Guest commentary by Indur Goklany
Sometimes the true agenda is laid bare.
From http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2011/08/19/1, a piece on Bill McKibben, in which E&E News’ Paul Fialka discusses his agenda, are these passages.
[My comments are in brackets. I have highlighted some passages.]
Many of the climate theories in [McKibben’s] book [“The End of Nature.”]– and the future career path of McKibben — were shaped by James Hansen, who was then and is now the head of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York. Starting in 1988, Hansen had begun to testify before Congress that greenhouse gas emissions had begun to change familiar weather patterns on the planet and, without action to limit them, the changes would become more obvious and dangerous in the 21st century.
As Hansen explained and as McKibben later found out, the people who were most vulnerable to the flooding, famine and drought and the spread of tropical diseases lived in developing countries. McKibben was interviewing people in the slums of Bangladesh in 2006 when he was hospitalized with dengue fever, which is still untreatable. As he watched others dying, he recalled in a later book: “Something in me snapped. Nothing concrete had come from my work, or anyone else’s.”…
Putting the U.S. economy into ‘graceful decline’
While some companies have been critical of the chamber’s lobbying, McKibben will have great difficulty convincing them about another premise of his, which is that to cope with the more expensive food, weather, health and energy challenges of a climate-changed world, the growth of America’s economy can’t continue.
350.org supporters line up in Baku, Azerbaijan. They were among those in 188 countries who demonstrated for climate change solutions on Oct. 10, 2010. Photo courtesy of Flickr. He talks about federal policies that put the economy in a “graceful decline,” one that stimulates small-scale, organic farming and has more of a focus on activities in neighborhoods, towns and states than on national and international affairs. “We need to scale back, to go to ground,” he says in “Eaarth.”
[COMMENT: (1) Apparently, it has never occurred to McKibben that the perhaps the major reason why people in developing countries were most vulnerable to flooding, famine and drought and the spread of tropical diseases and why Bangladeshis died from dengue is that they lacked economic development and had stuck to “organic farming” for much longer than farmers in the developed countries. (2) There is nothing “graceful” about lower economic development. Ask not only people in developing countries but also those trapped without jobs in developed countries.]
What McKibben says he wants from Washington ispoverty a “stiff price on carbon” emissions. He calls cap and trade, the Democrats’ most recent legislative attempt to impose a price on carbon emissions through an economywide emissions trading scheme, “an incredibly complicated legislative scheme that gives door prizes to every interested industry and turns the whole operation over to Goldman Sachs to run.”
…Fred Krupp, president of the Environmental Defense Fund…one of the leaders of a coalition of major environmental groups and corporations that pushed cap and trade through the House [when asked] about McKibben’s advocacy of civil disobedience, … said “that’s a matter of personal conscience and personal choice. It’s not among the tactics that EDF uses.”
Frank O’Donnell, president of Clean Air Watch, a small, Washington-based environmental group, is among those lining up alongside McKibben…
Paul Bledsoe, a former Clinton administration White House aide, has known McKibben for 15 years [and] now works with Washington’s Bipartisan Policy Center, said he isn’t surprised by McKibben’s move toward civil disobedience. “Because climate impacts will hurt and potentially devastate the poor disproportionately, the moral and social justice elements of climate are much greater than many other environmental problems,” Bledsoe said.
[COMMENT: So how would a decline in economic development – “graceful” or otherwise – reduce climate impacts?]
In the interview here, McKibben explained that his group, 350.org, gets about $1 million a year in donations, most of it coming from foundations. Most of its activists are volunteers, led by 20 to 30 staffers “who are paid very little.” Financially, it is outgunned by the U.S. Chamber and fossil fuel companies, which is why he has organized it as a “movement” to raise public awareness. “Our currency is bodies and spirit,” he said. “This [climate change] is the biggest thing that’s ever happened.”
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I suspect that the people who advocate a return to “small scale” farming have never actually tried it .
It is always interesting to check to see whether the facts surrounding doom and gloom projections reflect reality or are exagerrations. In this case the writer uses McKibben’s unfortunate contracting of Dengue Fever as an emotional amplifier:
McKibben was interviewing people in the slums of Bangladesh in 2006 when he was hospitalized with dengue fever, which is still untreatable. As he watched others dying, he recalled in a later book: “Something in me snapped. Nothing concrete had come from my work, or anyone else’s.”…
The image created is of McKibben being surrounded by the dyingfrom Dengue Fever. How accurate is this image?
The most recent WHO report (http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2010/9789241564090_eng.pdf ) relates a somewhat more moderate picture:
In 2007, the number of dengue cases reported to WHO from the South-East
Asia Region increased by 18% compared with 2006, but it declined in 2008 (Figure
5.1.2). Th e number of severe dengue cases also increased from 2006 to a total of
about 250 000 in 2007, including 1966 deaths, although the average case-fatality
rate (CFR) for the region is estimated to be less than 1%. In some countries,
areas remain where higher CFRs are recorded than the regional and national
averages; i>
The situation in Bangladesh is somewhat better than for the region as a whole. According to the WHO, in 2006, the year tha McKibben conracted his fever some 2200 people contracted Dengue Fever and 11 died! (see http://www.searo.who.int/LinkFiles/Dengue_dengue_updated_tables_06.pdf )
Who would have guessed from McKibben’s purple prose that 11 people in all Bangladesh died out of a population of 140 million (2001). That is 11 too many, but the numbers give lie to McKibben’s hysteria.
Yeah, let’s hear it for subsistence farming and the economic and health benefits it brings (sarc.)
Sorry. I screwed up the formatting and the spelling of exaggeration.
DirkH says:
August 21, 2011 at 8:55 am
These people are happy when you’re unemployed.
“Great News! Economic Recovery Stalls….”
==================================================
There are some disgustingly sick bastards out there.
McKibben’s views belong to a common ideology that ascribes human civilization as a destructive force on the planet, from which salvation lies through a return to a simple, bygone pastoral existence.
In the remake of “The day the Earth stood still,” the fate of the planet was eventually saved by alien intervention removing the support of industrial civilization. The film ended here, and declined to explore what such an existence would be like in reality. I suspect that both McKibben and the director of the movie would be shocked to learn that the “cure” would be worse than the disease. Without the means to grow sufficient food to feed themselves, 6 billion humans would ravage the planet to consume every living creature. Without energy to stay warm 6 billion humans would rip up every piece of living material that is able to burn.
The results, I fear, would not be pretty. Sorry Bill, but you are a bone head.
My experience is that many of the enviro-fascists I’ve met lead well sheltered lives, thanks to a developed world life style and various forms of income. Young ones are often still protected by the efforts of Mummy and Daddy (Mom & Pop I suppose for US readers). Older ones often have inherited money, or well paid jobs via connections, or nice jobs in enviro Charities, exploiting (tho’ they would deny it) the gullible.
Somehow, they make no connection between their desire for everyone to retreat to poverty, and the impact it would have on the protected lives they lead. I suppose because in their lives it is generally other people who have taken the strain.
Sorry to be so cynical.
Mike says:
“If you’re forced to spend more time working hand to mouth, and have little or no disposable income, they reason you’ll be happier, less of a risk, and much more compliant. Whats not to like?”
With the impending and future, yet to be defined, federal budget cuts, the same could be said about government funded climate scientists.
Mckibben arrested, will spend 2 days in jail…
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/08/21-2
@ur momisugly Vince Causey says:
August 21, 2011 at 11:14 am
McKibben’s views belong to a common ideology that ascribes human civilization as a destructive force on the planet, from which salvation lies through a return to a simple, bygone pastoral existence.
In the remake of “The day the Earth stood still,” the fate of the planet was eventually saved by alien intervention removing the support of industrial civilization. The film ended here, and declined to explore what such an existence would be like in reality. I suspect that both McKibben and the director of the movie would be shocked to learn that the “cure” would be worse than the disease. Without the means to grow sufficient food to feed themselves, 6 billion humans would ravage the planet to consume every living creature. Without energy to stay warm 6 billion humans would rip up every piece of living material that is able to burn.
That’s only the start. We have many historical examples of civilizations collapsing. It often ends with human sacrifice, cannibalism, etc. and massive reduction in population. On a global scale, I would expect that fewer than 10,000,000 would survive beyond the first 10 years of such a breakdown, and most of those would be the primitive tribes that are already living at or near Stone age levels. The higher you are on the civilization ladder the harder and farther you will fall.
I don’t think they realise the consequences of their pipe-dreams.
If we convert 50% of our food to bio-fuels, and then go to organic farming as well, something like 70% of the world’s population will need to be culled, in order to balance the food supply.
.
Terrorists are being brought to justice in criminal courts these days…
Al Gore and the global warming alarmists such as left wing politicians, pseudo scientists, journalists, the Hollywood idiots, have been inflicting psychological terrorism upon a whole generation of children all over the world for the last 20 years.
These charlatans should be brought to justice as the perpetrators of the biggest scam in the history of this planet.
The social,financial and psychological damages that they caused are beyond comprehension.
No criminal organization in history has ever come even close to having such a dezastruous impact on so many people, for such a long time, and make so much money in the process.
They should not be permitted to get away with it.Hundred of billions have been wasted on a fraud, social and economical policies have been altered based on a fraud….the moral authors of this fraud should be in jail for the rest of their lives and their fortune seized.
So, “graceful decline” is going to cause me to farm organically? Dude, if I’m really tight for money and with new opportunities to make more, I’m going to say, “screw organic, I’m not losing a penny’s worth of my crops to bug.” Out come the pesticides and the fertilizer. I’ll worry about the ground water when my belly is full and I’m rich enough to afford that luxury.
And this is how it has worked since the beginning of the industrial revolution. People don’t care about the environment until they’re rich enough to care about the environment. If you care, you want FASTER growth, not slower growth.
amoorhouse says:
August 21, 2011 at 12:54 am
Our road to hell is paved with his good intentions.
—————————–
Like all religions, the Gaia Cult has injunctions to sacrifice. Like all specious religions, its injunctions involved the sacrifice of other people.
I didn’t realise dengue rendered one insane. As an Environmental Health Officer who spent years trying to convince a careless community it could wipe out dengue here in Queensland by simply reducing artificial mosquito breeding sites without any success I now have another message – clearly dengue causes insanity.
A temperature increase of 0.8 C or even 1.0 C over ~120 years is the biggest thing to have happened – please tell me the guy is kidding.
How are people supposed to afford an expensive electric car on a third world income? Evidently, by not having any car at all. McKibben is the leading prophet of the human self extinction movement.
Matthew Souders hit one of the main points. Economics is not at all a zero-sum game.
But what even a communist should realize is, if the real goal of the green movement were to protect Earth’s wildlife from pollution and habitat destruction, then they’re shooting themselves in the foot with both barrels. It’s not an accident that the rich countries have cleaner air and water, and do a much better job of protecting endangered species and wilderness areas, than any poor country ever will. This is so (and always will be) not because rich people “exploit” poor countries, but because people in poor countries simply have needs that are much more important to them than clean air, water, or wildlife. But when a poor country becomes rich (think South Korea and Taiwan from WW2 to the present) — THEN they clean up their air and water, protect their parks, and even reduce their birth rates.
If the UN succeeds in its “Agenda 21” goal of making every country poor, then there is no hope for the world’s wildlife. The US would become another China or Brazil or Congo, complete with their levels of pollution and deforestation.
Any green with even a slight understanding of economics would know this perfectly well, and if his true #1 goal is not to destroy human civilization, he would want to stop it from happening. So it is simply no longer possible to credit any of our opponents with both rationality and good faith.
It seems to me that the role of carbon dioxide has been almost purposely overstated in its effect on climate. Some say Governor Perry should never be considered to be a potential president because he does not ‘believe’ in global warming. (The required religion) I do not believe the fact that carbon dioxide has a logarithmic effect is properly understood by the public at large. Nor do I think they know that average ‘global warming’ as documented by those promoting the concern has been limited to about one degree F since modern measurements began 150 years ago.
I do accept the fact, however, the availability of carbon, as an energy source, is limited–what that limitation is, I am not prepared to say except that I see no real evidence that we have reached the bottom of the bowl yet.
If, by that time, we have not found a good, cheap alternative energy source, then there must be an eventual return to the population and approximate lifestyle of the 19th century overlain with our advanced technical knowledge. I do not see this necessarily as something to be feared. If climate change is being used as a false front to prepare people for this, then I think we are less likely to accept the required adaptations when needed.
Richard Heinberg has written a number of books (e.g. “The Party is Over”) and is featured on YouTube videos suggesting that an urgent need for these changes is beginning now. He may be premature.
[snip – too graphic]
Hans;
economic mayhem is the means and the goal.
Anthony:
Since their assumption is that it’s all CO2-driven, a decline in economic activity is the ONLY demonstrated method of cutting CO2 emissions. The two track each other almost exactly. And it cuts both ways; reducing either cuts the other.
ken Nohe says:
August 20, 2011 at 6:36 pm
The war on communism stopped because the Soviet Union collapses. If the communists went away, it had become obvious to all but the most self deluded that communism as a philosophy and as a way to organize an economy, had failed.
The war on communism stopped, because the communists went away, it wasn’t the other way around.
The war on terrorism stopped? Since when?
Here’s a very well written article that IMHO gives insight into the source of McKibben’s discontent:
http://www.martindurkin.com/blogs/real-global-warming-consensus-or-why-intellectuals-hate-capitalism
The problem with McKibben is that the snap was to superstition not sense. (In contrast to the co-founder of Greenpeace who woke up one morning and asked himself why he was living such a negative life.)
Likely fed by political teachings of fixed pie and exploitation, and the negative view of humans that underlies Marxism thus leads to those teachings. (Underlies Mercantilism as well, but it is much better at feeding people due to the relatively greater degree of economic freedom thus production for human life.) Both at root deny reality in favour of feelings – Hitler being an extreme example of that, he preached using emotions to decide, and was an expert at whipping up bad emotions. (Read the book The Ominous Parallels by Leonard Peikoff for history of the development of the ideology of National Socialist Germany.)
All any of the negative people have to do is look around at reality – people figuring things out, creating, planting, growing. McKibben could ask how it is that he is wearing a nice shirt, whose economically produced material was not imaginable two thousand years ago, instead of coarse cloth. He’s definitely not Mother Theresa.
The ungraceful decline:
1) Population due to non immigration growth has already peaked in all industrial countries including the US
2) It may also be that life expectancy has peaked or will shortly peak
3) The unprecedented benign (warm, generally moist) climate pattern of the past 500 years cannot last
4) There are soon going to be over 100,000 nuclear warheads in various hands
5) There are countless biological and chemical munitions
6) Job growth is nil in many countries
7) There are now critical shortages of medicines
8) Already, the wild beasts are retaking not only former farmlands and ranchlands, they are boldly moving into the cities, especially in the US and Canada
9) Reforestation is happening at a rate not seen since the Age of Migrations
10) The Magnetosphere is very weak, any disturbances from either the Sun or Cosmos will encounter minimal opposition
Any questions?
2012 may not be the end of times but it may well be the end of the good times.
I would say what happened to the trapped Donner party is a real example of an ungraceful population decline. This could obtain worldwide if there ever were a killing global food shortage situation.
Mr. McKibben appears to be typical of someone who has the impression that CO2 has a linear effect and it acts as an infrared black blanket getting ever thicker and darker, thus causing a proportional temperature increase. He appears to have no conception that most of the effect of each additional 100 PPM is hidden by that CO2 already in the atmosphere. Instead of his 350 PPM, I believe a more practical threshold of real concern would be at 3,500 PPM.