Category: Social Change

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

Bad Science Bait & Switch Climate Change Non-Science Public Relations Social Change The Data

Climategate : Myles Allen is Confused

Post author By Jo
Post date December 11, 2009
1 Comment on Climategate : Myles Allen is Confused

Dr Myles Allen, head of the Climate Dynamics group at the University of Oxford’s Atmospheric, Oceanic and Planetary Physics Department is confused. “It is odd that we still don’t take climate change seriously”, he writes in The Guardian online, discussing the fact that a good proportion of the British public don’t believe in Global Warming :-

https://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/dec/11/science-climate-change-phil-jones

He might need to wake up to the fact that the British Press are being misled, and in turn, misleading the country.

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

Climate Change Social Change

Heathrow : John McDonnell Signals Revolution

Post author By Jo
Post date December 11, 2009
No Comments on Heathrow : John McDonnell Signals Revolution

The UK Labour Party Member of Parliament for Hayes and Harlington chews down on the Climate Change Committee’s report that effectively allows the expansion of Heathrow Airport, where a Third Runway is planned.

He projects mass revolt.

Tags 10:10, Climate Change, Climate March, Climate Rally, Global Warming, Heathrow, social revolt, The Plot, The Wave

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

Bait & Switch Climate Change Media Public Relations Social Change The Data

Untidy Minds #3 : Janet Daley

Post author By Jo
Post date December 3, 2009
No Comments on Untidy Minds #3 : Janet Daley

We’ve had Oxbridge Classics and Language graduates denying Global Warming in the Press in the last couple of weeks; now we’re on to the political commentators.

Why Global Warming Science is a matter for adversarial politics, you know Left and Right, liberal and conservative, I don’t know.

Global Climate Change is affecting us all, and pretty much the same steps will need to be taken by whichever party is in power, in whichever country. It doesn’t really have a political flavour. It’s not a matter of choice, or choice of policy. Climate Change policy is not based on political ideology.

Tags Climate Change, denial, denier, Global Warming, Journalist, 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

Bad Science Climate Change Non-Science Public Relations Social Change

I Kiss You, James Delingpole

Post author By Jo
Post date November 27, 2009
3 Comments on I Kiss You, James Delingpole

Sometimes I just want to run and plant a big, fat kiss on your boyish little brow, James Delingpole. Or pat your head in a more appropriately respectful, yet somehow patronising fashion.

For time and time again you prove to me that you do not know what you are talking about, squashing your own arguments flat as a pancake.

Here you prove that you (a) do not know how to do investigative journalism and are (b) quite prepared to repeat verbatim, gaffe by gaffe, what other people write :-

https://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100017977/climategate-the-scandal-spreads-the-plot-thickens-the-shame-deepens/

If you were only to skim and skate the Internet for a few minutes more, you could find out that there is an perfectly reasonable explanation for the “Kiwi Korrections” :-

https://hot-topic.co.nz/nz-sceptics-lie-about-temp-records-try-to-smear-top-scientist/

Of course, since you have not been trained as a scientist, you will probably find yourself unable to fully appreciate how perfectly ridiculous you could appear in some eyes.

But not mine. All of a sudden I just love and adore you, for you have presented me with a golden gift with which I could dismiss your rantings as frustrated twaddle, egged on by a wunch of cynics.

Except I wouldn’t. I’m way too nice.

Tags Climate Change, denial, denier, sceptic, skeptic

Climate Change Public Relations Social Change

The “Completely Evil Institute”

Post author By Jo
Post date November 25, 2009
No Comments on The “Completely Evil Institute”

What on Earth motivates the Competitive Enterprise Institute ? It can’t be the Free Spirit of Free Enterprise. I mean, what organisation sincerely devoted to the principles of honest, open competition would employ the weight of the litigation process to make their arguments for them ? And against a weblogger ? For moderating the weblog ? You are joking ? No, I’m not :-

https://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2009/11/competitive_enterprise_institu.php

“Competitive Enterprise Institute intends to sue blogger over moderation policy : Posted on: November 25, 2009 1:59 AM, by Tim Lambert : Gavin Schmidt has done a wonderful job at RealClimate patiently explaining the context of the stolen emails. He’s made it perfectly clear that the claims of scientific malpractice are without foundation. He must be doing a really good job, because the Competitive Enterprise Institute intends to sue him…”

This should get thrown out of court at the earliest possible second. It is patently ridiculous. If Climate Change skeptics/sceptics want Free Speech, they can run their own, privately-funded weblog. Oh yes. They already do. Several. Large corporations/companies are still outsourcing their resistance to Carbon Control via third parties for a handsome remuneration. Maybe somebody should sue Big Business for repeated, outsourced, attempts to cloud, delay and deny Climate Change science ?

Tags Climate Change, denial, denier, 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

Behaviour Changeling Big Picture Carbon Rationing Climate Change Emissions Impossible Pet Peeves Renewable Resource Social Change Wind of Fortune

Some People Never Change

So I’m talking to some people and someone says that people don’t care about the fact they’re wasting Energy, that people just don’t think.

Even though they know about Global Warming and the risks of dangerous Climate Change, and they know about the connection between burning Fossil Fuels and Global Warming, they just don’t care about how much Energy they’re using.

And I know this is heresy to say so, but I said that people shouldn’t have to think about Energy, that they shouldn’t be made to feel guilty about using Energy. I said that the Energy that is provided to them should be Carbon-free and responsibility-free. People shouldn’t be forced to act against their nature. Energy is effectively free at the moment. It’s way cheap, even cheaper than food for a lot of people. So people use it. People love using Energy.

Tags Biomethane, Carbon Emissions, Climate Change, Energy, Energy Waste, Renewable Energy, Wind Power

Behaviour Changeling Big Picture Burning Money Climate Change Contraction & Convergence Eating & Drinking Pet Peeves Protest & Survive Social Change Unsolicited Advice & Guidance

Stop Consuming For Christmas

Post author By Jo
Post date November 16, 2009
No Comments on Stop Consuming For Christmas

https://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/10617

I know a couple of people who are not eating because of Climate Change.

It’s not that their country is experiencing drought, flood, famine, storm, trade disruption, economic seizure or war.

It’s because they believe in Climate Justice.

We have consumed, and we will be consumed.

All our Fossil Fuel burning and plunder from the forests and intensive agriculture has eaten up the Earth’s ability to maintain its cool.

The sky will rain down disaster, plague, heatwaves, hurricanes. The sea will rise up and drown our cities.

We have eaten too much, and now it is time to stop.

Just in time for Christmas.

https://www.buynothingday.co.uk

What Would Jesus Buy ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGi21YQFjMM

Rights. Fair shares. It’s time for a Global Carbon Budget.

Tags C&C, Climate Change, Climate Justice, Consumption, Contraction and Convergence

Carbon Rationing Emissions Impossible Social Change

Carbon Rationing : Energy Rights

Post author By Jo
Post date November 8, 2009
1 Comment on Carbon Rationing : Energy Rights

The long drawn-out journey towards the inevitable policy of Carbon Rationing took another step closer to sanity with the pronouncements of the good Lord Smith of the Environment Agency.

If we are to guarantee Human Rights for everyone, we have to assert the right to access to Energy for everyone. The only way to do that, given a Carbon-constrained world is to agree on fair shares, and ration power : parcelling the goodness out equitably.

Tags C&C, Carbon Control, Carbon Rationing, Contraction and Convergence, Energy Access, Energy Rights, Fair Shares, Fuel Poverty

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

Bad Science Climate Change Media Non-Science Public Relations Social Change

Anti-Superfreakonomics

Here’s a round-up of some of the published opinion regarding the new Superfreakonomics book (since the last time I weblogged about it) [ UPDATE : adding a few more links at the end. ] :-

https://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2009/10/an-open-letter-to-steve-levitt

“An open letter to Steve Levitt : raypierre @ 29 October 2009 : Dear Mr. Levitt, The problem of global warming is so big that solving it will require creative thinking from many disciplines. Economists have much to contribute to this effort, particularly with regard to the question of how various means of putting a price on carbon emissions may alter human behavior. Some of the lines of thinking in your first book, Freakonomics, could well have had a bearing on this issue, if brought to bear on the carbon emissions problem. I have very much enjoyed and benefited from the growing collaborations between Geosciences and the Economics department here at the University of Chicago, and had hoped someday to have the pleasure of making your acquaintance. It is more in disappointment than anger that I am writing to you now.”

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