Guest essay by Dr. Tim Ball
The cover story of the November 25, 2013 Canadian weekly magazine Macleans pictures self-appointed Canadian environmentalist David Suzuki.
The caption reads, “Environmentalism Has Failed”“David Suzuki loses faith in the cause of his lifetime.”
Suzuki doesn’t realize he‘s the cause of the failure as a major player in the group who exploited environmentalism and climate for a political agenda. Initially most listened and tried to accommodate, but gradually the lies, deceptions and propaganda were exposed. The age of eco-bullying is ending. Typically Suzuki blamed others for the damage to the environment and climate but now he blames them for not listening to him. He forgets that when you point a finger at someone three are pointing back at you.
Environmentalism was what academics call a paradigm shift, which Thomas Kuhn defines as “a fundamental change in approach or underlying assumptions.” It was a necessary new paradigm. Everybody accepts the general notion it is foolish to soil your own nest and most were prepared to participate. Most were not sure what it entailed or how far it should go. Extremists grab all new paradigms for their agenda but then define the limits for the majority by pushing beyond the limits of the idea. Environmentalism and the subset climate are at that stage pushed there by extremists like Suzuki. Instead of admitting the science is wrong they double down and make increasingly extreme statements, just like the IPCC. It underscores the political rather than the scientific agenda. For example, Suzuki, apparently frustrated that politicians were not listening to his demands for action on climate change said they should be jailed.
Environmental groups grabbed environmentalism and quickly took the moral high ground preaching that only they cared about the Earth. Suzuki set up the David Suzuki Foundation (DSF) with tax benefits that required it to be non-political, but after active involvement in an Ontario election he was forced to resign. His major theme in the election was to push the climate change and alternate energies put in place in that Province when Maurice Strong was in charge of Ontario Hydro, the state controlled energy agency. Ontario is the perfect example of how and why climate energy policies promoted by Strong as Founder of UNEP are a disaster.
The Foundation campaigned on environmental issues most presented in deceptive or incomplete ways. An example was the attack on salmon farming and corrupted research on PCBs and sea lice. This was the focus of an interview of researcher Vivian Krause by Ezra Levant. Another was Suzuki’s parade across Canada pushing extinction theories and claims of DSF Board member E.O Wilson that 3 species go extinct every hour. He never named one. He never listed the plethora of new species found. He refused to discuss the issue and in his visit to schools pre-arranged and wrote a question for a selected student to ask. He promoted threats of global warming, but refused to debate the issue or answer questions. When asked questions on a radio interview in Toronto, he swore and stormed out of the studio.
He hired former Federal politician NDP (socialist party) David Fulton as Director of DSF. James Hoggan has been Chairman of the Board for many years. His PR Company has major alternate energy companies as clients. Hoggan is the proud creator of DeSmogblog a web site that claims it is “Clearing the PR Pollution that clouds climate science” but mostly involves personal attacks on people asking questions. The objective was to denigrate people by creating “favorable interpretations” to the following questions. “Were these climate skeptics qualified? Were they doing any research in the climate change field? Were they accepting money, directly or indirectly, from the fossil fuel industry?” This doesn’t answer skeptics questions about the science.
Their real agenda was disclosed in a Climatic Research Unit (CRU) leaked email dated December 2007 from senior writer Richard Littlemore to Michael Mann.
Hi Michael [Mann],
I’m a DeSmogBlog writer [Richard LIttlemore] (sic) (I got your email from Kevin Grandia)* and I am trying to fend off the latest announcement that global warming has not actually occurred in the 20th century.
It looks to me like Gerd Burger is trying to deny climate change by “smoothing,” “correcting” or otherwise rounding off the temperatures that we know for a flat fact have been recorded since the 1970s, but I am out of my depth (as I am sure you have noticed: we’re all about PR here, not much about science) so I wonder if you guys have done anything or are going to do anything with Burger’s intervention in Science. (emphasis added)
(* Grandia was a former writer for DeSmogBlog who moved there after serving as a research assistant for a Liberal Minister in Ottawa.)
Do as I say, not as I do is the hallmark of extreme environmentalists behaviour. Al Gore is the poster boy for this hypocrisy. It appears Suzuki is only different in scale. They were enumerated in programs by SUN TV Reporter Ezra Levant. They include the familiar list of funding and financial activities and personal wealth accumulated, especially in properties.
A major part of Suzuki’s attacks relate to global warming. His refusal to debate or even answer questions is legendary. He ignores his lack of qualifications on climate, but uses that challenge when it comes to his supposed expertise in genetics and genetically modified food. A possible explanation for his “environmentalism is a failure” claim is a PR move to divert from the exposure of his climate ignorance in an Australian interview. He could not answer questions about information fundamental to any understanding.
Suzuki abandoned his academic career in genetics decades ago explaining why in a 1999 Seattle speech. His concerns related to the internment of his Japanese Canadian family during WWII. Here are his words:
In the exuberance of the excitement over the discovery of new principles of heredity — that seemed to apply across the plant and animal kingdoms — geneticists began to make wonderful, wild statements about the implications of their discoveries. I’m sure most of you know that it ultimately led to what was considered a legitimate area of science called Eugenics.
Some of our most eminent geneticists taught courses in eugenics, wrote textbooks in eugenics, published articles in eugenics journals. Eugenics being the attempt to apply the new-found knowledge of heredity to improve the genetic quality or makeup of human society.
It seems more logical to maintain standing as a geneticist and work to prevent such drifts occurring. Instead he quit and became a tele-evangelist using state television (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) to push his environmental/political agenda.
His television series became his undoing as a classic example of how extremism is its own undoing. It’s why Suzuki’s exploitation of environmentalism, as he defines it, caused failure. Most programs in the series were unjustified, misleading condemnations of different components of society. I identified some of the misinformation in a presentation to farmers in Saskatchewan a few years ago. Afterward a woman told me that a month earlier she would have disagreed with my comments. Now she understood because Suzuki did a program on farming and as a farmer’s wife she knew how wrong and biased it was. Each new program exposed another segment of society to the deception. This created a populace open to and not surprised by the exposure of his hypocrisies. The same is happening to climate alarmism as more and more segments of society are negatively affected. His actions and climate driven energy policies close industries, decimate communities, cause job losses and force business closures, virtually all unnecessarily.
As Suzuki’s campaign to use environmentalism for a political agenda fails he lashes out, blaming others for the failure. It parallels what is happening in the climate alarmist community. The comments and claims become more extreme, but achieve the opposite of their goal. It is necessary to consider the further negative effects of their exploitation and deceptions. What is the damage to the credibility of science? Can we pursue environmentalism with rational, science based, prioritized policies?
Related articles
- CNN mocks Greenpeace’s “Save Santa’s Home” video (wattsupwiththat.com)
- Climate change: Fear based messages don’t work (psychbot.wordpress.com)
- The nature of David Suzuki (macleans.ca)
If we criticise his views in any way, isn’t that racism?
@ A. Deakin,
If “Lunatic” is a race…..sure!
Being humiliated in public, as Suzuki was by his very first questioner on Q&A, can make for a great teaching moment.
What is the damage to the credibility of science? The folks that matter have always known better. The ones that don’t will believe anything anyway.
Can we pursue environmentalism with rational, science based, prioritized policies? No. But it has nothing to do with Suzuki and his ilk.
Dr. Tim Ball says:
“The same is happening to climate alarmism as more and more segments of society are negatively affected. His actions and climate driven energy policies close industries, decimate communities, cause job losses and force business closures, virtually all unnecessarily.”
———————-
Absolutely correct. Climate change and/or CAGW is not the problem, …. fanatical climate extremists are.
…………………………
Alfred Deakin says:
December 7, 2013 at 12:12 am
“If we criticise his views in any way, isn’t that racism?”
——————–
If we do not criticize those for their wrongdoings …… then education of the populace comes to a screeching halt.
First ,what is environmentalism…????
according to wikipedia
Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the concerns of non-human elements. Environmentalism advocates the preservation, restoration and/or improvement of the natural environment, and may be referred to as a movement to control pollution or protect plant and animal diversity.[1] For this reason, concepts such as a land ethic, environmental ethics, biodiversity, ecology and the biophilia hypothesis figure predominantly.
At its crux, environmentalism is an attempt to balance relations between humans and the various natural systems on which they depend in such a way that all the components are accorded a proper degree of sustainability. The exact measures and outcomes of this balance is controversial and there are many different ways for environmental concerns to be expressed in practice. Environmentalism and environmental concerns are often represented by the color green,[2] but this association has been appropriated by the marketing industries and is a key tactic of greenwashing. Environmentalism is opposed by anti-environmentalism, which takes a skeptical stance against many environmentalist perspectives.
is it clear to you?
It isboth revolutionary and conservative….
with such definition any boarderline is blurry…
no some crazy alamrmists have failed in their will to be the ruler of theirs country or replace democracy by tyranny.
Suzuki has a point that modern day environmentalism is collapsing. Far too many of these originally worthy organisations have been hijacked by activists with agendas at total odds to those of the founders. Not surprisingly, support for these organisations declines until such time as the whittled hated guys manage to regain control.
I almost feel sorry for climate alarmists, as they desperately flounder around looking for a new proof of man made climate change as a result of rising carbon dioxide levels.
So, a brief glance at current ‘proofs’ is not encouraging for alarmists:
1. Polar bears are thriving and not starving to death as predicted; there are, of course, local variations on a year by year basis.
2. The ice caps are melting – problem is the Antarctic one is growing and the recent decline in Arctic ice has just gone into sharp reverse.
3. Sea levels are rising – well, yes, but that started back in the 1850s and has recently been slowing.
4. The glaciers are melting – well, yes, some of them are, but this is also a process that started back in the 1850s
5. The oceans are acidifying – nobody knows, because no one bothered to measure ocean pHs a century ago. In any event, the projected alarmist change in pH is less than local annual or global variations in ocean pH. In the unlikely event acidification is happening, this is most likely to be the result of man made sulphuric and nitric acid emissions,
6. Rising surface temperatures – well, yes, global temperatures have risen by around 0.7 degrees C over the past century, with most of this occurring before carbon dioxide could possibly have been the cause. Then there are the two inconvenient facts of: I) massive data manipulation in historic temperature records, and ii) a 17 year ‘pause’ in rising temperatures.
The alarmist propaganda machine continues to churn out the same old drivel. Sometimes their arguments sound compelling, as long as you don’t know the facts.
Wherever there is a trough of easy money, the unscrupulous and criminal minded are attracted like moths to a flame.
‘Whitle hated’? That should be white hatted. My apologies.
Thank you, Anthony.
I have more than a dozen Google periodical news alerts daily that surround my research and the ones on man-made global warming ARe so numerous, we can’t fight them all. It is a rampant disease in itself and the best we can do is lean on the ears of the politicians for equal ground against this driving hypothesis.
That is where I aimed my print letters in the last years,right at Congress and the Tea Party and Republicans. It has some affect. Democrats are in line hook and sinker.
What is happening in my alerts is a growing number of winter deaths in animals and people and lay that at the feet of this solar sunspot minimum. It has also a string relationship to our world- wide drought and earlier winter storms.
This the historical trend for solar sunspot minimums.
Most Sincerely,
Paul Pierett
Couldn’t agree more. The real threat of global warming is that climate alarmists have totally wrecked the true environmentalism.
Like many working in climate ‘science’ one thing Suzuki as no shortage off, unlike honest and an addiction to good science, is ego .
There is indeed a large element of the cult of personality around the area with people like Mann and Suzuki see themselves as great hero’s and leaders of men . And so have developed very thin skins because in reality they could not be more wrong , and being constantly reminded of this clashes with their very over developed ego’s.
Thanks for this review of extremist in environmentalism. I have been an environmentalist for 50 years and lately have been ashamed to admit it. Ashamed because I am also a humanist and I object to extremists telling me that frogs and glaciers come before people.
“KNR says:
December 7, 2013 at 2:00 am
Like many working in climate ‘science’ one thing Suzuki as no shortage off, unlike honest and an addiction to good science, is ego .
There is indeed a large element of the cult of personality around the area with people like Mann and Suzuki see themselves as great hero’s and leaders of men . And so have developed very thin skins because in reality they could not be more wrong , and being constantly reminded of this clashes with their very over developed ego’s.”
There is also a commensurate financial compensation and bank balance that accompany’s such supposed environmental ego’s as well. A large proportion of which is funded by the taxpayer through government consultation or their vested interest’s that just happen to benefit from the agenda being pushed.
We had our own version here in Aus with Flim Flam Flannery sucking at the public teat and a hot rock pie in the sky Thermal Electricity generation company that he held shares in having a cool $90 million thrown at it at the public’s cost.
Ah the moral high ground huh ?
There are countless examples of policies promoted by environmentalists that have ended up having detrimental effects on the environment. Perhaps the most glaring of these is the promotion of bio-fuel which has led to the destruction of natural habitats around the world. True environmentalists, those people who are only interested in protecting the Earth, and not those who seek to use it as means to a political end, have seen through the PR and are staying clear of the hype.
Dr. Ball, Sir! Permission to repost!?!
The tragedy is compounded by the insane focus on CO2 to the detriment of effort directed at real environmental issues. Wind turbines are slaughtering birds and bats, but have been exempted from the laws to protect those species. Imagine what would happen to a coal fired plant if they were even accused of having done that. The Chesapeake Bay fishery has be decimated by the combination of pollution and overfishing and all of the “plans” to fix it have been inadequate because of politics. Of course, maybe it’s for the best. Imagine if pompous git like Suzuki focused his efforts on the real problems and the mess he’d make.
Wondering how some creepy guy with weird clothes and mad hair can persuade people who aren’t necessarily thick that a spaceship will be leaving from a mountain top at a certain time and they’d better be there because the world is ending?
Wonder no more. The impression that Suzuki left behind in Oz was a lot like the impression left by Gore after his “millions of degrees” and “special drill bits” comments. You realised that it simply did not matter what Suzuki had claimed, was claiming or would claim. It did not matter what utterly basic things he did not know. He was pre-believed, and mostly by the more educated.
I asked this question to Oz friends the other day when considering the demographic involved in the recent Climate Action rallies (colour co-ordinated GetUp rent-a-crowds):
Have we indeed reached a turning point for humanity, a point where the tertiary educated are mostly dumber than the rest?
I have also been an environmentalist for half a century; and as a Taoist, I know that our earth and its climate are beyond our puny manipulations. We could and should, however, look at not deforesting large areas of land by burning wood for heat and cooking. We should burn coal instead. We should also look and not poisoning our environment with chemicals. In other words, environmentalism was always about not fouling our nest; an easy and understandable message that got overlooked in the false heifer dust about CO2.
After more than 40 years of environmental efforts in the US and massive expenditures at ridding pollution and environmental degradation ( with a lot of good done), at some point there needs to be a national conversation about the laws of diminishing returns. What are the future marginal returns for the marginal costs. How clean does it all need to be.
“Have we indeed reached a turning point for humanity, a point where the tertiary educated are mostly dumber than the rest?”
There does seem to be a trend where they are not only not taught to think and to critically evaluate, but they are explicitly taught NOT to. We had a tertiary educated govt (almost all union lawyers with 5 year degrees), and not once in 3 years did they EVER catch something said by the Greens or Flim Flammery and say “No, wait – that sounds like BS; let me check if the data supports that.” Not when “100 metre Robyn” agreed that 100m sea level rises were possible, or when Flannery said the drought was permanent and the dams would never fill again, or when Treasury said that importing $1 TRILLION of carbon credits would have no effect economically. Not when Christine Milne said, well, anything. They just nodded like the dashboard dogs they are.
Yet it’s self-evident that logarithmic climate sensitivity, when simply naively extrapolated, is closer to 1C than 6C. Virtually everyone knows that alarmist claims are alarmists, except the “eilte.”
It’s racism not to as long as you are genuine. Secondly, how do we know the race of the one making the criticism if it’s a web comment? Suzuki is a nut job. That’s genuine. 😉
Climate change extremism is the best friend of the sceptics. It causes people to ask questions. Colder, snowy winters helps a lot too as many, many people remember what they were promised about the lack of snow and cold in future winters.
Can anyone think of any movement in history that has received so much scientific, political and media backing, as CAGW has, and failed so miserably?
I will say one thing, that if anyone should charged with crimes against humanity, it should be him. As well as the crime of fraud. As Dr. Ball says above, Ezra Levant of Sun News TV has some excellent exposes of David Suzuki. He has become a multi-millionaire off of taxpayers funds.
BTW Thanks Dr. Ball for writing this.
David Suzuki impeached himself with his hysterically ignorant stand on the 33 Kg Pu-238 RTG’s powering the Cassini-Huygens mission launched in 1997.
Eugenics are fundamental to the progressive tradition, starting with Plato’s Republic (misnamed/mistranslated), and through Hegel’s dialectic adopted by Marx, and the watermelon movement – sickly greenish on the outside and fellow-traveller pinko on the inside.
The details are in Karl Popper’s The Open Society and Its Enemies, starting with his complaint of the mistranslated title.
“Can we pursue environmentalism with rational, science based, prioritized policies?”
No. At some point, the bureaucracy would have to admit they’ve already done the bulk of the work and need to shift into maintenance mode. They are trying to grow their power, and to do so now, they need to misrepresent and distort.
The likes of David Suzuki and Al Gore remind me of a situation we have in the UK with a guy named Jimmy Savile (now deceased). He was a VERY high profile ‘celebrity’ DJ – ostensibly doing amazing things for charity and the National Health Service in the 70’s and 80’s. However – there were concerns about his activities with young girls, who were of course in awe of him. When someone dared to question him, his immediate reaction was ‘I’ll sue you for every penny you’ve got’ and so no-one did..
Now it transpires that not only was he a serial paedophile, but used several hospitals to ‘entertain’ young girls – and even a secure psychiatric unit. He had keys to private rooms in several hospitals.
My point is that his defence was ALWAYS to attack – in the same way that these warmist fanatics will accept no criticism or use of facts.
Slowly – slowly – chickens are coming home to roost…
Reblogged this on wwlee4411 and commented:
The truth comes out, even hon people try to deny it.
“Environmentalism is opposed by anti-environmentalism, which takes a skeptical stance against many environmentalist perspectives.”
Interesting (tho not surprising) that Wikipedia includes this little jab at the end of the definition, I’m not aware of anyone running on an ‘anti-environmental’ platform. I do recall a few of my more ‘progressive’ friends lecturing me about how Republicans, because some oppose environmental efforts, are ‘pro-pollution’. I guess that means that Democrats are opposed by anti-Democrats?
I first saw Dr Suzuki on a series of science programs on “the cell”. (I think) He seemed a plausible scientist with a populist touch. Then I read the article on WUWT about a question and answer program which showed him to be an AGW believer and total charlatan. This is the problem isn’t it, the media gravitate to people like Suzuki, and Suzuki gravitates to the media. These people are quite persuasive to unsuspecting people in the middle ground. It takes us time to realise they are used car salesmen.
We have a new one doing the rounds in the BBC – Dr Brian Cox – who is everywhere. He seems like a regular scientist, “a professor”, but when it comes to AGW he is completely off his rocker. Most people simply believe him to be a top scientific mind, in fact he is a PR guru who speaks about science and fools us all that he has insights into the world of science that we can trust
Democrats versus anti-democrats, and environmentalists versus anti’s, are examples of the dialectic’s failure to admit the excluded middle. The dialectic formally considers only the concept-thesis, creating the antithesis concept, as premises to the syllogistic dialectic – and that’s how we got progressived to these dire straits.
Alfred Deakin of the Commonwealth of Australia says:
December 7, 2013 at 12:12 am
If we criticise his views in any way, isn’t that racism?
============
racism is when you criticize someone BECAUSE of their race.
fair comment is when you criticize someone WITH AN BLIND EYE to their race.
racism is when someone claims immunity to criticism BECAUSE of their race.
fair comments is when someone must answer criticism WITH A BLIND EYE to their race.
For those not familiar with Canada, allow me to throw a few definitions in.
MacLeans is about as far-left as a publication can get, on the scale of Mother Jones. It wraps itself in a cloak of respectability, with glossy covers and an artsy look. I used to have a free subscription, and I eventually had to demand they stop sending it.
Most Canadians in my age range basically grew up watching Suzuki’s “The Nature Of Things”. For many of us it was our first exposure to Science. I remember it as fascinating and educational, possibly the only gem in CBC’s otherwise boring and “eastern” (Canada) oriented political crap.
As my political awareness grew through the 80s and 90s I realized that MacLeans had nothing to offer but glossy garbage, and was actually disappointed at the realization that Suzuki was about the same. I realized that he was subtly, or maybe not so subtly, programming his viewers, not educating them.
Ezra Levant, while very intelligent and mostly representing my own view on many things, is a Canadian equivalent to Ann Coulter – extremely polarizing and completely ignored by their opponents. He could spread his message a lot farther if he’d learn to engage the enemy in a way that makes the enemy look like foolish instead of a full out frontal assault.
We often see Suzuki’s outside his multi-million dollar waterfront house in the Kitts beach area of Vancouver. Strange that he would buy property in such a place, given concerns over sea level rise. Isn’t he worried that his property will be worthless in a couple of years?
Peter Miller says: December 7, 2013 at 1:29 am
“Far too many of these originally worthy organisations have been hijacked by activists with agendas at total odds to those of the founders.”
This insidious strategy extends to charities too, corrupting good hearted intentions and their supporting organizations. It appears to be understood by the socialist organizations as a political means to an end that is unjustified on the grounds of freedom and standard of living (less burdensome life). Climate science is just one of the many casualties. Without a clear sighted understanding of this organization grab for unjustified politics, this sad and mean spirited saga will continue to taint warm hearted, kind, and charitable intentions of people.
This article is a ‘keeper’. Thanks.
ferdberple says:
December 7, 2013 at 6:05 am
We often see Suzuki’s outside his multi-million dollar waterfront house in the Kitts beach area of Vancouver.
interesting, that reminds me of other CAGW activist. They seem to have a faible for waterfront properties and be very sure that the sea level rise is not coming.
“The caption reads, “Environmentalism Has Failed”“David Suzuki loses faith in the cause of his lifetime.””
I would see it the way – activists have extorted all the juice, there is nothing more to take out of it for them, moving now to new grounds, maybe they can leave now environmentalism to the people who care…
There is no room in environmentalism for high priests and hatred in it.
They have damaged it enough, like they did to science, to education and to free speech on the altar of their “higher grounds”.
“Can anyone think of any movement in history that has received so much scientific, political and media backing, as CAGW has, and failed so miserably?”
The witch trials.
ref: Jimbo, Dec 7 @ 4:33:
“Can anyone think of a movement in history that has received so much scientific, political and media backing, as CAGW has, and failed so miserably.”
I think the War on Poverty might be a close competitor.
Jimbo says:December 7, 2013 at 4:33 am “Can anyone think of any movement in history that has received so much scientific, political and media backing, as CAGW has, and failed so miserably?” Movements, socialism, communism, fascism, progressives all. Causes, alternative energy, cold fusion, Luddism, renewable energy, perpetual motion, homeopathy, … ad nauseam.
I think Environmentalism has ‘failed’ (is failing) because it has become hijacked by political entities, like Greenpeace, et al. It fails because politics where people are not involved directly (by democratic principles) in decision making is not a stable platform. You could replace ‘Environmentalism has failed’ with Communism has failed, State Capitalism has failed, nationalism, socialism, eventually everything where people are not involved either through choice or oppression in determining their own future will fail.
Game over for Enviro
Taleb calls it doxastic commitment, skin-in-the-game. Never trust anyone not affected by his own prophesy/forecast/errors.
“In 1987, the Cold War was starting to warm up, but so was the Earth. The Berlin Wall was starting to come down, but nascent political and ideological threats were emerging. Traditional academic disciplines were searching for new language, tools, and answers to interdisciplinary problems. The concept of sustainability was just being introduced, but there was a growing appreciation that problems of the environment, economy, and society were intricately linked.
This idea drove us to create the Pacific Institute. We believed that global problems and effective solutions in the 21st century would require innovative ways of thinking, seeing, and doing. “
What ‘nascent political and ideological threats’ Mr Gleick? Most of us were overjoyed with Perestroika and the pulling down of that stinking wall that symbolised the rottenness of totalitarian socialism.
‘Traditional academic disciplines were searching for new language, tools, and answers to interdisciplinary problems.’ Balderdash! A bunch of leftists suckolds to totalitarianism in the form of communism had their whole ethos smashed and were clutching for any straw of credibility and turned to the same old totalitarianism under the banner of saving mankind and the planet. The problem as always is top down edicts from a bunch of self selected ‘omniscient’ elites always ends in disaster and human impoverishment and that’s exactly what your hubris has wrought. Billions wasted on your Groupthink ideological drivel and now the rats are scurrying to dissociate themselves from the fallout and there’s no rat like a leftist rat is there Mr Suzuki?
Julian in Wales says:
December 7, 2013 at 5:46 am
“We have a new one doing the rounds in the BBC – Dr Brian Cox – who is everywhere. He seems like a regular scientist, “a professor”, but when it comes to AGW he is completely off his rocker. ”
Now expand that to the usual cosmological drivel these TV scientist stand-ins utter.
Does Trenberth’s Missing Heat not have a surprising similarity to Dark Matter?
We need to move away from “Environmentalism”, which is driven by fanaticism and leftist politics, and move back to the concept of “Conservation”, which historically has had a broader appeal to those on the left and right because it is based in stewardship, and balance, and consideration to multiple factors including the needs and quality of life for real people.
Those of you that lament that the term environmentalist has been tainted just call yourselves what you truly are…Conservationists. Let the fear mongers have the environmentalist term. Own Conservationist and separate yourselves.
Back in the 90’s Mo Strong when heading what was Ontario Hydro (it would later become Hydro One thus becoming the only corporation on earth to spend a billion dollars to change it’s logo from OH to HO…. but I digress) bought thousands of acres of Costa Rican jungle as carbon offsets for our coal plants. Wonder if we still own that? I need a vacation.
Suzuki and the CBC are like a host and a parasite. Don’t know which is which yet. When Saint Suzuki starts feeling the heat he goes on George Snuffalufagus’s show. George just happens to be a DSF board member. Also when Suzuki has any promotion he makes the CBC pay for most of it and they always comply.
Is there a link to the article?
Crying wolf is the wrong analogy, that suggests that in the the end the alarmists are correct (the sheep were eaten when nobody came to help, the last time the boy went to the village). Better call it chicken little behavior: exaggerating a small event to global threat.
Pamela Gray says:
December 7, 2013 at 7:35 am
Is there a link to the article?
http://www.davidsuzuki.org/blogs/science-matters/2012/05/the-fundamental-failure-of-environmentalism/
http://www2.macleans.ca/2013/11/18/the-nature-of-david-suzuki/
Careful Pamela. Once you get into the mire it is hard to wash off lol.
I lost all respect for Suzuki when he jumped on to the AGW bandwagon.
IF CO2 IS the “Cause” for global warming, then Why (except for minor exceptions) do NONE of the AGW believers support the replacement of all electrical power sources with CLEAN, ZERO CO2 NUCLEAR POWER? Why is it OK to spray half gasoline/water on a burning house? All of their “green” fixes only slightly reduce the amount of CO2 generated in the production of electricity. With ZERO CO2 Nuclear Power the transportation, commercial manufacturing, and home electrical power needs including heating (a heat pump will heat your house cheaper and consuming less energy than Oil or gas) CO2 emissions would be DRASTICALLY reduced.
This is the MAIN reason I am a skeptic. If there is global warming, and it is caused by the production of CO2 then quit producing CO2. NONE of the AGW crowd recommendations PREVENT the production of CO2. They only reduce it SLIGHTLY. IF and when they push Nuclear power as hard as they push Wind, Solar and biomass (which is dirtier than coal), then I will reconsider Global Warming.
If you cry wolf too many times , people no longer take you as credible. Pollution control which was and still is a valid goal got replaced by the flawed climate control agenda which has now morphed to the ever present people control ambitions of the scientific elites.
Suzuki doesn’t just keep to the science He is virulently anti-capitalist, openly suporting the most left-wing Canadian parties even when doing so seemingly violates laws concerning charitable foundations.
And despite this, he lives an affluent life, jet-setting around the world charging exhorbitantt speaking fees, and then returning to one of his three (or is it four?) of his expensive homes.
I think psychologists call this “compartmentalization”.
usurbrain says:
December 7, 2013 at 8:10 am
To answer your question……….Follow the MONEY.
A fine piece Tim. Suzuki is a finalist in this years Prat awards.
Pointman
Read the articles. Sounds like he is disappointed in his efforts to move the world towards his version of what it should be. It also sounds like the usual “taking stock of one’s life” stuff that happens as we get older. I have dabbled in it myself. He just happens to be more famous than the rest of us and gets to have his whining session up on the marque. Nothing note worthy here. None of us are as great as we think we are.
I took the time to attend the “debate” between Suzuki and Rushton at Western University (Orientals are smarter than Whites who are smarter than Blacks). Suzuki didn’t “win the debate” because there was no debate. Suzuki said from the outset that he wouldn’t debate Rushton because Rushton’s science was racist. I guess Suzuki won the debate because the crowd was obviously anti-Rushton. I had taken the time to read up on Rushton and his amazingly stupid science. I was hoping for Suzuki to knock him out in the first round. What a tremendous disappointment Suzuki was. Rushton actually sounded rational in his own defense criticizing Suzuki for attacking him and not his science (sound familiar?) and that made me even more mad at the wonder-boy of genetics. Even when you put Suzuki on the right team he screws it up. Ideology makes the mind opaque.
Suzuki wavers somewhere between a crackpot and a conman.
Great story, great news, the tide is turning, my gut said the whole scam would implode and now it is happening, this is a major mile stone. Long live WUWT! Cheers!
Otter: I am flattered by the request. Please feel free.
David Suzuki is a thoughtless, ego maniac, a ‘greenpeace’ type environmentalist a zealot. The greenpeace zealots do not understand or do not care that environmental ‘protection’, health care, roads, schools, bridges, basically very entitlement program, our entire standard of life requires prosperity, stable governments, and surpluses.
The 350.org and greenpeace types have been successful in spreading fear, confusion, and mistruths/lies. Engineering and economic facts matter. There is no EAGW problem; there is a green scam problem; developed countries are facing economic collapse due to deficits which is in part due to a massive loss of jobs and tax revenue due to purposeless 350.org/greenpeace type policies. Policy based on lies leads to chaos, madness, collapse of countries.
Developed countries have spent trillions of dollars on green scams which was resulted in almost no significant reduction in CO2 emissions. Spending money on scams is madness, at a time when developed countries are facing economic collapse due to continual deficit spending. The planet has started to abruptly cool. It appears we are going to experience a Heinrich event. It is almost impossible to imagine what the public, media, and political reaction will be to significant unequivocal cooling.
Quotes from other thoughtless, ego manic, zealots:
“It doesn’t matter what is true, it only matters what people believe is true.” – Paul Watson, co-founder of Greenpeace
“We’ve got to ride this global warming issue. Even if the theory of global warming is wrong, we will be doing the right thing in terms of economic and environmental policy.” – Timothy Wirth, President of the UN Foundation
“No matter if the science of global warming is all phony… climate change provides the greatest opportunity to bring about justice and equality in the world.” – Christine Stewart, former Canadian Minister of the Environment
“The only way to get our society to truly change is to frighten people with the possibility of a catastrophe.” – emeritus professor Daniel Botkin
“We require a central organizing principle – one agreed to voluntarily. Minor shifts in policy, moderate improvement in laws and regulations, rhetoric offered in lieu of genuine change – these are all forms of appeasement, designed to satisfy the public’s desire to believe that sacrifice, struggle and a wrenching transformation of society will not be necessary.” – Al Gore, Earth in the Balance
“Isn’t the only hope for the planet that the industrialized civilizations collapse? Isn’t it our responsibility to bring that about?” – Maurice Strong, founder of the UN Environment Programme
“Global Sustainability requires the deliberate quest of poverty, reduced resource consumption and set levels of mortality control.” – Professor Maurice King
Whining sessions you should have with your psychotherapist, Pamela. Susuki should do what our Diderik Stapel did after the discovery of his mega science fraud. He immediately went to a psychotherapist and is now a taxi driver in Tilburg city. In his taxi you can have philosophical debates with him, perhaps about his motives or whatever you like.
David Suzuki is a hypocrite. People on his side of the fence tell us to consume less to lessen ‘climate change’ but what is this? (emphasis mine)
Just like Al Gore, film directory James Cameron and the other heavy consumer global warmists – hypocrisy is there trademark.
I have for years called myself a conservationist. This is because I’m all for intelligent and smart protection of nature and the local environment. You don’t try to freeze nature into a static never changing thing but you do try and keep it healthy.
Environmentalists on the other hand want to take nature and freeze it into a static never changing never growing thing. They want to take a picture of nature and freeze it just like that.
Years ago I had a discussion with a friend of mine about AGW. He said I was probably right but it made a great tool to force people to care for the environment. I point out to him then that this will backfire in the long term. Since the climate tends to cyclic patterns when it turned to cooling in a few years people would associate environmentalism with the failed and false AGW meme thus undermining any good they had achieved by attaching to it. People would throw out environmentalism along side AGW when AGW failed because they are linked together now in people’s minds.
Suzuki leaves genetics because of ties to eugenics and pics up with environmentalism with an unrepentant ‘Earth First’ wing? So making people better (even if misguided) is wrong but killing off ‘billions and billions’ is fine?
David Suzuki rails against humans:
Yet he has 5 children.
Suzuki … isn’t he the one running around telling people that Fukushima is going to now kill the entire Pacific Ocean and West Coast?
Frederick Colbourne says: December 7, 2013 at 2:29 am
…Ashamed because I am also a humanist and I object to extremists telling me that frogs and glaciers come before people.
I like the way Robert Heinlein put it:
There are hidden contradictions in the minds of people who “love Nature” while deploring the “artificialities” with which “Man has spoiled ‘Nature.'” The obvious contradiction lies in their choice of words, which imply that Man and his artifacts are not part of “Nature” — but beavers and their dams are. But the contradictions go deeper than this prima-facie absurdity. In declaring his love for a beaver dam (erected by beavers for beavers’ purposes) and his hatred for dams erected by men (for the purposes of men) the Naturist reveals his hatred for his own race — i.e., his own self-hatred.
In the case of “Naturists” such self-hatred is understandable; they are such a sorry lot. But hatred is too strong an emotion to feel toward them; pity and contempt are the most they rate.
As for me, willy-nilly I am a man, not a beaver, and H. sapiens is the only race I have or can have. Fortunately for me, I like being part of a race made up of men and women — it strikes me as a fine arrangement — and perfectly “natural” Believe it or not, there were “Naturists” who opposed the first flight to old Earth’s Moon as being “unnatural” and a “despoiling of Nature.”
Another terrific piece from Dr Tim Ball. You are so much on the right side of this ‘debate’ it’s almost embarrassing.
A question if I may? What is there left for alarmists now? Seriously, what is falling their way?
Arctic, Antarctic and global sea ice extent isn’t.
Polar bears aren’t.
Runaway temperatures have, erm, run away, as have any signs of positive feedbacks and amplification at the levels required to drive ‘catastrophe’.
What about ocean acidification? What about it indeed! There’s orders of magnitude more CO2 already in the ocean, so the miniscule quantity put in the atmosphere by man is, dare I say it, a drop in the ocean.
No missing heat, no hot spot, almost complete computer model predictive failure. Climate sensitivity has been dialled back – albeit now with a wider margin of error than ever before, and that’s before we consider that the IPCC have refused to put a definitive estimate out there. (Translation: after 3 decades and untold billions they either genuinely don’t know, or they suspect it’s so low as to scupper the catastrophic element of AGW right there)
So I ask again; what is there left to be afraid of?
Pamela Gray says:
December 7, 2013 at 7:35 am
Is there a link to the article?
here Pam http://drtimball.com/
oops I see now it is not up on his page yet but there is ssome good reading there.
“Now, one sobering forecast is that the Arctic Ocean will be seasonally ice free by the summer of 2013.”
David Suzuki
http://www.cbc.ca/natureofthings/episodes/arctic-meltdown-adapting-the-change
This is actually very good news. The CAGW radicals know that their movement is dying, and they are going through the classic stages of grief:
1. Denial
2. Anger
3. Bargaining
4. Depression
5. Acceptance
It isn’t difficult to see all of the elements of the CAGW movement working their way through these stages over the last couple of years. I think it is a very positive development to see that someone as prominent in the movement as Suzuki has already reached Stage 4!
from the Wiki summary: “During the fourth stage, the grieving person begins to understand the certainty of death. Because of this, the individual may become silent, refuse visitors and spend much of the time crying and grieving.”
Yup, any of the “true believers” who haven’t gotten there yet, soon will be!
p.s. Which CAGW proponent, a subject of discussion on this blog over the last few days, fits into this category? “Once in the second stage, the individual recognizes that denial cannot continue. Because of anger, the person is very difficult to care for due to misplaced feelings of rage and envy. Anger can manifest itself in different ways. People can be angry with themselves, or with others, and especially those who are close to them.”
heh heh.
Reed Coray says: December 7, 2013 at 9:19 am “I like the way Robert Heinlein put it: There are hidden contradictions in the minds of people who “love Nature” while deploring the “artificialities” with which “Man has spoiled ‘Nature.’[ … ]”
Time Enough for Love (1973)
Excellent essay Dr. Ball
This isn’t complicated. There’s nothing wrong with supporting the notion that we should not unnecessarily damage our environment. And even enhance it when that opportunity arises.
However, environmentalism has been hijacked. The movement is now totally controlled by scammers, whackos, and folks with extreme political and social agendas. It has completely lost it’s way.
The fact that these charlatans were able to execute this take-over is rather extraordinary and due, in no small part, to the mainstream media. We might want to think about their role and which of their policies and behaviors we want to support in the future.
A developer is someone who wants to build a house in the forest.
An environmentalist is someone who owns a house in the forest.
“Most programs in the series were unjustified, misleading condemnations of different components of society. I identified some of the misinformation in a presentation to farmers in Saskatchewan a few years ago. Afterward a woman told me that a month earlier she would have disagreed with my comments. Now she understood because Suzuki did a program on farming and as a farmer’s wife she knew how wrong and biased it was. Each new program exposed another segment of society to the deception.” ~Dr Tim Ball
Let’s remember that Norman Borlaug, the developer of many high yield varieties of grains, considered his work to be the greatest benefit not only to the people, but to the environment. The reason this is so is because far more grain can be grown on so much less land. Farmers in the US now grow 5xs more using fewer acres than in the 20’s and 30’s. This is through the use of tractors, chemical fertilizers, pest control, and new cultivars. This reduces the amount of farmland and increases the yield. Countries where Borlaug went became net exporters of grains, rather than having dearth of grain. Yet nitrous oxide from crops are considered a dangerous ghg.
The same is true of the cattle. The protein and nutrients from milk and beef is essential for growing children, and the cattle reduce the foraging and hunting in the wild areas. Yet the methane from cows is considered a dangerous ghg.
I consider myself an environmentalist because the use of the gifts of grain, fertilizer, mass produced tractors (also considered a source of dangerous ghg), and of cattle are saving the environment and making the lives of people better. To get these technologies and advancements to Africa is a benefit to the people and the land. “Get this to the farmer,” was Norman Borlaug’s passion.
The warmists are losing the battle, because the weather is not playing ball.
In France, we have been freezing for weeks. The people do not see ‘climate’, they see what is actually happening around them. So what they see is the media and politicians bleating about ‘Global Warming’ and the end of the world, and then they see everyone wearing huge winter coats and the fuel bills skyrocketing because of Green taxes.
The weather will kill the Greens, long before the long-term trends in the climate are agreed upon.
No one cares for land as well as its owner.
The insufferable hypocrisy of the enviro-left in Canada is nowhere more evident than in Suzuki’s own state-funded programming (CBC) and the raft of “scientific” programming on, inter alia, the Discovery Channels (Bell Media).
Programs originating with them, on whatever topic, will blithely cite glacier advances and retreats and rises and falls of sea levels – over hundreds and thousands of millennia – without ever exploring or explaining (much less explaining away) such natural effects.
Yet a 0.68C rise in temperature over 150-odd years IS categorically man-made and IS catastrophic, and we MUST be concerned?
And, regarding the note in the Macleans’ article that “Suzuki traces his own awakening back to The Silent Spring, Rachel Carson’s groundbreaking 1962 book.”, perhaps he can share in the blood on her hands for the estimated 50-60 million children who died as a result of the banning of DDT.
What failure? Just look at a few successes:
– We now burn our food and apparently grind up grasslands and other natural habitats for more
– Power plants are now burning wood instead of coal, trees are a blight to be dealt with
– Wind farms can now kill more Bald Eagles and other endangered species
Not to mention the diversion of investment away from energy innovation. Overall a huge success.
This is a dangerous juncture: AGW opinion leaders are in effect blaming the people for the failure of their policies and ideas- we are not worthy. Suzuki is a malicious figure. Seeing him admit even this much failure is wonderful. But he (and his colleagues) are far from recognzing the real source of their failure: Themselves, their ideas and their actions.
Tim Ball,
As usual with each of your many WUWT posts, I felt compelled to read your ‘Climate Alarmist Crying Wolf’ essay.
As I read your essay a thought occurred to me about the source of the ideology of environmentalism which, as an ideological phenomenon, started in the late 20th century. I thought that the diminishing of a culture’s focus on expanding beyond itself results in an inward focus; environmentalism being a culturally internal focus. Is the creation of an ideology of environmentalism a necessary result of the absence of culture’s pioneering focus?
John
Thanks. Maybe I should have been clearer, my fault. What I meant was any movement with all three elements i.e. scientific, political and media backing?
Reblogged this on Power To The People and commented:
The real threat to humanity and the environment are the climate alarmists who condone killing eagles and destroying industries aand jobs in the name of a futile effort to save the earth from the trace gas CO2 that grows plants.
Same effect in Australia. No wonder the Greens vote dropped 30 % in the last election here.
Doug Huffman, I would like to add global in extent?
It takes no great skill or effort to demonstrate that Suzuki is a hypocritical self-promoter who knows very little about environmental science. The man has a carbon footprint that rivals Al Gore’s and has “earned” millions of taxpayer dollars as a result of the podium granted to him by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, while posing as an “elder” with modest needs.
The fact that he is a fraud is totally ignored by Canadian mainstream media who continue to afford him rock star status. This is despite the complete and detailed evisceration of Suzuki’s character and record by Ezra Levant of Sun TV.
It is interesting indeed that Levant’s brutal telling of the Suzuki Story did not result in lawsuits – apparently truth is still a defense in Canada. A sample here:
http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/sunnews/straighttalk/archives/2013/09/20130929-074617.html
President Eisenhower had it right in 1960 in his farewell address….
Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades.
In this revolution, research has become central, it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government.
Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.
The prospect of domination of the nation’s scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present – and is gravely to be regarded.
Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.
Eisenhower nailed it….
Jihadist Terrorism is to Muslims…
what Global Warming Alarmists are to Environmentalism!
The actions of both are deplorable; neither are beneficial to humanity.
…and Dr. Suzuki has failed Environmentalism! (Just to correct the headline in Maclean’s)
Andrew30 says:
December 7, 2013 at 10:34 am
A developer is someone who wants to build a house in the forest.
An environmentalist is someone who owns a house in the forest.
LOL, I’m so stealing that. 🙂
I have read the articles which this post refers to. It seems to me that Suzuki is simply having cheese with his whine, an old age self-reflection pity party, a weak tepid-tea teary-eyed crying jag, and a milk toast I-need-a-hug moment. That it makes it onto front page watermelon news, given its whiny nature, says more about the watermelon news than it does Suzuki. They are all aging past their flowers-in-my-hair prime. And they can’t age fast enough for me.
There are two moments in time when we realize we don’t know everything. When we hit 30, and when we hit 60, or there abouts. Some people go fishing. People like Suzuki are the ones who need front page hand patting and psychotherapy to get past this epiphany.
I think one of the factors driving environmental OCD over the past century is increasing urbanization. Probably most children, at one point or another, go through a phase in which they are frightened of “germs”, and will engage in cleansing rituals, like wiping their hands on their pants, which serve the self-defeating purpose of transferring more of the little beasties to them. In earlier times, contact with the outdoors, and observation of no harm befalling them, led to diminishment of that anxiety.
Now, the children live in antiseptic urban environments, and they never outgrow that phase. They learn to obsessively towel their hands with antiseptic wipes, and keep their living spaces pristine. All of which has the perverse and self-defeating effect of weakening their immune systems by lack of stimulation. They also develop a tunnel vision. By seeing the constructs of mankind all around them 24/7, they develop an egocentric view in which humans are the center of the world, and are therefore responsible for everything which happens in it.
This is not something to be celebrating, really. What these people are saying, when they say their movement has failed, is it’s time for drastic action. This, in his minds, probably justifies an authoritarian takeover, like is happening in the U.S. with a president who despises our constitution and the silly notion of checks and balances and separation of powers.
Environmentalism is mostly just cover for the radical left. It is all about empowering even more big government. If this wasn’t true, green groups would be livid about Obama’s recent seal of approval on wind farms killing bald eagles. They are silent, since the goals of crippling our power supply and enabling crony profits are much more important to them than a few raptors.
“I guess that means that Democrats are opposed by anti-Democrats?”
Anti-Democrat, that’s what I am, should anyone ask.
Suzuki may be diminished and someday discredited, but like many alarmists he will probably fade away and die a rich man, far richer than a dutiful research geneticist would have been. Who will have the last laugh?
I don’t really care about David Suzuki or whatever goofy nonsense he has to say, but that is a terrible job by the photographer. This is one of the worst cover photos I’ve seen since the John McCain photo on the Atlantic Monthly’s cover back in 2008.
But..but…but..there MUST be global warming! If it is COLD in Canada, surely the Emperor Dr. S. would have frozen to death (with all those new clothes)
(do I need sarc? (:<))
When someone finally gets around to a full blown investigation into millennial neurosis, narcissism and fear of the natural world seem likely to loom large.
cf. Bart says:
December 7, 2013 at 12:05 pm
“Now, the children live in antiseptic urban environments, and they never outgrow that phase. They learn to obsessively towel their hands with antiseptic wipes, and keep their living spaces pristine. All of which has the perverse and self-defeating effect of weakening their immune systems by lack of stimulation. They also develop a tunnel vision. By seeing the constructs of mankind all around them 24/7, they develop an egocentric view in which humans are the center of the world, and are therefore responsible for everything which happens in it.”
And :-
John Whitman says:
December 7, 2013 at 11:18 am
” I thought that the diminishing of a culture’s focus on expanding beyond itself results in an inward focus; environmentalism being a culturally internal focus. Is the creation of an ideology of environmentalism a necessary result of the absence of culture’s pioneering focus?”
The Achilles heal of the environmentalist cause/quasi-religion has always been its willingness to use deception and lies, and its attitude that the ends justify the means. That, coupled with its attitude towards humanity as being somehow evil, and that human well-being is expendable in the ultimate goal of “saving the planet”. Now, all of that is coming home to roost, and Suzuki is bitter about that. Tough noogies. Maybe he should do everyone a favor and retire on his ill-gotten gains. Maybe taking care of his wife would be a better thing to do than jet-setting around the globe spouting his nonsensical drivel.
I wouldn’t pronounce the green movement dead yet. Like a comic book villian, it’ll come back at some point and try to take over the world again.
Crying all the way to the bank.
“I think one of the factors driving environmental OCD over the past century is increasing urbanization.”
We can agree on this statement of fact. Children don’t know where their food comes from. Environmentalists and Maoists (the ones with a plan to remake the economy in five years) slink into classrooms and propagandize them too easily.
Show them a rockin farm and awesome cattle, like the Peterson Farm.
I’m Farming and I Grow It (Parody Song) dur. 3:32
DanD, MacLeans loves the guy, and sadly enough that is one of the most flattering pics of him they could shoot. He really, truly is physically repulsive.
“David Suzuki loses faith…”. Gosh, and I thought faith was limited to the fundamentals of religion.
Hey, Code Tech!
I missed you on your birthday last month and have not been able to find you since (always, I’m just a bit too late when I see you’ve posted on a thread). In the hopes that you’ll see this:
HAPPY (belated) BIRTHDAY!
If you’d care to, please see my birthday greeting to you here:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/11/04/october-2013-sunspots-largest-jump-in-solar-cycle-24-so-far/#comment-1466388
I hope it was a good one.
Take care,
Janice
P.S. I’ll check back on this thread to see if you saw it.
Zeke said “Children don’t know where their food comes from.”
Ain’t that the truth. I mentioned bird hunting on a local Audubon forum, and a member jumped on me, asking how could I condone “senseless, unnecessary murder of animals”. After a bit of back and forth I finally asked “May I assume then that you are a strict Vegan?” Never heard another word.
Steve wrote “Gosh, and I thought faith was limited to the fundamentals of religion.”
Environmentalism is a religion. One definition of “religion” (Merriam-Webster) is “a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices.” Another is “a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith.”
““I’ve had critics all my life,” says Suzuki. “But I certainly think the intensity and vileness of the personal attacks has changed.” Levant, who is a trained lawyer with a great deal of personal experience with Canada’s libel laws, has been careful to make most of his allegations technically factual, Suzuki says, but they’re a contorted version of the truth. The house in Vancouver was purchased for $145,000 in 1975 with a loan from Suzuki’s in-laws. For years, he and Cullis lived in the basement and rented out the top floor in order to afford it. Later on, they added a second storey and her parents moved in. Suzuki’s mother-in-law, now 95, still lives above them. “It’s not like it was an investment. It’s the crazy escalation of house prices,” he says.
As for the charge about the island, it took some digging for Suzuki to figure out what Levant was talking about. In 1986, after winning a $100,000 achievement award from the Royal Bank, he and his wife bought 10 acres on Quadra Island as a getaway property. It was part of a much larger parcel that was being subdivided. As it turns out, one of the other buyers made their purchase through a family business, a Calgary company that once delivered home heating oil, but now exists in name only.”
http://www2.macleans.ca/2013/11/18/the-nature-of-david-suzuki/
Creating caricatures of those who oppose you is a lazy mental shortcut. With this technique one can attribute motivation and intent…without ever truly trying to understand what their opponent is saying. I am sure that I have taken this shortcut on occasion, but I make daily effort to avoid pigeon-holing ideas and people. I strive to stay open minded and revisit my assumptions and conclusions. I try to avoid applying labels to myself and others.
It is with this perspective that I have found myself labeled as a lackey for “Big Oil”, of being “anti-science”, and being “anti-environment”. What these knee -jerk responses do is shield those casting these stones from seeing that I have enduring amazement of the natural world (I’ve spent an hour in the forest watching a spider spin a web), and life-long love of science.
Much of this boils down to seeing, not just looking. If you can truly see, you can’t attribute any credibility to the celebrity voice Global Warming/Climate Change/Irritable Climate Syndrome when they refuse to limit their own consumption. Perhaps we understand them much better than they understand us.
Dr Ball’s essay and the excellent comments in this thread are real keeper.
Cheshirered says:
December 7, 2013 at 9:30 am
So I ask again; what is there left to be afraid of?
Uh, the politicians who are promoting and passing unnecessary CO2 regulations.
brian356 says, “I mentioned bird hunting on a local Audubon forum, and a member jumped on me, asking how could I condone “senseless, unnecessary murder of animals”.”
We have a wetland reserve here which features an interactive display (obviously for children) where if you turn a knob one way, buildings take over the wild life habitat. If you turn the knob the other way, wild life habitat expands and buildings are reduced.
Back to Tim Ball, on his excellent blog he has compiled the figures of the actual surface area on the planet where humans live, and it is something like 3-10% of the land!
(Not to mention the park also features lovely little drawings and plaques of the nice, natural mosquito larva and pupa in the water.)
Thing is, The Fruit Fly Guy thinks that the failure of environmentalism (sic) is a bad thing.
Canada – world leader along with Australia! Hoodthunkit?
Mike Smith,
The biggest worry isn’t that the green NGOs have been subsumed by politicalnoperatives, but that the UN has. That the fake socialist watermelon style environmentalism including its love child climate change pervades the UN is a huge worry, how does one cleanse a body answerable to noone like the UN? Much bigger problem!
People such as Suzuki have turned to the language of war mongering to rally the troops behind the warmist cause. But to have a war you have to have an enemy.Big corporates are always a good target.Never mind the hypocrisy. In Michael Mann’s case he goes a step further and actually promotes the climate war with his books. He has also latched onto party politics as a means maintaining the momentum.This takes the focus off the AGW science which is looking increasingly doubtful.Suzuki has had his day (leaving a trail of disappointed warmists in Australia on his last visit where he was lampooned for inaccuracy, contradictions and gaffes). My prediction is that Mann will follow suit in the not too distant future. Mann made a strategic error in publicly linking tornadoes /hurricanes to climate change and has been peddling uphill ever since. This is despite his efforts to discredit collected data and to call in modelled data to justify his linkage.The New York Times has distanced itself from him which I think is a fair indication that he is on the nose in certain circles already.With a bit of luck it will be Mann overboard soon.
Suzuki seems to have afflicted himself with a severe credibility problem. Well-earned, I say!
Mososmo at 3.55 a.m. asks “Have we indeed reached a turning point for humanity, a point where the tertiary educated are mostly dumber than the rest?” A. Not dumber but longer, more effective indoctrination. Once that process has been completed it is very difficult for students to change viewpoints as to do so makes a mockery of all those years of study. Though change may be tough for students it is almost impossible for academics as acceptance means their whole life has been a lie – think universities of East Anglia and Virginia.
Thanks Janice, no I missed that before.
Some days I think I’m invisible on WUWT… lol
I first realized Suzuki was clueless when he blamed the carbon in our windshields to explain why your car was warmer when the windows were rolled up. I both feared and despised Suzuki’s efforts when the wrote a post for Huffington Post urging governments to “Deny the Deniers the Right to Deny.” While he urged intellectual tyranny, bogus climate advocacy was hindering legitimate conservation needs such as the attempts to moderate amphibian extinctions as doucmented http://landscapesandcycles.net/contrasting-good-and-bad-science–disease–climate.html
Apoxonbothyourhouses@ 6.16.
Surely thats does mean the” tertiary educated’ are dumber than the uneducated.
If a rational person can adjust their viewpoint to meet reality.As most working people must.
But an overeducated victim of our universities indoctrination system, can not without massive loss of self esteem.And will not doubt their own correctness, is this the base of the Team IPCC theory, when the measured values contradict the projected values from the models, the actual measurements must be at fault.
OH, HOORAY!> Finally. LOL, yes, Code Tech, I have wondered if my posts were invisible, too! Seriously (I thought maybe a mod did it because another commenter complained about my “drivel”). I mean, I’ll post a super (I think) video or actually say something reasonably witty and……… nothing. Or, worse, I’ll praise someone or affirm someone who posts again down the thread and who completely ignores the kind words I just wrote him or her. Pretty discouraging.
Take heart, O Weary WUWT Commenter, you are being read. I read you all the time (and your posts are always relevant and often highly insightful and informative). I usually don’t comment because I’m so far down the thread below you.
Thanks, SO MUCH, for responding! And, do keep warm up there, out there by the lake (now frozen solid, no doubt!). Hope all is well (fwiw to you: ivebeenpraying). J.
Great post, Jim Steele — BUY JIM’S BOOK! (see upper right hand side of this page) He donates a % to WUWT. (And, if you’ve read it, post a review on Barnes & Noble or Amazon!)
****************************
@ John Robertson (re: 7:09pm) — You must, I think, have Scottish heritage to be so pragmatic (yeah, yeah, the last name is a clue, too, smile). Good point about self-esteem/ego blocking an otherwise intelligent person from seeing truth. Pride, truly a deadly sin. (And, yes, I should know, I battle it ALL the time.)
RockyRoad says:
December 7, 2013 at 11:55 am
Jihadist Terrorism is to Muslims…
what Global Warming Alarmists are to Environmentalism!
The actions of both are deplorable; neither are beneficial to humanity.
______________________
Bravo.
what is environmentalism:
envi = hatred of what others have
Iron= Strong metal
mental = urban for crazy
Ism= way of thinking
SSSSOOOOO, Strong, hatred, thats a crazy way of thinking….yup
Aye, indeed, Alan Rrrrrrobertson (another fine Scot’s heritage man, I think?). #(:))
Exactly, Rocky Road (LOVE that flavor!).
[Moderator notes hairbow returns after ice cream is mentioned. Mod ]
Janice Moore says:
December 7, 2013 at 7:13 pm
One problem with WUWT’s success is if everyone commented on great posts or acknowledged all references to a previous comment the result would be more comments to read, and there are way too many now.
If you do want comments, post something that’s wrong. Trolls know that, they deliberately post comments designed to get responses.
OTOH, back in my USENET days I put a lot of effort into an April Fool’s Day post that was part parody of a short astronomy spot broadcast on several radio stations. The first year I posted it, I got one response. Same thing the next year.
It lives on, see http://wermenh.com/deimos.html
Another old USENET post was something I tried to post around this time each year before we got the question “Why is the earliest sunset before the winter solstice and the latest sunrise after it?” The answer has to do with the eccentricity of the Earth’ orbit and the tilt of its axis. I have that too, see http://wermenh.com/eqoftm.html
—
> A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
>> Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
>>> A: Top-posting.
>>>> Q: What is the most annoying thing on Usenet and in e-mail?
I’ve heard another story on Suzuki’s radicalization. As Wikipedia notes, he got his PhD in 61 at U Chicago, then taught at UBC (Vancouver) from 63 for 40 years. But it leaves out a year at Berkeley. Apparently he was shunned by the profs (racism?), so he hung out with the radicals and joined the civil right movement. Who knows what lefty nonsense he picked up there.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Suzuki#Academic_career
http://www.myhero.com/go/hero.asp?hero=D_Suzuki2_jjbowlen_CA_2009_ul
Trivia: my mother knew David’s father who worked with his brothers in construction, they built houses in our neighbourhood.
Hi, Mod! You are so much fun, lol. Yup! I LOVE ice cream.
8(:)) (put my hair up in rollers …. in case I get asked out… heh)
Okay…. that was a very generous set-up for you, Mod….
**********************************************************************
Thanks, so much, Ric Werme, for your kind words and empathy.
WOW. After reading your fantastic, super-clever, April Fool’s post (largely ignored) and your impressive time equation post…. my posts are not even in the same class as yours! How generous of you to take the time to encourage me (it has been REALLY depressing to post, day-after-day, my little virtual advent calendar doors and in 7 days have only ONE person like them; heh, well, Ric Werme, I guess you and I will just have to be grateful for that one, huh?).
WUWT is about intriguing things as well as climate stuff, right? Well, BOTH YOUR POSTS (above) SHOULD BE FEATURED WITH BELLS AND WHISTLES ON WUWT! The second one would likely evoke over 200 comments. lol, re: the first one, you could tailor for an April 1 post here by making it ostensibly about those crazy epicycles and planetary orbits mumbo jumbo and all that bogus sun “science” that the perseveringly dauntless Leif Svalgaard so nobly battles month-in-month-out.
Back to your second, serious science, post — suggestion: decide beforehand whether you want to respond to people on the thread. It is a pretty grueling and sometimes downright cruel experience, I think. Just leave it for the commenters to duke it out if you’d prefer to spend your time in more peaceful, happier, ways… .
I hope that Anthony sees this and posts your time equation article SOON!
Thanks again!
Janice
janama says:
December 7, 2013 at 3:43 pm
““I’ve had critics all my life,” says Suzuki. “But I certainly think the intensity and vileness of the personal attacks has changed.” Levant, who is a trained lawyer with a great deal of personal experience with Canada’s libel laws, has been careful to make most of his allegations technically factual, Suzuki says, but they’re a contorted version of the truth. The house in Vancouver was purchased for $145,000 in 1975 with a loan from Suzuki’s in-laws. For years, he and Cullis lived
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Well he has owned (owns) a number of houses. In 1971, he owned a house on 10th Avenue in Vancouver about 3 or 4 blocks from the University of BC gates (University Boulevard). I know that as I looked at renting the basement suite from him in 1971. He was actually doing the painting to rockin’ Janis Joplin and fixing drywall in the basement. He told us (my wife and I) that he had bought the house for his parents who would live upstairs and he was renting the basement. I also took a microbiology class from him (though he wasn’t actually there a lot) at UBC as part of my Water and Pollution degree in Civil Engineering which included climate studies and pollution vectors, water treatment, sewage treatment, ground water, air quality, etc. etc. I have been doing “environmental” work for a good portion of my life. I am afraid I feel that Dr. Suzuki left basic environmental work about the same time as I graduated from University 40 years ago since he was hardly every around – too busy with his “other” activities.
Eric Gisin says:
December 7, 2013 at 8:52 pm
I’ve heard another story on Suzuki’s radicalization. As Wikipedia notes, he got his PhD in 61 at U Chicago, then taught at UBC (Vancouver) from 63 for 40 years.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Curious how most of his bio’s leave out his year in Alberta where he was given a research grant (from the US according to his interview with CBC) which kept him in Canada. Seems somewhat odd though he discussed it openly in his interview and said only the money kept him in Canada as so much more research money was available in the US.
From Ancestry.ca: “Suzuki started work with a teaching position at University of Alberta in 1962. His knowledge not being limited to teaching, David started appearing on TV shows and tried to rally support for under funded sciences.”
Oops – wrong reference: http://www.freeinfosociety.com/article.php?id=341
Interesting what you say Wayne. Can’t beat personal experience. 😉
Excellent article. Suzuki is trying to do some ‘distancing’ here, i.e. someone else ruined the party. The fact of matter is HE has ruined his own party. If he actually remained grounded in the science and stood up for integrity when it mattered and encouraged academic excellence – we well might have a much better stewardship of the planet and the environment in general and have universal real hard science on the environment we can all be proud of to boot.
The trouble is, as soon as you start down the slippery path of ‘exaggeration’ or ‘tweaking’ the message (or the results) to get the desired outcome/impact – its game over – reality is no longer in sync. Certainly, it will work for a short time, and if you play your cards right you could well gather status (and income to boot) around that. But like a house built on a sand, sooner or later cracks will appear and sometime in the future the whole thing will come crashing down. Reality has a nasty habit of reasserting itself sooner or later, usually with an uncanny sense of dramatic timing.
Suzuki is but the first of many – the writing is on the wall and the sheep are noticing things ain’t going the way it should do, so they start doing their own research and well, the rest is history.. For instance I went to 2 parties this weekend and got chatting with people who were die hard AGW believers – 30 minutes later, converted the lot – simple reason was that they were open to hearing the other point of view as AGW wasn’t making sense…
Basically do not be afraid in any sense to challenge people on AGW now, the blinkers in the general population are well and truly off!
The analysis of Maurice Strong’s record at Ontario Hydro presented here by Dr. Ball is completely inaccurate. Under Mr. Strong’s leadership, Ontario Hydro terminated its PR-oriented conservation programs, cancelled unneeded capital programs, froze power rates, slashed bloated staffing levels, and averted what at the time seemed to be immediate insolvency. In the context of the scale of his business decisions Mr. Strong made at Ontario Hydro, his small foray into Costa Rican forest lands was trivial, although of great fascination to the media. I don’t present this information as a defence of Agenda 21, simply as a matter of historical record.
On the subject of David Suzuki, his authoritarian tendencies get too little attention. Here is a short video essay on Suzuki’s support for rolling back privacy rights in the name of environmental protection. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4oh0Etg3m0
After years of commenting on hare-brained CAGW alarmism at my local city’s online paper there has been a steady increase in skeptical comments by others paying attention. It’s easy to be skeptical for those with a level mind and emotional landscape. The often hysterical and irrational claims by CAGW believers are so transparent that only the ‘true believers’ or unquestioning garden variety nature lovers, who may not question anything in life, continue to cry wolf.
At this time I’ve noticed more comments indicating others are seriously looking into this matter on their own and aren’t just swallowing the CAGW meme hook, line and sinker. Add some much deserved(at times) ridicule along with level-headed information, linked to science-based resources and even in our local city which prides itself in being some kind of Emerald City of Green, the constant din and Green drumbeat has become noticeably quieter. Of course there’re still the true believers contingent and constant pressure put on the community by local universities and politicians, but people who don’t want to be associated with sheeple-thinking are at least taking a wait and see and more open-minded position.
After years of being insulted and abused by climate zombies armed with their talking points, it’s become more difficult for them now when a large number of rational commenters join in the fray. It wasn’t long ago when it seemed like a 10:1 ratio of hysterical, spinning-head sky is falling posters would try to overwhelm skeptics and the website, but not anymore. The spinning-headed types are not at all happy about this. Blinding them with facts and science isn’t something they bargained for I guess.
Just a question: Can we be certain that the alarmists so called experts have studied Theory of Science at all?
“Can we pursue environmentalism with rational, science based, prioritized policies?”
No, not when the setting off point is a moral value statement.
How conceited is this guy, really, George Carlin said it best, “The earth will be just fine, it’s survived billions of years and two ice ages, it’s us the f#@*ed, we’re going away, the earth will be just fine without us.” Mr. Suzuki, you oughta be ashamed of yourself. I’m not a scientist, but I think there are too many people here on earth. Laws of nature are that one species is not allowed to out-succeed another, and in most cases that is true, except for homo sapiens, we are the only exception. I don’t know when, but I don’t think our reign will end well. Thanks.
Wayne Delbeke says:
December 7, 2013 at 10:45 pm
he was given a research grant (from the US according to his interview with CBC) which kept him in Canada.
===============
The US paid him to stay in Canada? A wise investment.
If we criticise his views in any way, isn’t that racism?
=============
one day walking by Suzuki’s house I noticed his gardener was a little old white guy. is it racist to find the irony amusing? recently I passed Suzuki’s on the street and had the strong impressions that maybe age had simply caught up to him as it does to all of us.
50 years ago there was a lot wrong with how we treated the environment. Folks for example would think nothing of pouring motor oil down the drain, assuming that the sewage treatment plant would take care of it. So public education had a large benefit. We made major cleanup to the environment. The air and water are much, much cleaner to day than in the past.
However, this success was largely ignored by many in the environmental movement, that view conditions today as being worse than they were 50 years ago as a matter of belief. I expect this is where Suzuki disappointment comes from. He is not celebrating the success; he is lamenting that we haven’t achieved Utopia.
The problem with Utopia is that it requires humans to be perfect. And since humans are not perfect, we don’t belong in Utopia. The solution then is to get rid of humans. Once that is accomplished, we will have Utopia.
Those that strive for perfection will never be satisfied with a good solution. Thus, they will destroy the good in a vain attempt to achieve the perfect.
The house in Vancouver was purchased for $145,000 in 1975
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Well he has owned (owns) a number of houses.
==============
It would be very surprising if the waterfront house on point grey road had a market value of $145k in 1975. This is a very exclusive neighborhood. If you need to ask how much the houses cost you can’t afford one.
Years back, we were at a house party on the same block. On the water, maybe 2 doors away? The owner was a head honcho’s at the CBC. Could this explain Suzuki’s TV program? Having the right neighbors? The key to business success: location, location, location.
Might we not all proofread our posts at least once before sending? Several are unintelligible. What’s your hurry?
Let’s stick to the science and politics. Who cares how much he paid for a house in 1975, or who was his gardener? Reminds me of how tom turkeys instantly stomp on the one that gets shot down. Just sayin’.
Hum…yes reminds me of metro areas circa 1870 to 1960, looking as this:
http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/coal/images/homeheader.jpg
Coal heat, nasty…
Oh, then there were non-fuel injected, stoicheometric, autos and summers that looked like this:
https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRUJI4rCIwW39Me6EgU7tVR8otpxOZWVf5drI8NyyD6xVXcj2fUVg
So, that’s Two of 4 of the major problems…what next?
http://www.google.com/imgres?hl=en&biw=819&bih=474&tbm=isch&tbnid=tqq6gTCR0-3uVM:&imgrefurl=http://burnhamplan100.lib.uchicago.edu/node/2255/&docid=voM5F3dhlbdkQM&imgurl=http://burnhamplan100.lib.uchicago.edu/files/content/chicago_riverfront_history_1.JPG&w=2782&h=2108&ei=dMOkUvzkKumfyQGDuIDQCw&zoom=1&ved=1t:3588,r:6,s:0,i:97&iact=rc&page=1&tbnh=192&tbnw=237&start=0&ndsp=7&tx=174&ty=89
The Chicago river, as a sewer..typical around the USA prior to 1970 and the EPA’s effort, suing municipalities and states and counties to stop that and build sewage treatment plants.
Hey, 3 of 4??? What’s left? INDUSTRY! Nasty, terrible INDUSTRY! That is strictly regulated now. Scrubbers on everything from power plants to blast furnaces. Solvent capture devices, processed water (before disposal or re-use).
So when I’m asked what “era” I’d like to live in, I say RIGHT NOW or the FUTURE, as it is the cleanest and the future is equal or better. Suzuki should stay to teaching music with child sized instruments, rather than try to use a childlike approach to life in general.
Wayne Delbeke says:
December 7, 2013 at 10:45 pm
“Curious how most of his bio’s leave out his year in Alberta where he was given a research grant (from the US according to his interview with CBC) which kept him in Canada. ”
Probably an effort by the US to destabilize Canada.
Suzuki only lasted a year in Edmonton—the climate was too brutal, he says
I find this statement completely humorous as Edmontons climate HAS NOT CHANGED since St. Suzuki lived there. Well maybe it’s a little colder. Fort mcmurray is also just as cold as it has always been despite ever increasing amounts od co2 released. Be the alarmists calculations we Canadians should be spending our winter holidays there rather than going south to places like Las Vegas where it never snows. Oops did it snow there last week? Oh that must be because all the heat is hiding in the ocean now rather than on land.
DirkH says, “Probably an effort by the US to destabilize Canada.”
He is kind of weapons grade environmentalism. Thank you for pointing that out. (:
Max Hugoson,
Not sure what you are saying about what era you’d like to live in, but no one is disputing we needed to clean up the air and water in the 1970s. But if it had cost, say, a half trillion dollars to reduce air and water pollution by 95%, the EPA would now extoll spending 10 trillion more to reduce air pollution another 2%, and revert us to a Neolithic lifestyle if required. If the goal is “zero pollution” that is unattainable at any price – it’s an asymptotic function, and zero can never be reached. “How much is enough, Gordon?”
ferd berple says:
December 8, 2013 at 7:36 am
Wayne Delbeke says:
December 7, 2013 at 10:45 pm
he was given a research grant (from the US according to his interview with CBC) which kept him in Canada.
===============
The US paid him to stay in Canada? A wise investment.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
And to Dirk H
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Actually he spent a time working at the Tennessee Oak Ridge National Laboratory (1961/62 and perhaps longer) which at the time had a lot of funding from the US military. The official activity of the Biology section at that time was : “Researchers in the Biology Division studied the effects of chemicals on mice including petrol fumes, pesticides and tobacco.” but I believe there were also studies of the effects of radiation on genetic mutation which for a time was in Suzuki field of study. No crazy conspiracy theory, just an opportunity for him to follow his field. This research was quite important at the time as it was determined that there were issues with many of the products we were and still are using. From that perspective, I respect Suzuki and the many other researchers who were, and still are working to make this planet a better place. Unfortunately when zealotry and money take over ….
No, a developer is someone who clears the forest to build a bunch of houses, or a mall, or…
For me; it’s more like David Suzuki is getting out while the getting is good.
The environmentalists will rue the day they embraced the religion of cagw and so will we. There is nothing wrong with loving the planet and seeking to protect it from the worst that mankind can throw at it. However cagw is the wrong battle and it will put the green movement back decades.
Any link useful to quickly understand all the lies campaigned by the global warming “environmentalists” such as Al Gore and so on in promoting their own vested interests such as carbon tax etc?
Love the article, love the comments thread.
What I would really, I mean really, appreciate, are any links to peer reviewed articles which support the skeptical point of view. I am a skeptic (or a realist) through and through, but I have a brother in law, absolutely has bought the AGW view – and continually says things like only AGW supportive points of view are backed up by articles in peer-reviewed literature.
Is this true? I would hope not (although I realize that the peer review process has itself been discredited to some degree). But what do you do with someone like that (i.e. my brother – in – law). Aside from no longer discussing the issue at all, because it gets nasty almost immediately.
Can I recommend this, if you’re still around? Yes, notice, it is reviewed by ‘peers’ as well, in the thread following …
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/12/07/ipccs-report-on-climate-change-myths-realities/
.
“suec”,
The big problem discussed on this and other forums is that the peer-review process itself has been corrupted. The leaked ClimateGate e-mails in part revealed a “pal-review” network, and also the deliberate attempts to discredit and blackball from peer-review certain scientists who were not “all in” with AGW, and who even expressed any doubts at all about, for example, the tree ring datasets, manipulation of same, and the validity of relying on tree ring data for modelling.
So it’s worse than you thought. The game is rigged, and your B-in-L will probably never be reasoned with. “A man convinced against his will …”
Back in the 1980s the Green party formed in Austria. Back then they fought a good fight. They tried to protect the marshes on the Danube and actually succeeded.
That was 30 years ago.
What has happened since then?
The Green party is now just another political animal, craving for power and when they have power, then they come up with “ideas” like what they’re doing in Vienna right now. The Deputy Mayor is from the Green party. Her plan to make Vienna’s bicycle lanes better is to… paint them green for 10+ million Euro that Vienna, with a debt of almost 5 billion Euro, doesn’t have.
Yes.
She also had the idea of turning a large shopping street into a pedestrian only zone, without asking the people living and working there whether they even want that. The street is now pedestrian only and all the traffic has to battle its way through the parallel narrow alleys.
Another thing the Green party in Austria is really big on is letting everybody into the country (even with the insane notion that, the moment you set foot onto Austrian soil, you have a human right to stay), spending huge amounts of money and generally having not a single rational thought except… WE MUST ALL USE RENEWABLE ENERGY!!!!!!!!111!!!1
Btw, “renewable energy” has a new nickname in German: “Neue Instabile Energie” (NIE). New Unstable Energy. “Nie” means “never” in German. Quite fitting.
Edohiguma,
That’s sad. But the “NIE” part is funny, Reminds me of Chevrolet wonder why they weren’t selling many Nova economy models in Mexico – then someone pointed out “no va” in Spanish means it “doesn’t go.” Oops.
“wondering”
Hoisted with my own petard, what?
@ Brian’s 356 (cubic inches with a straight 8 under the hood of a….?)? (motorhead genius family members are my clue to this sort of thing)
Answer to your Q: No. You , GO, man! #(:)) Chevy made waaaaay more than a mere typo, lol.
Janice,
You were on scent, but “356” in this case is for “Porsche 356” model (1959 Super Coupe.)
Brian (2:14pm today),
Overlooking the fact that you compare me to a dog (I love my German Shepherd, but…)… .
What a BEAUTIFUL ride! Congratulations on owning such a fine car.
Better keep that garage door locked!
(a new Ferris Bueller is born every minute, heh, heh)
Yes, I realize it is not the car that was in “Ferris Beuller’s Day Off” — in the same class, imo.
Janice,
If only my dog could cook … 😉
My 356 is a Coupe (not a convertible) and so is valued at only a small fraction of the car pictured.
The “Ferris” car was a Ferrari GT 250 California as I recall.
Thanks for the correction, Brian. Yeah, I messed that up. A coupe is more sturdy, though, and you get all the fun and the beauty of the fine car without that high purchase price. Enjoy your lovely car. It’s just cool that you value a fine automobile — these days, the cars people tend to prefer are sooo lame that I applaud you for not going with the “norm.” Long live muscle cars (and fine sports cars)!!!
(I don’t get the dog and the cooking joke, but, I’m going to assume it is a nice one)