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Naomi Klein has been invited to attend a top level conference at the Vatican, to advise leaders how to fight climate change and dismantle capitalism.
According to The Guardian;
Naomi Klein and Cardinal Peter Turkson are to lead a high-level conference on the environment, bringing together churchmen, scientists and activists to debate climate change action. Klein, who campaigns for an overhaul of the global financial system to tackle climate change, told the Observer she was surprised but delighted to receive the invitation from Turkson’s office.
“The fact that they invited me indicates they’re not backing down from the fight. A lot of people have patted the pope on the head, but said he’s wrong on the economics. I think he’s right on the economics,” she said, referring to Pope Francis’s recent publication of an encyclical on the environment.
Release of the document earlier this month thrust the pontiff to the centre of the global debate on climate change, as he berated politicians for creating a system that serves wealthy countries at the expense of the poorest.
Activists and religious leaders will gather in Rome on Sunday, marching through the Eternal City before the Vatican welcomes campaigners to the conference, which will focus on the UN’s impending climate change summit.
Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/28/pope-climate-change-naomi-klein
The madness of this latest development, is Capitalism is the single most important factor which has made the wealth of rich countries possible. Dismantling Capitalism would not make poor countries rich, it would make rich countries poor.
As for non capitalist societies being better stewards of the environment, what a busted myth that is – if you want to see truly horrific levels environmental destruction, you need look no further than the old anti-capitalist Soviet Union, which is now practically a byword for pollution, inefficient use of resources, and environmental degradation.
I thought this response might help balance the ledger. Sorry I can’t do the click on bit.
Miranda Devine
–, Sunday, June, 21, 2015, (1:35am)
CLIMATE alarmists are cock-a-whoop over Pope Francis’s much-anticipated call to action on global warming.
Yes, the leader of the world’s 1.8 billion Catholics, agrees with Kevin Rudd. The planet is in crisis, and climate change is one of the greatest moral challenges, the Pope has written in his first solo encyclical. Man is to blame and fossil fuels are bad.
It couldn’t be a more political document, designed to ¬influence the upcoming UN ¬climate summit in Paris later this year. Christiana Figueres, the UN’s climate change head, has called it a “clarion call to guide the world”.
Looks like everyone’s a papist now.
Alarmists are revelling in what they hope is the discomfort of the climate sceptic, or agnostic faithful, especially the Prime Minister.
“Hopefully this is Tony Abbott’s come to Jesus moment on climate change,” Greens leader Richard Di Natale said
“If Tony Abbott won’t listen to the science, I only hope he will listen to the leader of his church and see the light on climate change,” said independent MP Andrew Wilkie.
The same people who have flayed Abbott for taking orders from Rome, supposedly, when it comes to women’s ovaries or same-sex marriage are now ¬demanding he obey the Pope and start spraying windmills across the landscape.
Sensibly, the PM ducked questions last week. After all, no disrespect to the Pope, but he has no authority on these matters. His is just another opinion.
And at a time when Christians are being slaughtered in the Middle East, you have to wonder at the use of this significant statement of papal teaching for what surely is a less pressing concern.
How could a refugee fleeing the medieval brutality of Islamic State in Syria or Iraq feel anything but abandoned by the Pope’s preoccupation with mythical “climate refugees”.
“There has been a tragic rise in the number of migrants seeking to flee from the growing poverty caused by environmental degradation,” he writes.
“Sadly, there is widespread indifference to such suffering.”
Yes, the Pope prays every week for an end to the war in Syria, and on Friday, he met the head of the Syrian Orthodox Church to lament the “terrible trials” of Christians in the Middle East. But none of that gets the global media attention of an encyclical written in the language of the green Left, that criticises market economics, and sounds the doomsday alarm.
“The Earth, our home, is ¬beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth,” is one of the more peculiar claims.
Yet a quick scan of the 10 most-polluted places on Earth finds that not one is in the ¬developed world. Instead we see Ghana, Indonesia, Ukraine, Zambia, Russia, Nigeria and Argentina. The fact is that prosperity and progress leads to less pollution and more care for the environment. It’s in rich Western countries that people have the luxury of clean waterways, recycling bins, and catalytic converters.
What’s more, the Pope’s concern for the poor in developing countries is at odds with the UN’s climate demands.
It is the poor who are hit hardest by the electricity price rises that result from cuts in ¬energy consumption.
Pro-life advocates are aghast that many of the climate alarmists who are claiming the Pope as their own are Malthusians and misanthropes — to them, people are the problem and the solution is population control, which of course is the antithesis of Catholic teaching.
Two of the Pope’s environmental advisers for the encyclical, for instance, were Jeffrey Sachs and Hans Schellnhuber, known for advocating abortion, contraception and sterilisation.
But, as a Catholic and an ¬optimist, I suspect the Pope is engaging in Jesuitical trickery.
When you read the encyclical, you see that climate change is a minor player, despite the media hype.
In 44,000 words, the word “climate” appears just 18 times. This is illustrated in a word cloud by the Catholic News Service, in which the size of a word correlates with the frequency of its use: “climate” is not visible. “Human” is the largest word, followed by “God”.
That is the cleverness of this popular, enigmatic Pope He has used climate change as the “bait” to lure the chattering classes, the godless and the Gaia worshippers.
He gives them a bit of climate sustenance, then whacks them with a full-frontal attack on moral relativism.
“We have had enough of ¬immorality and the mockery of ethics, goodness, faith and honesty … There can be no renewal of our relationship with nature without a renewal of humanity itself,” the Pope writes.
He is down on abortion, contraception, embryonic research, sex changes and digital media, which gives “rise to a new type of contrived emotion which has more to do with devices and displays than with other people and with nature”.
He is all for the family, which he calls “the heart of the culture of life”.
So now that the Pope has the ears of the world, he’s relentlessly hammering us with ¬unabashed Catholic teaching, sugar-coated with populist ¬environmentalism.
Genius bait and switch.
Look who queues up to bury the most successful system ever, wanting to replace it with their own failed models? Back to being told what to think and when to think it. Back to superstition. These are momentous times. I don’t think they will win, as I think people will smell the rat, but this is a particularly revealing moment. I expect next to see strong attacks on democracy, as those who know best seek their own ascendancy.
as for the rally mentioned in your Guardian link, here is Rosie’s followup with the organisers (WWF & Co) claiming 5,000 attended. i don’t think so:
29 June: Guardian: Pope Francis’s environmental message brings thousands on to streets in Rome
Vatican officials to discuss climate change and environment with scientists and activists including Naomi Klein
by Rosie Scammell in Rome
Alongside Klein and Turkson, the conservation group WWF has been invited to this week’s Vatican conference and had a strong presence at the rally on Sunday, described as a “historic event” by Samantha Smith, leader of the organisation’s global climate and energy initiative…
Activists at the ***One Earth, One Family event broke through the silence enveloping early-morning Rome with singing and chanting, waving paper birds high over the central Piazza Farnese before marching to the Vatican…
While a few hundred people began the multifaith march, holding banners and sheltering from the sun under giant paper leaves, organisers said about 5,000 were present at the end of the march in St Peter’s Square…
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/28/pope-francis-environment-rome-naomi-klein-climate-change
nowhere in google images of the rally have i seen any sizeable crowd whatsoever. greenpeace also involved, it seems, & elsewhere i read that 350.org sent a couple of islander “climate warriors”.
in the first photo gallery at the One Earth, One Family website, there are no crowds whatsoever, just some WWF banners, Solar banners, Migrant Lives Matter banners & the like.
in the second photo gallery, there is one photo of a crowd, with a tag “I finally saw the Pope”. it is evident that it is the regular Sunday crowd who congregate in St. Peter’s Square for the Pope’s blessing, & has nothing to do with the rally.
OneEarthOneFamily.org – Photo Galleries
http://oneearthonefamily.org/
So…she who doesn’t like advertisers is now going to be in the position to use advertising tactics on us that she despises when it’s coming from corporations. *SMH*
She’s the anti-capitalist capitalist. Her religious superpower is annoying people into submission.
If you want to see what effect unrestricted capitalism has on the environment take a visit to Beijing and breathe in nice and deep. Government controls eg the clean air act by far the most efficient way of reigning in the excesses of the free market.
You mean no regulation, not “unrestricted capitalism.”
Unrestricted capitalism?? Seriously?? I’ll remember that when the Chinese.gov starts “suppressing” environmentalists.
“reins”- what goes on a horse
“reigns”- what a king does
“rains” – what it does on the planes, in Spain… when they are out of their hangers
“hangar”- where the planes are
“hanger”- where your coat is
🙂
Plains are that place in Spain on which the rain rains.
Sunnuva gun, Eustace! Never noticed that one and I’ve worked for 2 aerospace companies and one aircraft manufacturer where I got paid to wander around the hangars. Near as I can recall, that’s the first time I’ve ever had cause to write the word and I got busted right out of the gate. Thank you sir! :o)
The very first link is wrong; it leads to a sign-up page. please correct
Klein is an economic idiot. She has no clue what capitalism is. It’s pretty simple. Income drives spending. Spending creates sales. Sales create jobs. Jobs create income. Repeat. That’s it. Capitalism.
And “sales” are anything that a person (or business) produces for sale, from books to tree trimming, from steel to scallop fishing. Nursing. Bridges. Engineering. Whatever it is you do. “Goods and services” in macroeconomic parlance. The output of a nation.
What Klein is woefully unaware of is that 70% of the spending in this country is by households, ordinary people who want jobs, and need them to sustain themselves and their dignity. But they need income before they can spend.
And what she doesn’t understand is that the process I describe in the first paragraph is “pro-cyclical.” It goes in one direction only. The federal government, on the other hand, can act counter-cyclically during a downturn, which our federal government has failed to do since 2009. Only the federal government can act counter-cyclically and increase spending by congressional appropriation (without any debt to children and grandchildren). And without requiring an income*.
Look at the process I describe in the first paragraph. If households don’t have any income, or are saving their income to pay off debt (“deleveraging”), then the only entity in this capitalist country of ours that can spend to increase sales which create jobs is the federal government.
But we’ve elected idiots in Congress who don’t know that, who think that the “national debt” is something we have to pay back (or pay down), and who think that federal government deficits are actually harmful! When they’re not. (The European countries that gave up their sovereign currency for the Euro are not so lucky.)
===========================
* Anyone who thinks that the US federal government needs income before it can spend (that it needs tax dollars), I invite you to look at the US Treasury’s consolidated bank statement for the end of fiscal year 2014, which is September 30th. This is the federal government’s (US Treasury) bank statement for the year. I’m not making this up. It’s two pages.
Look at “TABLE IV – Federal tax Deposits.” Total taxes received were $2,599,739 million, or $2.6 trillion. (We’ll ignore “TABLE VI – Income Tax Refunds Issued,” which would make the number even smaller) That’s it. A measly $2.6 trillion. If you think that pays for the government, you’ve got bats in the belfry.
Now look at “TABLE III-A – Public Debt Transactions.” The federal government–NOT the Federal Reserve–issued $69,813,829 million, or $69.8 trillion in new US dollar instruments. The accountant’s term for it is “public debt” because they record it on the right side of the ledger sheet under “Liabilities.” It also redeemed $68,727,941 million, or $68.7 trillion. What they bought with it goes on the left side of their ledger sheet under “Assets.” The difference, btw, is what the federal government allows us to keep. It’s called the National Debt, or “Public Debt Outstanding.” It’s in our bank accounts. Yours and mine.
So do not, under any circumstances, think that federal taxes pay for anything. They don’t. Their purpose is to regulate the economy in a fiat system like a thermostat. Economy ice cold? Cut taxes, increase spending. Economy red hot? Increase taxes, cut spending. The US federal government can never go broke.
This is why Naomi Klein’s assertions are insane. She has zero understanding of how things work. And now she’s over in Italy, which gave up the Lira for the Euro, talking to people who do not understand the American system of capitalism, and is going to regulate ours from afar? The Climate Change people running the UN know about TABLE III-A – Public Debt Transactions. They’re after the US federal government’s money-making machine.
True, the government can never go broke. But the money CAN become worthless.
Assuming you’re talking about USD, only if USD are not longer required to pay taxes. Then, why would anyone need them and, therefore, work to get them?
Ain’t gonna’ happen, M Simon, unless idiotic and foolish congressmen and senators default the US currency (like the Russians did in 1997 or 1998 when they didn’t have to). We are a sovereign nation with a sovereign currency. Too bad Rand Paul, Paul Ryan, Hillary Clinton, Ted Cruz, Rick Perry, and all the idiotic Democratic and Republican candidates, don’t know this.
GDP=Federal Spending + Non-federal Spending + Net Exports
About now I remember the description of fox hunting as “The unspeakable in full pursuit of the uneatable”.
While it seems to be missing from the encyclical I leave this comment open to adaptation.
The Catholic Church, like the Church Of England, are heavily invested in ‘Carbon’.
Since the value of ‘Carbon’ is now much lower than when they originally invested their money, they will be relentless with the AGW propaganda.
However, you only have to look at the paedophile scandal inside the Catholic Church and the criminal conspiracy to protect those embedded deviants to understand what you are dealing with here. The criminally insane.
The Catholic Church has a very well documented history of comfortably aligning itself with the worlds most destructive, criminally insane powers.
How can one be surprised. A neutral observer might call this The Age of the Oligarchs. Even Wikipedia has it right: “… power effectively rests with a small number of people. These people could be distinguished by royalty, wealth, family ties, education, corporate, religious or military control.”
Western democracies, after a long a winding path, have rejected rule by the people. The Church merely reflects this 200-300 year process(es) of rejecting self-rule. The Church is simply wanting to be part of the ruling oligarchy instead of an outsider. Remember, the Pope was elected by a super-majority of the Church Cardinals meaning the Pope is just a member of a group that includes Baghdad Bob, Josh Earnest and all the rest of the press secretaries. I.E., he’s the public spokesperson reflection of the organization he represents.
The most likely outcome, for the US, is a form of government similar to China’s bureaucratic capitalism or whether they’ll simply skip on to a variation of he Nazi’s “statism”. However, the effect on the non-oligarch class will still mean having to learn to live under totalitarian rule.
It will play out on it’s own time scale but this will not end well.
One of the best essays that you can read on the root of our problems with the socialists/greens is:
Egalitarianism as a Revolt Against Nature
http://archive.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard31.html
Poverty must be maintained at all cost!
I see the science ignorant socialist pope intends to remain science ignorant.
The pious but ignorant asking for guidance from the godless but clueless.
https://thepointman.wordpress.com/2015/06/20/the-sickening-encyclical/
Pointman
Perhaps someone should send the Pope King Cnut’s throne. He may need it.
It is the irony motherlode: the side that claims to be helping the poor, that claims to be helping the environment, that claims to be good for the economy, and that claims to have science and truth on its side is in fact the polar opposite of all those things. And finally, we have the Church, which is supposed to stand for all things which are good weighing in on the side of evil instead. How this will all play out is anyone’s guess.
It is a dog’s breakfast without a doubt.
“When the enemy is making a false movement we must take good care not to interrupt him”
The heat and noise surrounding the Pope’s letter and subsequent campaigns is making it increasingly clearly that the discussion is a political and economic (rather than scientific) one. This is good for us. It will make it clear to the middle-ground that the supposedly lunatic conspiracy-theorists weren’t quite so lunatic. There WAS a form of political end-game hidden behind the science, and this WAS about establishing some form of centrally planned / controlled global economic model.
The clearer this becomes, the less tolerant electorates will become of being asked to acquiesce, the more questions they will start asking – and the more likely it is that a reappraisal of the scientific basis for these extreme political demands will kick off.
Which will probably bring us back to where most of us sit. Yes there have been temperature increases – but not as much as the manipulated data suggests. Yes, some of it is caused by human activities, but probably not as much as claimed. Yes, there may be more to come, but probably not too much and certainly not catastrophic. Neutral to lukewarm.
Australia and Canada are a little ahead on this political journey. There seems little wavering in UK cabinet, but there is scepticism on the back-benches which could start to play in the run up to the EU referendum – given the EU’s gung-ho attitude and inherent belief in regulation and control. GOP control of both houses is moving the US in the direction of a more questioning stance – something which will inevitably be escalated by the current papal bull.
In short, let the left make as much noise as possible about rebuilding the world economy and dismantling capitalism. Really, let them get on with it. The more extreme the better. That’s where the political “consensus” will start to fall apart – and the apparent scientific one will follow.
thomam,
” the discussion is a political and economic (rather than scientific) one. This is good for us. It will make it clear to the middle-ground that the supposedly lunatic conspiracy-theorists weren’t quite so lunatic.”
I agree with with your analysis. I have a caution for you to consider: Do not underestimate the power of popularism amongst the stupid. This exactly why the USA was set up as a republic and not a democracy. Mob rule by a brainless mob is the inevitable outcome.
To markx I would like to say that there appears to be trend to concentration of financial wealth but I think there is a dynamic that is being ignored. When some company makes a new innovation, it will control a larger portion (miniscule as it may be) of the world’s financial wealth. When lots of companies are making lots of innovations, financial wealth is being concentrated. But not all wealth is financial. The real gain to society is from the innovations. In order for these companies to accumulate a larger portion of financial wealth, they must sell more innovation to society as a whole. At least that’s the way it seems to me that it should work in theory. I think the biggest problem is that it is easier for companies to get a bigger portion of the world’s wealth by influencing government rather than by innovating.
Dismantling capitalism is going swimmingly in Venezuela. Can’t even get toilet paper. Is this what Naomi has in mind?
Well, it does save trees……so they can be burned as renewable fuel in the UK.
Would they like a tranche of Greek debt instead?
“Who should we call in as an independent and unbiased adviser”
“How about a political activist?”
“Get her in.”
Yes, the Catholic Church used to be much more successful and powerful as well when most people lived in poverty, infant and child mortality was two out of three, disease and hunger were rampant and the average lifespan was below 30. Is this what the Pope and Naomi Klein want to bring back?
The Catholic Church operates more hospitals than anyone Gus. You can hate the Church, that is up to you but to say something so absurd in a dialogue about legitimate policies of finance and economics puts your comment on the hate fringe.
Okay, how about a straight up hospital tax instead. It is far better to be direct and truthful than to join the end around campaign of lies and attack of even the notion of fact checking.
What Klein and the Pope find objectionable is the notion that good can be spontaneous, without the need for a guiding hand from above.
Neither Klein nor the Pope can fathom how billions of people acting out of their own self-interest can create something that benefits all.
Yet this is precisely why we have billions of humans. A society of individuals is greater than the sum of its parts.
The great danger to society comes from those that would seek to subvert the rights of individuals in the name of “the common good”. In this society becomes a slave to noble purpose; a New Crusade is the result.
John Stossel calls it “spontaneous order.”
Disturbingly, the Pope has gone thoroughly whack-a-doodle and leaped into the pit of political snakes.
Portland Mayor Hales has zero to offer but his shady political position atop a city so foolishly far left it has it’s own lampooning TV show. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RriKEK09SVo
http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2015/06/pope_francis_invited_charlie_h.html
“Portland Mayor Charlie Hales is one of 16 mayors from around the world invited to meet with Pope Francis next month as part of a global summit to discuss climate change and human trafficking.
The July 21 event at the Vatican is sponsored by the Pontifical Academy of Science, according to a press release.”………………
The church is free to lead by example. May I suggest every Sunday morning the Vatican Swiss Guard be posted in every church to confiscate wealth from every one who attends and pass it back out as every one leaves according to the pope’s decree.
Let them not air condition or heat their churches, let the clergy walk, bike or take public transit where ever they go.