"Reality check for George Monbiot, please"
Quote of the year, decade, century:
"I am not asking that people give up their lives - but I would ask that they give up watching television, and spend that time instead campaigning over climate change". (From an interview in the Socialist Worker).
I suppose the BBC won't be bothered, as they can count on the licence fee, but what will Sky do when people stop watching the football because there's a demo in Cleethorpes on greenhouse gases? Likewise, ITV's business model is going to be in serious trouble. I can just imagine toddlers foregoing Postman Pat to wave placards in the street, bored housewives and students giving up Countdown in order to stage a mass lobby of Parliament, 'football' pubs empty at 3 o'clock on a Saturday etc etc. I wonder if George will allow us to cary on reading tendentious articles by journalists of the extreme left, listen to the radio, blog on non-environmental issues etc etc..... Then again, perhaps there will be a division between those campaigning for climate change and those campaigning against, as he has not been specific.
Meanwhile, having checked, here are some of the programmes that will have zero ratings at noon on Saturday, because they clash with a demo in London:
BBC1 - The News
BBC2 - See Hear
ITV1 - The New Adventures of Superman (although ratings will be normal for the first half hour)
C4 - Totally Boyband
5 - Drums across the river
Sky 1 - Ford Football Special
"I am not asking that people give up their lives - but I would ask that they give up watching television, and spend that time instead campaigning over climate change". (From an interview in the Socialist Worker).
I suppose the BBC won't be bothered, as they can count on the licence fee, but what will Sky do when people stop watching the football because there's a demo in Cleethorpes on greenhouse gases? Likewise, ITV's business model is going to be in serious trouble. I can just imagine toddlers foregoing Postman Pat to wave placards in the street, bored housewives and students giving up Countdown in order to stage a mass lobby of Parliament, 'football' pubs empty at 3 o'clock on a Saturday etc etc. I wonder if George will allow us to cary on reading tendentious articles by journalists of the extreme left, listen to the radio, blog on non-environmental issues etc etc..... Then again, perhaps there will be a division between those campaigning for climate change and those campaigning against, as he has not been specific.
Meanwhile, having checked, here are some of the programmes that will have zero ratings at noon on Saturday, because they clash with a demo in London:
BBC1 - The News
BBC2 - See Hear
ITV1 - The New Adventures of Superman (although ratings will be normal for the first half hour)
C4 - Totally Boyband
5 - Drums across the river
Sky 1 - Ford Football Special
This entry was posted
on Thursday, November 02, 2006 at 12:01 pm.
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I was struck by Tony Balir`s comment to "Scientists " to stop worrying about creationism being taught by svhools and worry about "serious" climate change science. DT today.
I often notice that the lefty says things that sound impressive but with no more than a seconds thought are not.
Its a shame but free market. Conservative arguemnents are actually quite subtle.The free market West after all has a vastly better green record than its erstwhile statist alternative .This is , to do , I suspect , with the enviroment of contract law and property derived law essential to its operation. Also the freedom of information required for its continuance . As this system works best at preserving the world we should be encouraged to glory in its trappings and watch superman all day.It also cures poverty and, baldness and warts .
Greenies are even qworse that socialist at being simplistic as you would expect . Its a religion really
In 2003, George Monboit wrote:
It seems to me that the questions we urgently need to ask ourselves are these: is totalitarianism the only means of eliminating capitalism? If so, and if, as almost all of us profess to do, we abhor totalitarianism, can we continue to call ourselves anti-capitalists? If there is no humane and democratic answer to the question of what a world without capitalism would look like, then should we not abandon the pursuit of unicorns, and concentrate on capturing and taming the beast whose den we already inhabit?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1087488,00.html
Since then, he seems to have had no compulsion to continue to rally against capitalism rather than "tame" it, despite knowing it will ultimately lead to a totalitarian society.
As the Green Eco-Nazis now threaten us with unlimited fines for putting the wrong stuff in a recycling bin, you have to really ask George if he thinks his "taming the beast" plan is actually working ?
Ian - That quote is hilarious! I honestly think that socialism is a personality disorder.
N - Agreed. To quote P J O'Rourke 'Try taking a deep breath down wind of Omsk', or words to that effect
Ian - thanks for that. The odd thing is that GM (ha ha...) comes from a solidly Conservative family. They have my sympathies.
Economic acts between consenting parties, how shocking.
'ITV's business model is going to be in serious trouble'
some would say it already is
Good piece on "climate change" - notice how they quietly changed it from "global warming" when global warming was getting laughed off the stage? - at melaniephillips.com in her Diary today. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Al Gore, we're looking at you and your are as crazy as George Moonbat.
Also, "climate change" is so versatile - like the fabled little black suit that can be worn to the office and, change of earrings, and go on to dinner. When the fad for "global cooling" comes back (probably in about five years), they can simply change some words and still dress it up as "climate change"!
RM - sure is....
V - Yes. I vaguely recall from the 70s how every other month or so the Sunday Times would run a scare piece on how we were heading for a new ice age, complete with countless illustrations of irritated looking mammoths.
It was the late 70s/early 80s I think, and I forget the guy's name - but he was never out of the media explaining how the new Ice Age was coming NOW leading to the widespread destruction of agriculture and widespread famine.
He had scientists and other moonbats (strangely, all to the left) lined up. This was all going to be doubly awful because at the same time, the planet was becoming over-populated with new starvees.
One guy who had it covered both ways was Jeff Poling, who announced that global warming can cause global cooling.
I would have thought the mammoths would have been rather chuffed, Croydonian.
Monbiot is a loon and a global eco nazi par excellence. I remember reading a piece of his a few months back in which he extolled the wonders and virtues of the "Swedish model". Enough said.
What is astounding is, they get people believing them and quoting this received wisdom. The Telegraph asked readers what they were willing to give up to lessen the effects of "climate change" and although there were many who replied, "Damn all", there were more who listed what they thought ought to be done to counter this devastating new cosmic event.
People are so gullible. Don't they ever consider the source? How could anyone in their right mind think that Al Gore, who didn't even finish his law degree, was suddenly in possession of complex, in-depth knowledge of a dozen or so scientific disciplines? How can people be so daft?
People are so gullible. Don't they ever consider the source? How could anyone in their right mind think that Al Gore, who didn't even finish his law degree, was suddenly in possession of complex, in-depth knowledge of a dozen or so scientific disciplines?
Let us not forget that he did invent the internet.
I agree with verity, socialism is a personality disorder, an innate inability to accept reality,probably why it appeals to either academics detached from the real world or grasping simpletons. Manipulative scum like Blair see it as a way to attain power.
V - (1). I expect winter sports enthusiasts were quite keen though. I'm a big fan of glaciation, and was rather looking forward to looking out for moraines and drumlins and the like in my neighbourhood. I think the mammoths were probably just confused as to how they had managed to overcome extinction, but yes, they should have been quite perky, all things considered.
IT - He is a very odd dude, that's for sure. Stowe and Brasenose figure on his CV, so he must have had quite a monied upbringing, but was also involved with the Trot/Burka alliance. Class traitor of the week, maybe?
V -(2) I guess there's nothing like 'being on the telly' to elevate pundits to intellectual supremacy, is there?
Way back lost in the mists of time I was arguing about class with someone of a left wing persuasion (she's voted Green, LD and Labour in her time) who shall remain nameless, and when I questioned its existence / significance her response was that it definitely did exist as she'd never met a working class person she liked. I am not making this up (IANMTU for short).
VERITY HITCH and CO - Do you really deny that anything is happening . Scientists aside ( who say what they are paid to ) given the economic growth of the 20th century wouldn`t it be suprising if it wasn`t.
Ruth (The haircut ) Lea , is pretty balanced and she accepts there will be a need to set a frame work for the market to work in globally. This would have a far worse effect on China than us who produce far far more wastefully per unit of production .( Although a fifth of our carbon emmission per bod ratio)
I agree obviously no one would trust the sort of crooks that would fom a world government , but what is the answer ? Don`t you want the little dickie Birds to be flapping and flowers and greenery and lambs and stuff ? Or water ?
Nothing new in that, I think the phrase is noblesse oblige.
A colleague of my mothers is very very posh, also a life long labour supporter who spends every weekend on somebody or others country estate, she wouldn't vote conservative if you paid her. reminds me of a story, a prospective Conservative MP was canvassing and decided to walk up to the front door of Broadlands, home of Lord Mountbatten as he got near the house he bumped into a member of the family and announced himself as a conservative candidate, this was met with,
"Oh dear, I am afrad that we are all Labour, you had better take yourself around to the servants entrance for that kind of thing"
Newmania i do agree that the earth is warming , howeer , I dont think we can do anymore about it than canute could do with the sea.
GB - "I am not asking that people give up their lives, but"
PT - "I am not asking that people listen to me, but"
Of course, I am and he is.
I have not paid a huge amount of attention to environmental issues, as the articles tend to be hectoring and boring, but whatever change there has been is well within statistical error and / or annual variation over the last few hundred years.
Meanwhile, over at http://www.turnuptheheat.org/, big brave George is taking pot shots at Chris Martin of (yawn) Coldplay for daring to use executive jets and choosing to fly home to spend time with his family in between tour dates. Given the choice of being in a Hilton somewhere or in the presence of the lovely Ms Paltrow, I know which I'd prefer.
but whatever change there has been is well within statistical error and / or annual variation over the last few hundred years.
How can you possibly know such a thing ? We have no idea what interrelated effects may be operating over what period and statistical error is amenable to infinite extension. Look at what has been happening to population and economic acitvity over the last ..200 years .There must be an effect , and not all the science is laughable.Cumulatively , beneath all the grant chasing , something is happening .
Although Water World did look quite fun for the smokers and Mad Max beats my life
It s aquestion of what you do about. make green products tax free?
And croydonian's point above illustrates another underpinning of all these global movements: the chance to boss other people who are richer and more famous than you, around. (Not that they'll listen to you, quite rightly, but you can at least feel that you are reprimanding someone famous because you are in possessionof superior knowledge.
I just wish all these self-righteous whiners would put a sock in it. They're only in it for their own glory. Is there anyone on Planet Earth who is naive enough to think Al Gore gives a monkey crap about the climate?
This is all about self-elevation. He lost the Presidency (did you hear that Al? You LOST)so now he wants to elevate himself above the presidency and become a bossy figure on a global scale. Take that,George Bush! I am making rules for the entire planet! America was too small for me!)
N - looking at the summer temperatures etc we've had here, they are well within the range of temperatures recorded since proper records were kept. However, as noted, I find 'green' articles narcoleptic, so mark me down as a sceptic rather than a denier.
I'm with Verity, a lot of green lobbyists are in it for the commissariat possibilities.
new
the simple reply to all of this guff , is to point out that climate change existed long before range rovers and coal fired power stations, another way to look at the situation is to decide that if knobeads like gore and Blair think something is a good idea , chances are it isnt.
I wonder how we managed to change the Ice Age without the help of gas guzzlers and jet travel?
Oh, wait a minute! Maybe it was a natural cycle of the universe and nothing to do with us! Maybe the Ice Age didn't need a visit from Dave in his parka!
That's another thing about the Greenies - the overweening sense of the importance of mankind in the universe. As though we could put the brakes on and make the universe stop functioning.
the first minute of this report is an amusing example of how passionate politicians used to be.
http://prisonplanet.com/articles/November2006/021106Olbermann.htm
My two pennies is that Climate Change is happenening. The science is quite strong to show a correlation between recent human activity and excess polluting gases etc.
To say it is within statistical range is meaningless, the statistics do not go back far enough in terms of climate. Changes that took centuries or thousands of years may well now happen in a 100 or so.
However, we can't tell to what extent; certainly the predictions I have seen over-egg everything to make a story. secondly, without global action to limit china, india and the US anything we do will be utterly pointless.
If Blair, Monbiot et al were really serious they would be prostelysing in China; but they are not.
CU "The science is quite strong to show a correlation between recent human activity and excess polluting gases etc."
Quote your sources, please and I will decide whether I find them reliable or lefty moonbats. As I said above, the earth came through the millennia old Ice Age with no help from mankind. The amount of "climate change" - aka "global warming" - that happened overthose centuries was mind-boggling. And not a petrol fuelled engine in existence.
Verity,
I too have difficulty with teh lefty moonbats. tehy are wrong about absolutely everything else; why should they be right on climate change.
Business and more traditionally right-wing organisations give me a better steer.
Here is what the insurers of Lloyds of London think..
http://www.lloyds.com/NR/rdonlyres/38782611-5ED3-4FDC-85A4-5DEAA88A2DA0/0/FINAL360climatechangereport.pdf
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