Oh dear, some of these folks aren’t the brightest CFL’s in the room.
Readers may remember this famous Penn and Teller video from 2006 where they get well meaning (but non thinking) people to sign up to ban “dihydrogen monoxide” (DHMO), which is an “evil” chemical found in our lakes, rivers, oceans, and even our food!
Yeah, they signed up to ban water. Now watch the video from the Cancun climate conference, you’d think some of these folks would have enough science background (from their work in complex climate issues) to realize what they are signing, but sadly, no.
Some people will sign anything that includes phrases like, ”global effort,” “international community,” and “planetary.” Such was the case at COP 16, this year’s United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Cancun, Mexico.
This year, CFACT students created two mock-petitions to test U.N. Delegates. The first asked participants to help destabilize the United States economy, the second to ban water.
The first project, entitled “Petition to Set a Global Standard” sought to isolate and punish the United States of America for defying the international community, by refusing to bite, hook, line and sinker on the bait that is the Kyoto Protocol. The petition went so far as to encourage the United Nations to impose tariffs and trade restrictions on the U.S. in a scheme to destabilize the nation’s economy. Specifically, the scheme seeks to lower the U.S. GDP by 6% over a ten year period, unless the U.S. signs a U.N. treaty on global warming.
This would be an extremely radical move by the United Nations. Even so, radical left-wing environmentalists from around the world scrambled eagerly to sign.
The second project was as successful as the first. It was euphemistically entitled “Petition to Ban the Use of Dihydrogen Monoxide (DHMO)” (translation water). It was designed to show that if official U.N. delegates could be duped by college students into banning water, that they could essentially fall for anything, including pseudo-scientific studies which claim to show that global warming is man-caused.
Despite the apparently not-so-obvious reference to H2O, almost every delegate that collegian students approached signed their petition to ban that all too dangerous substance, which contributes to the greenhouse effect, is the major substance in acid rain, and is fatal if inhaled.
Perhaps together, the footage associated with these two projects will illustrate to mainstream America the radical lengths many current U.N. delegates are willing to go to carry out an agenda no more ethical, plausible or practical than the banning water.
johanna says: “…I would love to be there asking for help to get my inheritance out of Nigeria. I can’t see why being Caucasian would necessarily hurt my chances, either.”
Nigeria? That’s in Central America, right, dood?
Excellent event! It would be even more spectacular if they could get the signatures of some of the kooks-in-chief such as Pachauri.
ked5
December 8, 2010 11:34 pm
I recall going to the site and reading how a class of college CHEMISTRY students signed the petition.
same idiot mentality that let a bunch of college feminists to sign a petition to end women’s suffrage.
This is what happens when critical thinking is not taught.
Mike Williams
December 8, 2010 11:37 pm
So..where is the gold footage of Cancun delegates falling for this “gag”.
I cannot find any link
Dave Wendt
December 8, 2010 11:48 pm
The really sad thing about this is that, even after having their gullibility so nakedly exposed, most of these clucks will still continue to think of themselves as among the”smart people”, without whose wise and prudent guidance and leadership, we of the IKDMBRN (Ignorant, Knuckle Dragging, Mouth Breathing, Red Necks) would continue in our hopeless delusion that we are capable of making the best choices about what is good for us on our own.
Every human has within themselves a tyrannical impulse, an instinct to assume that the world would be a much better place if everyone else would just listen to them and do as they are told. For civilized society to survive and prosper each individual, from the moment of birth until the achievement of adult maturity, must be rigorously trained, by the application of proper parenting, well designed education, and cultural reinforcement, that that instinct needs to be tempered and suppressed. Unfortunately we are now well into at least three generations who have developed in an environment where parenting, schools, and virtually the entire popular culture have been completely inverted in this regard. Given that, we should hardly be surprised that many young people are the way they are. Indeed, what we should find amazing, as I certainly do, is that we can still find hundreds of thousands of young people willing to voluntarily place their very lives on the line in defense of principles which, though possessing the highest ultimate value, have been substantially abandoned and devalued by the society where they have spent their entire lives. We should not be too hard on these young folks, because most of them never really had a chance to be other than they are. Everything and everyone they have ever been exposed too has told them that the very system that provided the privileged lives they’ve enjoyed is the source of all evil in the world and that they shouldn’t feel pride and happiness for their lucky accident of birth, but shame and guilt. To be honest, if I had been born forty years later and had to grow up in the environment of continuous indoctrination of the last couple decades, I can’t deny that I might not be out there shoulder to shoulder with them, parroting the same nonsense.
The point of this windy and disjointed rant is that we need to avoid triumphalism and complacency. Just because the wheels seem to be falling off the climate alarmist’s wagon at the moment is no reason to believe that they will quietly slink away and admit defeat. The collectivists behind this farce have been in dedicated pursuit of their utopian delusions for more than a century and multiple failures, millions of deaths, and untold human misery have yet to persuade them of the error of their ways. Their demonization of CO2 has been so successful that, even with no credible disasters to drive it, the notion that doing anything necessary to reduce emissions of CO2 is largely unchallenged and is included in the marketing plans of virtually every corporation in the world, as well as in every one of the thousands of bureaucracies at every level of governance. Even absent Cap and Tax legislation, the efforts of EPA, CARB, and similar regulatory tyrannies, as well as their comrades in the EU and UN continue apace. The political class, unless their feet are held firmly to the fire by an enraged populous screaming dissent, will do little to even slow the progress. Even if the political will to attempt to stop this runaway train could be assembled, the wholesale dismantling and reconstruction of all the regulatory bodies now involved that would be required is almost unimaginable.
The climate debate has been notable for frequent references to “tipping points” and history may record that the administration of BHO was in fact that. The massive expansion of bureaucratic regulatory authorities that he has provided may have pushed them past the point of critical mass where no response from the population or elected officials will be able to deflect them from their chosen path. Of course, even if they succeed in inflicting their vision of global governance by a selected elite on the world, I suspect that eventually the spirit of human desire for freedom will reassert itself. Unfortunately, the resulting conflict of visions is unlikely to be resolved by anything as civil as electoral politics, in which case the world of the future may look back with nostalgic longing, wishing we had bequeathed them something as benign as surging sea levels, multiplying hurricanes and tornadoes, droughts, floods and acid oceans.
Colin J Ely
December 9, 2010 1:06 am
It would be very interesting to know if any of the Australian Delegation signed these two petitions?
johanna
December 9, 2010 1:07 am
” johanna says: “…I would love to be there asking for help to get my inheritance out of Nigeria. I can’t see why being Caucasian would necessarily hurt my chances, either.”
Nigeria? That’s in Central America, right, dood?”
——————————————————————
Heh, heh. Jorge, you’re my kind of guy. Just step over here and I’ll explain the whole tragic story, and how you can help.
Rufus Anton
December 9, 2010 1:38 am
I have a severe di-hydrogen-monoxide habit. I take it everyday in large quantities (like almost a gallon). I certainly can’t go more than a day without it, and if you were to put me on cold turkey, I’d die painfully within a matter of days.
This vicious stuff must not be taken lightly!
Michael
December 9, 2010 1:41 am
This is just so sad, just so sad.
Brian H
December 9, 2010 3:02 am
Stonyground says:
December 8, 2010 at 10:46 am
…
On the subject of words that sound as if they mean the opposite of what they actually mean. I always found the phrase “The exception that proves the rule” baffling.
Waall, Stoney, it’s a matter of the nature of the particular exception. I.e., it is one that shows that the rule is actually true. The one calm redhead you know turns out to be a dye job. The token white on a basketball team. Etc.
dwright
December 9, 2010 3:07 am
My Chem training, is a bit old and I-m sick with a Strep. infection and it’s 3am here.
took me about 3 seconds to think, and less than 0.5 second to spit out my cold medicated tea.
WUWT I already cooked my monitor once this week with various gasps but keep it coming, I’ll just buy a more liquid proof one.
That deadly H2O, ya know.
dwright
StefanL
December 9, 2010 4:15 am
@ur momisuglyStonyGround 10:46, @ur momisuglyMegawati 1:13 and @ur momisugly BrianH 3:02
The original saying is:
“It’s the exception that proofs the rule”
— i.e. if you find an exception to a supposed rule , then the rule is false.
To “proof” something is to test it; hence “50 proof whiskey” and “proof range”.
Brian H
December 9, 2010 4:37 am
StefanL;
Fowler’s Modern English Usage disagrees with you. And therefore so do I. You just made that up.
johanna
December 9, 2010 6:19 am
‘The exception that proves the rule’ is a philosophical concept.
If there is no exception, there is no rule.
Kinda like the ‘if a tree falls in the forest’ question.
geo
December 9, 2010 6:27 am
Geez, I didn’t fall for that one when my 9th grade Chemistry teacher gave it a go 30+ years ago. . .
Larry Sheldon
December 9, 2010 6:50 am
AC says: “…footnote for MAX @ur momisugly 12/10 10:01 – wouldn’t ethenol/ CHOOH be better described as Carbonic Hydro DiOxy Hydrogen?”
Then jorgekafkazar says:
No, CHOOH is not ethanol. A reasonable synonym for Ethanol would be ‘methyl
carbinol.’ Ooooooo! Sounds nasty, doesn’t it? It is a toxic chemical, an industrial
solvent and a gasoline contaminant, kills over 100,000 Americans every year,
and does over $200 billion in damages in the US alone. Maybe we should ban
the stuff. Oh, wait…
ethenol ethanol ethynol
Not a chemist–is the central vowel significant?
Okay, so it’s an old and fairly well known trick CFACT pulled on these clowns, but that makes it even worse that they didn’t spot it. Still, they should give CFACT credit for recycling.
David S
December 9, 2010 8:49 am
This is funny but also sad. A world populated by morons is not one that is likely to do well. And these folks vote too!
Life is easier when you do not think. That is why these people can afford to waste so much time in Cancun – imbibing hazardous chemicals like dihydrogen monoxide.
Gary Pearse
December 9, 2010 9:49 am
Even a lethal dose of milk will kill you! I think the petition lists should at least be scanned for illuminaries of the movement and presented in a post. Also, don’t forget that having been bitten by the H2O ban at Copenhagen, there was probably a workshop or two and printed handouts warning the unwary of these petitions that would have reduced the number of nimrods who signed the Cancun one.
They remind me of my father’s sheep, except these ones are running toward the danger to humans (toward the anti-human ideology).
My father raised goats and sheep together. Goats are smarter than sheep, better able to detect a predator (primarily coyotes in the farming area). When the goats judged they were at risk they’d run from the pasture to the barn area – and the sheep would blindly follow. He didn’t lose many.
And by copying goats sheep would achieve what they never would have thought they could do – get over high fences. But then the dumb beasts were on the outside of the protective fence, hopefully remembering how they got there thus maybe how to get back.
Fed by the high priests of “science”, whose incompetence is partly revealed here: http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/02/the_hidden_flaw_in_greenhouse
ayemossum
December 9, 2010 12:14 pm
Holy crap I wish this surprised me.
Anyone with a brain that has taken any chemistry class, should have a basic knowledge of chemical nomenclature. That most basic knowledge would tell you “dihydrogen… ok that means H2, monoxide… means O, so…. H2O…. hmmmm”
Keep in mind that as part of my Computer Science major (a Bachelor’s degree), I had to take Chemistry. Still not sure why on that one, except that it’s a Science degree, so a well-rounded science education sort of makes sense. So any of these people with any science background should know this. Proves that they actually care nothing for science, but care a LOT about their ideology, unfortunately confusing the two.
Jack Herman
December 9, 2010 12:15 pm
Oh yeah. I’d live to see the list of “enlightened” people that signed these petitions.
The “brilliant” folks gather to determine the fate of the world. DEFUND/DISBAND THE UNITED NATIONS.
Larry Sheldon
December 9, 2010 12:29 pm
ayemossum:n No offense intended, but I though a a “Science” degree[1] meant “didn’t have to learn a foreign language”.
[1] I have a BS in Management (A “BSBS” if you like).
johanna says: “…I would love to be there asking for help to get my inheritance out of Nigeria. I can’t see why being Caucasian would necessarily hurt my chances, either.”
Nigeria? That’s in Central America, right, dood?
Excellent event! It would be even more spectacular if they could get the signatures of some of the kooks-in-chief such as Pachauri.
I recall going to the site and reading how a class of college CHEMISTRY students signed the petition.
same idiot mentality that let a bunch of college feminists to sign a petition to end women’s suffrage.
This is what happens when critical thinking is not taught.
So..where is the gold footage of Cancun delegates falling for this “gag”.
I cannot find any link
The really sad thing about this is that, even after having their gullibility so nakedly exposed, most of these clucks will still continue to think of themselves as among the”smart people”, without whose wise and prudent guidance and leadership, we of the IKDMBRN (Ignorant, Knuckle Dragging, Mouth Breathing, Red Necks) would continue in our hopeless delusion that we are capable of making the best choices about what is good for us on our own.
Every human has within themselves a tyrannical impulse, an instinct to assume that the world would be a much better place if everyone else would just listen to them and do as they are told. For civilized society to survive and prosper each individual, from the moment of birth until the achievement of adult maturity, must be rigorously trained, by the application of proper parenting, well designed education, and cultural reinforcement, that that instinct needs to be tempered and suppressed. Unfortunately we are now well into at least three generations who have developed in an environment where parenting, schools, and virtually the entire popular culture have been completely inverted in this regard. Given that, we should hardly be surprised that many young people are the way they are. Indeed, what we should find amazing, as I certainly do, is that we can still find hundreds of thousands of young people willing to voluntarily place their very lives on the line in defense of principles which, though possessing the highest ultimate value, have been substantially abandoned and devalued by the society where they have spent their entire lives. We should not be too hard on these young folks, because most of them never really had a chance to be other than they are. Everything and everyone they have ever been exposed too has told them that the very system that provided the privileged lives they’ve enjoyed is the source of all evil in the world and that they shouldn’t feel pride and happiness for their lucky accident of birth, but shame and guilt. To be honest, if I had been born forty years later and had to grow up in the environment of continuous indoctrination of the last couple decades, I can’t deny that I might not be out there shoulder to shoulder with them, parroting the same nonsense.
The point of this windy and disjointed rant is that we need to avoid triumphalism and complacency. Just because the wheels seem to be falling off the climate alarmist’s wagon at the moment is no reason to believe that they will quietly slink away and admit defeat. The collectivists behind this farce have been in dedicated pursuit of their utopian delusions for more than a century and multiple failures, millions of deaths, and untold human misery have yet to persuade them of the error of their ways. Their demonization of CO2 has been so successful that, even with no credible disasters to drive it, the notion that doing anything necessary to reduce emissions of CO2 is largely unchallenged and is included in the marketing plans of virtually every corporation in the world, as well as in every one of the thousands of bureaucracies at every level of governance. Even absent Cap and Tax legislation, the efforts of EPA, CARB, and similar regulatory tyrannies, as well as their comrades in the EU and UN continue apace. The political class, unless their feet are held firmly to the fire by an enraged populous screaming dissent, will do little to even slow the progress. Even if the political will to attempt to stop this runaway train could be assembled, the wholesale dismantling and reconstruction of all the regulatory bodies now involved that would be required is almost unimaginable.
The climate debate has been notable for frequent references to “tipping points” and history may record that the administration of BHO was in fact that. The massive expansion of bureaucratic regulatory authorities that he has provided may have pushed them past the point of critical mass where no response from the population or elected officials will be able to deflect them from their chosen path. Of course, even if they succeed in inflicting their vision of global governance by a selected elite on the world, I suspect that eventually the spirit of human desire for freedom will reassert itself. Unfortunately, the resulting conflict of visions is unlikely to be resolved by anything as civil as electoral politics, in which case the world of the future may look back with nostalgic longing, wishing we had bequeathed them something as benign as surging sea levels, multiplying hurricanes and tornadoes, droughts, floods and acid oceans.
It would be very interesting to know if any of the Australian Delegation signed these two petitions?
” johanna says: “…I would love to be there asking for help to get my inheritance out of Nigeria. I can’t see why being Caucasian would necessarily hurt my chances, either.”
Nigeria? That’s in Central America, right, dood?”
——————————————————————
Heh, heh. Jorge, you’re my kind of guy. Just step over here and I’ll explain the whole tragic story, and how you can help.
I have a severe di-hydrogen-monoxide habit. I take it everyday in large quantities (like almost a gallon). I certainly can’t go more than a day without it, and if you were to put me on cold turkey, I’d die painfully within a matter of days.
This vicious stuff must not be taken lightly!
This is just so sad, just so sad.
Waall, Stoney, it’s a matter of the nature of the particular exception. I.e., it is one that shows that the rule is actually true. The one calm redhead you know turns out to be a dye job. The token white on a basketball team. Etc.
My Chem training, is a bit old and I-m sick with a Strep. infection and it’s 3am here.
took me about 3 seconds to think, and less than 0.5 second to spit out my cold medicated tea.
WUWT I already cooked my monitor once this week with various gasps but keep it coming, I’ll just buy a more liquid proof one.
That deadly H2O, ya know.
dwright
@ur momisuglyStonyGround 10:46, @ur momisuglyMegawati 1:13 and @ur momisugly BrianH 3:02
The original saying is:
“It’s the exception that proofs the rule”
— i.e. if you find an exception to a supposed rule , then the rule is false.
To “proof” something is to test it; hence “50 proof whiskey” and “proof range”.
StefanL;
Fowler’s Modern English Usage disagrees with you. And therefore so do I. You just made that up.
‘The exception that proves the rule’ is a philosophical concept.
If there is no exception, there is no rule.
Kinda like the ‘if a tree falls in the forest’ question.
Geez, I didn’t fall for that one when my 9th grade Chemistry teacher gave it a go 30+ years ago. . .
AC says: “…footnote for MAX @ur momisugly 12/10 10:01 – wouldn’t ethenol/ CHOOH be better described as Carbonic Hydro DiOxy Hydrogen?”
Then jorgekafkazar says:
No, CHOOH is not ethanol. A reasonable synonym for Ethanol would be ‘methyl
carbinol.’ Ooooooo! Sounds nasty, doesn’t it? It is a toxic chemical, an industrial
solvent and a gasoline contaminant, kills over 100,000 Americans every year,
and does over $200 billion in damages in the US alone. Maybe we should ban
the stuff. Oh, wait…
ethenol ethanol ethynol
Not a chemist–is the central vowel significant?
The Green Voters
Okay, so it’s an old and fairly well known trick CFACT pulled on these clowns, but that makes it even worse that they didn’t spot it. Still, they should give CFACT credit for recycling.
This is funny but also sad. A world populated by morons is not one that is likely to do well. And these folks vote too!
Life is easier when you do not think. That is why these people can afford to waste so much time in Cancun – imbibing hazardous chemicals like dihydrogen monoxide.
Even a lethal dose of milk will kill you! I think the petition lists should at least be scanned for illuminaries of the movement and presented in a post. Also, don’t forget that having been bitten by the H2O ban at Copenhagen, there was probably a workshop or two and printed handouts warning the unwary of these petitions that would have reduced the number of nimrods who signed the Cancun one.
They remind me of my father’s sheep, except these ones are running toward the danger to humans (toward the anti-human ideology).
My father raised goats and sheep together. Goats are smarter than sheep, better able to detect a predator (primarily coyotes in the farming area). When the goats judged they were at risk they’d run from the pasture to the barn area – and the sheep would blindly follow. He didn’t lose many.
And by copying goats sheep would achieve what they never would have thought they could do – get over high fences. But then the dumb beasts were on the outside of the protective fence, hopefully remembering how they got there thus maybe how to get back.
Fed by the high priests of “science”, whose incompetence is partly revealed here: http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/02/the_hidden_flaw_in_greenhouse
Holy crap I wish this surprised me.
Anyone with a brain that has taken any chemistry class, should have a basic knowledge of chemical nomenclature. That most basic knowledge would tell you “dihydrogen… ok that means H2, monoxide… means O, so…. H2O…. hmmmm”
Keep in mind that as part of my Computer Science major (a Bachelor’s degree), I had to take Chemistry. Still not sure why on that one, except that it’s a Science degree, so a well-rounded science education sort of makes sense. So any of these people with any science background should know this. Proves that they actually care nothing for science, but care a LOT about their ideology, unfortunately confusing the two.
Oh yeah. I’d live to see the list of “enlightened” people that signed these petitions.
The “brilliant” folks gather to determine the fate of the world. DEFUND/DISBAND THE UNITED NATIONS.
ayemossum:n No offense intended, but I though a a “Science” degree[1] meant “didn’t have to learn a foreign language”.
[1] I have a BS in Management (A “BSBS” if you like).