Category: Political Nightmare

Bad Science Bait & Switch Climate Change Media Non-Science Political Nightmare Public Relations Social Change Unutterably Useless Utter Futility

The Daily Hoaxpress ?

The Daily Express newspaper (ably echoed by its cousin The Daily Telegraph) issued an outright Global Warming denial on its front page today :-

https://www.dailyexpress.co.uk/posts/view/146139/100-reasons-why-global-warming-is-natural

“100 REASONS WHY GLOBAL WARMING IS NATURAL : ‘No proof that human activity is to blame’ : Tuesday December 15,2009 : By Martyn Brown : CAMPAIGNERS yesterday attempted to pour scorn on “tenuous” global warming theories by issuing a dossier detailing 100 reasons why climate change is natural and not man-made. The list includes the controversial claim that there is “no scientific proof” that rising levels of greenhouse gases are caused by human activity…”

Intrigued, I actually went to the trouble of purchasing the print edition of the newspaper, so I could gen up. On page 5, the headline “‘There’s little we can do about global warming'”. Oh, so tens of thousands of people in Copenhagen, Denmark, negotiating about the need to reduce Carbon Dioxide Emissions, are all wasting their time ? I think not.

Tags Climate Change, denial, denier, Global Warming, sceptic, skeptic

Bait & Switch Big Picture Climate Change Emissions Impossible Media Political Nightmare Public Relations Social Change

Copenhagen Punk’d

It appears that the Yes Men have staged a huge coup at the Copenhagen Climate Change talks. First they issued a Press Release saying that Canada was going to offer 40% Carbon Emissions reductions. And then they held a Press Conference with a delegate from Uganda to herald the news – see the video here :-

https://en.cop-15.org/news/view+news_newsid=12888.html
“Canada: We Accept Concept of Climate Debt : Canada gives details of new “Climate Debt Mechanism,” announces details of pilot program in Africa. Ugandan delegation lauds proposal.
Peter Jensen 14/12/2009 13:20″

Tags Canada, Carbon Cuts, Carbon Emissions Reductions, Climate Change, Climate Finance, Commitment, Copenhagen, Historical Debt, Historical Responsibility, Tar Sands, Targets

Climate Change Obamawatch Political Nightmare

Endangermouse

Will he, or won’t he ?

Will Barack Hussein Obama formalise, finalise, documentise the “endangerment finding” in an EPA declaration, that Greenhouse Gases endanger public health under The Clean Air Act ?

https://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-obama-environment8-2009dec08,0,3159719.story

If he does, he should be awarded the epithet “Endangermouse”, the more-than-mouse hero, for subverting the slow and ineffective grinding of the United States Senate and Congress.

Without waiting for them to chew and chomp and perhaps spit out the Climate laws currently before them for their consideration, Obama could impose change through the Environmental Protection Agency; the back door, but the fast door.

We’re going to get sense and speed on Global Warming legislation. It could be faster than you think.

Tags Climate Change, Environmental Protection Agency, EPA

Carbon Commodities Climate Change Political Nightmare

I Won’t Wear A Wristband For Carbon Trading

Post author By Jo
Post date December 7, 2009
1 Comment on I Won’t Wear A Wristband For Carbon Trading

The Story of Cap & Trade from Story of Stuff Project on Vimeo

So, tens of thousands of people have made their way to the Copenhagen Climate Change negotiations. Now that they’re sealed in the conference, in all that holy, heady air of importance and relevance, they won’t be able to escape the dominant narrative of the agenda : the implementation of Carbon Trading.

This could be the largest appropriation of commonly owned resources the world has even known. By the banks :-

https://www.bluenext.fr/

Tags Carbon Trading, Climate Change

Climate Change Political Nightmare Social Change Uncategorized

Untidy Minds #4 : David Davis

Post author By Jo
Post date December 4, 2009
No Comments on Untidy Minds #4 : David Davis

Congratulations go to David Davis, who appears to have singlehandedly found the way to split the British Conservative Party for good, by coming out as a Climate Change sceptic, and thereby effectively challenging David Cameron for the leadership (which Davis will lose, like he did the last time, I reckon) :-

https://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/david-davis-why-this-ferocious-desire-to-impose-hairshirt-policies-1832213.html

He writes :-

“The row about whether global warming exists gets even more virulent. The case is not helped by the fact that the planet appears to have been cooling, not warming, in the last decade. Last week, the row was fuelled after a hacker revealed emails between the world’s leading climate scientists that seemed to show them conspiring to rig the figures to support their theories. So it is unsurprising that more than half the public no longer believe in global warming.”

Tags Climate Change, denial, denier, sceptic, skeptic

Climate Change Political Nightmare Protest & Survive Social Change Unutterably Useless Utter Futility Vote Loser

White Supremacist’s Revenge

Post author By Jo
Post date November 29, 2009
No Comments on White Supremacist’s Revenge

Super-double irony : Nick Griffin, the anti-immigration right-wing nationalist is going to the Copenhagen Climate Talks as a representative of the European Union, where, no doubt, he will probably attempt to exact a white supremacist’s revenge – throwing whatever spanners (wrenches) he can in the works to stop a global deal to protect the poor and vulnerable from Climate Change :-

https://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/29/nick-griffin-bnp-copenhagen-summit

“…Griffin, who was elected to the European parliament in June, confirmed last night that he would attend as the representative of the parliament’s environmental committee. World leaders, including Barack Obama and Gordon Brown, are hoping to forge a new global agreement to curtail greenhouse gas emissions. Without such a deal, scientists warn that world temperatures will increase by more than 2C by the end of the century, triggering ice cap melting, sea-level rises, widespread flooding, the spread of deserts and devastating storms. In a speech in the parliament last week, Griffin denounced those who warn of the consequences of climate change as “cranks”. He said they had reached “an Orwellian consensus” that was “based not on scientific agreement, but on bullying, censorship and fraudulent statistics. The anti-western intellectual cranks of the left suffered a collective breakdown when communism collapsed. Climate change is their new theology… But the heretics will have a voice in Copenhagen and the truth will out. Climate change is being used to impose an anti-human utopia as deadly as anything conceived by Stalin or Mao.” Griffin will be one of 15 representatives chosen to speak on behalf of the EU in Copenhagen…”

I agree with inclusion and tolerance, but this is a step too far ! Griffin’s agenda and purpose seems to consist entirely of exclusion, intolerance, might-is-right, anti-science and inequality. I don’t know how he can represent the European Union in any way…He might as well wear a Ku Klux Klan outfit for all the anti-democratic flames he carries around inside him.

I doth protest.

Tags Climate Change, denial, denier, fascism, nationalism, sceptic, skeptic, white supremacist

Bad Science Bait & Switch Climate Change Non-Science Obamawatch Political Nightmare Public Relations Social Change The Data Toxic Hazard Unutterably Useless

Climategate : Too Tired To Resist ?

Post author By Jo
Post date November 27, 2009
3 Comments on Climategate : Too Tired To Resist ?

George Monbiot has written another post on his The Guardian weblog, anxiously chewing his own lips to bloody shreds with the stress of the Climategate situation :-

https://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/georgemonbiot/2009/nov/25/monbiot-climate-leak-crisis-response

“Pretending the climate email leak isn’t a crisis won’t make it go away : Climate sceptics have lied, obscured and cheated for years. That’s why we climate rationalists must uphold the highest standards of science : Posted by George Monbiot : Wednesday 25 November 2009 : I have seldom felt so alone. Confronted with crisis, most of the environmentalists I know have gone into denial. The emails hacked from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia, they say, are a storm in a tea cup, no big deal, exaggerated out of all recognition. It is true that climate change deniers have made wild claims which the material can’t possibly support (the end of global warming, the death of climate science). But it is also true that the emails are very damaging. The response of the greens and most of the scientists I know is profoundly ironic, as we spend so much of our time confronting other people’s denial. Pretending that this isn’t a real crisis isn’t going to make it go away. Nor is an attempt to justify the emails with technicalities. We’ll be able to get past this only by grasping reality, apologising where appropriate and demonstrating that it cannot happen again. It is true that much of what has been revealed could be explained as the usual cut and thrust of the peer review process, exacerbated by the extraordinary pressure the scientists were facing from a denial industry determined to crush them…”

Look, George love, we’d like to do something useful, but the problem is one of sheer exhaustion. People are tired of the relentless waves of hysteria and mania coming from the “denial community”. Nothing we say makes them stop, not even for one second. On and on they moan and clatter and hammer.

Tags Climate Change, denial, denier, sceptic, skeptic

Climate Change Political Nightmare Public Relations

Right Before Your Eyes

If you care to actually spend 10 seconds looking at the NASA GISS “Blob Chart” (see link above), you will easily detect a continually warming trend. Yes, there are dips and climbs. Yes, there is variability. No, Global Warming did not stop in 1998.

This very easy-reading level of visual information, apparently, is not good enough to convince Janet Daley that Global Warming is happening. She just can’t make it out amongst all the noise, probably coming from the Climate Change Deniers.

Whether she knows it or not, she is not telling the truth.

Tags Climate Change, denial, denier, Global Warming, sceptic, skeptic

Bait & Switch Big Picture Carbon Commodities Climate Change Emissions Impossible Media Political Nightmare Protest & Survive Public Relations Social Change

Doing Business at Copenhagen

Post author By Jo
Post date November 24, 2009
No Comments on Doing Business at Copenhagen

The Daily Telegraph seems most keen that the business sector should be at the Copenhagen Climate Change negotiations :-

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/kamal-ahmed/6605608/Copenhagen-Climate-Change-summit-do-businesses-need-to-be-there.html

“Copenhagen Climate Change summit: do businesses need to be there? : The Copenhagen Climate Change summit is fast approaching. There’s going to be an army of negotiators in the Danish capital but do businesses need to be there? By Kamal Amed : Published: 19 Nov 2009 : …while there’s been an awful lot on the politics of Copenhagen…there has been relatively little on what the business sector is supposed to be saying or doing. Many big players are privately indicating that they need to be there for political reasons rather than business reasons and that the whole thing is, ahem, a load of hot air. Looking more broadly, […] there is a danger that the whole event becomes little more than a photo-opportunity…that might give us all time to consider exactly the business and finance sector is supposed to be doing to tackle climate change…”

Tags Business, Climate Change, Copenhagen, corporate, corporations, influence, lobbying, protest

Carbon Commodities Climate Change Political Nightmare

Don’t Do It, Kevin !

Dear Kevin Rudd, current Prime Minister of all Australia,

Of all the meaningless things to stake your premiership on, it has to be that ridiculous notion of Carbon Trading.

You realise that it won’t raise a single dollar for the de-Carbonisation of your appallingly ginormous national Energy and Transport sectors, don’t you ?

Tags Australia, Climate Change, Kevin Rudd

Big Picture Carbon Capture Carbon Commodities Climate Change Emissions Impossible Energy Revival Pet Peeves Political Nightmare

Cut To The Chase

So this big plan for international Carbon Trading, how long will it take to set up all the national and regional markets ? And how long will it take to get some kind of serious reduction in Carbon Emissions using the market ?

Well, judging by this week’s slalom race on the melting Climate piste, I’d say it will be a good few years yet before a functioning international Carbon market will be viable, and a good few years after that that it will start to deliver any real reductions in emissions.

That could easily take us past 2015, the year that Kevin Anderson of the Tyndall Centre knows we have to peak our emissions or face Climageddon (unless we can produce negative emissions. Yeah. Right.) :-

https://www.eci.ox.ac.uk/4degrees/programme.php
Presentation Slides : https://www.eci.ox.ac.uk/4degrees/ppt/10-1anderson.pdf
Presentation Audio : https://www.eci.ox.ac.uk/4degrees/audio/10-1anderson.mp3

Tags Carbon Market, Carbon Trading, Climate Change, Copenhagen, Fossil Fuel, Global Warming, UNFCCC

Bad Science Bait & Switch Behaviour Changeling Big Picture Climate Change Energy Revival Low Carbon Life Media Non-Science Obamawatch Peace not War Pet Peeves Political Nightmare Protest & Survive Public Relations Renewable Resource Social Change Technological Sideshow Unsolicited Advice & Guidance Unutterably Useless Utter Futility Vote Loser

David Miliband : Expecting Someone Shorter

Post author By Jo
Post date November 7, 2009
No Comments on David Miliband : Expecting Someone Shorter

To be honest, he was taller than I expected, and more Eastern in appeareance, a kind of lanky version of Mehmet behind the deli counter at my local Turkish International Food Emporium.

David Miliband was also considerably thinner than I would have liked, considering he might one day rule the New Labour Party, who might just rule my country again. We wouldn’t want him blown away by the slightest breeze, surely, would we ? He needs feeding in my opinion.

Tags campaigning, Climate Change, Energy, Global Warming, persuasion, politics, Renewable Energy, Science, soft power, Technology

Climate Change Extreme Weather Political Nightmare

Overwhelming Disaster

A couple of weeks ago I was in discussion with some people considering what would trigger urgent global action on reducing Greenhouse Gas emissions.

Not just words and forms of words, but serious practical action to re-figure the global Economy around Low Carbon principles.

Someone mentioned Katrina. And someone else mentioned that despite the estimations showing that the damage from Hurricane Katrina was probably partly due to global warming (or, rather, ocean warming), it hasn’t been a wake-up call.

Tags Climate Change, disaster, insurance

Climate Change Political Nightmare

A Whole Stable of Trojans

Post author By Jo
Post date October 31, 2009
No Comments on A Whole Stable of Trojans

Given the complexity of the draft documents available ahead of the Copenhagen meeting of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties (COP) 15, starting 7th December 2009, I’m not going to probe it in detail at this point.

What I am going to do is outline a few of the Trojan horses, and, if I get the time, unpack them further closer to the conference season.

Tags Climate Change, Copenhagen, UNFCCC

Climate Change Nuclear Nuisance Nuclear Shambles Pet Peeves Political Nightmare Protest & Survive Renewable Resource Technological Sideshow Unutterably Useless

New Nuclear Is Not A Climate Policy

Post author By Jo
Post date October 24, 2009
No Comments on New Nuclear Is Not A Climate Policy

The rumour mill about the propsects for new Nuclear Power is quite active, a kind of underground semaphore.

About a year ago, the idea that the United Kingdom would be burdened with eleven new Nuclear Power stations entered the mill and popped out all over the shop, being greeted with ridicule, dismissiveness, anger and despair.

When the Energy Supply companies started going into “free capital” meltdown over new investments, owing to issues concerning insurance and the general Economy, there was concern that they wouldn’t come along with the new Nuclear plan.

The Government kept pumping out the information that we should have at least four new Nuclear Power stations. How critical this project was ! How bright and shiny new Nuclear would be ! The unwritten back room understanding that any new Nuclear Power plant could expect State support in one form or another. However, the public statements were that there would be no Public Money for new Nuclear build.

Tags Atomic Energy, Climate Change, Nuclear Power, policy

Big Picture Burning Money Carbon Capture Climate Change Energy Revival Pet Peeves Political Nightmare Social Change

E.On Is Stalking Me

Image Credit : Baby Creative

Over the last couple of years, almost everything I have been involved with, the E.On Energy supply company has sought to get its big coal-dust grubby hands on. It seems. The latest twist in this saga involves the Claverton Energy Research Group.

Tags Climate Change, coal, Corporate Sponsorship, E.On, Energy Supply

Climate Change Political Nightmare

Gordon Brown Saves The World

Post author By Jo
Post date October 20, 2009
1 Comment on Gordon Brown Saves The World

Compare and contrast the perfectly reasonably statements from Gordon Brown against the fearmongering of Christopher Monckton :-

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/6375775/Climate-change-could-cause-more-problems-than-two-World-Wars.html

https://www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474977860385&grpId=3659174697241980

https://www.rightpundits.com/?p=4893

If Climate Change takes a “One World Government” to solve it, I say “bring it on” ! (And can we have Gordon Brown as the President ?)

Tags Climate Change, Deniers, Sceptics, Skeptics

Bait & Switch Climate Change Media Political Nightmare

Climate Chains

The Competitive Enterprise Institute in the United States of America wants to save the bottled water market.

It also wants to try to convince people that Climate Change policy is bad news, against Freedom, and based on fear.

There will be a new film, charmingly entitled “Climate Chains” with a whole new palette of Climate Change denial and policy refusal arguments, so it would be well worth watching it when it comes out, to help us work out how to nip these myths in the bud.

https://climatechains.com/

https://www.globalwarming.org/2009/09/17/climate-chains-trailer/

https://www.climatechains.com/about.html

https://www.cascadepolicy.org/

https://www.cascadepolicy.org/recommended-reading/

Tags Climate Change, Deniers, Sceptics, Skeptics

Bad Science Bait & Switch Big Picture Climate Change Media Non-Science Political Nightmare Social Change Technological Sideshow The Data Toxic Hazard

Good Faith Can Move Mountains

Post author By Jo
Post date September 30, 2009
No Comments on Good Faith Can Move Mountains

Image Credit : Icecap

The British Climate Change Minister Ed Miliband has admitted at the Labour Party Conference that there are low commitment levels to dealing with the causes of Global Warming :-

Tags Climate Change, denial, Deniers, Global Warming, Sceptics, Skeptics

Behaviour Changeling Big Picture Carbon Commodities Carbon Rationing Climate Change Media Pet Peeves Political Nightmare Social Change

Time To Stop Playing Along

Post author By Jo
Post date September 29, 2009
No Comments on Time To Stop Playing Along

When I was asked to review a chunk of the 2008 Climate Safety report from the Public Interest Research Centre, I was less than positive about the social movement building outlined in the recommendations for “mobilisation” of the public (see below).

Tim Holmes, one of the people involved in the Climate Safety report, has started a new web log critiquing the very same issues :-

https://convenientlies.wordpress.com

https://convenientlies.wordpress.com/2009/09/28/greenwashing-government/