Guest Post by Ruth Bonnett
As early as 1969, writings by Ayn Rand – philosopher and novelist – sounded the alarm bells on the environmentalist movement and the potential impact on our society:
The uncontested absurdities of today are the accepted slogans of tomorrow. They are accepted by default.
– The Anti Industrial Revolution” – Ayn Rand
We are now living with the accepted slogans of “Global Warming”, “Climate Change”, “Global Climate Disruption” and “Climate Justice”, and the fitting of almost every weather observation into the increasingly broad hypothesis of “Anthropogenic Global Warming”. Forty years ago, these ideas were considered absurd, but were uncontested by the silent majority.
The Kyoto Protocol has come about due to the restriction of investigation into the cause of ‘climate change’ as human induced.
Ayn Rand described the restriction on technology as omniscience:
To restrict technology would require omniscience – a total knowledge of all the possible effects and consequences of a given development, for all of the potential innovators of the future. Short of such omniscience, restrictions mean an attempt to regulate the unknown, to limit the unborn and to set rules for the undiscovered, and more: an active mind will not function by permission; an inventor will not spend years of struggle dedicated to an excruciating work, if the fate of his work depends not on the criterion of demonstrable truth, but on the arbitrary decision of some authority.
The United Nations, via UNEP and the WMO have attempt to restrict technology by the constructed IPCC objective to ‘prove’ that human produced carbon dioxide is causing global warming. In so doing, the United Nations has demonstrated that they believe themselves to be omniscient – all knowing and all seeing.
I wonder if the IPCC have considered the consequence of the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework on Climate Change – to Australian farmers?
Farmers in Australia have borne the significant financial burden of meeting Australia’s obligations under the Kyoto Protocol by the enforcement (by Tree Police) of Vegetation Control Legislation which gives us sufficient ‘carbon credits’ to meet those Kyoto ‘targets’.
A recent Senate Enquiry into Native Vegetation Laws, Greenhouse Gas Abatement and Climate Change Measures concluded that:
It is unreasonable that the burden of broad environmental objectives is borne by a small number of Australians. Where the current native vegetation laws have resulted in reduction of property value for landholders, this is unjust and it is inappropriate that this burden is borne by individual landholders. This situation should be addressed to better balance competing objectives, the cost burden of achieving these and to redress the current situation.
I have been lucky enough to meet and befriend some of the people belonging to this unlucky cohort (the ‘small number of Australians’ who bear this enormous financial burden.)
This cohort are the farmers and landholders who have had the value of the holdings reduced by an estimate $10.8 Billion to meet the United Nation’s expectations.
They are the farmers who are eighth generation, who live with and on the land, who give up precious family time to support others, who quietly weep at public meetings, who mourn the suicide of their mates, who live in fear so palpable that they do not dare speak to journalists, for fear of enraging the omniscient, the all powerful, the all seeing, the all knowing, the United Nations.
My Christmas message to farmers in Australia and around the world is this: I don’t intend to allow the recent Senate enquiry here to gather dust. I am an urban dweller who just happens to think that the ‘unsettled’ science and restriction of technology has brought about bad policy by way of the Kyoto Protocol and subsequent disastrous consequences for our farmers, their families and anyone who values sound science, property rights and our democratic freedom.
The concept of allowing everyone to vote irrespective of knowledge of issues, ability to read or write, payment of taxes, service to country and so on, leads to the same end as dictatorship over the long haul. One of the old Greeks; Plato, Socrates or one of their contemporaries felt that benevolent dictatorship was the way to go. Of course, hereditary rule inevitably leads the an idiot offspring to cause all kinds of problems.
Jim G
At least with heredity rule sometimes you will get a good one and sometimes you will get a bad one.
With democracy run by political parties you are garanteed a selection process whereby only those who are totally self serving, amoral, and totally lacking in principles will make it to the top.
Jim G says:
“The concept of allowing everyone to vote irrespective of knowledge of issues, ability to read or write, payment of taxes, service to country and so on, leads to the same end as dictatorship over the long haul.”
In the original form of democracy in Athens, elections were considered undemocratic!!! This is such a shock to most people that they don’t believe it, but it is the truth. What Greeks valued above all else was random selection as we use to select juries (or we should use … but again the elite don’t like it).
As for the “uneducated masses not being allowed to vote” …. why do you think that the Greeks were considered to have the best education system in the ancient world? Think about it! As soon as the elite realise that any one of the numb skulls of the citizenry could … more like will … go on to the ruling “juries” that ran their country, don’t you imagine they suddenly have a very strong desire that those ordinary people they usually treat as canon fodder for the next war suddenly gain a very high priority for a good education!
And by good education, I don’t mean being fed rubbish propaganda like kids these days, but being able to discuss and argue politics and science in a meaningful way.
… but of course, the real reason we call our system “democracy” is so that the masses don’t realise that there is a political system where we aren’t all ruled by the political elite who have been so ruinous to us all.
Well as someone living in Englandistan, we have 300 extra deaths per day in December because the price of fuel has been artificially increased, these are mainly the old and vulnerable. So I suppose the ( unspeakable C**ts ) must be dancing in the the streets about now.
Irony of irony we also have dear George Monbiot in the Grauniad lamenting about big energy suppliers stealing from the poor. Boggle!
From Jim G on December 28, 2010 at 3:07 pm:
The government of China concurs. Indeed, if you examine what the ancient Greeks considered their “benevolent” treatment of their slaves…
🙂
Imagine how different things would be if it were the global oil companies who were pushing wind mills. There wouldn’t be one within a thousand miles of anywhere.
Just goes to show the power of the greenie movement.
This is just another example of goofy legislation affecting those who work and live in the country, which can be guaranteed whenever there is an urban leftie/loony/liberal ‘elite’ in power.
The latter love to crusade/legislate for something about which they have no understanding, as long as it sounds green and/or supposedly protects something, which doesn’t need protecting. Recent examples are dandelions in Ontario and foxes in Britain.
It is clear to these urban dwellers that farmers have no idea how to work and look after the land and that is why they urgently need the politicians’ guidance on these matters.
Climate change is no different, the less a politician understands about science, the more likely he, or she, is to support AGW, just because it sounds green and supposedly protects something.
John Van Krimpen.
I write this purely from an interest point of view.
Firstly, the green movement has been doing similar stuff through EP legislation for decades. So farmer moaning woe is me it’s only raining on me is emo self interest not that there is anything wrong with that, but building codes and manufacturing standards for Industry have been getting more and more onerous for more than two decades.
Secondly, farmer and grazing groups all Ag Allied industry, have been having a two bob sly bet, laying off looking for carbon dollars, for every ag industrialist bemoaning Kyoto, their whole representational system, including politicains has been laying off looking for carbon dollars. Please believe there is more than enough blame to share all round.
These are not unjust criticisms, on this blog NASA the Physics Guild and the Royal Society get much needed bumkicken, Banks and the big end of town similarly, but where do Ag guild and political reps get their bums needfully kicked playing both sides of the Paddock line.
Kyoto was over when Australia signed, so the issue was Australian legislation crept quietly into place, in decades previous.
For the those noble souls, who seek legally to counter this, one of the first properties I financed as a lending banker in 1994 was naked land ie native, grass and timber, I said to the farmer in case in point, get yer matches and chains out and stick rake going, get it into production and keep it there. Ag knew this stuff was coming. There is no such thing as money for nothing.
I had just come from sme business banking in 1994 where the EP stuff was already causing business havoc. People have been playing sand castles, moving their sand castles backwards for over two decades against the green creeping death by socialism I know about and most it pre CAGW rubbish. I used to read finance proposals from all over Brisbane and this EP stuff was red hot then and killing deals everywhere.
Having said all the above I have met Landowners who treat their land better than any suburban green activist. On properties the size of large cities.
And yes Alice, I am the one who challenged in science, saying as a skeptic onus for proof belongs to you Anti scientists in the CAGW, your models/projections don’t work.
I do believe I said that to one Gavin of NASA infamy.
For gods sake…. is it not obvious everything that David Archibald and DR Svensmark have said has come to pass in the last year. There vhas been a massive increase in middle cloud formation with consequent increased precipitation everywhere (where it usually rains/snows), lets check the data at the end of year…I hope that these persons will be honored with the real Nobel prize one day (including WUWT) for persisting. BTW back in Australia massively below average temps here in queensland its like winter! So is it global cooling or warming LOL.
OT
Ed Rollins on CNN just said, “The Snow is Too Dam High Party”, may be the next political party. I liked that. They were discussing The Rent is too dam high party. Anyway, that sounds like the fake party the WUWT community should start.
The Rent Is Too Damn High Party’s Jimmy McMillan at the NY Governor Debate
I completed reading “Atlas Shrugged” last week. I don’t know how I missed reading it all these years. It is an eye-opening philosophy. I now see looters and mouchers more clearly than ever before, although I have clearly seen them in the environmental movement for a long time. The AGW crowd are first tier looters who are filling their fat pockets at the expense of everyone in the world with no significant benefit.
It is really shameful that they have been allowed to get away with the corruption of science and loot the treasury.
I hear a lot of people here complaining about politics, and yes our leaders are idiots who inhabit an office that has also attracted idiots to the position because no smart person or even likely moral person would want the responsibility that comes with these jobs. So over 30-4o years we get garbage in our white house, our house, and all over the world as the bottom feeders and figurative vampires are drawn to positions of power like moths to a lightbulb.
The solution is easy, the tea party movement in the US for instance should be a stepping stone for the next step. Instead of a loose confederation that has a narrow intent such as the tea party, we really need to wake up and the smart people need to take the plunge and get into politics. Its a dog eat dog world, but the sooner we take responsibility for it, the better it will get.
I by no means am a tea partier or a member, but this does not mean this is a system that can not over-come the hurdles that are put out to discourage this. Choose good people to run for the smaller positions, and run them into the respective parties. In the US, infilitrate both parties with people who have a good head on their shoulders and slowly re-make politics into a true game where both parties are sane and logical.
Think this is impossible? Well most people thought the tea party was impossible to win, and although it did suffer its lumps, it did prove the true strength of genuine grass-roots movements and the power they can have.
It is not about protesting as much as getting a platform, an agenda and going from there. We need to cut the fat from each of our countries and truly strive for common sense and logic in our rulers. Kyoto is going down the drain, and as much as I agree it killed people and the people who got the countries into it on bad science should be held accountable for it, we need to move on as people and realize that the only person who can make a difference is yourself.
Remember JFK, “ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” I agree with most of you, but simply wishing that government stops being stupid won’t happen until you run that gauntlet and get yourself involved. Win or lose, you put positions into the mainstream and they will have to be seen. As we saw from the global warming bologne, its up to the smarter people to take an interest in politics.
If you can’t get involved, simple letter writing can make a load of differences. I started writing to my representatives shortly after climate-gate and have been sending snail mail and emails almost weekly just to get the idea through that there are people who did not drink the kool-aid. Lots of people think it was the republicans we have to thank for cap and trade not going through. That is horse$*#&. If the democrats had not killed it themselves, we would have it today. Write letters to all of your representatives and get involved. I for one have seen a marked difference in the responses just over a year…and I bet if everyone started getting involved it would make even more of a difference.
I have sympathy for the Australian farmers, but they are not getting involved like they need to. The Government works differently, but the second you start getting letters from all sorts of concerned citizens, that is when politicians see their jobs being threatened. This is the kind of citizen/grassroots activism which works and its the only thing that us global warming sceptics have since the MSM + all political parties don’t care a dime for us. Get out there and make a difference.
I still got me two bob on the Sun. Biggest variable, the whole solar system rotates around the variable stat we know as the sun.
It’s up to boffin boyos to bring me money home. Oi oi oi.
When all the man hours of implementing the Kyoto Protocol are added up as well as the lost productive hours to the scheme; It will add up to thousands of lifetimes lost.
Here’s a fun Freudian slip: Dan Harris, on ABC’s Nightline (Wednesday, December 22), with the help of AGW alarmist Michael Oppenheimer, ridiculed videos of skeptics Piers Corbyn and Dr. Fred Singer.
Here is the quote that betrays the mind of the liberal / greenie:
HARRIS: Corbyn’s methods are, to say the least, unorthodox. He forecasts based on the magnetic connection between the sun and the earth.
orthodox –adjective
1. of, pertaining to, or conforming to the approved form of any doctrine, philosophy, ideology, etc.
2. of, pertaining to, or conforming to beliefs, attitudes, or modes of conduct that are generally approved.
3. customary or conventional, as a means or method; established.
4. sound or correct in opinion or doctrine, esp. theological or religious doctrine.
5. conforming to the Christian faith as represented in the creeds of the early church.
It’s the (choose one or more)
Church of Global Warming
Church of Climate Change
Church of Climate Dysfunction
Ben D. says: wrote
December 28, 2010 at 4:39 pm
I’m with you brother. I’ve been active since 2007 in many ways. I’m slowing down now but there are more people out there whom have awoken than you think. I like to think I have trained them well. If I skip a beat, I’m sure others will take up the slack.
PlainJane says:
December 28, 2010 at 2:15 pm
good post Jane – I have a farmer friend who cleared some land to grow grass seed that he sells to Dubai for their dairy industry.
A local greenie dobbed him in and he was fined $10,000 and he is not allowed to do anything on his property without permission from the land and environment department!! BTW nearly half of his land is plantation timber.
The local farmers are very very angry, they all attended the Peter Spenser meetings that went on around the country, they were ready to drive to Griffith to support their mates over the MDB BS if nothing was done. One day there’s going to be a huge backlash against the greens believe me.
the main problem in australia is where too laid back where letting the green leftys run over us, we will wake up when it is too late
Kyotoism only succeeded in enriching the UN bureaucrats and rich governments who succeeded in slamming various new environmental regulations and regulatory fees, new energy taxes, they created new bureaucracies and wined and dined in frequent global climate meetings.
Ruth Bonnet makes up
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palpable that they do not dare speak to journalists, for fear of enraging the omniscient, the all powerful, the all seeing, the all knowing, the United Nations.
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Ruth Bonnet the urbanite Ayn Rand junkie reckons that:
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Soil erosion is caused by the inability to clear regrowth.
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Hmmm. So growing plants cause the land to be clear of plants???????
While I agree that farmers in Australia have been unfairly targeted by environmental legislation written by people who don’t know what they are talking about, the Ayn Rand approach would not be supported by the vast majority of them. Australian farmers have been advocates of agrarian socialism for more than 100 years – recipients of government largesse in many forms. Drought assistance, flood assistance, tax breaks, subsidies, publicly funded R&D, services (such as telecommunications, health and education) provided free or below cost and cross subsidised by city people, etc, etc.
As a PP said, they and their lobbyists are experts at playing both sides of the fence. They have always tried to capitalise their profits and socialise their losses. From what I hear, farmers in other parts of the world are not spotlessly pure in this regard either.
So, I do think the ‘get your thieving hands off my property’ crowd are being disingenuous, and if the cross subsidies and benefits were withdrawn the squeals from the broader farming community would be heard in the Antarctic.
The very reasonable complaints about the legislative burdens imposed by ideology driven ignoramuses would get a much more sympathetic hearing from the wider (and more numerous) community outside the agricultural sector if some advocates did not wrap it up in another form of extremism.
Sam Hall says:
December 28, 2010 at 1:33 pm
[ youtube video]
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At the end of the video, in a plea for support, there was an absolutely frightening phrase: “our future is your future.”
For those of us in the U.S., I realized that their “present” is our very near “future” unless this AGW craziness is brought to a halt very quickly. I have never been politically active, but that is going to change.
The mother load of Australian Environmental Law:
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/epabca1999588/
and, Agenda 21 in Australian Law:
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/nepca1994432/sch1.html
johanna, the folks who would squeal would be the folks who buy cheap food at the super markets. If we were allowed to price out raw products according to market values and livable wages, all without subsidies, the price of food would rise considerably. You enjoy the price of food because of subsidies.
Were subsidies to be lifted I would be able to farm as I see fit, and price as I see fit. You would not find me whining one bit, but the folks at the check-out counter would be crying all the way home. There would be no money left over for buying wants anymore.