorn to camp with Andy, John & Norma & the rest of the Challenge crew. It was a day I will never forget.

TGO CHALLENGE 2011: DAY 4

MONDAY 16th MAY 2011

Map & Pictures are clickable

Somewhere between Strathcarron and Cannich I managed to sell the house. The wonders of the modern mobile telephony devices! So, with a big breakfast tucked up inside, Andy & I set off in a very chipper state of mind, to see if we could open up the Bearnock Tearooms (reputedly shut) for a second breakfast.

Somewhere along the way we were overtaken by the diminutive, yet incredibly spritely, Morven Petrie, who was going like a rocket under one of the heaviest packs on the Challenge. She was not to be swayed with tales of teas and coffees and shot off into the forest, leaving Andy & me to successfully open up the tearoom for teas and coffees – “Just help yourselves, lads!” What a wonderful chap.

 

The route to Drumnadrochit is a mixture of road and forest trails and we just put our heads down and plugged away at it until we were safely sat in the pub at Drum at lunchtime for a welcome pint or two and a bowl of soup. I won't mention that we had become “temporarily misplaced” when leaving the tea-room or that we were picking bits of dead conifer plantation from the backs of our necks for the rest of the afternoon. No – we are experienced Challengers and never get lost… NO Sir!

 

I spent the afternoon on the phone to the German & French TV Station (ARD/ARTE), the BBC TV people and local newspapers, confirming arrangements for tomorrow’s “Wake for the Wild”. It seemed that they were all going to turn up! I just hoped that we had a few supporters to come as well… I couldn’t tell who would come as I had been away from a computer for the best part of a week. Worried? Me?….

 

Then it was a short amble down the road again to Temple Pier to clamber aboard the boat.

 

Rascals on a boat.

At the point of embarkation, always a tricky dismount on the old wreck of a landing stage, it was apparent that no-one had ever possessed a map of this section of the walk and so, like the Pied Piper, I led the merry band to Ault-na-goire, the wonderful Janet & Alex Sutherland's croft, with the threat of instant demise should I be leading them all the wrong way. Thankfully, I survived to arrive to tea and cakes and then to sit at their table to be treated to wonderful hospitality and good food.

 

As it was a bit midgey out there we were soon tucked up in our Wendy-houses, squidging the little blighters against the roofs of the tents.

 

Andy is a terrible snorer. Even his Wendy Warmlite looks like she is curling her lip at the prospect of another noisy night…

TGO CHALLENGE 2011: DAY 3

SUNDAY 15th MAY 2011

Maps & Pictures are clickable

Andy must have had a terrible night baling out Wendy as at the appointed hour of departure, he was still a good twenty minutes behind schedule, leaving his poor, poor, time-conscious colleagues to shelter from the cold, rain-sodden blustery winds in the plantation. “Punctuality: It’s the loneliness I can’t stand….”

Still, we won’t hold this against the lad, well, not until the Challenge is over, at least… So, it was an hour from Day 1 and twenty minutes from today then…. But who’s counting?

So, a couple of K’s of bog hopping then it was an easy stroll down the road to Cannich. Things were looking up; the weather wasn’t too bad, with the wind behind us.

 

There were the inevitable traffic jams as we strolled along the super-highway:

Calming pond-life kept everyone’s nerves from fraying:

At lunchtime, we found ourselves in the Slater’s Arms in Cannich. I was met with: “What do *you* want?” as I walked inside.

 

“Well” – I thought – “That’s a great welcome”. For just the very briefest of moments I thought of letting him know that my exact needs and desires at that precise moment were friendliness, a great welcome, excellent customer service and first class food and drink. However, common sense got in the way, realising that a whole posse of Challengers were about to descend on the oaf’s establishment, who all required a chair, table and nourishment, so I bit my lip for the time being. He pointed me to the back room which looked dark, cold and unwelcoming, so I chose instead to sit at the nicest table in the window at the front as he shrugged and stumbled back behind the bar.

 

I went out of my way to be nice to him, complimenting him on his excellent soup to try and get some sort of warmth in return. He did try, but it was very forced. The bread was par-cooked baguettes that had been not quite cooked enough and the butter was sparing. What a miserable place!

 

After lunch I nipped into the shop next door to witness the rescue of a slow-worm that had found its way into the shop. Naan breads were on offer – so I bought three tons of the stuff as they were a bargain. I was still munching my way through them at Braemar… doh! Then we went and put the tents up to dry them out and found out from the owner of the campsite that the terrible looking pub that we had just walked past was in fact a great place and so we decided to eat there in the evening instead and let everyone else know that too. I don’t think the Slaters did great business that evening whereas the pub did a roaring trade.

 

Back at the campsite the owner volunteered to do cooked breakfasts for everyone tomorrow starting at 7:00am. What a great place to stay! Two examples of Great and Terrible Highland Hospitality.

TGO CHALLENGE 2011: DAY 2

SATURDAY 12th MAY 2011

Clickable map and most of the photos too!

With the rain hammering down for most of the night, the rivers were full to the brim this morning, roaring like trains. The clouds were shrouding the hills and there were fierce little gusts down in the valley, so who knows what it would be like on the intended fair-weather route for today; the north Mullardoch Munros.

 

This gave us a bit of a dilemma: If the rivers were really in spate, our foul weather route might also be a bit dodgy, as there are a few biggies flowing into Loch Mullardoch. I knew that the first one had a bridge above the hut at Glen Cannich but my recollection of that bridge was that it was a skinny slippery narrow timber job with no handrail above a rocky gorge with a torrent; not a good prospect for a bloke with a very dodgy head for heights in a strong wind!

 

Perhaps a better option would be to skip over the low bealach north of Mam Ruisgte and head for Glen Strathfarrar, Struy and then on to Drumnadrochit? We would see what the river was like a few miles to the east and besides, the rain was easing, so perhaps by the time we got to the nasty crossings on Mullardoch, if the rain held off, the levels might be dropping? Andy, Lilo, Robert & me set off into a blustery day.

 

This was what presented itself at our first crossing after about an hour…

 

We followed it upstream until it became more manageable. Here’s Andy striding across at the good bit.
 

You will see from the map that we opted to risk Mullardoch as the rain was still holding off, and here Lilo left us to do his route to Struy. That just left Andy, Robert and me. The next few pictures tell the story themselves; a blustery day with little stormlets chasing us all the way down to the north shore of Mullardoch.

 

Halfway along Mullardoch there is a ruin and here we caught up with Carl, who was just setting off having had a breather. He had started at Dornie and we played tag with him for the rest of the afternoon.

 

 

With a huge sense of relief, when we reached the dodgy bridge of death we saw that it had been replaced with a new, wide, solid looking bridge, so the impending doom just vanished away. We bumped into Brian Shepherd who had managed a crafty camp on the hut’s veranda. Brian was a bit fed up with Mullardoch – it does seem to go on forever! But we stalwarts crashed on for another 5km to the next big crossing – but we didn’t find a bridge for this one so waded it below the falls.

 

The three of us were joined by Carl and we camped in a fine little bog just above a sheltering stand of pines half a mile past the Allt Taige; it has to be said, quite knackered!

 

At this point Andy discovered that Wendy – his Warmilte 2R – had applied for planning permission for a basement and indeed had already started the excavations through her groundsheet. Andy was very stoical about it all and took her firmly in hand and beasted her with duct tape, sticking plasters, NeoAir plasters and spit: None of which staunched the little spring that bubbled into his tent… It was quite a rough night as well… ooh dear!

 

TGO CHALLENGE 2011: DAY 1

FRIDAY 13th MAY 2011

Clickable map and most of the photos, too!
After the rough weather of the previous night we finally left Strathcarron after Andy had queued for five hours behind the postmaster to send his first parcel home. This included items of underwear more suitable for table dancing than hill walking. Who’d have thought it, eh?

It was great to be climbing a beautiful hill path into wild country and soon our lunchtime stop hove into view.

We bumped into Bill Archibald on the way to the estate bothy and then headed off up to Loch Calavie.

I hate wire bridges but Andy and Lilo skipped across while I waded the shallows of the Loch

We avoided the peat hags below Beinn Dronaig by climbing above them. What is not shown before the next picture of showers over Loch Cruoshie, is the “life and death” struggle to get over the river to the bothy(!) Being a bit of a wimp, I was the last to cross. I timed it perfectly to coincide with a real stinger of a cold rain stormlet as I crashed my way across a very nasty river crossing. All very good for the heart-rate… A little later Robert Ridgewell joined us, having braved the river alone – made of the right stuff, is Robert!

We were grateful for the shelter that night – it was horrid outside!

TGO CHALLENGE 2011: DAY 0: The Journey Up

Andrew said farewell to Lucy, hoisted his pack and headed off for his two week trip to London’s seamier attractions.

Quite why he needed to take his Whillan’s box-tent along was never satisfactorily explained to the rest of the party.

Phil, leading by example, reiterated the importance of being properly hydrated.

Then we slept all the way to Inverness, where we marched about with the box for the photographer for the local newspaper, to get a little pre-publicity for the “Wake for the Wild” . Then it was off on another train to Strathcarron, to complete the important business of hydration until the small hours. It was grim outside so I pinched some floor space from Andy’s room as he was still table dancing somewhere down south in London.

TGO CHALLENGE 2011: Home

Australian foreplay:

Home, from a great walk. That’s sixteen official crossings now and this one must rank amongst the toughest, with some pretty stormy weather and long days. There will be more, with words and pictures, coming along soon.

“Brace yourself, Sheila!”

A WAKE FOR THE WILD: Tuesday 17th May: UPDATE

Location Overview map

Map showing the route the coffin will be carried along.

BOTH ABOVE MAPS ARE CLICKABLE

Well – the above maps show the route of the wake – where we will be carrying the coffin that symbolises the imminent death of the Wild Places.

There have been quite a lot of interest from people who want to take part, and two TV stations have expressed interest in filming – a German crew from ARD/ARTE who will definitely be there and BBC Alba may well be as well. All the Press Releases have gone out and we have been featured on Grough and the MCofS website. I believe there has been an article in this week’s Inverness Courier. Let’s hope we get a bit more coverage.

So – if you would like to come you are very welcome indeed.

We’ll start at about 10:30am, carrying the coffin from Errogie, on the shore of Loch Mhor and take it over to Dunmaglass Lodge following the green line shown on the attached 1:50k map. There, a few words will be spoken over the coffin and a list of the doomed areas of wilderness will be read out. Photographs will be taken with the Lodge in the background. From here, the least fit/able-bodied members of the party could stroll back to the start point if they wished.

The fitter types amongst us will continue to carry it up to the site of the turbines (the area encircled by the red line on the 1:50k map) where the coffin will be laid to rest and photographs taken that will show the beauty of the wild land and which will demonstrate the terrible loss that is about to be suffered.

This is probably quite a hike for some folk and so they should ensure that they are adequately equipped for it. Who knows what the weather will be like on the day? For the most part, the route is on well made estate tracks, but the section just before Dunmaglass Lodge is a little rough heather.

It would be not too bad an idea to bring a warming toast along, to say Farewell to the Wild properly.

I am off now to catch my sleeper up to the Highlands (with the coffin) – so in the meantime have a good time and I hope to see you next Tuesday.

A WAKE FOR THE WILD: Tuesday 17th May 2011.

Today, when the polling stations shut, whoever wins the Scottish elections, the one thing that is certain to continue at an accelerating pace is the destruction of Scotland’s wild places. The Highlands of Scotland are well on the way to industrialisation on a vast scale.

Energy policy is dictated largely by Westminster & the European Union but the Scottish Parliament is on a crusade to go for more and more adventurous targets for wind. This blog has pointed out over the last four months that wind power stations are horribly inefficient, produce electricity at very high prices and are only in existence because of the massive subsidies paid by the consumer.

The National Grid cannot cope with the fluctuations in the power delivered by wind at present and so with three times as many turbines planned than we have installed already, Scotland stands every chance of having major power blackouts.

However, once you have signed up to having energy supplied by wind power it’s pretty obvious that the best sites for the turbines are where it is windiest; which is on top of the hills. These wind power stations will blight the Scottish landscape for ever, with hundreds of miles of access tracks, whole chains of pylons and cables and millions of tons of concrete buried in the landscape, not to mention the thousands of 400 feet high whirling turbine blades. The damage these turbine blades will do to Scottish birdlife is unforgiveable in itself.

One example of the hundred or so planning applications that have gone through for these wind power stations, is Dunmaglass in the Monadhliath Mountains. This seems to epitomise the rabid decision making behind many of these schemes: The Dunmaglass Estate is right next door to Coignafearn, where the enlightened owner, Sigrid Rausing, has for quite some time been encouraging Scotland’s iconic Golden Eagles to make their home. You can track Cullen, a young female Golden Eagle’s daily movements by clicking HERE. You will see that Cullen’s days are surely numbered when the Dunmaglass turbines are erected.

We have to face the fact that Scottish Wild Land will be utterly destroyed. The sense of the wild that we seek out will be gone forever; finished. Dead.

On Tuesday 17th May, a few friends and I will be walking peacefully the few miles into the Monadhliath, carrying a coffin; a symbol of the death of Scotland’s Wild Places. We will be passing Dunmaglass Lodge itself and carrying the coffin up to the point of the highest turbine, about 2,500 feet up in the beautiful, wild Monadhliath Mountains.

There will be a few words said over the coffin in memory of a once beautiful wild land. This is a chance to enjoy, perhaps for the last time, a wonderful wild place and reflect and celebrate together the glory of the Scottish Wilderness which is now, sadly, destined to be gone forever.

If you would like details of how to take part in this peaceful “Wake for the Wild” please email me and I will send you the details. Please come and support us.

My email address is alan.sloman@ntlworld.com

THE SNOUTS IN THE TROUGH

This document has been widely reported by the BBC (amazingly!), the Daily Telegraph and the Times. I thought you should see the original document. It makes staggering reading.

As with all crimes, follow the money.

(You can click on each page to make it more easy to read)

WIND POWER STATIONS & LOADED DICE

Man made Global Warming. Anthropogenic Global Warming. Climate Change. I won’t go into the arguments of that proposition but it is undeniably the main driver behind the recent incredible rush for renewables. The AGW supporting Climate Scientists have convinced governments worldwide that we need to generate low carbon energy to reduce our CO₂ emissions.

Nuclear power is one possible solution but after years of dreadful public relations, accidents & cover-ups the public has become wary of nuclear power and so governments, having swallowed the AGW argument and anxious to remain in power, have grabbed the wind power stations solution with both hands.

It has been explained to them that wind power is quick to get off the ground and so after years of dithering and not building new nuclear capacity they see it as a god-send. Not only is it quick to get on-stream but the power stations are placed on top of hills, so they are very visible evidence of the Government “doing something” and it is seen by Joe public as being a “Green” solution.

I have explained on the blog over the last few months that wind is far from being “green”. Every single MW of capacity provided by wind has to be backed up by other forms of production because quite simply the wind won’t play ball; it won’t blow all the time you need it. Wind is also an incredibly expensive form of energy and so we subsidise it with higher energy bills.

Well then: All this rush to wind power doesn’t make sense, surely?

It does if you read the article written last week by Jason Lewis, who, interestingly is the Investigations Editor at the Daily Telegraph. Many thanks to my next-door neighbour for pointing this out to me. I have transcribed it below:

“A LOBBY GROUP that pushes the case that global warming is a real threat is being funded by the taxpayer and assisted by the BBC. The little-known, not-for-profit firm works behind the scenes at international conferences to further its aims.

One of its key supporters headed the official investigation into the so-called "Climategate emails", producing a report that cleared experts of deliberately attempting to skew scientific results to confirm that global warming was a real threat.

Another scientific expert linked to the group came forward to praise a second independent investigation into the Climategate affair which also exonerated researchers.

Set up with the backing of Tony Blair, then the prime minister, and run by a group of British MPs and peers, the organisation, Globe International, started life as an all-party group based in the House of Commons. It is now run as an international climate change lobbying group,flying its supporters and experts club class to international summits to push its agenda. Last year, it said, it spent about £500,000 flying supporters to these meetings.

It has also spent at least £75,000 on travel for prominent British politicians, including for its former presidents Elliot Morley, the ex-Labour environment minister now facing jail for expenses fraud, and Stephen Byers, the former Labour cabinet minister who was suspended from the Commons after he was filmed describing himself as a "cab for hire" when offering to lobby his parliamentary contacts for cash.

Now Globe is planning a mass lobby of the United Nations Rio 2012 summit in Brazil, where world leaders will discuss climate change, by holding a World Summit of Legislators in the city to coincide with the event.

Next week the group's current president Lord Deben, the former Tory cabinet minister John Gummer, is due to launch a major report on climate change policy alongside Chris Huhne, the Energy Secretary. Globe has also recently held behind-closed-doors meetings with William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, and other Coalition ministers.

Last year two prominent experts linked to Globe were drawn into the controversy over emails leaked from the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit.

Lord Oxburgh*, the organisation's director, was called in to head an internal inquiry into the leaked emails which included one infamous message referring to a "trick" to "hide the decline" in global temperatures.”

[*Lord Oxburgh is also chairman of Falck Renewables, a manufacturer of windfarms and the UK subsidiary of The Falck Group, a Milan-based manufacturer. A sister company of Oxburgh‘s Falck Renewables, Actelios, is publicly traded and had suffered serious falls in its stock price during the period of Climategate.   A.S.]

“The peer's investigation cleared the scientists of malpractice. But critics claimed the report was a whitewash. Lord Oxburgh did not declare his involvement with Globe in the House of Lords register of interests before he began his investigation.

Meanwhile, Bob Ward, from the Grantham Institute, which works alongside Globe, praised a second inquiry by Muir Russell, a former civil servant, which also cleared the climate researchers. He said it had "lifted the cloud of suspicion" and demonstrated that "the integrity of climate science is intact".

Globe International's work is paid for with donations from multi-millionaire backers and through partnerships with other environmental groups. It confirmed last night that it received direct funding from the Department of Energy and the Department of International Development (DfID), including a grant of £91,240 provided by DfID since the Coalition came to power.

More cash from DfID is filtered through the Complus Alliance, a "sustainable development communications alliance" of broadcasters based in Costa Rica which is also supported by the BBC World Service Trust, the corporation's independent charity.

Complus, which was awarded DfID cash last year and in 2006, says it has an "ongoing relationship with Globe" helping it run "shadow negotiation" teams at international summits of world leaders. A spokeswoman for Complus said: "The BBC is a founding member not a funding member. They can make in-kind contributions, like organising events, supporting logistics, sharing content."

Last night a DfID spokesman confirmed the department had given Complus £250,000 in total to provide research, advocacy and communications work on the impact of climate change.

The BBC trust's money is drawn from the £15.2 million-a-year it gets from the Foreign Office and DFID and £800,000 from licence payers. The BBC charity failed to respond to questions about its relationship with the project.

The Zoological Society of London, the world famous charity behind London Zoo, also provides Globe with scientific advice. Globe said it paid ZSL for its expertise.

Last night Globe's general secretary Adam Matthews said: "Globe is not a lobbying organisation. It is an international group of legislators. It was set up by the legislators themselves. We facilitate them coming together to discuss environmental issues. Our members have multiple views - some quite sceptical on some aspects of the climate change debate. "We are funded by the World Bank, the EU, international parliaments and governments, including the UK government. The Coalition Government contributes to our work through DfID."

Globe International, registered as a not-for-profit firm under the name The Global Legislators Organisation Ltd, makes minimal disclosures about its finances to Companies House. Last year it declared a £500,000 loss, but still managed to fly key supporters to summits and international conferences.

The MP Barry Gardiner, its vice president and former Labour biodiversity minister, attended at least four international conferences on Globe's behalf. Mr Gardiner's daughter is a member of Globe's full time staff.

It also paid nearly £3,000 to fly Gregory Barker, now the Coalition Climate Change Minister, to Washington.

Lord Hunt, the former head of the Met Office, and Lord Jay, the former head of the Diplomatic Service, both declared club class travel to summits paid for by the organisation. Lord Hunt, father of Tristan Hunt, the historian, television presenter and Labour MP, also lists Mr Matthews, Globe's secretary general, as a member of his House of Lords staff.

Mr Matthews was once Mr Gardiner's researcher in the House of Commons. His chief adviser, Gauri Kiik, is listed as being on the House of Lord's staff of Lord Jay.

Lord Deben declares his work for Globe as a "non-financial interest" to the House of Lords. He is also yet to declare any foreign travel funded by the organisation, although Globe confirmed last night that it had contributed to his travel and accommodation costs in the role. Lord Deben also runs an environmental consultancy company, Sandcroft International, which declared a turnover of almost £2 million in its last accounts. He is also chairman of Forewind, which has won the rights to build a wind farm off the Yorkshire coast.

Among Globe's principal backers are a charity set up by the Swedish multi-millionaire Niklas Zennstrom, founder of the phone service Skype, and the British-born wealth fund manager Jeremy Grantham, whose clients include Dick Cheney and John Kerry. Mr Grantham bankrolls the Grantham Institute at the LSE, which works alongside Globe. He believes "weather instability" is the world's biggest  "investment problem" and his $107 billion fund pushes alternative assets including a massive portfolio of forestry.

Globe's staff includes Dr Sam Fankhauser, its chief economist and an "independent adviser" to the Government on climate change who is a member of the Government's committee on climate change; and Terry Townshend, director of policy development, whose wife Libby was on the British team at the UN summit in Copenhagen.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/8469883/Lobbyists-who-cleared-Climategate-academics-funded-by-taxpayers-and-the-BBC.html