Th UK Government has lost all sense of realism and decency. As a father of two young children myself, I’d like to smack the person(s) responsible for this upside the head and say “what were you thinking!”.
Even normally pro AGW Nature calls it the Worst. Climate. Campaign. Ever. Watch this.
Link to transcript
Nature writes:
The UK government has decided to convince us all that climate change is real. To this end it is spending £6 million on a prime time advertising campaign featuring a father reading a bedtime story about the evil carbon dioxide monster created by grown ups which is making rabbits cry.
…
In perhaps the worst advert for stopping climate change I’ve ever seen, the cringe worthy short has the father telling his child how scientists found that global warming “was being caused by too much CO2, and it was the children of the land who’d have to live with the horrible consequences”
In an article in the Register, Andrew Orlowski points out that even the UK Met office doesn’t go this far:
Met Office climate modeller Vicky Pope has said apocalyptic predictions are misleading – “distorting” the perception of climate change. She cited shock-horror press releases about recent Arctic ice melt, which she said could equally be explained by natural variation.
…
Taxpayers are paying £6m so their children can be scared out of their wits. It’s not Halloween, but a new climate change TV advertising campaign that begins tonight, which features a young girl watching a dog drown.
See the new center of climate porn here:
http://actonco2.direct.gov.uk/actonco2/home.html
They do have a contact form. The question is: will they listen or just brand everyone who thinks maybe the campaign is “over the top” as paid shills of Exxon ?
http://actonco2.direct.gov.uk/actonco2/home/about-us/Contact-us.html
Richard Treadgold (17:11:41) 09-10-09:
Way to go, bro’!
I would like to see some rational counter argument commercials. Like remember the small US biofuels policy and the disruption that caused to corn prices and therefore social unrest in Mexico and other countries? Not to mention increased fertilizer runoff into the Gulf of Mexico…
Now the big bad government is proposing an ETS which will have much more far-reaching impact. Throw in an estimate of the number dying to starvation as food prices escalate etc etc…
But I guess we shouldn’t have to stoop to that level.
Gordon Bennet.
The UK Government is wasting taxpayer’s money on this garbege? The lunatics really have taken over the asylum. I do not regret shipping out of the UK muself a few years back.
But then again maybe they are right? After all, AGW, ‘climate change’ (man made, that is) is just a fairy story…
Oops! Sorry about the “garbege” there. I was writing in a Kelvinside accent…
Issac (18:43:41) :
That is a really piece of propaganda. What will be next after childrens?
Pets!
The Spanish Inquisition — religious zealots saving souls by putting them on the rack. UK AGW zealots — saving children by telling them CO2 is evil. Does anyone see a difference?
You folks can probably figure out what I think of this little “ditty”.
Good post from TonyB.
Blair is a prominent member of the Bilderberg Group. Forget democracy, this is a propaganda war leadiing up to a fascist dictatorship under the guise of a twin party system. Labour and Conservative – two cheeks of the same arse.
to British readers, echoing EricH and others: get on to the Advertising Complaints Authority at
http://www.asa.org.uk/asa/how_to_complain/complaints_form/
and fill in their form; up to 5000 words. Don’t cut and paste, say it in your own words. Someone will have to read and collate it all. Concentrate on the factual aspect. Crying bunnies are repulsive, but not illegal. Showing an English town under metres of floodwater is a lie, and therefore illegal advertising.. They can’t hide behind “the science is in” on this one. Get them to retract.
Fear, uncertainty and doubt is indeed a fearsome weapon to influence public. The latest example was the yes campaign of the Irish government who successfully spread economic fears and insecurities among the population. In 2008, Ireland voted “no” to the Lisbon Treaty, on 4 October 2009, after the new campaign, Ireland voted “yes”.
FUD is a dreadful weapon. When someone says: “In 2050, the sea level will rise 3 meters”, and it does not show up, the author will not be denounced. Meanwhile, the consequences for health can be very devastating: blood pressure, hart deseases, etc.
Only the Chamberlains of today can believe that you can fight fascism with words on a piece of blog.
What if “climate change” was really a masked metaphor for a foreign invasion of greenies? And greenies have unlimited funds and power to propagandize? How to combat that?
Constant, regular, vocal doubt and disbelief. Conscious comment, and criticism. AKA healthy skepticism. Real power there.
tallbloke (14:08:36) :
No TV at tallbloke towers anymore. Sold on ebay months ago. Looks like it was a good move.
Stop paying the TV license fee as a protest against this crap.
REPLY: Better yet, have a protest where citizens dump their TV’s on the office doorstep of these fools.
Hey, we are talking about the UK here. The TV’s would be on ebay before the office fools even saw them. 🙂
There was a pig farmer who left a few tons of much richer deposit on the doorstep of the local tax office I recall.
The French are much more effective at this lkind of thing:
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/714034/
What an utterely irresposible advert has been produced.
There is no reliable scientific proof of mans effects on the climate of the world and yet they dare to indoctrinate children with this rubbish. When are the adverts for Scientology being broadcast because they will fall into the same catagory of fiction.
When we advance into the next cold period of the temperature cycle it will be proved what an utter waste of money this global warming fad has been and how the actions of government departments should be held to account. £6 million would be much better spent helping to clear the astonishing debts that this country is in, something that is going to be passed onto our childrens shoulders without any shadow of doubt.
Not only has our tax money gone to shore up an industry of greed but now we are funding the indoctrination to provide a means of gatting more tax money from us. The whole UK economy is proving to be a ponzi sheme.
I remember the climate campaign from a German “environmental-sausage” manufacturer:
Öki die Spuperwurst rettet die Welt (Öki the super sausage saves the world)
See the videos: http://www.superwurst.info/filme.html (german, but self-telling)
p.s. this is a real campaign, no joke/fake
” Ron de Haan (18:19:38) :
Better now than never.
BBC wakes up, I never thought I would see the day.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8299079.stm ”
That was an excellent article! The most balanced article I have ever seen coming from the BBC, well done Paul Hudson.
I wrote down the words from the video (a worthwhile exercise in itself – you find out how weak they are). Then I made a few small changes to the sound-track. Here’s my take:
“There was once a land where the politicians were very, very bad. There was awful fear in some parts, and in others, terrible unemployment and poverty.
Scientists said it was being caused by too much hype, which went out over the airwaves when the politicians and media opened their mouths. They said the hype was getting dangerous. Its effects were happening faster than they had thought. Some people’s minds could even disappear under the sea of hype. And it was the children of the land who would have to live with the horrible consequences.
The grown-ups realized they had to do something. They discovered that over 40 per cent of the hype was coming from political lies, like Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction and catastrophic human-caused climate change. Which meant, if they made less hype, maybe they could save the minds of the children.
Is there a happy ending?
It’s up to you how the story ends. See what you can do. Search on-line for ACT ON HYPE.”
The worst AGW junk I´ve seen until now ! Scaring children with such evil propaganda,
Baaa….!That´s Goebbels up to date!
As a UK taxpayer I seriously object to my money being used for this. There are so many things on which this money could better be spent. It is no wonder we have such a scary budget deficit.
Want to put CO2 on trial? How about a class action by sceptics to recover this money (and other money spent on the non-problem of CO2). Plenty of evidence, but would it get a fair hearing?
Add me to the list, my complaint has just been posted to the morons.
My complaints are in.
This advert has upset me greatly.
I’m so utterly furious that such claptrap is being aired.
I went to the “Act on Co2” website and left some very terse, but choice feedback (And stuff it if they’ve trapped my IP addy). I haven’t been to ASA yet as I am still totally awestuck, in a totally bad way, at this advert. I will advise all my UK based relatives to view their opinion of this child abusing scare campaign.
Communism failed in Russia (Fear, control, rationing). Maybe there is hope for it in the UK?
Nobody seems to have mentioned that CO2 is a non-toxic colourless and odourless gas, not black and sooty as depicted. (Incidentally doesn’t it seem ironic that the motor industry spent billions cleaning up cars to emit only CO2 and water vapour rather than the earlier poisonous CO?).