Category: Social Change

Zombie Climate Change Sceptic Arguments

Post author By Jo
Post date March 10, 2010
No Comments on Zombie Climate Change Sceptic Arguments

Some bad ideas just won’t die.

Here’s Skeptical Science’s regularly updated list of the hottest and battiest Climate Change “sceptic” arguments :-

https://www.skepticalscience.com/argument.php

And here’s the full, and updateable list of nearly 250 “sceptical” arguments that have been weighed in the balance and found erroneously wanting :-

https://www.skepticalscience.com/resources.php

Why do these arguments keep coming back from the grave with their great big evil green zombie eyes and their matted, bird’s nest zombie hair and their outstretched murderous arms ?

Who is promoting and protecting these vampire lies ?

Who are the stinking, rotting funders of disinformation on Climate Change ?

I think we should find out, and ask them to stop.

Tags Climate Change, Climate Change Denial, Climate Change Scepticism, Climate Change Science, Climate Change Science Obstructer, denial, denier, obstructer, sceptic, skeptic

Big Picture Climate Change Political Nightmare Social Change

Permanent Session of the Climate Security Council

Post author By Jo
Post date March 10, 2010
No Comments on Permanent Session of the Climate Security Council

Ed Miliband put on his favourite suit, shirt and cufflinks today and ruminated at the Environmental Audit Committee in the House of Commons in the United Kingdom Parliament (all you Americans can stop reading now : none of what follows will concern you) :-

https://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/Player.aspx?meetingId=6084

One of his many views was that there should be a more permanent nature to the ongoing international Climate Change negotiations, and I entirely agree.

Ed Miliband said he didn’t think that there should be a “repeat” of what happened at the Copenhagen UNFCCC conference in December 2009. I also agree with that.

Goodness gracious me ! I find myself in agreement with Ed Miliband !

Tags Climate Change, Climate Negotiations, Climate Security Council, EAC, Ed Miliband, Environmental Audit Committee, House of Commons, UK, United Kingdom

Climate Change Social Change

Earth Hour 2010

Earth Hour 2010 will be on Saturday 27 March 2010 20:30 8.30pm everywhere

Being involved in a collective effort may yet help the human race overcome its problem with excessive emissions.

It will look like the United Nations’ Climate Change Conferences, yet it will be an standing session, not just one fortnight a year. And it will be distributed over the entire world, not just in one location. And it will involve a whole lot more people than just official national delegates.

Help start the process by taking part in a token gesture of support for a cleaner, greener, cooler Earth : switch everything off for an hour on Saturday 27 March 2010, starting at 8.30pm 20:30 where you are, in your time zone :-

https://www.earthhour.org

https://earthhour.wwf.org.uk/

Remember, small gestures can be significant, momentous, even spiritual, if everybody gets involved.

Tags Climate Change, coal, de-Carbonisation, deCarbonisation, Earth Hour, electricity, Energy, Global Warming, Power, Transition

Big Picture British Sea Power Carbon Capture Climate Change Cost Effective Energy Revival Nuclear Nuisance Nuclear Shambles Pet Peeves Political Nightmare Regulatory Ultimatum Social Change Technological Sideshow Vote Loser Wind of Fortune

Green Energy : Stuck in the Sidings

Post author By Jo
Post date March 5, 2010
1 Comment on Green Energy : Stuck in the Sidings

If you can imagine the engine for new, renewable and sustainable Energy systems as a train which should by now be thundering down the tracks, get this : it left the depot only to get stuck in the sidings.

Enough of the locomotive metaphors, already. On to the analysis. Here’s an excerpt from Catherine Mitchell’s fine book “The Political Economy of Sustainable Energy” (2008, 2010) :-

Tags Atomic Energy, Atomic Power, Climate Change, Energy infrastructure, Energy Investment, Energy systems, Global Warming, New Nuclear, Nuclear Energy, Nuclear Power, Renewable Energy, Sustainable Energy

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

The Climate Obstructers’ Gameplan

Post author By Jo
Post date March 4, 2010
No Comments on The Climate Obstructers’ Gameplan

If you have any doubt that Science is under assault from the Climate Change Obstructers (self-styled “sceptics”), you need look no further than this piece of what I consider to be utter, utter, fetid 30-day-old left-in-the-sun tripe :-

https://spectator.org/archives/2010/03/04/global-warming-flaks-reduced-t

The number of outright inaccuracies in the piece is astonishing, including the switch on what Phil Jones really claimed about “statistically significant” global warming.

And it concludes with clear evidence of a globally organised campaign to bring down Climate Change Science, by hook or by crook :-

“There is vastly more material here than you will ever be able to absorb. I realized as I ploughed my way through it, or some of it, that the conclusion is encouraging. I am confident now that the official version is going to be overwhelmed, and that the mainstream media reporters are going to be overwhelmed, too. They are right now facing their own Tsunami of dissent. Politicians know very well what is happening, and cap and trade will not pass the U.S. Senate.”

“Coverage at such warm-supporting organs as the Washington Post and the New York Times has been reduced to a strategy of denial. They have been forced to deny that that there is any problem with the official story beyond what the climate officials themselves admit (and they admit very little — little more than typos).”

“But it doesn’t matter. The web has made all the difference and the reporters working to uphold the official version have more and more been forced into a defensive crouch. The exposure of this massive fraud will be a watershed in the history of environmentalism and it will continue to unfold whatever the mainstream media think or say.”

We have a (non-violent) fight on our hands, not of our own choosing : keep telling the truth, and insisting on correcting falsehoods; or face an uphill ramp of complications and delays.

Tags Climate Change, Climate Change Science, Climate Science, Global Warming, journalism, Journalist, Media, Newspapers, Reporting

Divide & Rule Peace not War Political Nightmare Protest & Survive Social Change

Israel Steals Gaza’s Gas

As suspected, the State of Israel has declared the Natural Gas off the coast of Gaza as theirs, and are seeking to develop it, for their own profit, naturally :-

https://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gyOgkiUE3uul0OXEW-VL-E9k6aKgD9E6JMI80

“Energy exec: Israel could end natural gas imports : By KAROUN DEMIRJIAN (AP) : TEL AVIV, Israel — A U.S. energy company announced Tuesday that a project it is developing off the Israeli coast could soon end the country’s longtime dependence on natural gas imports. Noble Energy Chief Executive Charles D. Davidson said the Tamar gas field — set to become operational in 2012 — will allow Israel to meet its own energy needs, and potentially even become an exporter of fuel. “Our thoughts are that will exceed what the market will need,” Davidson said. “It’s significant to Israel and what it can do for this country in terms of lowering energy costs.”…A national supply of natural gas could mean major energy savings for Israeli citizens, as well as revenue for the government from corporate taxes and profit royalties, Davidson said…”

So, we could ask the Israeli Ambassador in London, was it worth expending all that expensive military hardware from your considerable foreign-funded assets, just to make sure nobody would have the strength to complain that you are taking control of Gaza’s gas ?

Gaza is not in a fit state to exploit the fuel itself ? Why would that be, Mr Israeli Ambassador ? Could it have anything to do with the illegal carpet bombing of the open prison on the Western shore in Christmas 2008 ? The gas finds are a little too conveniently described as taking place in “early 2009″. I find myself feeling queasy.

Even Israel does not have the engineering capacity to exploit the Natural Gas – they need the assistance of an American company…”Noble Energy”. I think they should be re-christened “Ignoble Energy”.

Not content with appropriating the water, land, wells, olive trees, liberty, children, health and livelihoods of the Palestinian people of Gaza, the State of Israel now has to steal a resource that could have provided them some form of Economic Development.

Tags Gaza, Israel, Natural Gas, Tamar, War & Peace

Bad Science Climate Change Non-Science Public Relations Social Change The Data

The Truth-Tellers Collective

Post author By Jo
Post date March 1, 2010
No Comments on The Truth-Tellers Collective

There appears to be a group of reliable truth-tellers building, out there in Web Log Land. The YouTube at the top is from Peter Sinclair and his “Climate Denial Crock of the Week” series. Always worth watching. A calming breath of fresh sane air for the mind :-

https://www.youtube.com/user/greenman3610

Tags Bad Science, Blogging, Blogs, Climate Change, Climate Change Science, Climate Science, Global Warming, intellectual discourse, Internet Logs, sane commentary, Web Logs

Climate Change Divide & Rule Social Change

Recession Kills Dissent

The Economic Recession has been an excellent excuse to stop funding Charities, Aid and Development agencies and other Non-Governmental Organisations.

Whether or not there is still money in the pot for “campaigns” and other kinds of communicating with the public on subjects of philanthropic interest, funders (which include Government bodies) have been finding reasons to cut off the lifeblood of groups with large memberships.

Tags Aid, Aid Agency, Civil Society, Climate Change, development, Development Agency, funding, Global Warming, NGO, Non-Governmental Organisation

Climate Change Growth Paradigm Political Nightmare Social Change Technological Sideshow Utter Futility Vain Hope

Sidetracked

Sidetracked
by Jo Abbess
19 February 2010

A number of prevalent ideological frameworks employed for constructing policy to address Global Warming appear to have faulty foundational analysis and are therefore ineffective in addressing Carbon Dioxide Emissions. Politically implementable options that could lead to effective action to combat Climate Change are being kicked into the long grass at every turn, in policy, in investment and in society.

Reasonable proposals are being made over-complex to implement, or delayed by every means possible. The dominant memes of economics hinder good decision-making; for example, not all natural capital can be valued as a commodity, and yet Carbon markets and Carbon tax regimes are the most ubiquitous proposals.

The cheapest options for efficiency are overlooked for subsidy-attracting large-scale projects; and wholescale sustainability approaches are being discarded in favour of focus on obsessional marginal issues such as recycling.

The imperative to deliberately orient investment towards Low Carbon energy is lost in the haze of planning based on non-solutions such as the renaissance of Nuclear Power and Carbon Capture and Storage in the pursuit of so-called “Clean” Coal.

Tags Cap and Trade, Carbon Taxation, Carbon Trading, Climate Change, environment, Global Warming, policy

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

The World Warms Up

The United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Climatic Data Center in their monthly “State of the Climate”, state :-

https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/index.php

“Selected Global Highlights for January 2010 : The combined global land and ocean average surface temperature for January 2010 was 0.60°C (1.08°F) above the 20th century average of 12.0°C (53.6°F). This is the fourth warmest January on record…”

How can this be ? The newspapers have been saying that Global Warming is just a confused scare story, or perhaps a tax-begging scam, or a bunch of self-important technologists on a gravy train creating false alarm to justify their funding streams – nothing to worry about. And of course, we can believe the mainstream Media implicitly. There are rules about the quality and accuracy of reporting.

Are NOAA sure they’ve checked that their thermometers are calibrated properly ? It all seems rather worrying that such a large American Science agency should be claiming that January 2010 was so warm when there has been all that snow and rain and ice about. The Media tried to point out this bad weather, but the scientists just carried on measuring high temperatures.

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

Climate Change Media Public Relations Social Change The Data

The BBC : Relatively Scary

Post author By Jo
Post date February 12, 2010
3 Comments on The BBC : Relatively Scary

Take any subject you like, terrorism, bird flu, street crime, elder abuse, credit fraud, political corruption, and the BBC will give you a serious, in-depth and highly concerned feature article with professional photographs and solid headlines.

Everything, that is, apart from Global Warming.

Why is Climate Change so unscary for the BBC ?

Every other problem in the known universe is worthy of gravitas and graveyard intonation, but not Climate Change Science and the implications it has as risk to life, health, wealth and general contentment.

What could be going wrong ? Why the non-long faces when it comes to the most serious risks facing mankind since the Black Death ?

Why does Global Warming get “relativist” treatment when everything else gets the full shadowy-figure-in-a-cloak-with-a-scythe ?

Tags Alarm, Alarmism, Climate Change, Global Warming

Behaviour Changeling Big Picture Carbon Rationing Climate Change Eating & Drinking Low Carbon Life Marvellous Wonderful Peak Energy Peak Oil Pet Peeves Social Change Voluntary Behaviour Change

Little Chicken

Now’s the right time to talk about gardening. Not just any old gardening, no. I mean food gardening, urban farming, home cropping, edible landscape-type gardening.

Now is the time to be thinking about enriching your soil for your next bumper harvest.

Get your resilience genes working !

https://www.londonwaste.co.uk/media/Compost%20Bag%20Leaflet_May09.pdf

https://www.islington.gov.uk/Environment/RubbishAndRecycling/recycling_new/hrrc/compost_offer_HRRC.asp

Get into Transition mode !

In Transition 1.0 from Transition Towns on Vimeo.

Tags Climate Change, edible backyard, Global Warming, grow your own, home farm, Peak Energy, Peak Oil, urban gardening

Big Picture Climate Change Media Social Change

The Hotline To God

Yesterday, I took part in the launch of an international video-conferencing platform, commissioned by the Bible Society, a faith organisation concerned about Climate Change.

The technology is collected together on a project website called Faith Climate Connect, and it is free to use by anybody :-

https://www.faithclimateconnect.com

Tags Agnostic, Atheist, Baha'i, Baptist, Bible, Buddhist, Catholic, Christ, Christianity, Church, Climate Change, Emmanuel, Evangelical, Faith, Global Warming, Gospel, Gospels, Hadith, Hindu, Humanist, Immanuel, Injil, Isa, Islam, Jain, Jesu, Jesus, Joshua, Judaism, Krishna, Mennonite, Messiah, Methodist, Midrash, Muslim. Koran, New Testament, Old Testament, Pentecostal, Protestant, Qu'ran, Quaker, Sikh, Talmud, Tanakh, Theology, Torah, Unitarian, Yeshua, Zoroastrians

Big Picture Climate Change Political Nightmare Social Change Unutterably Useless Utter Futility

Copenhagen in Retrospectacular

Post author By Jo
Post date January 15, 2010
No Comments on Copenhagen in Retrospectacular

Talk to almost anybody who went to the Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change, or waited outside the Bella Center for hours in sub-zero temperatures with no hope of admittance, or who cycled to Denmark from Middle England wanting to take part in the most important meeting the world has ever held, and they’ll tell you how despondent they are.

The United Nations Climate Change talks in Denmark in December 2009 were an “abject failure”, a “washout”, “pointless”, “undermined by corporate interests”, “derailed by China”, “overruled by the United States”, and so the list of complaints rolls on.

Tags Climate Change, Copenhagen, United Nations

Climate Change Contraction & Convergence Social Change

We’re Not Done Yet

Copenhagen was a complete and utter shambles. No doubt about it. Various commentators and participants have been fishing around since it dribbled away to its weak conclusion, looking for someone or some organisation to blame.

The British blamed the Chinese, the Africans blamed the North Americans, the socialists blamed the elitist imperialists, and the NGOs blamed the international companies who had a corporate interest in swaying the whole deal their way, protecting business interests.

One story, much repeated by Climate Change Denier sources, blames the United Nations in effect, or at least the whole of Denmark, for allowing 30,000 Non-Governmental-Organisation (NGO) people to be registered, when the Copenhagen Bella Conference Center could only accommodate 15,000 people.

Tags Carbon Allowance, Carbon Justice, Carbon Permit, Carbon Quota, Carbon Rationing, Carbon Rations, Carbon Rights, Climate Change, Copenhagen, Copenhagen Accord, Global Warming, UN, UNFCCC, United Nations

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

The BBC Reviews Its Trust

Post author By Jo
Post date January 7, 2010
No Comments on The BBC Reviews Its Trust

The BBC Trust are to review the BBC’s treatment of Science in the BBC Media. I can’t say for sure whether that’s going to result in anything helpful or not, since it’s going to be effectively an “internal inquiry”. Their quest for objectivity may end up in compromise and playing to the heckling balconies :-

https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/jan/06/bbc-trust-science-impartiality-review

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/6941616/BBC-to-launch-review-into-allegations-of-bias-in-its-science-coverage.html

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1241209/BBC-probes-bias-science-coverage.html

Tags Balance, BBC, Bias, Climate Change, Climate Change Science, Climate Science, Global Warming, Objectivity, Public Trust

Bait & Switch Behaviour Changeling Big Picture Climate Change Pet Peeves Social Change Voluntary Behaviour Change

Anthony Giddens : Blaming Consumers

Post author By Jo
Post date January 6, 2010
No Comments on Anthony Giddens : Blaming Consumers

Anthony Giddens, as a “key architect of New Labour”, disappointingly brings to the table a less than razor-sharp understanding of what is responsible for Global Warming Pollution.

He seems to be content to be cynical about the Consumers in the Free Market Economy, without questioning the role of the Producers of the Energy and goods consumed.

Tags advertising, Behaviour Change, Climate Change, coal, Consumer, Consumption, Energy, Free Market Economy, Gas, Lifestyle, Material Resources, Natural Gas, Oil, Petroleum, Renewable Energy, Stuff, Trade, Voluntary Behaviour Change

Bait & Switch Climate Change Public Relations Social Change

Dude, Where’s My Climate ?

Post author By Jo
Post date January 3, 2010
2 Comments on Dude, Where’s My Climate ?

Some of you are probably thinking, “what a crummy out-of-date cliched non-joke of a title !”, but I’m hoping for some web hits on the basis that corny can be cute, sometimes.

But what on Earth do I mean ? Well, just where is Climate Change in the Media ? It is the Number One story of all human time, so why does it still only occupy so few column inches and Tweets and Press Releases and web logs and TV programmes and printed communications, and why do the Westerner populations still think that money is still more important than an inhabitable Biosphere ?

Don’t know, but it’s bound to have to do with cultural inertia, how very slowly the Press, TV and social communications guys and gals are waking up to the overarching problems of Global Climate Change.

Tags Climate Change, Global Warming, Media, news, Newspapers, Press, Public Information

Climate Change Social Change

How Dare You Be Optimistic !

Post author By Jo
Post date January 1, 2010
No Comments on How Dare You Be Optimistic !

How dare you be pessimistic ?

Tags Action, Al Gore, Belief, Climate Change, Global Warming, Inaction, Optimism, Pessimism

Climate Change Social Change

The BBC’s Richard Black : Tired & Inaccurate ?

Post author By Jo
Post date January 1, 2010
No Comments on The BBC’s Richard Black : Tired & Inaccurate ?

Why does the BBC always feel it has to give a definitive view on every single little thing that happens, even if they appear to need to resort to making stuff up ?

https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8426835.stm
“Why did Copenhagen fail to deliver a climate deal?”

This article by Richard Black strings together what I think are some of the most ridiculous things I’ve read about the United Nations Climate Change talks at Copenhagen in December 2009. I think it’s quite a sorry, sordid recounting, with elements of dismissiveness. Hardly the kind of tone we need if we want to enthuse positive change, surely.

Tags Annex I, Annex II, Bali, Climate Change, Copenhagen, Developed Countries, Developed Nations, Developing Countries, Developing Nations, Global North, Global South, Industrialised West

Big Picture Climate Change Emissions Impossible Low Carbon Life Social Change

The Hamburger King Gets A Vision And A Mission

Post author By Jo
Post date December 30, 2009
No Comments on The Hamburger King Gets A Vision And A Mission

People have had Christmas to digest the awful reality that the Copenhagen Accord is nowhere near what it needs to be to start a meaningful transition to a Low Carbon World.

Up steps John Gummer, Member of the United Kingdom Parliament, to say that he’s stepping down from parliament, in order to take up Climate Change issues :-

https://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/dec/30/john-gummer-to-stand-down

“…Gummer said: “Climate change is not only a crisis without historic parallel, it is an urgent political threat. We will never win this battle if we diminish people’s lives or preach at them. The threat must not be used as an excuse for unnecessary state direction and control. Instead, it is all of us, as citizens, entrepreneurs, and consumers, who will make change happen. Politicians and campaigners have to enable that change: they must unleash the power of the free market; they must harness the skills and innovation that drive it; and they must create the opportunities for competition to deliver new answers to this entirely new challenge. Those of us who have any chance to influence the course of events, even in a small way, have simply to make that our first priority, however difficult the choice.”…”

He’ll be advocating vegeburgers in his new role, no doubt.

Tags Climate Change, Copenhagen

Climate Change Social Change

The Greater Gospel

I was at a most unusual Christian meeting a few short weeks ago on 5th December 2009. Convening the meeting were the leaders of several of the main Christian denominations, a sight you would rarely expect. And strangely, most of the congregated faithful were wearing something blue, and not just blue clothing – people had on blue face and body paint, blue wigs, blue tinsel and draped themselves in blue flags, bedsheets and banners :-

https://www.christian-ecology.org.uk/climate-service-2009-pr.htm

Tags Bible, C. S. Lewis, Christian, Climate Change, Faith, God, Narnia