NEW UPDATES POSTED BELOW:
I was link surfing today over at Dellers, and I found myself looking at the long list of bios for the 1010 team on their website. I noted something curious in the bio posted on Splattergate’s designer Franny Armstrong, because it was rather off the wall. She listed a “guilty pleasure”. Well no harm, we all have those, but at the same time she says her Actual job: “Asking powerful people for money and/or emissions cuts“.
The “emissions cuts” part I get. But wait a minute…not in season blueberries? Hmmm.
Now I don’t know much about growing blueberries, but I did find this on a BBC gardening site:
Blueberries produce fruit on branches that were produced the previous year. For the first two or three years of a blueberry’s life it’s not necessary to prune it much, apart from keeping the plant tidy. After this, blueberries need regular pruning to maintain plant vigour and high quality berry production. Prune them between November and March when the plant is dormant.
They need cold weather apparently:
“These bushes are hardy and require a minimum of 750 hours accumulated chilling time below 8 degrees centigrade in order to produce good yields of berries, so please do not put them into your greeenhouse over the winter.”
OK, so you can’t grow them “off season” in a local greenhouse. That means UK “off season” blueberries have to come someplace where the “off season” is opposite, like another hemisphere.
Looking more into blueberries, I find this from a Latin American Markets site on Chilean blueberry production:
While the US is the main importer of Chilean blueberries, Europe, and in particular the UK, are also strong markets.
“We’ve seen an explosion in UK blueberry consumption over the past two to three years,” says Hortifrut’s Francisco Ortuzar. “Unlike some other parts of Europe, the market is familiar with blueberries and category managers have done a good job of promoting the fruit.”
Huh, imagine that. Demand for blueberries in the UK is ummm ‘exploding’. Given what I know, I would imagine the demand would increase in the “off season” when no local blueberries can be harvested.
I wonder how they get there? Oh, here we go:
Tesco blueberries are harvested in Argentina and are flown to the UK for sale.
So I think it would be safe to assume that Franny is eating off season blueberries, flown in from Chile or Argentina using the speedy but horrible CO2 belching airplanes to preserve freshness.
Yet WE are the ones that have to reduce our consumption of things like “guilty pleasures”. Ya know, modern, guilty, dirty things like air travel, cars, and incandescent lights (though I do like the new LED replacements), to keep the planet from “burning up” due to CO2 emissions. And if we don’t, or give an indifferent shrug like those school kids in her movie…we get the red button.
She also mentions in her bio:
“Not flying to America or Australia to launch my climate movie”
…yet Franny can have her off season jet set blueberries. No pressure to eliminate that. I guess Franny never stopped to think how “not in season blueberries” get to her local shop.
Now that’s just plane stupid.
UPDATE: 8:05 PM PST 10/7/10 I was informed by email of some silliness. For the record, somebody who obviously didn’t like this story has signed up my name as a “supporter” at the 10:10 website, here: http://www.1010global.org/uk/people along with Christopher Monckton, and James Dellingpole. This is of course false, and the product of a simple minded prank. I don’t know what this stupidity will do for them, especially since it is obvious none of us would sign up to 10:10. Here’s the screen cap:
UPDATE2: 11:40PM PST 10/7/10
It appears the application of names is being handled by a static list superimposed at the website. The people counter continues to rise, but the list does not change. Here’s a screencap from 11:38PM of the “people” page at http://www.1010global.org/uk/people
If you visit the other pages on the website, you’ll find that static list with my name on it, along with Monckton and Delingpole, superimposed on it, even though the counter has advanced from 94,885 to 94,910 signups, a total of 25 names, more than enough to move the list down.
But it appears the “legal” page here: http://www.1010global.org/legal has what appears to be a correctly updated list:
How fun! Let’s watch the amusement unfold.
This is typical of the greenie weenies. They are not interested in reducing their carbon footprint. They want to have their guilty pleasures. They are just interested in everyone else giving up their guilty pleasures. How big is AlGores electric bill every month?
Well, I am not flying to Spain for a picnic. Nor am I going to keep my house at 92 degrees all winter. There! Glad I got that CO2 saving crap over with, same justifications as herself.
Beat those savings, 10:10’ers!
Now, where’s my free money?
Stevo says:
“….you must be very ignorant if you think that importing fruit is a significant source of CO2. It is trivial.”
Then will warmists please stop banging on about it then.
Franny’s other guilty pleasure: getting satisfaction from telling other people how to live their lives and wagging her bony finger at them in horror.
You tell them Fanny. You know what’s best for us all.
Another gruesome environmental ad – child strangling slowly. How sick can these people get?
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/another-one-climate-change-ad-features-young-girl-in-a-noose/
I can understand her not flying anywhere, even to Ruislip, to launch her new movie. Her best bet is to adopt Islam and walk around with a burqa on her head so no-one will recognize her. Silly bint.
Anthony,
Followed the link to your LED light change article. I fully agree with your sentiment expressed there, however:-
My house has 300 plus 50 watt potlights, cost to convert all to LED based on local Home depot pricing for Phillips LED GU10 of $50 Cdn replacement would be in the order of $15,000.
Typically 20 of the lights would be on at any one time after sunset for an average of 6 hours a day. Annual actual lighting power demand is therefore 6x20x50x365 approx = 2.2MWh In my part of the world one can assume approximately 1 metric tonne of CO2 emission per MWh including transmission loss. Assuming a 3 year payback, conservative in todays fragile economic times, and inoring any power savings which are lost in the decimal places this means I would be paying close to $2,300 per tonne of CO2 avoided.
Neeedless to say I am stockpiling GU10 incandescent bulbs at a cost of less than $1 each, based on my current age, actuarial tables and genes I can expect to live max 30 years more. Assuming I replace my incandescent light bulbs after 1500 hours, conservative based on experience I can reasonably expect to consume in the order of 30 bulbs per year. On a constant $ basis a future lifetime expenditure of $900. On a precautionary basis I would rather put the nominal $14,000 savings in a trust fund for my grandchildren.
I feel sorry for Frannie. She needs help. She looks young, ignorant and gullible enough to have been completely fooled by the man-made global warming propaganda.
I feel sure that in the proper environment and with a fair education system she would never have grown up to believe in such nonsense.
What a shame. Poor misguided girl.
Bad taste! The cultivated blueberry has a pretty feeble flavour when compared to our native bilberry/blaeberry. But to taste the latter she’d need to venture – gasp! – outdoors, onto moorland or woodland edge in, for instance, – second gasp! – Yorkshire or Scotland. Better that she stick to Tesco, eh? Can’t have her cavorting in the, you know, environment.
The traditional definition of a Puritan is: Someone who loses sleep at night worrying that someone, somewhere, is enjoying themselves.
The post-modern versions is: Someone who loses sleep at night worrying that someone, somewhere, is doing something without a permit.
A mind is a terrible thing to waste.
meemoe_uk (5:16 pm) says: “What is the carbon cost exactly of getting a pair of jeans from china to the UK, and compared to other stuff?”
Answer: Zero
The actual definition of cost refers to “lost opportunity” – i.e. the cost is what you cannot do as a result. Since there is no empirical evidence that CO2 causes any damage, there is no lost opportunity. Therefore, no cost, in terms of CO2.
Stevo,
It is the likes of Franny who say we must eat within 100 miles; that importing expensive food via airplanes is destroying the planet, and therefore evil – except for her chosen fruits, of course.
This post is not an attack upon one woman; it is an attack upon a whole class of greenie apparatchiks.
Entenda?
PS The best time to buy scallops in Ottawa is Tuesday, as they are flown in from the Maritimes on Monday. (Which is the equivelant to crossing Europe)
Last one escaped before I had finished, the lesser capital expenditure would be to replace with LED lights on an as needed basis, which would still work out to be in excess of $200 per tonne of avoided CO2 on a simple payback basis.
Mike
After reading a post on Bishop Hill, I warmed to the idea of 1010.
Not the 10:10 position, of course, that’s just Plane Stupid!
It was the suggestion made that atmospheric concentrations of CO2 would be most beneficial to the planetary biomass at a level of 1010ppm.
Reminds me, wrinkly male that I am, of the halcyon days of CB radio when a cheery “10-10 Good Buddy” lifted ones spirit.
Question. Does CB stand for Citizens Band, Carbon Bust, Carbon Boom or something else?
Time is running out for the definitive answer to that question. Once the weekend is over, the 10:10 adventure will have passed its sell by date.
10-10 founder Franny has got to come up with a name for a new initiative
that will stand the test of time but still take forward the good-will and noble aspirations of her original brainwave.
Maybe “10:10:O2”, “Sony of 10:10” or even “First Curtis is the Deepest”
I thought about suggesting “13:13” but something about it doesn’t seem right. I’ll sleep on it, Franny, and once I’ve got over my recurrent rhyming couplet involving your nickname, I’ll get back to you with my analysis.
Best Wishes
Roy OMR
Stevo says:
October 7, 2010 at 5:44 pm
If she drove to the supermarket to buy the fruit, that would release more CO2.
Do you think she has them shipped directly to her house?
Anthony,
Well, old Eugenie, Franny, Daniel, Lizzie and the whole 10:10 team are really not worthy targets . . . . . they are intellectually just the foot soldiers. The generals / admirals are elsewhere. Save your energy for the generals / admirals.
With the middle-of-the-roaders in the AGW campaign fighting a soft fuzzy wuzzy rear guard action in behalf of the retreating intelligentsia of the AGW leadership, I recommend you need to save your energy.
John
One also wonders how much energy is used in the entire process of film making … me thinks the creation of propaganda doesn’t come cheap!
Stevo – the real dangers for 10:10 and Franny are their own words and works. No pressure.
Curiousgeorge says:
October 7, 2010 at 5:07 pm
Ahhhh! But what does she do with those blueberries? Hmmmmm?
Good question! Is that why they call you curious George?
I’ll bet she’s got other ‘guilty pleasures’! But the blueberries are all she’ll admit to.
Most phony leftist hypocrites are usually guilty of exactly what they accuse their enemies of doing!
Isn’t this why canning was invented? In the winter, I eat frozen or canned vegetables and fruit. Must not be good enough for Franny.
Anthony- I’m shocked that you would be so vindictive against someone who is trying to incite people to kill you. For shame.
Say No to O2:
http://grumpyoldtwat.blogspot.com/2010/10/say-no-to-o2-campaign.html
John Whitman said something on October 7, 2010 at 6:55 pm to which I reply:
With ideological enemies, there are several options:
1. Attack and destroy – always good advice.
2. Leave them to hang themselves – in a suburban propaganda war only, good advice.
3. Meet their arguments with yours – not a successful strategy when the opponents control the megaphones or are just plain irrational.
4. All of the above. This is an ideological war; one side is reason, the other is charlatanism, but the weight of forces are currently against reason.
It is important that reason win this war, because there is another even-more irrational enemy resurgent, that of Islam. We cannot face that enemy without security in the intellectual rear, that of our successful Western cicilization.