Hmmm, sounds like a bad “B” movie plot. From Pierre Gosselin at No Tricks Zone:
(…) Any fan of Hollywood films following the climate debate knows the objectives of mad scientists: They try to rule the world. With his performance in the FAZ in the run-up to the recent UN-Summit on Sustainability in Rio, Prof. Dr. Hans-Joachim Schellnhuber can be ranked along with the likes of Dr. Strangelove and Dr. No:
“The role of climate science remains to put the problem-facts on the table and to identify options for appropriate solutions. The role of politics is then to mobilize the will of the citizens with the aim of implementing decisions that are based on science.”
This demonstrates an odd understanding of democracy. Up to now the “will of the citizens” has always arose from the interests of people and were implemented by electing a goverment that abided to that will. But Schellnhuber wants to turn this on its head. According to Schellnhuber, politics should now tell the citizens what interests they are to have so that measures that follow those prescribed by science will end up getting implemented.
Read more at No Tricks Zone
h/t to reader Rudolf Kipp
I, for one, welcome our new Scientist overlords.
(What could go wrong?)
The arrogance of science will be its undoing. And they call rich people elitists? This guy takes the cake – an ego the size of the galaxy.
Next they’re gonna start enforcing their “prescription” with a Glock?
“This demonstrates an odd understanding of democracy.”
It’s also a very common view on the Continent.
typical also of the EU Kommisars!
Could there be just a ‘translation’ problem.
this seems to be the original text
” Die Rolle der Politik ist es dann, den Bürgerwillen zu mobilisieren, um wissensbasierte Entscheidungen umzusetzen. Wir Forscher erfüllen gewissermaßen die Aufgabe planetarischer Ratingagenturen – nicht sehr beliebt, aber verdammt notwendig”
http://www.faz.net/aktuell/wissen/klima/im-gespraech-klimaforscher-schellnhuber-ich-glaube-nicht-an-den-masterplan-fuer-die-welt-11791864.html
Its easy to get worked up over ‘die masterplan’
I heard after his next seminar he’s holding a torchlight parade
“Welcome to my underground lair !”
No, no, it’s perfectly consistent. Remember, the Proletariat is just an rather unwieldy animal whose will must be moulded to the inevitable ideal of a free and equitable society.
When ever you hears the words ‘for the good of the people ‘ that is when you should starting worrying , for its amazing often their uttered just before something is not ‘good for the people ‘ at all.
Can you image a world run by Mann , just how many 100 foot tall statues of the ‘great one ‘ do you think would need to be built ?
They are the latest version of Lenin’s “intelligentsia” avant-gardist ruling class. Ayn Rand flipped Lenin’s “intelligentsia” into her “industrialists,” a submissive ideal-ruler class which attracts some people, admittedly those people being ultimately less dangerous than the communists.
Climate Science exhibits a lot of the characteristics of a pseudo-scientific cult like Marxism. “Denialism” is basically a rehash of “false consciousness,” for one example.
Sorry der would be climate “masters”, I march to the beat of a different drum!
Did he click the heels of his boots together after saying this?
The role of climate scientists is to do climate science. This should extend (but too often doesn’t) to proper use of statistics in their papers. It does not extend to laying out the appropriate economic solutions because these people have no expertise in economics and their ventures into same have been alarmingly amateurish.
dukeofurl says:
July 15, 2012 at 2:35 pm
Have you ever read C.S Lewis’ book “That Hideous Strength”? Lewis was on to something.
He looks like an evil mad scientist!
From our beachhead on the 21st century the Left’s most horrible accomplishment is apparent. A devaluation of the connection between human effort and appreciation. It is inescable that this severing of pain and impulse has lead to the moral and economic ruin of Western culture.
Peter sellers was more fun!
Amazing!!!
I thought this kind of thinking went down with the demise of “Uncle Joe” and “Herr Schicklgruber.”
Great leaders and great ideas have come from Germany before (as well as not so good leaders and very bad ideas).
This is nothing new as all the (97%) UN global warming scientist subscribe to Communitarianism.
“Communitarianism is the belief that individual and national sovereignty must be balanced against the needs of the global collective. Their entire foundation for forced social evolution rests on their Big Idea that all the world’s people will be “free” after everyone gives up any claims to their personal freedom. Defined as the new “spirit” of community, Communitarians believe they are leading mankind into an advanced moral and spiritual state of being. Across the globe, communitarian gurus promote a global program designed to create one big, planned, gated community. They call it sustainable community development.”
Quote lifted from:
http://www.democratsagainstunagenda21.com/anti-communitarian-league.html
Well… there’s often a disproportion between how something is supposed (or meant) to work and how it actually works. Democracy is a prime example.
And people used to live in US should not make presumptions about how democracy works in Germany. These are two completely different democracies.
UN global warming scientists
Never!
He needs to wear a monocle and should be stroking a white Persian cat.
The role of climate science remains to study climate and understand it as much as possible. That, and nothing else.
I have no idea what problem-facts are, and I reckon no one else has. Much less how to put them on the table.
Of course there are problems. Of many different kind. From this huge set climate scientists have to choose scientific problems in their particular field and solve them whenever they are able to. At the same time they should leave all the rest alone. Those are for other people to deal with.
The same goes for facts. It is only a tiny subset which should concern climate scientists, namely facts related to climate states and state transitions.
I don’t think it is sufficient for a scientist to identify options for appropriate solutions to scientific problems inside his field. He should go for solving the problems themselves instead. And again, leave all other problems alone.
The role of politicians is to serve articulated interests of citizens who have elected them. In this quest, a politician seeking scientific advice in a practical problem, should hire engineers. If no trained engineer can be found in a field, the science is not ready yet. It is as simple as that.
There should be no direct connection between scientists and politicians.
“The prospect of domination of the nation’s scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present – and is gravely to be regarded.
Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite”. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Farewell Address to the Nation January 17, 1961
Germany has always had a strong Community first, collective impulse cultivated via education going back to Johann Fichte’s work in the 19th century. Deemphasizing the individual as they did and are means there are few ready to stand up to the herd instinct. No matter how bad the idea.
That communitarian/the amorphous common good is your primary obligation completely dominates the new kind of thinking and values curriculum coming into place in the US under the auspices of the Common Core national standards and a Positive School Climate mandate.
I wrote about this Gaia first education and economics being pushed all over the Western world here:http://www.invisibleserfscollar.com/rigor-relevance-and-relationships-the-new-3rs-to-get-to-a-caring-economics/
The relevant criteria in the title gets met by pushing students to be discussing and modelling possible solutions for all of humanity’s problems. School will thus be priming children to become just the kind of citizens that expect to be directed. And who look to the state and holders of the appropriate credentials for solutions.
All the mentions of education for citizenship should have a subtitle: Education for servitude.
Sounds like an Obama campaign slogan just waiting for make-up and a 10 second sound bite. Welcome to the post-modern Republic.
err have I missed something here? seems our ‘beloved’ Julia Gillard PM and her Green Manure offshoots tell the people what they need…. in Australia there seems to no longer be said – “will of the citizens” has always arose from the interests of people and were implemented by electing a goverment that abided to that will.
Arm extended – palm down, we shall all sing Science uber alles…. been here before it seems, didn’t the guy have a little moustach? Sheesh!!!!!
Ivory tower mentality, I see it everyday at my university, especially from those who have never held a job in the private sector.
I can see a modern Krystallnacht on the horizon.
Creepy academic.
Funny I thought we elected people so they could provide garbage collection, fire services, schools etc. Somewhere along the line they now have these grandiose ideas.
I hate to fall back on stereotypes, but it seems a German would at least sense the irony of such a position.
Just checked the mad Prof’s CV and as I suspected he’s been an academic all his life. How can he possibly be advising anyone in a world that he has no real experience of?
REPLY: Well, we have a U.S. president who’s never held a private sector job, so what’s your point? /sarc – Anthony
Yep it’s called leadership. Generally this is thought to be a good thing.
Leadership means:
Roosevelt says Americans should get off their lazy asses to fight the Nazis.
Kennedy says Americans should go to the moon.
Al Gore says Americans should pay money to build an Internet.
Bush says kick the Iraqis out of Kuwait.
Americans go whine whine.
That’s why the USA is a republic and NOT a democracy. The fathers of the US constitution figured all this out a long time ago. Why can’t you guys?
The image of the distinguished professor towering over and resting a “benevolent” hand on a globe says it all. It reminds me of the famous scene from Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator.
http://tinyurl.com/cqyfxsf
[snip. Labeling others deniers is not allowed here. Read the site Policy. ~dbs, mod.]
I should have added that “rigor” means open-ended, non-linear problem solving where there is no fixed solution so students are being primed to believe that everything interconnected and they are part of Nature embedded in the subsystem of the economy embedded in the culture and the environment. This systems thinking permeates all of education so no one really feels autonomous anymore.
These kids are being primed to believe anything can be solved with sufficient dialogue to reach a consensus. Then you look to state to mandate.
“The role of climate science remains to put the problem-facts on the table and to identify options for appropriate solutions. The role of politics is then to mobilize the will of the citizens with the aim of implementing decisions that are based on science.”
—
I find this is not too different from what NASA GISS director Jim “Let’s put heads of fossil fuel companies on trial for crimes against humanity and nature” Hansen has said…
“The problem is not political will, it’s the alligator shoes – the lobbyists. It’s the fact that money talks in Washington, and that democracy is not working the way it’s intended to work.”
Jim Hansen, 2008
Well, he’s come a long way from playing the banjo in Deliverance.
But seriously, this is the kind of mentality that suggests we all get on board the train….
Lazy Teenager says:
“Roosevelt says Americans should get off their lazy asses to fight the Nazis.”
Clueless One: FDR constantly pestered U.S. citizens to go after Germany, but the American people were smarter than that. But when Germany unilaterally declared war on the United States on December 11, 1941, Americans responded – not to FDR, but to Germany.
And we’re supposed to listen to you as a font of knowledge??
It looks like more and more of us are having our lives run by people who have no experience of life outside of the public sector (bureacrats, academics, career politicians and other civil servants).
I’m sick of hearing nothing but bad news.
It comes from all quarters, non-stop everyday.
It used to be, the free world set the tone, instead of wallowing in their grief while waiting for government to assuage all ills.
Rant/
” Die Rolle der Politik ist es dann, den Bürgerwillen zu mobilisieren, um wissensbasierte Entscheidungen umzusetzen. Wir Forscher erfüllen gewissermaßen die Aufgabe planetarischer Ratingagenturen – nicht sehr beliebt, aber verdammt notwendig”
Read something like this in the 1946 International Military Tribunal transcripts, only more thoughtfully expressed.
Look, it’s been tried a few times, at least twice and now maybe three times; but for Germany to rule the world AND be taken seriously they must abandon the language. Imagine the monty python lot frog marched into a hall to hear a speech on strict orders that no laughing or signs of mirth shall be expressed on pain of death. Read this and keep a straight face: The great orator stands up under the stage light
“….Ein Dunkopf Wurst Phart Mein Schmeagol Speiller Luft kreigs meschenkreig…….dadyadayada”
‘Scuse my German. Seriously though, it’s why i’ve involved my miniscule intelect in WUWT issues because it is not lost on me the gravity of the implications of the proponents of AGW putting a stranglehold on Western Commerce. It really is a bit like 1938 or 39……..AGAIN!!!!!! The motive for their delusion is not hard to see. We’ve been here before. Fortuantely, no one on their side has presented who has any gravitas. The AGW are using the Silent invasion of the sovereign nations by the EU’s authority creep. Who’d have though sovereignty would be given up so easily.
The EU model of authority creep.
Smokey says:
July 15, 2012 at 4:24 pm
Lazy Teenager says:
“Roosevelt says Americans should get off their lazy asses to fight the Nazis.”
Clueless One: FDR constantly pestered U.S. citizens to go after Germany, but the American people were smarter than that. But when Germany unilaterally declared war on the United States on December 11, 1941, Americans responded – not to FDR, but to Germany.
And we’re supposed to listen to you as a font of knowledge??
=====================
There is a lot more to that story.
Which caused Churchill to say:
“You can always count on Americans to do the right thing – after they’ve tried everything else.”
Winston Churchill
—–
He was VERY worried they wouldn’t.
I still believe that the theory of AGW, taken to it’s logical conclusion is that: given that CO2 will kill us all if production of it increases, coupled to the reality that China is opening a coal fired plant per week with no intention of slowing down–we therefore start bombing China tomorrow at 9:30AM ish. This theory will lead to armed conflict with China. Thank goodness AGW is BS.
beesaman says:
July 15, 2012 at 4:25 pm
Seconded. Every bloody day.
Were the Michigan Militia right after all? I thought them rather extreme in their heyday but militant scientists like Dr Schnellnuber and Dr. Evil must be stopped/sarc – note this is a joke and not a threat everyone.
We need to suspend ALL international flights, then do some HOUSE CLEANING.
Militant scientism is not a very pretty sight when stated so outrightly.
Yet how many people actually have adopted this kind of unquestioning attitude about the superiority of those with a science background, on a personal level? For example, how many people do you know who have taken all of the prescriptions and received all of the surgeries their doctors has said were necessary for treatment? In fact, I met a man last year who had not even memorized the name of his type of head tumor. It is an implicit assumption on the part of patients that the doctor will “do no harm” and that they can cure what they claim they can cure. This has tragic results in some cases, and the likely truth is that iatrogenic illnesses are vastly under reported.
Another example is the implicit trust people have placed in the cosmology and human history handed to us by academic tradition. Now the academics have (naturally) adopted an apocalypse and prophetic role for saving the world from rising seas and temps. So the militant scientistic creed did not begin with AGW and has been accepted by the public for quite some time. These things don’t happen overnight.
The answer is to be responsible for the upbringing and education of your own children, and research exhaustively what the doctors tell you – esp. when they get into a big hellfire hurry to operate.
u.k. (us) says:
“There is a lot more to that story.”
Of course there is. I was just making a point to LT.
If you would like to get a great understanding of the war in Europe from a U.S. perspective before the U.S. became involved in the fighting, I can think of no better nor more pleasurable account than Herman Wouk’s The Winds of War.
I have an extra copy I would be happy to send you, if you’re interested. No charge, of course.
LazyTeenager says: July 15, 2012 at 4:03 pm
Yep it’s called leadership. Generally this is thought to be a good thing.
Leadership means:
Roosevelt says Americans should get off their lazy asses to fight the Nazis….
In support of LazyTeenager’s assertion, let me pull a couple quotes from the International Military Tribunal transcripts –
“MR JUSTICE JACKSON: You established the Leadership Principle, [leiter prinzip] which you have described as a system under which authority existed only at the top, and is passed downwards and is imposed on the people below;”
…
“DEFENDANT: I consider the Leadership Principle necessary because the system which previously existed, and which we called parliamentary or democratic, had brought Germany to the verge of ruin. I might perhaps in this connection remind you that your own President Roosevelt, as far as I can recall – I do not want to quote it word for word – declared, “Certain peoples in Europe have forsaken democracy, not because they did not wish for democracy as such, but because democracy had brought forth men who were too weak to give their people work and bread, and to satisfy them. For this reason the peoples have abandoned this system and the men belonging to it.” There is much truth in that statement. This system had brought ruin by mismanagement and according to my own opinion, only an organization made up of a strong, clearly defined leadership hierarchy could restore order again.”
Great minds thinking alike.
Schellnhuber is chair of the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU). He has ready access to Angela Merkel whose degree is also in physics.
The WGBU report for 2011 is called World in Transition – A Social Contract for Sustainability. The WGBU and therefore Schellnhuber believe in something called The Great Transformation leading to the ‘decarbonisation’ of energy. Their report describes how to achieve this:
“In the WBGU’s view, a long-term oriented regulatory framework must be developed for this to ensure that prosperity, democracy and security are achieved with the natural boundaries of the Earth system in mind.
“The WBGU has developed the concept of a new social contract for the transformation towards sustainability – not so much on paper, but rather in people’s consciousness.
“…..our societies must be willing to act in an anticipatory manner, on the basis of scientific findings.
“…….the established basic pattern of international politics…..is not suitable for resolving the
problems of a global society…….
“…..international cooperation and global governance is therefore an important premise for the success of the transformation……..
“It (the United Nations) will not effortlessly evolve into an integrated, multilateral world order, but represents a foundation for the global society to legitimately pursue aspirations of global governance.
“…..global decarbonisation would become the disarmament diplomacy of the future.
“In the ‘Palais-Royal Initiative’, eminent figures active in international finance and economic policy recently spoke out clearly in favour of such prioritisation on the part of heads of state and government, issuing a forceful reminder of the need to give the ‘global interest’ its own authoritative voice beyond parochial national interests.
“…….it is far more essential that the individual elements of complex governance regimes do not have an impeding effect on cooperation.
“……..the United Nations must speak up in unison far more than they have done so far, their voice must carry political weight and be backed up by credible expert authority.
“Particularly in the energy sector, however, there are evidently blatant deficits with regard to governance at global level. There is a lack of the legal and institutional foundations required for an effective international energy policy for the transformation.”
http://www.wbgu.de/fileadmin/templates/dateien/veroeffentlichungen/hauptgutachten/jg2011/wbgu_jg2011_en.pdf
“mobilisieren” doesnt necessarily translate as ‘mobilise’ it could also mean stimulate , inspire, urge.
Newspapers happily do this all the time, why cant scientists “inspire” politicians
“The role of climate science remains to put the problem-facts on the table and to identify options for appropriate solutions. The role of politics is then to mobilize the will of the citizens with the aim of implementing decisions that are based on science.”
The above sounds very similar to what Graham Thomson wrote in the Edmonton Journal on July 10. For the full article, see: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/Thomson+Decision+makers+hill+should+look+those+white+coats/6907973/story.html
The sentence that I am alluding to is: “If we are to make proper public policy decisions on issues such as releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere or releasing deleterious substances into rivers, we need to base those decisions on science.”
To this, I responded with the following letter to the editor, but so far it has not appeared. I am not very optimistic that I will see it. Here is what I wrote:
Political science on the Hill by Graham Thomson
Thomson says: “If we are to make proper public policy decisions on issues such as releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere …we need to base those decisions on science.” I completely agree. And exactly what does the science say about the effect of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere? At the following URL, the statement below appears: http://toryaardvark.com/2012/04/02/the-planet-has-not-warmed-in-15-years/
“The Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research (HadCRUT) has long been the gold standard in climate data used by the IPCC, now a new analysis of the data by the UK Met Office shows there has been no global warming for the last 15 years.” So why should we spend a billion dollars on things like carbon capture when the carbon dioxide we emit seems to make no difference?
LazyTeenager says:
July 15, 2012 at 4:03 pm
Yep it’s called leadership. Generally this is thought to be a good thing.
Leadership means:
Roosevelt says Americans should get off their lazy asses to fight the Nazis.
>>>>>>>>>>>>
REPLY: In actual fact, Roosevelt could not convince the American people to join the war. The Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbour swung public opinion and brought the United States into the war on both the Pacific and European fronts.
LazyTeenager;
Kennedy says Americans should go to the moon.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
REPLY: He painted a vision and the American people enthusiasticaly supported it. You are confusing leadership with dictatorship. That you cannot tell the difference says much about you.
LazyTeenager;
Al Gore says Americans should pay money to build an Internet.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>
REPLY: Funding a mechanism called ARPANET to allow some university researchers to easily exchange information with each other and the US military hardly consitutes “build and internet”. The internet grew from there largely on its own, funded at first mostly by universities that wanted to participate and then by telco’s and isp’s. What Al Gore put into it funding wise is a pittance by comparison, and his claims of inventing it hold about much water as his falsehood filled movie.
LazyTeenager;
Bush says kick the Iraqis out of Kuwait.
>>>>>>>>>>>
REPLY: My recollection is that pretty much the whole free world and pretty much the entire Arab world was on side with that.
LazyTeenager;
Americans go whine whine.
>>>>>>>>>
I’m not an American, but I have two words for you which no doubt the mods will snip, but you know what they are. America saved the free world from tyranny in two world wars and in the cold war. She deserves both your gratitude and your respect. Now (snip) (snip)
Smokey says:
July 15, 2012 at 5:14 pm
u.k. (us) says:
“There is a lot more to that story.”
Of course there is. I was just making a point to LT.
================
I know Smokey, just thought it needed some expansion.
Gotta remind the kids about human nature.
Mike McMillan says:
July 15, 2012 at 5:14 pm
Excellent post!!! LT has not a clue where his line of thinking leads.
Nerd says:
July 15, 2012 at 3:25 pm
Never! – with video.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator” Doesn’t say endowed by God. Maybe creator is a giant black hole, or Albert Einstein’s great great great etc. grandfather. If it’s God, who created God? It’s like when did infinity start and when will it end? The founding fathers didn’t say God, they said the creator, whatever that means – they knew more than we do. Don’t assume that creator means God.
Please, please y’all, learn what is science and what is not science, perhaps starting with Karl Popper’s Logic of Scientific Discovery and the Boundary Problem. Self-proclaimed scientists are not.
The Ancient Greek conception of democracy mooted the elites by use of sortition, the pinakia and the kleroterion, voter-ID cards in a lottery machine.
You can see a perfect illustration of the modern definition of “Democracy” in Hillary’s Egypt visit today. She’s warning Morsi that he needs to steer more toward “Democracy” if he wants US aid to continue. Morsi was elected by a majority of actual Egyptians, and he’s bravely trying to implement the will of a majority of actual Egyptians. This is real democracy in the old proper sense of the word, but it disagrees totally with the goals of Bush/Romney/Obama/Hillary, so it’s not “Democracy.”
What if the science is unsettled? or, gasp – wrong….
Smokey!… Herman Wouk? Really, he’s a good writer and tells a ripping yarn, and I love reading him too, but I don’t trust him as an historian. Generally, I don’t read novelists if I want to read history.
It’s sort of like climate science: the ones who tell a nice pat story, I don’t trust.
The good Professor doesn’t understand the role of the politician, it is the role of the unelected media party to mobilize the will of the citizens by politically correct misinformation. The actual role of the politician is to provide both regulatory and funding support for ideologically misguided scientists to implement there untested consensus science.
Pamela Gray says:
July 15, 2012 at 3:37 pm
Sounds like an Obama campaign slogan just waiting for make-up and a 10 second sound bite. Welcome to the post-modern Republic.
———————————————————–
err…..what i’m hearing is that the US is phasing into a Post-Constitution republic.
The left largely views the constitution as a antiquated relic and a constriction only. The Constitution, in their mind, is only about what the goverment shall not do but not particularly guiding for what it is to do in a modern era. In my view, in part also, jealous of the UK’s bulldozer Government authority. If in the UK they want to put 400 windmills between Anglesey and the Isle of Man. Who the hell is going to stop them. NHS….done. in the UK the sleeping masses are too busy and so don’t care and are taught an intelectual class system– if you don’t go to the right university, you don’t have a right to intellectually involve yourself with intellectual issues. You are asked to believe you are not bright enough to understand, so, leave it to the leaders…..they know what to do best. In the US it’s a bit different; the question goes here: if you are so smart, how come you are so poor(and that includes you Anthony!!). In the UK it’s ‘if you’re so smart, how come you didn’t go to OxBridge’. No one is going to listen to us over here @ WUWT. We’re dismissed with an arm-wave. We need to get together….at a rally and come up with ways to do something. Anthony: I think we need a Rally, a conference. A WUWT conference say 2014 in Colorado or some where ‘middle’. Atlanta. and get our heads together. I know heartland had one in Chicago but we need a WUWT Rally. We need specific ways to fight this AGW based ‘authority creep’s authority creep’!!
Anthony Watts in reply to beesaman at 3:55 pm;
REPLY: Well, we have a U.S. president who’s never held a private sector job, so what’s your point? /sarc – Anthony
Dear Mr. Watts, I use this (Mr. Watts) formal term as a sign of respect since I don’t know you. Anyway, I really, really hate to tell you this but Obama did indeed hold a job in the private sector. I know it’s hard to believe but he did. He held one for all of about maybe 6 months (not bad for a 50 year old). I don’t remember precisely the words he chose to describe that unique (for him) experience but I think he wrote that he was working for the enemy. Yep, the private sector, the ‘enemy’. It’s both sad and humorous that such a moron got to the position he got to.
This kind of thing always reminds me of that great movie, Our Man Flint, in which scientists attempt world domination by way of controlling the weather – the plot kinda does sound familiar, quite often these days, does it not? If you’ve never seen or heard of the movie – I highly recommend watching it! It’s fun!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059557/
Take, for example, the True Believers of global warming alarmism. With them it’s all about politics not science. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be a Left versus right issue now would it?
Obviously it’s all political and yet for all of the evolution of man, mastery over the vagaries of nature was as prized as the search for truth for its own sake. Now that the nihilism of the Leftists and their liberal Utopianiam has reached its zenith in the West whatever once had value is now worthless and truth doesn’t matter anymore.
Let us state it another way. Who do you prefer George Washington or Mao Tse-Tung?
I think the answer is simple:
■If you are a Tibetan Buddhist monk, you prefer a God-fearing protector of personal and religious freedom like George Washington
■If you are a tenured professor in liberal fascist academia, then Ward Churchill is more inspiring than Winston Churchill, the mass murderer Mao is your philosopher, and Bush-haters Castro and Chavez are your comrades.
beesaman says:
July 15, 2012 at 3:55 pm
Just checked the mad Prof’s CV and as I suspected he’s been an academic all his life. How can he possibly be advising anyone in a world that he has no real experience of?”
REPLY: Well, we have a U.S. president who’s never held a private sector job, so what’s your point? /sarc – Anthony
… exactly! Building our infrastructure was grand. But see now how it is managed. Once we lived with inexpensive energy that fueled our great economic expansion. Now we are supposed to park our expansion and regress to cave man status. Shame on us for being so free to succeed. Check out China, their big economy is shrinking now at an 8% decline. Why? Could it be that the decline of the US is now the decline of all nations and economies? After all, we necessarily have to pay more for energy, according to our lordship…. and the cheap source of our economic growth is being sucked dry.
And we see mad men, as in this example, leading the ignorant into a world of serfdom.
As mfo noted: “not so much on paper, but rather in people’s consciousness”
New ways of thinking by putting the school emphasis all over the world on values, attitudes, and beliefs and reframing them around sustainability.
These are people who write books we were not meant to see about reshaping the mind to filter perceptions in a politically desirable way. And they are ignorant enough of genuine science and history and economics to not understand or disregard the implications of what they push. To get that grant. Or promotion. Or tenure. Or Board position that then drives revenue through political monopolies.
“A sacrifice required for the future of the human race,” says Dr. Strangelove at about 3:50 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iesXUFOlWC0 “All we need is Der WILL.”
Why do these creatures come out of the woodwork at such times?
Noam Chomsky wrote a book called ” Manufacturing Consent”. Any one who has read it, knows full well that this is happening already in America
“The role of climate science remains to put the problem-facts on the table and to identify options for appropriate solutions. The role of politics is then to mobilize the will of the citizens with the aim of implementing decisions that are based on science.”
===============================================================
In other words, “Where’s Goebbels when need him? Al Gore just ain’t working out.”
Germany ‘Sliding Head Over Heels Into Eco-Dictatorship’
For a full account of Hans-Joachim’s views, see Fritz Vahrenholt, Die Welt, Friday, 27 May 2011:
Germany’s green government advisors admit frankly that decarbonization can only be achieved by the limitation of democracy – both nationally and internationally.
When it comes to environmental and climate policy, Germany’s Scientific Advisory Council on Global Environmental Change (WBGU) is an influential advisory committee for the German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The chairman of the council is Professor Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.
In April 2011, the WBGU presented a report entitled “World in Transition – Social Contract for a Great Transformation”. The main theses of the WBGU are as follows: The current economic model (“fossil industrial metabolism”) is normatively untenable.
“The transformation to a climate friendly economy… is morally as necessary as the abolition of slavery and the outlawing of child labor.” The reorganization of the world economy has to happen quickly; nuclear energy and coal have to be given up at the same time and very soon.
A historical novelty
The decarbonization of the global economy is, according to these experts, comparable with the Neolithic Revolution and the Industrial Revolution. These were, however, unplanned, natural historical processes. The “Great Transformation” however, must be consciously planned and controlled. It would be a historical novelty [according to WBGU, but in fact akin to Chairman Mao’s Great Leap Forward etc]…..
…To carry out this utopian new vision, democratic institutions, the freedom of lifestyles and the right to material well-being [has] to be sacrificed. ..
Internationally, the WBGU calls for a “World Security Council” for sustainability. The members of [its] proposed “future chamber” for Germany would explicitly not be chosen democratically and would limit the powers of Parliament.
Decarbonization means deindustrialization
In any case, there are growing signs that the driving force of the “Great Transformation” is flagging because the global warming trend has come to a halt during the last 12 years and scientific voices (outside of the WBGU and the Potsdam Institute) caution that we may enter a long-term cooling phase.
If Germany wants to do without nuclear energy, then the expansion of renewable energy will have to be accompanied by both coal and natural gas in the long term. Otherwise, decarbonization will mean nothing else but de-industrialization. Sometimes one gets the impression that this is exactly what many political actors intend to achieve.
Fritz Vahrenholt is a member of the Social Democratic Party and CEO of RWE Innogy since February 2008.
Translation Philipp Mueller
highflight56433 says:
July 15, 2012 at 6:30 pm
beesaman says:
July 15, 2012 at 3:55 pm
…….Check out China, their big economy is shrinking now at an 8% decline.
————————————–
No. Officially growing in 1st qtr 2012 at 5% which is below their 8% target. They are gearing up for their once in 10 years management shuffle this fall and the stats have been cleaned up nicely. Where is the link to your source for this assertion. An 8% decline would be catastrophic.
J. Philip Peterson says:
July 15, 2012 at 5:49 pm
Nerd says:
July 15, 2012 at 3:25 pm
Never! – with video.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator” Doesn’t say endowed by God. Maybe creator is a giant black hole, or Albert Einstein’s great great great etc. grandfather. If it’s God, who created God? It’s like when did infinity start and when will it end? The founding fathers didn’t say God, they said the creator, whatever that means – they knew more than we do. Don’t assume that creator means God.
——
You lost me there with god stuff. Not really the point… Have you read the book? Sure, religious played a role but it didn’t mean much at least in some ways. They believe in personal freedom. I don’t really care since I rarely ever attend church for Sunday services all my life but I do understand the freedom part. That’s what I am focusing on. I sure am very impressed how well educated these founding fathers are compared to these days…
Here’s some Shovel Ready Jobs for Romney:
1. Dig for oil
2. Dig for coal
3. Dig for natural gas
4. Dig for iron ore
5. Dig for copper
6. Dig for uranium
7. Dig for gold
7. Dig for silver
8 Etc.
Nerd says:
July 15, 2012 at 7:08 pm
“You lost me there with god stuff. Not really the point… Have you read the book?”
That was the point of your video. I was just pointing out that the founders were smart enough to say Creator rather than God. Yes I have read the book – probably not all of it. Just saying.
The video misquoted.
We Europeans know that Germans are German in a sort of Germanic sort of way. As the historian Kershaw explained to their very own Der Spiegel. Their sense of ‘duty’ to ‘over arching’ national causes is not really like anyone else’s and WWII bore out a mind-set that needs to be understood. The fact is Schellnhuber is German and German humour is no laughing matter and conicidentally, he ain’t joking.
‘…..Kershaw: Hitler always had a very sensitive ear for anything that could undermine the morale of the German people. It was a lesson he had learned from World War I, namely that it was important to keep the people in good spirits, or else there would be an uprising from below, as had occurred in 1918. That’s why he made sure that the Bavarian farmers continued to get their beer. Goebbels saw much more clearly than Hitler that the German population was indeed prepared to accept tough measures, provided they affected everyone equally.
SPIEGEL: The system functioned until the end. Only a few months before the end of the war, applications for building permits were being submitted and approved, and wages were being paid. The last concert of the Berlin Philharmonic took place on April 12, 1945.
Kershaw: And the Soviet offensive on the German capital began four days later. The audience sat in the unheated auditorium of the Philharmonic, wearing heavy coats, while (Wilhelm) Furtwängler conducted Symphony No. 4 by Bruckner.
SPIEGEL: And on April 23, 1945, Bayern München defeated TSV 1860 München in the Munich football derby.
Kershaw: Yes, they won 3:2. When I read that, I was so shocked that I thought the date might be wrong. But it was correct.
SPIEGEL: Do you have an explanation for this eerie urge to preserve normality?
Kershaw: The normality of routine, even if it’s only a phony normality, is probably essential to the functioning of human order. You go to your workplace to check your files, even if the work you do is completely useless. And when your office no longer exists, because it was bombed, you simply set yourself up somewhere else……..’.
Philemon,
For what it’s worth, I read an interview with Herman Wouk quite a few years ago. I recall him commenting that he had collected the facts he used in The Winds of War from contemporary news sources like TIME magazine.
• • •
And for some historical interest, it appears that the internment of the entire Japanese population of Hawaii was the result of one incident.
Will he destroy dissenters with a ‘la-ser’ from his ‘death-star’?
Tom J says:
July 15, 2012 at 6:10 pm
“It’s both sad and humorous that such a moron got to the position he got to.”
You can thank to a great degree the morons in the MSM (the same one who march in lock step with the fanatical CAGW types). Fortunately, the MSM is too screwed up to be very effective this time around (e.g. CNN).
highflight56433 says:
July 15, 2012 at 6:30 pm
beesaman says:
July 15, 2012 at 3:55 pm
…….Check out China, their big economy is shrinking now at an 8% decline.
————————————–
No. Officially growing in 1st qtr 2012 at 5% which is below their 8% target. They are gearing up for their once in 10 years management shuffle this fall and the stats have been cleaned up nicely. Where is the link to your source for this assertion. An 8% decline would be catastrophic.
Yes, you are correct. Their recovery expectation is 8% growth, not being met. 🙂
I’ve just made this comment at a local Oz site, but I really feel like repeating it here.
Part of the process of abolishing history is promoting the belief that “scientists” are a free thinking elite above politics, theology, mass emotion, conformity and fashion. In fact, the scholarly community has never been an elite of impartial enquirers protecting the rest of us from hooey and obscurantism. Not risk-takers or go-getters by nature, they are more often the paid supporters and official priesthood of prevailing dogma. The belief that something like “reef science” cannot be held in political thrall is a fond belief, at best. There is no question that information of value is being gathered, but that can happen in the worst of intellectual climates. Alchemy gave us much chemistry, Lysenko and his buddies found out things that one would not discard.
What is striking is how valuable science and scholarship become when natural curiosity, freedom and impartiality are allowed to prevail. What power lies in that rare combination!
Though only a casual blogger, I blush to use words like “record” and “unprecedented” because I instinctively know that such expressions, even when qualified, are prime tools of distortion and manipulation. When someone posturing as a scientist uses these expressions loosely and without any qualification, I have to dismiss them as distorters and manipulators. When they do it continually, I have to suspect something worse. Even the average layman of average intelligence talking about cricket would not and should not be excused.
The enquirer looks for contradictions. The dogmatist hates them. The recent heatwave in North America, well and truly precedented in multiple ways, quickly became a flagship for the most slob-minded of alarmist “scientists”, though fortunately not all (hence my inverted commas). I can honestly say that any coldwaves recently occurring (there have been several) would impress me not at all, and I would certainly discount the opinions of any Ice Age boosters who drew flip conclusions from these events, especially if they used words like “record” and “unprecedented” without qualification.
We are presently operating under the conceited belief that the Enlightenment will continue unabated. It won’t. We have to deserve it. Look at the stupendous absurdities and paradoxes of Australia’s present energy policies, the products of “greened” science and economics.
Modern environmentalism did not begin with Rachel Carson, though that would be bad enough. It really did become institutional first in National Socialist Germany, with Martin Heidegger as its most respectable philosophical urger. Germany was where hostility to free markets, mass consumption and class mobility had long been stiffest, but it was National Socialism which successfully wedded the Bismarckian benevolent state to Wagnerian nature cult.
In short, the real emergency facing humanity is intellectual, not physical. To serve dogma, our Green Betters would happily see Australia as one gigantic mine with wind turbines whizzing on any spare ground. Do I exaggerate? Look at the great “saving” philosophies and movements of the last century before answering.
John Schellnhuber´s interest was drawn to complex systems and nonlinearity or chaos theory.[10]. This is what later led him to do research on the climate system which is characterised by its complexity and nonlinearity.
So why has he forsaken all his training,and is treating climate as linear and simple? To paraphrase …because it’s easier to control the masses with BS then facts(at least on todays world)
Look familiar. I knew I had seen this guy before!
Yeah. That’s where these mad scientists have gone wrong. They’ve abstracted the problem to “basic physics,” which it isn’t. “Basic physics” fits their reductionist, “straight,” clock-model (Popper), strict causality mindset, but not the chaotic, cloud-model, multi-feedback, un-model-able climate.
I think we’ve passed a milestone of sorts: the first True Believer I’ve seen that is honest about the liberal fascism of the AGW movement. It’s a lot easier to flush it down when it’s been flushed out.
“The role of climate science remains to put the problem-facts on the table and to identify options for appropriate solutions.”
Problem-facts. Seems to me that you have already put all your problem-facts on the table. And you have a lot of problem-facts. Substituting cooked for raw data thinking we wouldn’t notice, McIntyre, et al……
But here, tonight, in the court of public poker-table, we will accept your plugged nickel data as real facts. With a nod to the electorate we let you plunk-down strictly peer-reviewed IPCC AR-4 data without biting on it to see what sort of mettle it is made of.
I see your AR-4 +0.59M sea level bet and raise you +6M at the end-Eemian. You protest with problem-facts where some workers declare that the Eemian may have only barely reached present-day sea levels. I open a crate of peer-reviewed studies from all over the world which show that even the Holocene Climate Optimum produced sea levels higher than present, not to mention a reasonable range for the Eemian of +6 to +42M.
Again, as sporting folk, we allow you to see our raise and double-down on CO2 assuming it cannot reach IR saturation, ever, and that it will guarantee a Loutre and Berger, 2003 50,000 year interglacial.
Flumoxed, and unsure if what you just bet was that we might end up like MIS-11, having an extended interglacial (a bad thing?) because of CO2 pollution, or if sustainability constitutes restoring CO2 concentrations to pre-industrial levels so as not to interrupt onset of the next ice age (a good thing?).
Yes, there are indeed problem-facts on the table now…….
The “appropriate solution” might be to fold…… I am neither a parrot (capable of repeating a thing without understanding it) or a parent (with offspring in the offing), so what happens in the UK, Australia or Kahlifornia etc. if I cash in my chips matters little. On the other hand, I could draw to a straight or a flush………
In the end-game, the “appropriate solutions” may be all about entertainment value. Assuming you are not bluffing, and assuming the social script you have issued to the pot has value (which we have guaranteed), you are in one heck of a pickle.
Loutre and Berger’s 2003 prediction is based on an orbital model. And it is one devil of a longshot at 50,000 years. Given that no interglacial has lasted near this long in the past 2.8 million years, unless, of course, CO2 was involved, the only way to “bet the farm” while simultaneously satisfying the “precautionary principle” would be to issue CO2 as an insurance policy now wouldn’t it?
I draw two cards. A quiet sun at half a precession cycle old and an eccentricity minimum.
I may have to bluff with some blocking highs and pre-glacial winters. It will, after all, be another 200,000 years before we become eligible for our next cranial-capacity upgrade (they tend to happen at the eccentricity maxima).
I signal the Carbon Crédit Mobilier to earshot range and trade all the carbon-credits I have left for a HEMI, going all-in……..
“The role of politics is then to mobilize the will of the citizens with the aim of implementing decisions that are based on science.”
Subjects can be mobilized (see inquisition et seq,), decisions implemented (“burning at the stake” et al) based on the “science” of the day. The “role of politics” is therefore the net result of this cranial capacity. And no more.
Meanwhile, enjoy the interglacial, while it lasts……………….
“No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to comply.”
I like the cut of his Jib, he handles that globe like a pro.
Boomers are such dorks.
Oh wait, does Germany have Boomers? He looks and sounds exactly like one from over here in the US.
Reminds me of Pinky and the Brain. He isn’t the Brain… Who is? But then remember where both came from. Perhaps someone else is playing games with them.
There is, in my view, a “desire” by some in Europe certainly to produce a “superstate” – you only have t look at the debacle of the Euro and Greece’s membership to realise that people with this desire for “collective” government are quite prepared and happy to fiddle the facts to achieve their aim.
And I do not think Europe is alone in having this issue. I think on of the greatest threats to individual human freedom are those that truly believe that what the do, they do for the common good.
How easy it is to state that with scarce resources, to ensure that everyone gets a bit, then someone should control the supply. It is when you ask “And who might that be?” that you get the real agenda uncoverred.
Demonising CO2 is simply a reciprocal strategy akin to the above – rather than control scarce resources, control an innocuous gas that is part of the Carbon Cycle required for life on earth and you have the methedology for control.
Thankfully the Alarmist CO2 nonsence is all but dead on its feet.
One wonders what these people will come up with next. Whatever it is it will have the same old fingerprint of manipulation of facts so that whatever they want it is via the “will of the citizens”.
Tatt picture Of prof. schellhuber has an extreme likeness to the globe scene in Charlie Chaplin’s film the Dictator. Here is a snip from that scene, not just the pictures. Brilliant scene and hopefully a symbolic representation of how the CAGW establishment plan for world domination will end. Enjoy!
Here is Schellen-Huber explaining why the Himalaya glaciers will be gone by 2035:
(In German, but funny even for people who do not understand it due to its pomposity)
My Father used to say to me “Beware if Germany is reunited, It won’t be long before they try to take over the world!”.
Noblesse Oblige says:
July 15, 2012 at 6:43 pm
““A sacrifice required for the future of the human race,” says Dr. Strangelove at about 3:50 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iesXUFOlWC0 “All we need is Der WILL.”
Why do these creatures come out of the woodwork at such times?”
Schellnhuber has been scaring the kids on German public TV (which most Germans hold in unfounded high esteem) climate pr0n evenings with his “spooky apocalyptic uncle” schtick for at least a decade now.
Don’t know if they still make these “theme evenings” though. Everybody seems to be watching cooking shows in Germany at the moment. Interrupted by soccer from time to time.
So, Schellnhuber doesn’t come out of the woodwork. He’s also the scientific advisor of Merkel.
Meaning… nothing good at all.
Ian says:
July 15, 2012 at 6:51 pm
“Noam Chomsky wrote a book called ” Manufacturing Consent”. Any one who has read it, knows full well that this is happening already in America”
Has Chomsky suddenly discovered Hegel?
A president should have private enterprise experience, like George W… oops, bad example.
But you know those politicians, the ones who are there because a majority of people vote for them? I kind of expect them to do the hard thinking and make the tough decisions. I don’t always agree with them. I marched against Australia joining the Iraqi invasion, but things don’t always go your way…
Dig the shirt.
I’m sure that he believes if the scientists give the people the will to fight global warming it will be an absolute triumph.
Which reminds me of Leni Riefenstahl’s little film ………..
Zat globe…
http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=the+great+dictator+playing+with+the+globe&view=detail&mid=4195848822186A5FFD884195848822186A5FFD88&first=0
Smokey says:…”I can think of no better nor more pleasurable account than Herman Wouk’s The Winds of War.”
That book is one of the best ever and the television series with Robert Mitchum as Pug was well done. I would further recommend a book about Robert Stephenson by Roberts Stevenson titled “A Man Called Interpid”.
@RogerKnights says:
“They’ve abstracted the problem to “basic physics,” which it isn’t. “Basic physics” fits their reductionist, “straight,” clock-model (Popper), strict causality mindset, but not the chaotic, cloud-model, multi-feedback, un-model-able climate.”
+++++
My son describes it as using fuzzy logic trying to programme a chaotic model of a partially understood reality. Predicting the outputs of a fuzzychaos model is basically impossible, of course, but that has not stopped people trying their luck. So far they seem to be guessing wrong.
Re the global government thing – I am not afraid of an international federation the way some people seem to be, but unelected? Well, that is pretty much what the UN is now. it needs serious reform, not elimination. The veto has to go, that’s for sure. No ‘elite countries’ thanks very much. We always have to have the power to throw the bums out, whether a political or scientific self-appointed elite. The USA’s two-party ‘choose the lesser crook’ system is not a very good example of how to run a railroad either. Innovation required.
Schellnhuber is the Brain (from Pinky and the Brain). “Tonight, take over the world”
http://thyselfolord.blogspot.com.br/2012/07/cientistas-ambientalistas-que-querem.html
Organismic! Trust in the power active in you.
——————————————–
Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, “father of the two-degree target”, climate advisor to Angela Merkel, is the worst kind of alarmist.
“Observations of an incipient climate transition include the rapid retreat of summer sea ice in the Arctic Ocean, melting of almost all mountain glaciers around the world, and an increased rate of sea-level rise in the
last 10-15 years,”
http://www.reuters.com/article/2009/09/23/idUS147048+23-Sep-2009+PRN20090923
“But we know if we get into the 3-5 degrees realm, we will be faced by major crises like a complete meltdown of the Greenland ice sheets, a collapse of the Amazon rain forests, a sea-level rise of 10 or 20 meters in the long run.”
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1217/p10s01-woeu.html
“We might have something like a global civil war with many pockets of conflicts”.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2007/12/10/us-bali-conflict-idUSL1056548020071210
“After the cold war, mutually insured disarmament was the logic of good global governance. Facing the global climate challenge, mutually insured emissions reductions should become the logic”
http://www.idw-online.de/de/news317708
“In nearly all areas, the developments are occurring more quickly than it has been assumed up until now, … We are on our way to a destabilization of the world climate that has advanced much further than most people or their governments realize. … The current coastline will no longer exist, and that includes in Germany,”
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/264218
“In most cases, it’s social mismanagement that creates the conditions for social catastrophes. … But extreme weather relentlessly exposes human mistakes and our crimes against nature. … Naturally, we have to be careful not to dramatize things. After all, scientific credibility is our unique selling point. But I do confess that when you have the feeling that people just aren’t listening, it becomes very tempting to turn up the volume. Naturally, we have to resist this temptation. … I’m convinced that in the long term we should take the atmosphere back to the cooler state that prevailed in the Neolithic Age, when humans became sedentary. … what’s hubristic here is the way we are unscrupulously interfering with creation by burning all the fossil fuels.”
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/german-climatologist-on-criticism-of-ipcc-we-received-a-kick-in-the-pants-a-712113-2.html
However, he’s no not Dr. Strangelove. Strangelove was not this strange. His political philosophy might be impossible to classify but I’ll try my best: Cybernetic-Transhuman-Neo-Luddite-Ecogenecist or something like that. Here is an extract from the Potsdam Manifesto, of which he is a signatory:
“The individual person, like everything else, is in principle never isolated. In our only seeming smallness, we are simultaneously involved in and significant in the omni-connected commonality in an infinite variety of ways. The variety of influences and impulses of other people and of our geo-biosphere has a part in all our actions, and not only over the bridge of material-energetic interactions mediated by our senses, but also directly through the immaterial, potential connectedness common to us all. Our action influences in equal measure the entire composition of our society and changes the constantly dynamically shifting potentiality of the living Wirklichkeit. Thus, the uniqueness of the individual is a carrying component of the process of our common cultural evolution.
We humans and human communities, with our cultural worlds of ideas, our mental processes, and our moving exchange, represent a special, deeply connected sphere of the living world. Pre-livingness is a characteristic of everything, including the world of things, which is usually regarded as “dead”. We need to reach a fundamentally new way of thinking and a more comprehensive under standing of our Wirklichkeit, in which we, too, see ourselves as a thread in the fabric of life, without sacrificing anything of our special human qualities. This makes it possible to recognize humanity in fundamental commonality with the rest of nature, without thereby falling into a conventional naturalism or simply invoking cosmologies that may have corresponded with the world views and ways of life of cultures that remain close to nature.
The materialistic-mechanistic worldview of classical physics, with its rigid ideas and reductive way of thinking, became the supposedly scientifically legitimated ideology for vast areas of scientific and political-strategic thinking. The progressing uniformity of all ideas of value and affluence, habits of consumption and economic strategies on the pattern of a Western/North American/European knowledge society is still legitimated by a way of thinking that argues for a rational objectifiability of the Wirklichkeit on the basis of secured scientific foundations. Where conflicts arise, a lack of instrumental knowledge is diagnosed and compensatory delivery is prescribed. The foundations of this orientation are seldom questioned, though there is reason enough to do so.
Modern societies are in a cold war against diversity and change, difference and integration, open development and movements to balance through risks and opportunities: a cold war against everything that is the source of living evolution in nature, and with it in us – down to the “pre-living” ground that sustains us and all of life.
[…]
If we continue to “tilt” our common playing field of life by unrestrainedly striving for power, so that the majority of humankind and a great part of all living creatures are slipping off, our problems will grow into a catastrophe.
But the ground on which a new, sustainable organismic cultural variety grows is well prepared. A new and yet familiar image of humankind is emerging, originating from empathic people. The confrontations and distortions we daily experience in our civilization should not allow ourselves to be led astray. Our existence as human beings today shows us that we, too, are the successful result of a similar development that has already gone on for billions of years. Our confidence is not unfounded. We must create new knowledge and act in such a way that liveliness increases and flourishes diversely. We can trust that this power is active in us. For omni-connectedness, which we can also call love and from which life springs, is fundamentally inherent in us and in everything else.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potsdam_Denkschrift
http://www.gcn.de/download/manifesto_en.pdf
I’m sure it loses a lot in translation.
“People go into science because they’re interested in finding the truth. It’s total nonsense (to accuse scientists of scare-mongering). Those people will never believe us.”
http://in.reuters.com/article/2009/12/03/idINIndia-44431020091203
And on that last point, Prof. Schellnhuber, I am in full agreement.
P.S. Visual dictionary editors would do well to add this link to their entries for “supercilious”
http://tinyurl.com/d2sajn2
Crispin in Waterloo says:
“the UN… needs serious reform, not elimination. The veto has to go, that’s for sure.”
I agree with Crispin almost all the time. But in this instance, I see it differently.
The UN needs to be ejected from U.S. shores. It is a thoroughly corrupt, anti-U.S. organization, which takes as much American taxpayer money as it can get its hands on; it never provides an accounting of how our money is spent, and most member states publicly detest the U.S. It has never prevented a war — the primary reason for its existence. It’s blue helmets rape and pillage local populations, and are never called to account.
Barring doing the right thing [promptly evicting the UN], the Veto must always remain in force. Why? Because without it, it will be a situation where two wolves and one lamb are voting on what to have for lunch. With close to 200 members states, the UN would promptly vote U.S. assets into the hands of its kleptocratic member states. Is there any doubt? Any doubt at all?
Things are bad enough already. We have an anti-American President who cavalierly and illegally shovels hundreds of million of dollars into foreign QUANGOs, like the Palestinian Authority, and various eco-NGOs — with no enabling legislation! American tax money is simply handed over as if Obama is some ancient Roman imperator with free access to the Treasury. And if Obama is unfortunately re-elected, there is no doubt that he will place the U.S. under the jurisdiction of the thoroughly corrupt, politically motivated foreign International Criminal Court. He has already said as much.
If we eject the UN from the U.S., other countries would immediately begin treating us with respect, instead of badmouthing über-generous America. As it stands, American money flows into the UN at the rate of many $BILLIONS of dollars every year! And for what? There is zero accountability; the UN has steadfastly refused to allow any outside audit of its finances. Every Secretary-General retires filthy rich, like an ancient Governor of a Roman province.
If we dispensed with the corrupt UN middleman, countries would understand that by being hostile to the U.S. they would jeopardize our generous largesse. So instead of demonizing the U.S., countries would begin to curry favour. Which is only to be expected, when someone is handing you their money.
There are no redeeming qualities whatever in having a UN. They hand out our money — most all of which goes into the pockets of dictators rather than to benefit the people it is intended to help — and take full credit. When has the UN ever publicly expressed appreciation and gratitude for America’s generosity? Instead, they take our money with a surly, grasping attitude, and demand ever more. They bite the hand that feeds them, and hate us more with every dollar we give them.
The sooner the UN is booted out, and its U.S.-provided income cut off, the better. Hatred should not be rewarded with cash extorted from working Americans. Those $billions would do a lot of good right here, instead of being wasted on third-world America-hating dictators, and corrupt UN kleptocrats.
“One must say clearly that we redistribute de facto the world’s wealth by climate policy. One has to free oneself from the illusion that international climate policy is environmental policy. This has almost nothing to do with environmental policy anymore.”
~ Ottmar Edenhofer, Co-Chair, UN/IPCC WG-3
Ray Bradley:
“I just read that Schellnhuber got an OBE!!!! I didn’t know you got those for spouting
bullshit, but I guess that’s how far standards have fallen. Pretty amazing…
ray”
http://climategate2011.blogspot.com/2011/11/3803txt.html
Since Sir Charles Chaplin’s great movie “The Dictator”, I have dire problems with taking people who are juggling Globuli serious…
Die climate Science ist gesettled. Ve haff vays von mobilizing der Vill. Rezistenz ist futile!
“Every Secretary-General retires filthy rich, like an ancient Governor of a Roman province.”
OBJECTION!
Unlike Sec.Gens, those governors were occasionally held accountable for their actions.
(However, I wouldn’t be surprised to find a UN Sec Gen someday facing “corruption” charges for attempting to clean up corruption, or to find one refusing to give up his office because it would mean giving up his immunity.)
more information about goals and supporters of Schellnhuber’s ideas:
http://www.greattransformation.eu/
In former days he named it “cultural revolution” a term invented by Mao Zedong.
IMHO these people are dangerous.
for german readers:
http://www.achgut.com/dadgdx/index.php/dadgd/article/herr_schellnhuber_und_die_kulturrevolution/
Searching for “Schellnhuber”, “Kulturrevolution” or “Transformation” on http://www.achgut.com/dadgdx delievers a bunch of links
Madness:
http://www.eureferendum.com/blogview.aspx?blogno=82922
and
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/07/16/us-germany-environment-idUKBRE86F0R220120716
“However, he’s no not Dr. Strangelove. Strangelove was not this strange. His political philosophy might be impossible to classify but I’ll try my best: Cybernetic-Transhuman-Neo-Luddite-Ecogenecist or something like that.”
I used to have a friend (not late) who staetd the position more succintly: scientific socialism – that is the solution!
The idea is that an elit of unaccountable scientists should determine what is needed (always involving the need for PR-worthy deaths and the uncovering of imaginary plots against the Great Leader). Can you name the place??
@Smokey
I don’t know anything about the legality of funding from the USA to organisations – not an American and little background in it. I have studied the UN as ‘an intent’, and I like it. It is assuredly corrupt and as I will not participate in corruption I don’t sell anything to the UN, but it is not wise to toss out all international cooperation because a bunch of crooks and opportunists inveigled themselves into what is a good idea. The USA could unilaterally demand all moneys be accounted for by audit or no more money – that would probably find sympathy from other member states.
The Law of the Sea was I think the first international law that was supra-national in powers. Nations voluntarily gave over part of their absolute independence to have the benefits of an agreement on how to handle things at sea. The allocation of radio waves is another. There are lots of them. By ‘them’ I mean legal things which are agreed by a supra-national committee that overrides national opinion – the result of the international vote is binding on the national parties who have agreed as a membership requirement to do so.
The UN is just a larger version of this – a pretty defective attempt not to create a ‘world government’ the way the communist party envisages it, but more like a federation much like the relationship between the US States and the government in Washington. I don’t want to drag misuse of the US system at present, please consider the relationships. International level administration of the air, radio, satellites, phone numbers, trade rules, lots and lots of things, are necessary to a functioning modern world. Just look at the prevention of disease. Monitoring for polio cannot be done sensibly with ‘each nation doing their own thing’. Why not each province doing their own thing? or each town? or each family? Doesn’t work. The world is now in a condition, we have come so far, that we need formal international cooperation. At present, member states are not suspended if they violate treaties they sign. That must end or there is no point in having the treaty.
We have no need for corrupt and un-audited international organisations above the law, obviously. They could be above national law, but certainly there needs to be ‘law’ for all, not just for some. Its membership should be by election, and the ‘seats’ should be representative of the global population. No un-elected uber-bosses ‘overseeing the elected’, thanks. In fact the US federal model is a good way to manage international affairs, provided the area of influence is limited to exactly those international affairs. It seems the concept of limited role at different levels is not well understood – everyone advocates systems where all power belongs to some Top Guy so they can force their views on everyone. The Founding Fathers seem to have had a better and more balanced view, looking around now. Odd.
I doubt whether this bird would be too happy with the “rating” and solutions prescribed for him by sufficiently scientific psychiatrists …
Deutsche Bank Climate Change Advisory Board
Lord Browne, Managing Director and Managing Partner (Europe) of Riverstone Holdings LLC and former CEO of BP
John Coomber, Member of the Board of Directors Swiss Re and Chairman of The Climate Group, UK
Fabio Feldmann, CEO, Fabio Feldmann Consultores and former Executive Secretary, Brazilian Forum on Climate Change
Amory B. Lovins, Chairman and CEO of Rocky Mountain Institute
Lord Oxburgh, Member of the Advisory Board Climate Change Capital and Former Chairman Shell, UK
Dr. R K Pachauri, Chairman of IPCC
Professor Hans Joachim Schellnhuber CBE, Director of Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK)
Robert Socolow, Co-Director The Carbon Mitigation Initiative and Professor Princeton University
Klaus Töpfer, Former Minister for Environment
Zhang Hongren, Former President International Union of Geological Science and former Vice Minister of Geology and Mineral Resources
Let’s remember that Germany has half a million families without electricity..
http://www.thegwpf.org/international-news/5035-green-germany-half-a-million-families-sitting-in-the-dark.html
They’re not only in literal darkness, but “informational darkness”, and are “silenced”.
[SNIP: You are right, it is poor taste. Can we stick with substantitve comment, please? -REP]