Guest essay by Eric Worrall
BHP climate executive Fiona Wild has left Paris, after her face appeared on series of “Wanted” posters. BHP denies that Ms Wild left because of concerns about personal security, though the Financial Times claims that she was upset by the personal nature of the campaign.
According to the Financial Times;
The BHP Billiton executive in charge of climate change has cut short her stay at the United Nations climate talks in Paris after her face appeared on “wanted” posters plastered by environmental activists outside upmarket hotels in the French capital.
Fiona Wild, who is BHP’s vice president of environment and climate change, was one of seven people to appear in a campaign organised by green activist group Avaaz on Sunday night. Their photos appeared on more than 1000 wanted posters that described them as “climate criminals”. Avaaz volunteers also handed out leaflets featuring the head shots to commuters at metro train stations near the conference.
“These lobbyists have come to Paris to sabotage a global deal for ambitious climate action, despite over 3.6 million citizens around the world calling for 100 per cent clean energy,” Avaaz’s acting executive director, Emma Ruby-Sachs, said in a statement. “Ministers must listen to their people, not polluters, and refuse meetings with climate criminals who want to derail a deal the whole world wants.”
It is understood Ms Wild was upset by the personal nature of the campaign – which was reported around the world in publications such as The New York Times and Huffington Post – and elected to leave the summit before its scheduled conclusion on Friday afternoon. Ms Wild had hoped to stay for the full two weeks of the conference. A BHP Billiton source denied speculation Ms Wild had cut short her stay because of security concerns.
As someone who witnessed a major terror attack in London, I understand Ms Wild’s alleged upset at being personally targeted by a hate campaign.
I’m not suggesting the Avaaz activist group responsible for the poster campaign actually meant any physical harm to Ms Wild. But their campaign in my opinion is utterly irresponsible. Given the heated rhetoric surrounding the climate issue, repeated claims this is the last chance to save the world, and given that real terrorists have in the past added their support to green claims, would anyone really be surprised, if some hothead or fanatic decided to take matters one step further?
Belief in imminent catastrophe, regardless of whether that belief is well founded, is a moral slippery slope. History is full of good people who were seduced into doing evil, because they thought they were serving the greater good. If a good person truly believes the world is on the brink of total destruction, what atrocity, what crime couldn’t be justified in their mind, to prevent such a horror?
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
That rationalization – ‘that small bad deeds are justified in defense of a greater good’ (I use ‘bad’ rather than ‘evil’ because ‘evil’ is a religious term) has been used to justify a lot of really bad deeds (blowing up abortion clinics for example).
I do not understand why these folks think that putting out ‘wanted’ posters which could end up inciting the less stable amongst us to commit a violent act is a good idea in a city that recently suffered a horrific violent act that used, at its core, the same rationale.
For two weeks now, we’ve heard a great deal of silly babble, nonsense, and parody on this blog. This crapfest is ending tonight–how about a report of what WAS, and WAS NOT, actually DONE? That’s really the bottom line. Less titillation, more substance please!
I don’t understand what they think that they have done.
You can always read the draft agreement.
It says things like this:
“Each Party shall regularly prepare, communicate [and maintain] [successive] ### 4 and [shall][should][other] [take appropriate domestic measures] [have in place][identify and] [pursue] [implement] [[domestic laws], [nationally determined] policies or other measures] [designed to] [implement][achieve][carry out][that support the implementation of] its ###]”
I assume that “###” means “crap”.
See what you make of it:
http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/2015/cop21/eng/da01.pdf
Isn’t this considered “Domestic Terrorism”?
Not an irresponsible campaign. An infantile one.
“History is full of good people who were seduced into doing evil, because they thought they were serving the greater good. If a good person truly believes the world is on the brink of total destruction, what atrocity, what crime couldn’t be justified in their mind, to prevent such a horror?”
It’s always the good men who do the most harm in the world—Henry Adams
(aka pokerguy)
Frankly, to me the bigger surprise is that it hasn’t already happened. What I fear is that when it does (I think it’s inevitable), the support will go to the fanatic.
“These lobbyists have come to Paris to sabotage a global deal for ambitious climate action, despite over 3.6 million citizens around the world calling for 100 per cent clean energy,” Avaaz’s acting executive director, Emma Ruby-Sachs, said in a statement. “Ministers must listen to their people, not polluters, and refuse meetings with climate criminals who want to derail a deal the WHOLE WORLD wants.”
So given that roughly 0.06 percent (3.6 million citizens) is now 100% of the “whole world”? I guess we’ve overshot the Avaaz clean energy goal, using their math? Emma Ruby-Sachs is brilliant!
Fiona Wild, who is BHP’s vice president of environment and climate change, was one of seven people to appear in a campaign organised by green activist group Avaaz on Sunday night. Their photos appeared on more than 1000 wanted posters that described them as “climate criminals”.
I hope people are getting to understand the true nature of the coming “New World Order”. It takes us back to the ways of the old world of the USSR. It’s as though the activists who protested to bring down the Berlin Wall, had nothing then to do, so they hijacked green environmental groups where they then found a new lease of life to their activism … climate change!
They use the new math invented by Mike Mann etal.
The Greenie slime are ramping up their hateful, anti-human, pro-world government. Make no mistake; these “wanted” posters, although still part of free speech are acts of terrorism. They are designed to instill fear in the skeptic/climate realist community.
Had any of those seven been assaulted, AVAAZ’s reputation as a peaceful advocate for progress would be shattered, and legal problems might have followed. Remarkably bad judgement by AVAAZ.
I wonder how any sponsor of AGU would react if they were to find that even a penny of their support was behind this vile behavior? http://fallmeeting.agu.org/2015/sponsor-thank/
The most dangerous threat to life on planet Earth at this time is –
ZEALOTRY.
Isn’t their poster campaign highly illegal right now in France due to the terrorist attacks?
Evidently Paris has no regulation of posters on public streets. odd since regulating signs and posters is common.
The Greens have taken another page from the ISIS playbook – fatwa.
“I’m not suggesting the Avaaz activist group responsible for the poster campaign actually meant any physical harm to Ms Wild.”
You’re being much kinder than you should be.
I’m not suggesting the Avaaz activist group responsible for the poster campaign actually meant any physical harm to Ms Wild.
=
What else? This is prelude to mob lynching, no more no less.
BHP and in fact all the big companies stupidly play lip service to AGW activists. Big business has to grow some balls and call out this activism . They are so naive to think that it’s about climate change; it’s actually about anti capitalism and BHP is the poster child for a society built on capitalism. We have National Bank and others saying that they will sell all coal stocks. They all have lost their collective minds. More corporate players need to follow Maurice Newman’s ( ex Stock Exchange Head) and call out the alarmist crap for what it is. They need to pressure governments. Ultimately the main employer in Australia should be these large companies and in a green society we’ll all be looking to work for the government who won’t be able to pay us because there is no tax to collect from these large companies. When one looks at great Communist societies this creates the sort of way the greens will take us.
The term “climate whores’ springs to mind …