This is Hilarious. When the going gets tough, the occupiers get going! Wild eyed climate svengali Bill McKibben claims the “atmosphere is occupied”, and that’s why we have global warming.
Only one problem, when the atmosphere gets too cold, people bail from the tents and head home. The Infrared camera video footage shot by the Telegraph reveals a lot of tents are missing bodies at night.
What a bunch of wimps! Why, in the 60’s their parents protested in waist deep snow, carrying signs, and the protest march was uphill both ways!
Or maybe they brought in some polar bears to help them “experience and be one with nature” more fully and that’s why people are missing?
Here’s the story from the Telegraph:
Only one in 10 St Paul’s protesters stay overnight
Just one in 10 of the tents at the Occupy London Stock Exchange camp which has closed St Paul’s Cathedral are occupied at night, it can be revealed.
The camp forced St Paul’s to close for the first time since the Blitz and is costing local businesses thousands of pounds a day.
But most of the protesters are heading home to sleep in their own beds at night.
Infra red images taken by a police helicopter during the early hours show that only around 20 of the 200 tents on the encampment actually have people staying in them.
The Daily Telegraph has shot its own video of the St Paul’s camp using thermal imaging equipment which appears to confirm these claims.
…
On Monday the revelation was described as a “charade” and pressure was growing on the church and other authorities to evict the camp.
“It is like a phantom camp – a big charade,” said Matthew Richardson, a Corporation of London councillor, who is calling for action to be taken.
“It just shows that most of the people don’t have the courage of their convictions and are here just to make trouble and leaving your tent here overnight is a good way to do that.”
Full story and the video here
Oman,
you are so right, why would these morons occupy and protest when the ruling elites in the western world are doing such a good job. Hide the decline is such a good hit here it amazes me that hide the substandard mortgage loans,,,etc, and the consequences of same are of no concern to you. Too far east is west, too far right is ?.
Tom
One of the ‘protesters’ was on the radio yesterday (I put ‘protesters’ in inverted commas because I don’t think even they know what they are protesting about, other than being anti everything), and wa saying it was perfectly reasonable to go home overnight to take a shower and recharge the phone.
Oh, and a colleague of mnie happened to be in London last weekend, and his main observation about the protest was how they were all eating their Pret a Mange sandwiches and drinking their Starbucks or Costa coffee.
Based on this, it is obvious that a large proportion of the protestors are just the usual assortment of wealthy middle-class kids looking for an opportunity to rebel safely against their comfortable lifestyle. It’s very rarely (if ever) those who do have a genuine grievance that get involved in this sort of thing because they can’t afford the time and potential loss of earnings.
Why can’t McKibben and his idiotic followers see that Wall Street and the Square Mile in London
provide the capital to finance companies which in turn provides employment for those that wish to work as opposed to those that wish to sit on their backsides and protest. Has McKibben outlined how he would control capital if gets rid of the system that has been the backbone for the worlds economic development since the start of the industrial revolution? What does his protest set out to achieve. Does he feel that, with the support of so many idle drop-outs soiling the walkways of our cities, he is likely to create even the slightest glimmer of the irrational changes that he advocates? Yes the world economies are in a serious state at the present time, but in spite of the many past predictions of western governments that they intend to eliminate boom and bust, this will never ever be possible as the greatest economic brains in the world have no control whatsoever over world economic trends. If they did then boom and bust would have been eliminated years ago. McKibben, like Hansen, must be yet another great embarrasment to the AGW cult.
When the occupy movement first started I supported their opposition to corporate corruption, corporatism and banking crimes. I supported the hard working business people who were moved to protest because banks had committed many provable cases of fraud and with the overt support of both right and left wing governments over the past decade, had wrecked the economy and had been rewarded with hundreds of billions of tax-payers hard earned dollars, whilst main street was left to rot and they lost their ‘mom and pop’ businesses. I am opposed to very large corporations ‘merging’ with the state to extract billions from tax payers without a thought for fair competition and indeed, in spite of fair competition.
However as these protests have been spread, the message of “bring back capitalism to replace the corrupt corporatism” has been lost. As more and more lefties and “anti-capitalists” take part with banners helpfully giving a clear left wing anti-capitalist message for the left wing media to embrace and the right wing media to criticise and mock, then the original message has been lost.
These lefties have given the corporate media the message they need to keep society divided along left/right wing axis, to keep them fighting each other instead of the corrupt and greedy criminals, which fund both sides, at the top.
If you look at the top left corner, you can see a heat signature partially obscured by a tent. This suggests that the tents aren’t very transparent to the IR wavelengths being used by the camera. You can also see in this picture that about half the tents are glowing faintly. This would be expected if they are occupied. An energy balance would imply that the tent radiates as much energy as the people inside generate; however, a tent usually has a greater surface area and so a lower temperature is required to radiate the same amount of heat energy. So tents should be dimmer than the bodies inside them.
I think it’s unrealistic to expect to see distinct bodies inside tents with this kind of technology. It’s a shame that a site which is so good at the details of measurement decided to ignore them this time for a cheap laugh at a group of people who haven’t yet worked out their politics properly.
In any case, even if the tent city were empty at night the tents would still be useful; London is not a sunny place, and a shelter from the wind and rain during the day would be necessary from time to time.
Anyway, apart from this lapse, keep up the good work.
Gareth Phillips – “It saddens me when [this site] becomes over focussed on supporting right wing politics. … a bunch of people who may be muddled headed, are at least out there doing something to protest about how everyday hardworking people have been treated by big business over the last few years..”
These protests and the comments on them have opened up all sorts of interesting lines of thought. I recognise that I’m right-wing on most things, but I actually do have some sympathy for the sitters-ins’ view. The robber barons have been getting exponentially worse (I blame GWB most), and we have all suffered from them, and still are. Whether sit-ins etc are the right way to go about dealing with the problem is another matter.
St Paul’s losing £20,000 a day? Wow that’s ….. big business. What do they sell in there? Indulgences? (aka carbon credits)
Parking an empty tent outside St Paul’s? Security must have got very slack. When I was working in London, there were no WPB’s and no litter bins, and if you left a bag or briefcase anywhere it got taken away and blown up. A tent is heaps bigger. Maybe that’s why the police are using infrared but then if the infrared is showing that no-one’s in the tent, shouldn’t they be taking it away and blowing it up?
As a self-funded retiree, I rely on sharemarket investments – not a very comfortable existence at present – and opined a whlle ago that shareholders should be able to limit their own robber barons’ incomes. I was reminded by the opinee that the majority of shares of most companies are controlled by the robber baron fraternity so it wouldn’t work. (That in turn reminded me of the mafia boss’s comment after being shown round Wall Street – “I’m in the wrong business”).
So yes, the sitters-in have identified a genuine problem. We all need someone to find a solution. Ideally, that someone would be the next Potus.
These protesters are missing a great chance to reduce their carbon-footprint: Shivering all night in a fart sack is the righteous thing to do. Occupy the Church to send a message to the Banks? Oh for the days when the King’s men would read aloud the riot act and then, if you cared to hang around, they would disperse the rioters.
They are a bunch of deluded fools, barking up the wrong tree. but still: 10 years after 9/11 the West has been reduced to such bumbling, pathetic, whining … (“idiots” is the only word that comes readily to mind), when it comes to taking action and moving your feet on the part of the normal citizen? Does not bode well…
“They hate the corporations yet get their coffee from Starbucks, a large corporation, thus helping profit growth.
You hate the government yet get from A to B using public built roads.”
Good point, however if you could point me to private roads I could use instead AND allow me to chose to do so without paying for the public roads, then I would choose the private roads instead.
If I wish to travel, then I have no choice but to use public roads which I have also had no choice in paying for. I can choose to use private transport over public transport though and given that choice I always choose to use private transport.
Time to identify the ” campers” and find out how many are in reciept of benefits from the poor
British taxpayer!
@luismanueldias says:
October 26, 2011 at 3:09 am
You may want to stop now.
Oh and I believe the camera over word of mouth.
I fail to see how people standing behind tents have anything to do with the tents actually being occupied. It’s like saying ground-penetrating radar is completely worthless because it doesn’t allow you to image what’s on the other side of the planet.
Yes, the dean allowed protesters to enter early-on, then stopped them and closed on “health and safety” grounds.
Have a look at the trustees of St Pauls.
Chairman
Sir John Stuttard PWC partner, Former Lord Mayor of London.
Trustees
The Right Reverend Graeme Knowles, Dean of St Paul’s
Dame Helen Alexander DBE Deputy chair of the CBI, director of Centrica plc
Lord Blair of Boughton Former Metropolitan Police Commissioner
Roger Gifford Investment banker, big in City of London
John Harvey – Not clearly identified
Joyce Hytner OBE – Theatre director
Gavin Ralston Global Head of Product and leading international asset manager at Schroder Investment Management
Carol Sergeant CBE – Chief Risk Director at Lloyds TSB, formerly Managing Director for Regulatory Process and Risk at the FSA
John Spence OBE – Former Managing Director, Business Banking, LloydsTSB
Not surprising that those protesting are denied entry by those they are protesting against.
The area occupied by tents is used for public protest anyway, and some of it is “ownerless”, literally.
The right to protest, publicly, still operates in most of the country. Even if police and council permission has to be sought.
As for the press slant…..hmmmm….do not the press constantly rail against “deniers” ?
Nice to see that even people on here believe what they are fed by the MSM
Not much hope for climate skepticism is there ?
I knew it, and I can see the headline already: The Eco-bafoons Are A Cold Blooded Creature With No Light On Upstairs For Good Measure To Hide From The Fabled “Black Helicopters”!
:-()
Gareth Phillips says:
October 26, 2011 at 1:05 am
“If more individuals had the commitment to make their concerns known earlier it’s possible we may not have been in this mess with regard to our economies or climate science. A useful strategy also may be to stick to role descriptor of the site and stay out of political commentary, either that or start up a political debating site.”
Modern climate science (the perverted branch of geosciences) and politics are inseparatable from the start.
1975 `Endangered Atmosphere’
Conference: Where the Global Warming Hoax Was Born
Mead, Schneider, Holdren and Lovelock
http://www.21stcenturysciencetech.com/highlights/Fall_2007.html
http://www.21stcenturysciencetech.com/Articles%202007/GWHoaxBorn.pdf
So, Gareth, you say that enough people had been there in 1975 holding up protest signs against the perversion of science we wouldn’t be in this CAGW fantasy mess now? Nice suggestion!
What the OWS protest signs really say: “I don’t know what I want, but I want it NOW!”
Let’s see. People crapping in public. Dealing smack. Assaulting other people (including rape). Causing huge financial loss to businesses and cities.
The proper approach to this behavior is the following:
http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/26/us/occupy-wall-steet/index.html?
I love how they prevent the Telegraph camera man from leaving, saying, if someone would stalk around your house at night, you would be suspicious as well, wouldn’t you – say, do they see their tents as “their houses”, i.e. private property? I thought they were against capitalism! Kids, take care, once the concept of private property has taken hold in your minds, you’re on the way to the Dark Side! 🙂
Gareth Phillips says:
October 26, 2011 at 1:05 am
“you are becoming a little to focussed on a bunch of people who may be muddled headed, are at least out there doing something to protest”
The point is Gareth, they are not out there doing something to protest, they are leaving tents as a proxy. It should be noted that no-one has yet proven those empty tents are occupied during the day. That is simply an assumption we make.
Thats really stupid, the IR image was taken just after midnight and used as evidence that no one is sleeping in them!!!??!
Come on, how ridiculous, this is almost as bad as the hockey stick manipulations of Mann.
Horror of horrors that these protesters are not tucked up in bed by 10pm!
I Like WUWT a lot and have been following it for years now, but this bashing for the sake of bashing is ugly. You might not agree with them, but so what, WUWT?
Stick to bashing the alarmists and their bad scientific practice.
Er — How do we know what time the picture was taken? Or perhaps they were all up and about talking to each other, or a number of other reasons.
I don’t care a hoot for this occupy this or another but just as easily as a picture can tell one thousand stories, it can also tell one thousand lies …. and it is well know that news organisations will take any picture and make what they want out of it in order to make a story and provide themselves with profits.
@luismanueldias – He’s not declaring them chickens#@t. It’s more like dishonest. Don’t pretend that you’re occupying the park at night by erecting empty tents, which make your movement’s members seem far more convicted than they actually are. If an actual person is “braving” the elements regardless of severity, it means much more than someone letting their tent brave the elements while they sleep at home in a warm bed. If you want to call your group Occupy ______, then you better be occupying, and not just protesting when convenient.
As far as the veracity of the 10% claim, I’m not sure what to make of it, but the IR blocking iPhone app just makes the protester sound like a nut job.
Here’s another funny way at looking at this.
“FOOTAGE from a thermal imaging camera has proved that capitalism is not actually working.
When the camera was pointed at offices and factories across Britain it showed they were completely deserted.
And thermal images of millions of homes proved that while they may contain dozens of electrical gadgets no-one can now afford to switch them on.”
http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/society/thermal-imaging-proves-capitalism-doesn%27t-work-201110264466/
Please don’t publish this comment.
One of my bloggers has asked me to publish an open letter addressed to you, I believe in freedom of speech so I did but …
I also believe that you have the right of reply and also that you should know this open letter is there … if you should choose to comment on it on my site I assure you I will publish your comment unedited (if you wish)
Although ….. my site is not that popular, I guess you can ignore it if you wish 🙂
http://wisdomblogs.com/2011/10/25/an-open-letter-for-anthony-watts-from-martin-lack/
The problem most have with these people is that they are totally unaware of the irony of their protest when they “broadcast the revolution” from the iPads, iPhones, Dells, wearing their trendy clothes, no doubt camping in North Face or Eddie Bauer tents, walking around in Nike’s. In NYC the protesters are praising McDonalds because they let them use the bathrooms. These kids just don’t get that Wall St., with all of its flaws (and it has many) provides us with economies of scale that allow the world to have so much stuff so cheap that it boggles the mind. An iPhone costs $200, think about that. My Apple IIe cost over $2000 in 1985, a 21″, 100 lb+, color TV was more than 2 months salary for most households in the 60s. You can get a 21″ flat screen and a DVD player for less than $150 now. Less than a days pay for most middle class people. You can be in poverty and be morbidly obese because food is so cheap.
We have access to SO MUCH STUFF in 2011 becuase public finanancing of companies allows them to expand to meet demand and lower prices. Globalization allows these companies to provide third world workers with income they could not dream of 20 years ago. These kids need to stop majoring in useless fields and go into engineering, science, iT, education, business and medicine where there are plenty of unfilled jobs in the US.
And as far as London goes, isn’t living off the dole an actual career path? What are they complaining about?