Guest Post by Ira Glickstein
A copy of the journal Nature Climate Change> landed in my mailbox just in time for Halloween. According to them: (1) almost any kind of climate change is likely to cause increased conflict, and (2) we may be able to provoke action to reduce human contributions to climate change via “Climate Shame”.
The news feature Heating Up Tensions asks:
What has rainfall got to do with witch killings in Tanzania? Quite a lot, according to … development economist Edward Miguel. …
[O]n his arrival [in East Africa] he was struck by a startling phenomenon: thousands of women, most of them elderly, were being accused of witchcraft by their families and hacked to death with machetes. On further investigation … he found a link between witch killings and drought years …
Even climate change in the opposite direction -cooling- may be responsible for witch killings:
The ‘little ice age’ – a cooling period between 1550 and 1850 – has been accused of spurring on everything from the French revolution to witch hunts in Europe.
So, what to do about it? The commentary Green Status, hyped on the cover as “Climate Shame” says:
The word ‘shame’ appears a lot in discussions of climate policy. The previous Australian government was accused of acting shamefully for denying the problem of climate change, as was Canada, for mining its tar sands. …
But even if there is little chance of nations feeling shame over their lack of action on climate change, there is some hope of of spurring them into action by using the value that the ‘shame emotion’ has evolved to protect: reputation. …
For example, public buildings in the UK have recently begun displaying plaques showing their energy efficiency ratings. Why not roll this out so that every house and shop bears a mark of its carbon footprint …
Now there is a great business opportunity, get the government to require every house to prominently display its “carbon footprint” in the form of a big black plaque hanging from the chimney. If my house earns one blackfootprint, how many would Al Gore have to display? Talk about shame!
NOTE: The online issue of Nature Climate Change used to be available for free, but is now mostly behind a paywall. However, several months ago I was able to get a free subscription to the printed edition delivered to my home, on the basis of my affiliation with a university. I do not know if free subscriptions are still available, but, if you have (or claim to have :^) a link to a scholarly institution, and if you are not ashamed to add to your carbon footprint by consuming the paper, ink, and transport resources for a printed copy, go for it. While I do not read my copy cover-to-cover, I do skim all the items and read several. The journal is fairly high quality and I find it worth my time. My previous WUWT postings about Nature Climate Change are Uncertain Climate Risks and Overstretching Attribution.
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Climate catastrophic change due to CO2 is a form future divination, since there is virtually no empirical evidence supporting it. Divination is witchcraft plain and simple. Africa has misdirected it’s fear at little old ladies. It is the top climate alarmists who should be their target. Machetes and wooden stakes, might become scarce, if such actions were to became wide-spread.
At least it might save a few grandmothers! GK
Stoneage black magic, voodoo whatever. Nothing to do with Climate
I’ll bet they made the connection from watching this too many times- So logically, if she weighs the same as a duck, she’s made of wood and therefore .. she’s a witch!
Another example of negative feedback!
What climate change would this be? It has been mid-summers day in the tropics for the last 5 billion years.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/32396573/Witch-Hunting-Maunder
Excerpt: “The Age of Witch-Hunting thus seems pretty congruent with the era of the
Little Ice Age. The peaks of the persecution coincide with the critical
points of climatic deterioration. Witches traditionally had been held
responsible for bad weather which was so dangerous for the precarious
agriculture of the pre-industrial period. But it was only in the 15th
century that ecclesiastical and secular authorities accepted the reality of
that crime. The 1420ies, the 1450ies, and the last two decades of the
fifteenth century, well known in the history of climate, were decisive years
in which secular and ecclesiastical authorities increasingly accepted the
existence of weather-making witches. During the “cumulative sequences of
coldness” in the years 1560-1574, 1583-1589 and 1623-1630, again 1678-1698
(Pfister 1988, 150) people demanded the eradication of the witches whom they
held responsible for climatic aberrations. Obviously it was the impact of
the Little Ice Age which increased the pressure from below and made parts of
the intellectual elites believe in the existence of witchcraft. So it is
possible to say: witchcraft was the unique crime of the Little Ice Age.”
To suffer the wrath of witches is more preferable rather than to suffer the kindness of socialism.
@ur momisugly Vince Causey November 8, 2011 at 7:52 am
“I am sure that hacking to death elderly women, even in East Africa, is a felony. If there is any shame, it should be levelled at the authorities for not acting to stop these heineious crimes. ”
Vince, you don’t know Africa. The so-called “authorities” believe in the same things as those doing the hacking. Whilst it might be a crime in the Law books, to the “authorities” it’s the right thing to do.
Gail Combs says: November 8, 2011 at 11:32 am
…Among elementary students, 17% of all students and 33% of white boys had been diagnosed with ADHD and the vast majority had been medicated for this condition….
Gail those numbers are horrifying. Can you do a piece on this for WUWT??
I’m interested because I had cause to investigate ADHD etc and it’s an area where spiritual insights are particularly strongly evidenced in what, to me, is the most significant breakthrough work here. It’s an area where cooperation is highly appropriate between straight science and “alternative” approaches that all too often are dismissed by science with ignorance, hand-waving and ad hom. Particularly in healiing, anything that works is important, even if we don’t understand how or why it works – so long as we have checked with reasonable care that it really does work or really does stand a good chance of working.
Scottish Sceptic says: November 8, 2011 at 8:02 am
Your link to Emily Oster’s paper failed me. However, here’s her chart with one line inverted so that the correlation 1520-1770 CE between witch persecution and cold is clear.
Here’s her paper: http://home.uchicago.edu/~eoster/witchec.pdf
Lucy Skywalker says:
November 8, 2011 at 5:10 pm
Gail Combs says: November 8, 2011 at 11:32 am
…Among elementary students, 17% of all students and 33% of white boys had been diagnosed with ADHD and the vast majority had been medicated for this condition….
Gail those numbers are horrifying. Can you do a piece on this for WUWT??>>>
Gail, Lucy,
I’ve been studying ADHD for close to 20 years, have coached adults to develop coping skills, organized parents self help group, and back when ADHD was still new (to the public anyway) did interviews on radio talk shows and wrote help guides for local school divisions before they started developing their own internal expertise.
There’s plenty of modern myth running around in regard to both the condition and the medications. Please allow me to make a couple of brief points:
1. In any jurisdiction, ADD and ADHD are either very over diagnosed or very under diagnosed. The notion that children are being drugged due to a misdiagnosis however is (for the most part) a fallacy. The reason is that the medication itself is a diagnostic tool. Using Ritalin as the example, it is a strong stimulent. The typical ADHD boy is very active, can’t sit still in class, has ants in the pants so to speak. Girls are more prone to straight ADD (without the H which stands for hyperactivity). So, for the ADHD person who can’t focus, can’t pay attention, can’t sit still, a dose of Ritalin is, in fact, a diagnostic tool. If the child responds to the strong stimulus effect of Ritalin by becoming MORE active, then what they have is NOT ADHD. If they have ADHD, the effect of the stimulant is to settle them down, and even though their energy level is frequently HIGHER, they become less active, more able to sit still, more able to concentrate. One has to stand back and consider for a moment that someone’s brain has got to be wired oddly when they calm down due to taking a stimulant. If they respond to a stimulant by becoming more active, they don’t have ADD or ADHD!
2. Let’s consider a second common misunderstanding about Ritallin from Gail’s post:
“Now comes news in the August 22, 2001 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association that Ritalin does indeed cause long-term brain damage similar to its chemical relatives cocaine and amphetamine.”
I’d be interested in reading the report if you have a link to it Gail, because the above paragraph is WRONG. Ritalin, as I said above, is a stimulant. As with any stimulant, the effects are no uniform. ADD and ADHD individuals have lower levels of Seratonin in their brain than do “regular” people. Ritalin and its close relative Dexadrine are both valuable in treating ADD and ADHD because they stimulated the brain to produce more Seratonin than it would otherwise. But that’s not what Cocaine does. There are two processes in the brain that keep Seratonin levels regulated. One is the rate of production, the other is a process called “re-uptake” in which the Seratonin is removed from the brain. Cocain, and the bulk of anti-depressants, are called Seratonin Selective Re-Uptake Inhibitors or SSRI’s. So, while both Cocain and Ritalin have the same end result from the perspective of increasing Seratonin levels in the brain, calling them “chemical relatives” is simply wrong. Building a dam increases the level of water in a lake, but so does rainfall. Would it be accurate to suggest that a dam and a rainstorm share the same basic phyics?
The goal of a good treatment program is for the child to learn coping skills that allow him or her to manage their day to day lives without the need for medication. In other words, medication has value as a diagnostic tool, and as one of many treatment options. When parents and teachers treat Ritalin as some sort of magic pill that will instantly fix the problem, they are making a big mistake. But when they take the time and effort to put a long term learning plan in place that includes development of proper coping skills that last into adulthood, Ritalin is one of many tools that may have unique and valuable benefits in the short term and medium term.
As one story I read and relayed to parents many times went and was published in a book called ADD Success Stories, a young boy came home from his first day at school while being treated with Ritalin. He very excitedly told his mother that he’d made his first friend ever that day, participated at recess in games with other kids which he’d never been able to do before, and, best of all, he’d heard and remembered everything that the teacher taught that day. His mother told him to go back the next day, and to “pay attention to what it feels like to pay attention”.
Better advice I could not give, and I speak from personal experience.
So a scientific journal wants to inflict sceptics with the Black Plaque. How Medieval. I wonder what a pre-normal shrink would make of this?
I would love to display my carbon footprint. Too bad I don’t have extra money to drive it up a bit. Also, it would be easy to see who you can scam easily just by seeing who have a very low carbon footprint. Not to say everyone with a low carbon footprint would be suckers, but a much higher % would.
Hmm…. So its droughts that cause this to happen in East Africa! I wonder what the excuse would be for West Africa where its wet?
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/10/17/world/main5392572.shtml
davidmhoffer says:
November 8, 2011 at 6:16 pm
David thanks a million. That was enlightening. I’ve bookmarked your reply.
Ira Glickstein
‘…………he found a link between witch killings and drought years …’
Many links to the killing of women (and children and men) have been found over the centuries.
A profoundly disturbing paper was written in Australia (2000);
Burbank V (2000) The Lust to Kill’ and the Arnhem Land Sorcerer: An Exercise in Integrative Anthropology Ethos 28(3) Sept p 410-44
ABSTRACT
This comparison of the Western serial sex killer and the Arnhem Land sorcerer arose from reading the argument that the serial sex murderer is the creation of a series of discourses. “The discourses”, say Cameron and Frazer, “is the heart of the matter and the rest is silence.” While acknowledging the power of culture to structure lives, I argue that the rest is not “silence” but something requiring anthropological understanding. This article is an exercise in integrative anthropology, an attempt to address the multifaceted character of human experience and trace some of the possible means and mechanisms of human development in the sphere of sexual passion.
http://www.uwa.edu.au/people/victoria.burbank
Cherry picked excerpts:
“Entry to the vital organs is made through the vagina…. Probing……. Not the most direct route for reaching the heart. The murderer’s movements as he pushes his killing stick into her body are slow and rhythmic. ………………… In another account given by Warner, an on-looker . ……….. Sorcery in this view is an act of homicide and provides the same satisfaction as physical murder. ……. Circumstances might also affect the fantasy experience more directly. The belief that………………
And this paper referenced and built on the observations of previous anthropologists.
When the Australian government declared an Intervention (let’s call it assisting a failed state) in the Northern Territory of Australia the outcry against having a police presence in the communities was overwhelming. And that outcry against assistance continues today, on and on and on they go.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Territory_National_Emergency_Response
I recently posted on the real fate of women (and children, men) in PNG (Lady Winifred Kamit & Lady Carol Kidu). See petition on family violence pdf. http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/10/22/world-is-warming-pope-is-catholic/#comment-777294
Burbank uses an analogy of <fantasy for the litany of violence she collects whereas in Papua New Guinea, just to the north of Burbank’s controlled petri-socialised dish experiment in East Arnhemland, Australia real injuries are occurring and pleads for help are supported by over 6,000 signatures I understand.
How could this be, that an academic can mix fantasy with human suffering and reality?
Is it any wonder so many [village] people have been silenced by the work of social academics, and now a development economist enters the fray to inform the public!
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
And here in Australia we have an inquiry into the media and apparent ‘bias’ in reporting, yet women and children who have no freedom of speech (or life), this bears repeating………. no freedom of speech (or life) and little access to the mainstream media in these remote areas have continued to suffer these depravations for years and years and years. Only recently, when News Ltd (The Australian) specifically brought the stories of women and children’s lives to the public’s attention has a fuller extent of this reprehensible situation been told.
While academic papers are written. And police, rule of law and justice is still denied, argued instead that cultural considerations is required, in many cases.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Media Inquiry : http://ipa.org.au/news/2517/media-inquiry-motives:-accountability-or-revenge-
Apologies, I missed a few with that post.
davidmhoffer – …Ritalin and its close relative Dexadrine are both valuable in treating ADD and ADHD because they stimulated the brain to produce more Seratonin than it would otherwise.. But that’s not what Cocaine does. There are two processes in the brain that keep Seratonin levels regulated. One is the rate of production, the other is a process called “re-uptake” in which the Seratonin is removed from the brain. Cocain, and the bulk of anti-depressants, are called Seratonin Selective Re-Uptake Inhibitors or SSRI’s….
1). Cocaine, amphetamines and Ritalin act on the adrenaline and dopamine receptors, not seratonin:
=======
“Whereas cocaine blocks the neuronal re-uptake of the catecholamine neurotransmitters noradrenaline and dopamine, amphetamine triggers to a much greater extent their synaptic release.”
http://www.hedweb.com/gooddrug.htm
=======
2.) SSRIs are are not called Selective Seratonin Reuptake Inhibitors because they act only on seratonin, but because they were designed to inhibit re-uptake of specific variants of seratonin from within a large family.
3.) An anecdotal report about one child’s testimony following a dosage doesn’t represent a very high standard of evidence for the use of Ritalin. I’m sure that after 20 years of researching the topic you can do better.
http://www.pharmapolitics.com/feb2healy.html
Khwarazimi;
If you want to challenge me on this topic, you’re off to a poor start. In regard to your points above:
1. All the chemicals you listed have varying effects on seratonin, dopamine and others too. I was providing a basic explanation of the most important effects from an ADD and ADHD perspective.
2. Seratonin Selective Re-uptake Inhibitors and called SSRI’s because the selectively inhibit re-uptake of seratonin. If you want to delve into the specifics by all means, but the point I was making is that cocaine and ritalin are completely different approaches to increasing seratonin levels in the brain while the article quotes was suggesting they were similar.
3. You are right, one anecdotal story doesn’t prove much. The story was provided as an example, and was used to make a point about the use of coaching in combination with medication. If you want “proof” then I can suggest that this isn’t the forum for such a discussion, and I will suggest further that attacking freely given advice using half truths suggests an agenda on your part rather than an interest in the facts. May I suggest:
There is a book called “ADD Success Stories” that was compiled years before ADD was a common term. It was the result of an internet forum where people told their personal stories about living with and overcoming ADD. The stories that were inspirational or instructive or presented any other value to those struggling with ADD were compiled into that book. In it, you will find a great number of anecdotal stories, some about Ritalin and some about other treatments, coping skills, and so on. I could point you at many other resources, but as I said, this isn’t the forum. But if you are going to pop off about only one anecedotal story, I can assure you, I haven’t sufficient time in my own life to write up all the anecdotal stories I could compile just from my personal experience alone.
Ritalin has some downsides, they are well known, and I find it odd that Ritalin’s detractors fail to attack the medication on those points and instead make up some new accusations of their own. It tells you something about both their knowledge and their agenda.
Khwarizmi:
I’ll point you at one other book with the indulgence of the mods. There is a book called “Driven to Distraction” that was likely one of the first really good in depth books about ADD. It was written by two psychiatrists (Ratey and Hallowell if memory serves correctly) and it goes into considerable detail about the mechanisms that cause ADD and the various treatments, including (but not limited to) a variety of medications. The interesting thing about the book is that many of the tougher concepts are explained through valuable analogies that any parent or teacher…or student… should be able to understand. More importantly, much of what they as early researchers into the topic discovered is told through anecdotal stories about themselves, and about their patients. The anecdotal stories are offered up not as proof, but to provide an additional perspective that helps the reader to understand the technical concepts and issues by describing them in another way.
It was the first book I ever read about ADD, and I will provide you this one single anecdotal story about myself. Reading those anecdotal stories was like reading a book about my inner soul written by someone who had never met me. It wasn’t a coincidence as the dozens of people I’ve introduced that book to as a self help tool will attest.