Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Some Greens seem to be waking up to the fact that the climate cause is sinking, and are attempting to shift attention back to more traditional environmental issues.
According to the Independent;
The world is in danger of taking its eye off the ball on environmental issues such as air pollution and soil erosion following a landmark deal to tackle global warming in Paris last month, the head of Friends of the Earth warns.
“Climate change poses a big threat to humanity that the Paris Agreement will go a long way to curbing, despite some major flaws,” said chief executive Craig Bennett.
“However, so much effort has gone into the agreement there is a risk that other hugely important issues are being neglected,” said Mr Bennett.
“Air pollution is killing 50,000 people a year in Britain and our nature has been badly degraded. We wonder why we get flooding in Cumbria – well soil erosion didn’t help; the water poured straight off the uplands. And we’re still seeing appalling levels of deforestation around the world,” he added.
Why do I think Craig Bennett’s statements represent a demotion of the climate issue?
Craig Bennett sounds like he thinks the Paris agreement solved the climate issue, and that he is simply talking about other important issues which have to be addressed. But the Friends of the Earth website tells a different story.
Paris climate deal is a sham
PARIS, FRANCE, December 12, 2015 – The climate deal to be agreed today is a sham, according to Friends of the Earth International.
“Rich countries have moved the goal posts so far that we are left with a sham of a deal in Paris. Through piecemeal pledges and bullying tactics, rich countries have pushed through a very bad deal,” said Sara Shaw, Friends of the Earth International climate justice and energy coordinator.
A detailed policy analysis of the Paris Agreement will be available at http://www.foei.org/what-we-do/paris
“Despite the hype, the Paris agreement will fail to deliver. Politicians say it is a fair and ambitious deal – yet it is the complete opposite. People are being deceived,” said Dipti Bhatnagar, Friends of the Earth International climate justice and energy coordinator.
“Vulnerable and affected people deserve better than this failed agreement; they are the ones who feel the worst impacts of our politicians’ failure to take tough enough action,’” she added.
Read more: http://www.foei.org/press/archive-by-subject/climate-justice-energy-press/paris-climate-deal-sham
It would obviously be preferable for leading greens to confess they made a mistake about the “importance” of climate change. Nevertheless I see this as a positive development. As the recent Gold King Mine Disaster shows, there are real environmental issues which should be receiving more attention.
Perhaps if the EPA were less obsessed with addressing the climate non-issue, someone in management might have had the time, to properly supervise the EPA staff who thought it would be a good idea to uncap a flooded, heavily polluted mine.
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This group seems to think that 13% of all deaths in Britain are entirely due to air pollution. That must be why the death rate is so low in places with pristine air like the Congo.
That’s less than the number of deaths that NHS failed to report on. (i.e. clerical death count)
The environmentalists have returned to defend the disruption and carnage of flora and fauna by low-density energy producers, including the solar farms and windmill gauntlets, and obfuscate environmental and social waste caused by shifting “green” production at recovery and reclamation to developing nations?
The BBC is slightly confused regarding the relationship between pollution and CO2/global warming:
“If world leaders arriving in Paris for the COP21 climate talks needed a visual representation of why they were meeting and what was at stake, the smog cloud blanketing Beijing in China could not have happened at a more opportune time.”
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-35091202
BBC = Cretins
They know that the marginal benefit of extremist rhetoric is now negative. In addition, the power elite have ordered a quiet period leading up to the election. The natives are already riled and pounding the table at this point becomes a self directed negative election factor.
Perhaps some of the Greens have glimpsed the on-coming little ice-Age and know that they need to get out of its way. Having the Greens talk about real environmental matters for a change would be refreshing.
After fixing the global climate via the Paris Conference, they have to move on to the next impending catastrophe to remain relevant (i.e. bring in cash)
Friends of the Earth quote from post:
“Rich countries have moved the goal posts so far that we are left with a sham of a deal in Paris.”
These people seem to have a hard time understanding the events that unfold in front of their own eyes. Wasn’t it the poorer nations trying to use cheap energy to lift themselves out of poverty that killed Paris?
Paris actually was an immense breakthrough on this issue, because the usual emissions hype was nonbinding and can be ignored, while there was also an agreement about regenerative agriculture to put carbon back into the soil. This finally is a truly “green” solution that makes both economic and REAL environmental good sense.
I frequently say I hate environmentalists because they’re HELL on the environment, and I find that I usually get agreement. Fighting against the very basis of all Life on land (CO2) is my idea of horror, not virtue. But who does not care about REAL issues such as air and water pollution, soil erosion, etc.? They have finally come up with something where WE CAN WORK WITH THEM.
If you research Permaculture, http://www.originalsonicbloom.com and regenerative agriculture, you will find a subject about which no lies need be told, and which will improve both the quantity and quality of our food.
As we work on these things, those very, very WRONG murderers become a blessing and more and more right. Then they will have the strength to drop the temperature screaming. You all know how much damage they have done to science, the economy, the poor, and so on. It is truly important that we take advantage of this chance to reframe the whole thing.
You can start with that delightful website and the books “The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” by Michael Pollan and Schwartz’s “Cows Save the Planet.”
I would imagine they are starting to see their donations dry up as more and more people start to feel played as fools. There are legitimate environmental concerns out there, but all they do is focus on the CO2 money grap. People are simply waking up, and as they do, the credibility of these groups tank.
“Air pollution is killing 50,000 people a year in Britain and our nature has been badly degraded.”
What does Craig Bennett of Friends of the Earth mean by that last part? Are the normally good-natured chaps of Britain becoming more disagreeable and unfriendly?
The FOE are more ignorant certainly.
I grew up in a northern industrial town in the 50’s and 60’s. I remember well the extent of real air pollution when every household burned coal on an open fire. During the frequent smog’s you could barely see across the street and the grey/green colour of it is still a vivid memory. The river Tees was so foul you could smell it before you could see it and if anyone fell in they would be rushed to hospital to have their stomach pumped before being put on a course of broad spectrum antibiotics.
Life expectancy for a man in those days was 67 and most older people in Middlesbrough had chest and lung complaints brought on by a combination of smoking and air pollution. Today life expectancy is 79 and people are on balance far healthier. Clean air has meant that its now practical to sand blast buildings and we have got used to the idea that they are not naturally black. The river is transformed, fish have returned and there are now parks and boating facilities.
This must be some strange new definition of ‘degraded’
Keith they also smoked 2 packs a day or more. That’s the main reason.
When they thought the plague was caught by breathing , they used to smoke out their houses as a defence. Was cigarette smoking a way (they thought) to protect yourself on the go ?
How many people that smoke get the flu ?