Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Guardian author Jeff Sparrow thinks we need a modern equivalent to the violent Communist uprisings which rocked France, Germany and Russia towards the end of WW1 to solve the climate crisis.
Climate change is a disaster foretold, just like the first world war
Jeff Sparrow
The warnings about an unfolding climate catastrophe are getting more desperate, yet the march to destruction continues
“The lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our life-time.”
The mournful remark supposedly made by foreign secretary Sir Edward Grey at dusk on 3 August 1914 referred to Britain’s imminent entry into the first world war. But the sentiment captures something of our own moment, in the midst of an intensifying campaign against nature.
According to the World Wildlife Fund’s 2016 Living Planet Report, over the last four decades the international animal population was reduced by nearly 60%.More than a billion fewer birds inhabit North America today compared to 40 years ago. In Britain, certain iconic species (grey partridges, tree sparrows, etc) have fallen by 90%. In Germany, flying insects have declined by 76% over the past 27 years. Almost half of Borneo’s orangutans died or were removed between 1999 and 2015. Elephant numbers have dropped by 62% in a decade, with on average one adult killed by poachers every 15 minutes.
…
The devastation of the first world war eventually engendered a wave of revolt from a populace appalled at the carnage their politicians had wrought.
Climate change has not yet spurred an equivalent of the mutinies in France or the revolution in Petrograd or the uprising in Berlin.
Yet Labor’s appalling equivocation over the Adani mine – a piece of environmental vandalism for which there can be no justification – illustrates the urgency with which we need a new and different type of politics.
The stakes could not be higher. Lamps are going out all over the natural world … and no one will ever see them lit again.
Perhaps pseudocryptic demands for a “new and different type of politics” is what fanatics do when they realise ordinary people have stopped listening to their ranting.
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Can’t blame them really. Their job is to sell newspapers and this kind of thing sells newspapers.
No you under estimate the level of fanaticism of the people running this paper. They ban you from commenting even for making the tiniest negative comments about climate science. Mind you they do not take you off their lists so they lose the readership numbers for their advertisers.
So cynical you are. Are you going to take your ball and bat and go home. Don’t walk……….run.
Anyone who believes in the looming climate crisis has both the Right and the Responsibility to act upon those beliefs and do everything in their power to eliminate their Carbon Footprint. They should completely divest their lives from anything requiring Fossil Fuels to produce or supply. If there truly are 97% then their own personal actions would cure their perceived problem.
What they Don’t have is the right to Force their belief system on any others who disagree with them.
All in favor of completely divesting yourselves from fossil fuels today say Aye…
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Crickets
My only gut response to anything this liberal rag prints is always “screw you, Grauniad!”
My only surprise is that this wasn’t on the taxpayer funded ABC (Australian version).
I take your point about the selling newspapers and hence a bit of ‘sexing up’ is justified on that basis but have you read Jeff Sparrow’s Wikipedia entry?
Jef Sparrow is, in my opinion, from the lunar left of the political spectrum and always has been (along with his sister Jill). In fact they may actually be from some bit of the political moon that broke away (he was kicked out of the International Socialist Organisation – how leftard nutzo can you be to achieve that!!!) and travelled on a moonbeam to some part of integalactic fruitspace to set up a niche agitpropshopfront for their product.
That the Grauniad uses him as a contributor only helps it flush itself down the toilet of media incredulity.
At what point does it transgress into sedition?
It’s only sedition when it doesn’t benefit the political left.
It’s not so much selling news papers, it’s about selling adds in those news papers. Add space buyers want assured eyes on page, so the editor just makes up fake hysterical drivel to get those numbers of eyes. They sell the actual paper near to cost price.
Add money corrupts EVERYTHING.
Isn’t that right, Google, Apple?
“Their job is to sell newspapers and this kind of thing sells newspapers.”
If that was true, the Guardian wouldn’t be losing so much money.
It’s hardly surprising to see the Guardian calling for a Communist Revolution, but there’s not much of a market for that.
Jeremy Corbin is already wearing a Vlad Lenin cap. No the climate wing is deadly serious about a тотаliтагуаи putsch.
http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/uncyclopedia/images/d/d5/CorbynLenin1.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/300?cb=20150727074641
If you have no data, force your view through violence also works and appears to be what some are advocating. Of course, they will be in charge of things.
No, No, this “newspaper” is a leading rabble rouser with seriously fascist tendencies. They recently editorialised that they and their mates have a “right and duty to bring Donald Trump down”. Whatever you think of him, and i’m not interested so don’t bother, he is elected. These ratbags of the left wing media are what? And this website would be gone in a flash.
They understand that AGW is deeply flawed and that there is a possibility of a Maunder Minimum, and if that happens their chance to rule us all will be gone. What you are reading is panic.
And as for my position – there is a maunder minimum on its way, of that I have no doubt.
A few years ago these same groups were pontificating about how unpatriotic it was for anyone to not work with Obama.
When a bolshevik asks you to line up in front of a ditch you should know what comes next. These people aren’t playing, they believe in the morality of murder very seriously.
“Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.” Mao Tse Tung
A Bolshevik has one close confidant – Nagant 7.62
“The tree of freedom needs be watered with the blood of tyrants and patriots every 25 years”. Thomas Jefferson
Yes and there are more than 4,000,000 in the guns in the hinterland and most in the hands of patriots…..just sayin.
Which is why the left wants to outlaw guns.
If you know what’s coming next then you should have never allowed yourself to be lined up in front of the ditch. That is where the Bolshevic should ultimately end. Cowardice relies on hope where courage demands action.
“The warnings about an unfolding climate catastrophe are getting more desperate”.
That’s because there is no evidence of an unfolding climate catastrophe and, with good reason, nobody believes the warnings anymore.
This is the Grauniad after all.
From here there is and warming does not remotely enter into it. Renewable energy means even trivial levels of cold are killers. Our wind local turbine blight showed five out of five stopped completely most of the coldest period and three out of five stopped the rest. The volts were below the level they technically are allowed to be here.
The current analogy is the way Schiff, Pelosi, and Schumer keep yammering on about Russian Collusion where precious little of the stuff impacts President Trump.
There is, however, a mountain of evidence that Hillary Clinton was and still is eyebrow deep in it! By the way, is there any coincidence that CAGW and Russian Collusion are memes pushed by the same political party?
Nah, how conspiratorial of me!
Nothing like a little hysteria to go with your morning coffee.
Maybe some nerve gas will do the trick for climate comrades and their objectives.
I have no doubt the Left would use nerve gas if they thought it would secure their objectives.
Am I missing something…or are none of the problems he mentions anything to do with climate change?
“with on average one adult killed by poachers every 15 minutes.”
Apparently, global warming causes poachers.
Perhaps he meant they were being “poached” as in poached eggs.
No, people are being poached by the eggsteme heat. Of course. These Guardian Chicken Little people are cracked in the head. Their brains are fried and scrambled.
Late friend of mine used to do the Guradian crossword.
His most memorable clue:
3 across : Gegs? (9, 4)
Go on, work it out…
“… captures something of our own moment, in the midst of an intensifying campaign against nature.”
Exactly.
And far more important to solve than the unknown causes of changing climate.
“No, people are being poached by the eggsteme heat. Of course. These Guardian Chicken Little people are cracked in the head. Their brains are fried and scrambled.”
it’s commical, a bit OT here, but the Guardian has a story about the Geomagnetic storm coming today which NASA (Spaceweather site) says is a G1, the weakest level, but from the reporting, you’d think it was the Carrington event!
I wonder if people at the Guardian carry little Al Gore dolls in their pockets or purses to keep them focused on their goal of Climate Domination!
Made this biologist’s blood boil. Animal populations are not dropping because of emissions. If humans are actually causing a species’ decline, it is because people are harming the animals indirectly (habitat loss/destruction, killing or displacing the prey base, etc.) or killing them. Orangutans and elephants are primarily in trouble because of poaching. Other major factors include human-wildlife conflict (people do not like it when elephants eat and destroy their crops) and displacement due to land clearance, etc. Slightly warmer temperatures are the least of their concerns.
When I think of how much money is being blown on climate change conferences and other nonsense, and how many conservation organizations can barely cover their yearly expenses (even with most work being done by volunteers), I want to throw something. And then idiot journalists promote exacerbating the problem. Grrr.
Quite.
+10. Almost everything they listed could be attributed to land mis-management, habitat encroachment and poaching. CO2 has nothing to do with it.
Absolutely correct, AK, habitat loss/destruction and the other factors you list are the culprits not some innocuous trace gas. BUUUUUUUT! If you are a paid up member of the “progressive Left” it’s so much easier to rant and rave against the evil Exxon Mobil as against trying to stop a Madargascan slash and burn farmer, for instance.
If all of the energy supplied by fossil fuels was replaced by wind and solar installations, the world’s animal, bird and insect populations would be far worse off.
Yes, start with a blockade of those wood pellet ships coming from America.
One wonders how they count all these insects and animals…
Models ….GIGO ….
“The lamps are going out all over Europe”
Indeed – but it’s not due to “climate change”, rather the lunatic renewable energy policies brought in to try and stop it!
Funny how their solutions cause their own demise.
When all else fails the anarchists resort to sedition and violence is close behind. Remember the bombings carried out by the original Green party in Germany?
As I have said over and over, IF THE OIL COMPANIES CARED, and they DO NOT, this could be stopped in a week. Yet it isn’t. No one has what it takes to stop this because THEY DO NOT CARE. Repeat that every time you think you can defeat these people. You CANNOT. Because unlike them, you don’t care enough. You won’t fight. You will lose. They picket, they protest, they organize. They WIN.
what’s your point?
She is upset with the oil companies because they refuse to illegally collude and stop shipments to any region who’s politicians support the global warming deception.
Sounds more to me like she is upset because Climate Realists don’t organize protests in Support of CO2 and against those who proselytize against “Carbon Pollution”
Sheri presumably believes if the Oilcos stopped selling petrol then she and the like minded true believers would be able to stop filling their tanks. There is a certain type of logic in their lack of self control as well as jumping to the conclusion everybody needs a good strong dose of self control just like them. Only when you CARE can you PROJECT CARING onto your fellow man like that.
The OIL companies DO care.
They know. They Knew.
That there was nothing TO be stopped and nothing that needed stopping.
You dont find oil fields without doing a lot of science and having a lot of mathematicians who can model stuff.
Your mistake is starting from the unwarranted and refuted assumption that CO2 is causing drastic climate change. It isn’t.
That why all these political worthies have beachfront properties and burn tonnes of Avjet flying to climate conferences and paying their cronies huge sums to install ‘renewable energy’ that doesn’t work instead of cheaper nuclear power that does.
#greenpeace knew
CAGW means that people have to fly to remote locations to discuss CAGW.
Then they mandate the transport of “biomass” over long distances to be “renewable”.
“CAGW” is just the codename for an elaborate fossil fuel subsidy.
I think they’re playing both sides here.
We aren’t a united front by any means. Mostly, Exxon is sticking it’s neck out tackling this, and the rest of us are either cowering behind or attempting to exploit the situation.
Carbon cap and trade is a very profitable business to be in, which is why several of the oil companies advocated for it.
Bankers love it.
Enron was perhaps the biggest advocate of it.
There may be a looming climate crisis, but not the one these people write about, the real crisis may be water shortages due to climate change (and of course X billion people), but not the CC these people write about, rather the natural variability of weather patterns. For example, here is a reconstruction of rainfall at Cape Town back to 1850, it looks like Capetonians might be in for decades of relatively low rainfall if the levels of the mid 19th century are repeated, and why should they not be?
?w=840
“Lamps are going out all over the natural world … and no one will ever see them lit again.” Well, not if we follow the paths these crazy Guardianista’s want.
They will just have to relight them with Whale Oil
Hvar Walen! That’s going to go down well…
A typical Guardianista: blinded by dogma, confused by ideology and, in this case at least, having the deductive reasoning of a corpse and being confused by any facts which are contrary to his opinions.
Does the man not see the obvious: any diminution of animal populations has nothing to do with Global Warming but everything to do with human population growth and human development.
Without the late 20th/21st century mass migration into Europe and the USA, for example, their populations would have by now reduced due to declining indigenous birth rates – accommodated economically via automation and higher productivity. As such the demand for new capital works and land would have at worst remained stable, placing no additional loading on local fauna. The pity of it is that in Africa, Asia and South America, excepting in China until a few years ago with their 1 child policy, they have failed abysmally and are providing virtually all the pressures on animal lives.
I strongly recommend that the author should change tack to make his protests far more effective. He should simply going to Africa, Asia and South America and complain vociferously about their declining animal populations and the real remedies needed. I have no doubt that very many posters here would support him and sustain him by posting regular Red Cross parcels to his prison!
The radical Church of the Environment has a “solution” to human population growth and development, eliminating most of the population and reducing most of the remainder to poverty.
A perfect illustration why people have given up reading The Guardian in droves. Now it is written by and for malevolent people- hating activists and the terminally gullible.
But give it its due, it is copy edited by people who have some knowledge of the English language unlike my favourite tabloid, the Daily Sex Press.
Can we take an overly simplified look at the interesting angle on this. The revolutionaries all went to Oberlin, while the counter-revolutionaries all went to Michigan Tech. Can we say it’s the “Choir Boy vs. Weapons System Engineer for General Dynamics … Round 1”
I’ll take personal responsibility for backing over 100 Prius Attack Vehicles with my F350 Crew Cab.
Oooohhhh! Truck envy!
4 wheel drive and turbo diesel?
Seems like he is getting nostalgic for plagues of locusts. If modern technology hadn’t been so good at eradicating malaria and crop losses due to pests, he wouldn’t feel so well disposed towards flying insects.
“Elephant numbers have dropped by 62% in a decade, with on average one adult killed by poachers every 15 minutes.”
I cannot trust any of the numbers given above. Decreasing elephant numbers, which is why overpopulation is deciding their landscape? Orangutans I can believe mostly, as there were not many in the first place and biofuels and such projects have been removing their habitat.
Without substantiation, it is hard to believe that they have reputable insect populations in Europe. Song birds are down around the Mediterranean because people are eating them, not climate change or any warming.
Those places where the elephants are doing best, are those places that allow legal hunting, with the proceeds going to the local villages.
When that happens, the local villagers co-operate with rangers to stop poachers.
Elsewhere, the local villagers are more likely to work with the poachers since to them elephants are nothing but a nuisance.
The real crisis is trying to cool the Planet. Let’s compare the aftermath of Irma in Florida to the aftermath of the most recent n’easter. After Irma my power was out for 5 days. Yet with the weather being warm we were able to cook, eat and relax outside all the while working on cleaning up. It was certainly bearable. Now those in the Northeast who are currently without power are in danger of serious consequences due to the cold. How are they getting along? Not so good, eh?
Warmer is better.
It’s only natural that, as support shrinks, those remaining will be more extreme than those who have left.
True enough however we most never forget that the bolsheviks were a small minority, the Nazis were a small minority yet they were able to gain control to the detriment of 10 of millions of lives.
Let’s be absolutely clear about this…..that is what this has ALWAYS been about….and which is why it is the “progressives” (i.e., crypto-Marxists) who have been pushing the “climate change” narrative all along. It’s nothing less than Trojan Horse politics.
Which should be obvious considering this the progressive approach to every issue.
Hey Buddy! The “climate war” is over. You lost.
And the lamps are still burning. If it ever gets completely dark and cold-that will be your work! Not ours! As it stands, people in Africa and Asia are using cheap energy to improve their world and go easier on nature.
Also, nature says thanks!- For all the extra CO2!
‘Guardian author Jeff Sparrow thinks we need a modern equivalent to the violent Communist uprisings which rocked France, Germany and Russia towards the end of WW1 to solve the climate crisis.’
Gee… now who would have EVER thought they’d go here?
It’s good to hear that Trump is planning on opening more
insane asylumsmental health facilities. Hopefully the Klimate Kultists will be able to get to the front of the waiting list.How many of those dead birds were caused by Windmills and Solar Sizzlers? The article doesn’t say.
The well-meaning people are often the most dangerous. Bolshevik revolution started with good intentions but ended in a ruthless totalitarian government that murdered millions of its own people. All for a good cause of course. That is what they always say.
“Well-intended but ill-informed people being led by ill-intended but well-informed activists.”
Rather that Trotsky and the fundamentalist Marxists believed that if existing political structures were utterly destroyed, something better would take its place,
What they got was Lenin, then Stalin.
And they spent the next 40 years trying to convince everyone that this was in fact better as tens of millions of working class peasants died.
So successfully that there are people who still believe that destroying all the establishment will result in a fairer world for everyone, rather than a power grab by the most cynical ruthless unpleasant and unprincipled set of liars around.
There’s a reason Lenin called these people ‘useful idiots’.