A sad case of self-immolation with fossil fuels, to protest fossil fuels
A green activist who was a pioneering lawyer for gay and transgender rights — including in the infamous “Boys Don’t Cry” murder case — committed suicide by setting himself on fire Saturday morning in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park.
Attorney David Buckel in 2006APIn a gruesome protest against the ecological destruction of the earth, David Buckel, 60, left behind a charred corpse and a typed suicide note that said he was burning himself to death using “fossil fuel” to reflect how mankind was likewise killing itself, police sources said.
He left the note behind in a manila envelope marked “To The Police,” recovered from inside a black metal push cart he discarded at the scene.
Passersby were horrified to see Buckel’s blackened, prone remains.
“It was just lying there, on its back, knees slightly bent like someone would lie on the sand at the beach,” said Irena Ryjova, 44, who rollerbladed past at around 7 a.m., less than an hour after the immolation.
…
More recently, he worked as an urban gardener and ecologist with the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, helping run what he called the largest composting program in the country to use only renewable sources of energy.
“There’s no denying that sticking with renewable resources means a lot of elbow grease with pitchforks and shovels,” he wrote in a 2016 article on the garden website.
More here at the NYPost: https://nypost.com/2018/04/14/burned-body-inside-prospect-park-appears-to-be-suicide/
h/t to “Charles the moderator”
HT/me
‘I apologize to you for the mess.’……that was part of the note he left
I wonder did he use E10 gasoline, the one that has 10% ethanol?
Don’t know for sure but fossil fuel is what he had to use as Solar wouldn’t work at that hour
This is really a tragic case. The man was obviously suffering from mental illness. My sympathies go out to his family and friends.
Trebla, Agreed.
Interesting that there was an article today about Chic-Fil-A being “creepy” about their Christian beliefs and invading New York City.
The guy was clearly mentally ill. He should have checked into a psych ward.
Was he mentally ill because he was a radical leftist, or the other way around? Perhaps both lead towards each other, forming a feedback loop?
Patrick: “mentally ill because he was a radical leftist, (radical leftist contributing to his mental illness)” the other way around?”
Which caused the Catastrophic positive feedback loop that ended his life.
Well, I disagree with Buckel’s reasoning but, A Jewish friend of mind demonstrated to me through his actions that if you’re not willing to act on you convictions then they really aren’t convictions. So H/T to Buckel’s for taking into his own hand what most all the other CAGW alarmists are ready to inflict on everyone but themselves. The courage of being out of range.
You are supposed to “act” in order to win the game, not take yourself out of the game. We should follow examples like Gandhi or MLK who issued a clear message. This guy was definitely sick.
Marc, those leaders sought to restore the dignity and relieve the suffering of their people. Buckel’s cause sought to impose indignities, cause suffering, and even kill off the vast majority of humanity. I don’t advocate self-immolation, but then I am philosophically opposed to his worldview.
MarcSaunders’
Reminds me of Patton (paraphrase, don’t know the exact quote): “Nobody ever won a war by dying for his country. You win a war by making the other poor bastard die for their country>”
He obviously hadn’t thought it out. The amount of CO2 he released into the atmosphere by burning his carbon-based life form. He was protesting burning of fossil fuels by burning essentially fossil fuel.
It diminishes us all when this happens – a man needlessly taking his own life. What makes me angry is that he did it because he was lied to about the supposed global armageddon coming this way. It is they, who should have his death on their conscience. What is even sadder that those responsible don’t care and what is more will see this a ideal publicity to push their agenda. Truly there are some evil people,
More likely he was terminally depressed over a break up with his homosexual lover and used his failed involvement with environmental issues as an excuse to light his fire………[pruned] May he finally find peace with himself.
Why are the only responses to this I can think of in such bad taste I just won’t post them?
I suffer from a similar malady.
Normally, when I see someone doing something unutterably stupid, something that makes no sense, I also have a snarky, sarcastic response. Long ago I had a friend who committed suicide, had warned people, and found a place where no one could stop him.
Before he disappeared, he had left a note saying that it was like looking into a black hole from which there was no escape. The anger he felt was turned inward on himself.
There is nothing but sadness here. If the sense of desperation and anger is so grindingly heavy that the person suffering from it goes this far, sometimes even getting help has only a temporary effect. This is too sad.
If it was a “standard” suicide. It is entirely possible Buckel had a terminal illness and decided to go out in a very public way to leave a mark no one would forget. It was very public, he typed the note. Not the marks of a depressed individual who can no longer cope. Maybe, but I’m betting there more to this than appears on the surface.
I agree with Sara. It is a very sad case. Apparently, the guy had multiple mental problems that he could not resolve. Sad.
That may be because you are a decent human being.
IT does not good to mock or try to find something humorous in something like this.
It is sad.
The sadness is in how sick he was and he was not able to get the psychological help he so desperately needed. I would think there might be more to this story than we’ve been told.
that’s just nature taking its course.
if you love nature- you have to love extinction of stupid.
the question is how can you think that defying nature makes you look good?
that’s what got him to the bbq. who wants to delude himself like that?
will those responsible for filling his head with the garbage that led to him being so deluded that he took his life, please step forward and accept responsibility
crickets..
I thought not.
I am always of two minds when something like this comes up. I feel sadness for the family that have lost a loved one. I feel a greater relief, though, for the fact that no further victims will be taken by a monster.
Undoubtedly, the suicide of a certain Austrian “activist” in prison, after his ignominious failure to achieve his ends, would have been a tragedy to his family. The survival of approximately 80 million people thanks to the avoidance of a vicious and brutal regime, though, would have been a blessing to the world.
It is the Culture of Death versus the Culture of Life. Many of us, though too few, believe that God gave us life and wants us to live it fully. Others try to assume the ‘responsibilities’ of God unto themselves; “Ye shall be as gods”. That can only end tragically.
Sadly the poor guy bought into the new religion of AGW. And now they’ll make him a martyr. That is pathetic.
This is pathetic, not sad. A perfect example of the morality of self-sacrifice – self-immolation. The great question is not how to die well, but how to live well; not how to destroy one’s life, but how to make something of it.
I share your feelings.
My first thought as well.
I wonder if the had some medical issues which may have prompted him to carry this through?
He was driven to this by years of CAGW nonsense and looney-left doomer propaganda, and numerous and repeated concerted BS fear-campaigns, some of which others wrote, some of which he wrote—and damaged others.
He was told that 97% of scientists agreed, so it seemed a fairly legit conclusiion.
Which drove him completely insane, bit by bit.
Death is the ultimate solution to all the problems (real or imaginary) of life.
I know of a couple (in their 60s) so convinced of sea level rise that 2yr ago they sold their house (40 ft above HWL) for half its value & moved inland to a small new house (built on a river flood plain)… & this winter got flooded; that’s just increased their belief in CAGW. She now feels suicidal as they cant afford to move again.
And they called me stupid when I showed them the sea level records giving ~ 8″ /100yrs.
What belief in his belief system that was not loony?
He had all that social cred, all that money, not a bad looking guy and no one to share it with.
My belief that on top of group think crazy he was lonely. We know why.
The same can probably also be said of the other lefty causes he devoted himself to.
They teach this nonsense to 1st graders claiming it will make responsible citizens out of them, even when they know for a fact it isn’t true. Then this is the result, the poor guy probably suffered a lifetime of anxiety, just like a lot of other trusting people.
In my day, the 1960’s, my own grade school teacher insisted that if nothing was done about industrial air pollution, all life on earth would be wiped out in 20 years. That gave me a few sleepless weeks until completing my own research.
He didn’t kill himself because of global warming. His life was unbearable for deeply personal reasons. Obviously he suffered from depression. Much more respectable (in his sad mind) to kill himself for supposedly noble reasons.
I think most psychiatrists would agree that this unfortunate fellow was quite likely suffering from a sort of insanity called paranoia (not to be confused with paranoid schizophrenia). Nothing we can do to prevent this sort of tragedy. Human beings will be human beings. If they come to the notice of psychiatrists in time they should be committed to a mental institution if their enmity and hate is against some other individual person which often is the case.
I was going to post something along the lines of “Now if only all warmists followed suit, the world would be cured from this destructive ideological disease ….”, but changed my mind 😉
Yeah, but you did anyway.
How exactly did you change your mind?
Probably because you can imagine what the warmist responses would be if this had been a ‘denier’. And you can also remember their joy at the death of Professor Bob Carter. Some say that to follow suit would be stooping to their level. On the other hand, in battle fight fire with fire.
Trust me, other places people had no problem posting such things. People were incredibly crude, mean and thoughtless.
spetzer86, how else can one respond to madness but with bad taste?
“It is entirely possible Buckel had a terminal illness”
That was my first thought.
eddie
that was my thought as well
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/04/14/green-activist-lawyer-burns-himself-to-death-to-protest-global-warming/#comment-2790684
“There’s no denying that sticking with renewable resources means a lot of elbow grease with pitchforks and shovels,” he wrote in a 2016 article on the garden website.
Maybe he should have consulted Mark Jacobson regarding renewables or maybe he went into severe depression when he realized jacobson is a fraud.
[“Pitchforks” ?? .mod]
Pitchforks are a useful tool for cleaning CO2 from the air…
Mod~ ‘pitchforks’ is a reference to cleaning out stables. The end product of which can be burned for energy. Sort of.
It can—though it never should be. Let it compost to produce methane.
Ironic, in that I think the leading cause of respiratory illness in the developing world is from burning cow or buffalo dung in small burners for heat and cooking purposes. So in a way, renewables are causing more damage than fossil fuels.
No, I think he was just referring to the fact that compost needs to be turned regularly – a jolly hard job actually. I guess they had a really big heap and did it all by hand rather than machinery (probably huffing and puffing and expelling co2 by the truckload as they did so).
If he truly believes that doing without fossil fuels just means more elbow grease, then he has never actually tried the lifestyle he wishes on the rest of us.
Wished….
Sounds like he was about 40 years too late….
Oh, man, talk about the delicate balance between tragedy and comedy … I have to come down on the side of tragedy because no man is an island and each man’s death diminishes me, and because of the inevitable endless sorrow of his family … I’ve been meditating on this topic over on my blog if anyone is interested.
My best to all, enjoy this life, rumor has it we don’t get a second chance if we mess this one up …
w.
You don’t sound like a Hinduist.
It’s true, the Hindudes have another rumor …
w.
I once asked a good friend if she believed in reincarnation. Her response was ‘Yes, you have to keep coming back, over and over, until you learn to do things the right way.”
That made sense to me.
Sara: Sounds like being stuck in an endless transporter loop.
Personally I hate the theory of reincarnation. How are we supposed to learn from the mistakes of our past lives if we don’t remember them? How can practice make perfect without learning?
There is no improvement in reincarnation. There is only throwing a dart at a target blindfolded over and over until you hit the bullseye purely by luck.
>¿<
Maybe you only do get a second chance if you don’t do it right. Maybe we have to come back over and over till we’re sufficiently perfected for a wondrous beyond.
P.S. I know of someone who believes in reincarnation precisely for that reason.
Maybe but, of all the people I’ve ever known, I don’t think any of them reached the level of “sufficiently perfected for a wondrous beyond.” Must be the company I keep.
And what power would be responsible for determining this recycling of life
Mick April 14, 2018 at 6:10 pm
If the recycling happens in the US, that would be the EPA … I believe they have jurisdiction over everything.
w.
At the very least deciding what is and isn’t recyclable
The comedian Robin Williams, who committed suicide, said of reincarnation: “If it’s true, my luck, I’ll come back as me.”
Now that sounds like a depressed person to me.
Right – Willis, The Hindus would have it that your chances of a decent second chance are at least several hundred lifetimes away if you mess your Karma up with really bad stuff.
This is so sad. Messing up your Karma with really bad stuff includes suicide. It takes many lives to fix that.
The true agent of Karma is Carbon Dioxide.
The flesh of our bodies at death is converted to Carbon Dioxide and Water. These then are taken in by plants and become food for the next generation of beings.
The Ancients were unaware of this. They coined – Dust to Dust, Ashes to Ashes. The actual process is Carbon Dioxide to Carbon Dioxide.
re. the balance between tragedy and comedy.
Tragedy is what happens. Comedy is how you deal with it. link
Some think the scarier version is that you have to keep coming back until you get it right.
“Tragedy is what happens. Comedy is how you deal with it.”
Might be why we laugh when it hurts too much to cry.
“Too bad she won’t live. But then again who does.” – Blade Runner
“…all those moments…lost in time, like tears in the rain” -Blade Runner
“Give me four.”
“Futatsu de jubun desuyo.”
“No, four. Two, two, four.”
“Futatsu de jubun desuyo.”
“And noodles.”
“Wakatte kudasai yo.”
I remember a story…
One day, the entire adult population of an idyllic world awakes with a shared vision of a unknown disaster about to end their civilization. After long consultations with the mystic elders, they all agree on the truth of this vision and are resigned to their fate. That night one couple, wishing to spare their children this horror, kill them painlessly in their sleep. The next morning, they awake to an intact world, but find that all the parents in their world have done exactly the same. Vision fulfilled.
May David Buckel lie in peace.
Paul,
I’m sure you are thinking of “The Illustrated Man” by Ray Bradbury.
Really good film adaptation too with Rod Steiger.
Willis if the Gerbil survived he might disagree with you.
I can think of dozens of totally tasteless and cruel comments, but can’t do it. I feel sad for his family and friends, such a waste of life.
Absolutely. A horrible situation for the people who remain so far.
It is clear that climate anxiety will kill more people, and that is because the mainstream media following the zeitgeist causes it. The West will sink, not because pollution or warming, but because it has driven into a cultural dead end.
“I feel sad for his family and friends, such a waste of life.”
I agree.
“The West will sink, not because pollution or warming, but because it has driven into a cultural dead end.”
I agree, though I think that Cultural Madness describes the direction we are headed better than a cultural dead end. This poor man may be just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.
I wonder if he bought carbon credits to offset the co2 he produced burning himself?
Ralph
April 14, 2018 at 4:45 pm
I don’t think we need to make fun of this. It’s such a sad story. Obviously this man had a lot of things going on in his head and probably just needed to seek out professional help to aviod this tragedy. Condolences to his family and friends.
The guy was CUCKOO for Cocoa Puffs. Most liberals are. The earth is dying???? Get a grip.
While “professional help” might work, there is no panacea for dealing with suicidal people. People who cannot cope will eventually kill themselves. That’s the reality of it. Not everyone can deal with life and no therapy or drug can change that. I’m not criticizing or blaming these people—it’s just the reality of life. Not everyone can make it work. Therapy and meds are worth a try, but it may or may not “avoid the tragedy.”
Look at his dating life. He was lonely on top of which the Left fed him constant gloom and doom.
The Left & LGBT in particular fed him a lie.
Condolences to family and friends that were NOT part of the echo chamber of horrors that continuously nudged him toward the edge.
Screw those that were part of the echo chamber (don’t matter if they are family/friends or not).
snap! that was my first thought.
the second was why not a quiet OD and crawl into one of his compost piles for an eco friendly ending..
once i was very ill and did warn my girlfriemnds if they found my coat covering the worm bin, Id taken care of my funeral..pre planned as it were;-) and just leave it alone for a few weeks please.
Tasteless comment.
Wait, maybe if he’d hooked himself up it an inverter, connected to capacitors, which are charged by a solar panel, waiting to go off like a portable defibrillator… That he could have renewably offed himself having died of exposure, or maybe thirst…………. Would ya buy hunger?…
Composting would have been a lot less painful but slow.
he was already there by the time he got his degree in stupid
Or lay down under a huge magnifying lens, after drinking a gallon of corn liquor.
YOU just HUSH yer Mouth!! DONT chew give them dang Libberuls ideas to be a-wastin good Corn Squeezins now Dang you!
The sad part is that he died under a false pretext., saying “he was burning himself to death using “fossil fuel” to reflect how mankind was likewise killing itself”.
In reality. global population is increasing at a rate which is faster than at any time in the past. Food production is at a record high and global poverty is at an all time low. A warmer world is a better world.
The real cause of his death is fake left-wing propaganda.
I think the real cause of his death was mental illness.
The man had no grasp of reality, blaming imaginary boogie men for the sky falling is never a path to enlightenment.
Sadly it is what religious zealots do.
“I think the real cause of his death was mental illness.”
I think the real cause of his death are all the lies and distortions of the truth the Climate Change Charlatans have foisted on an unsuspecting public over the years, making them think the world is coming to an end because of CO2 emissions. This guy believed their lies so much he felt he had only one option: to kill himself.
Reg, if mental illness was the cause, it seems to have similarly affected a substantial part of the population of Western (and some small third world) countries. This is gonna take a looong time to fix, unless some far greater and more obvious crisis happens – like a serious recession that focuses the collective mind of our politicians on our real problems.
Agreed.
Nor is his alleged choice of death sensible on any level except as a typical suicide.
This character apparently lived and worked in NYC. It is doubtful that his life was carbon free except at a minimal level; i.e. a virtue signal level.
Actually blaming fossil fuel, when one’s life is surrounded and supported by fossil fuels is irrational. Especially after the winter NYC enjoyed this past year.
I do note that he chose a warm spring day, instead of the many very cold spring days just past.
Viewed as a totality, unfortunately, this was a typical suicide.
Why would this matter?
Because, there is zero evidence that a “fossil fuel” event triggered his terminal depression.
The big question is what was the triggering event or events?
Even if this character is trying to make his suicide count for something about which he appears to have a religious belief, other dark events triggered his decision to end his life.
May his tortured soul find the rest and solace he needs.
Reg: I agree. The man had so many problems living inside his cranium that he finally just popped.
It isn’t warmer where I live
Rain, sleet and snow where I live and I can’t put out bird food until the precip stops.
12-14″ on the ground here. Average high is 58F….we may get 30F today if we are lucky. The month to date is about -15 below the ‘average’. Historic on all counts. I am at MSP. We are at our snowiest April ever….approx 22″ to date. We average 2.5″ of usually wet snow in April. We have not been above 52F yet this entire spring. It is causing me to be very down. I don’t get SAD in the winter due to lack of light, but in spring when I am expecting much nicer conditions this kind of weather causes me to be very irritable. We are hoping for our first 60F late next weekend and then hopefully sustained warmth beyond that…long range means are more favorable then…let’s hope so.
Sorry. It is already globally cooling.
Yeah, ‘cooling’ negative 0.15K/decade? Or did you refer to just the last four weeks?
Please come back after 15 years of cooling UAH TLT. In the meantime, meeting 1.5K total global warming for a 30 year period is still very, very much in future. I love to see the pause back, but it appears we get more lukewarm weather instead.
Hugs
There is no man made global warming. I am not sure why you believe strongly in UAH since they have noted problems with the orbits and the sensors are affected by the sun’s rays which are terrible during the [current] period of the lowest magnetic field strengths in about 87 years.
As far as the other data sets are concerned: they are all biased towards the NH. Not properly balanced to zero latitude like my sample of 54 weather stations.
It is globally cooling. By at least 0.01K per annum since 2000.
Here is a summary of my investigation on that:
Concerned to show that man made warming (AGW ) is correct and indeed happening, I thought that here [in Pretoria, South Africa} I could easily prove that. Namely the logic following from AGW theory is that more CO2 would trap heat on earth, hence we should find minimum temperature (T) rising pushing up the mean T. Here, in the winter months, we hardly have any rain but we have many people burning fossil fuels to keep warm at night. On any particular cold winter’s day that results in the town area being covered with a greyish layer of air, viewable on a high hill outside town in the early morning.
I figured that as the population increased over the past 40 years, the results of my analysis of the data [of a Pretoria weather station] must show minimum T rising, particularly in the winter months. Much to my surprise I found that the opposite was happening: minimum T here was falling, any month….I first thought that somebody must have made a mistake: the extra CO2 was cooling the atmosphere, ‘not warming’ it. As a chemist, that made sense to me as I knew that whilst there were absorptions of CO2 in the area of the spectrum where earth emits, there are also the areas of absorption in the 1-2 um and the 4-5 um range where the sun emits. Not convinced either way by my deliberations and discussions as on a number of websites, I first looked at a number of weather stations around me, to give me an indication of what was happening:
The results puzzled me even more. Somebody [God/Nature] was throwing a ball at me…..The speed of cooling followed a certain pattern, best described by a quadratic function.
I carefully looked at my earth globe and decided on a particular sampling procedure to find out what, if any, the global result would be. Here is my final result on that:
Hence, looking at my final Rsquare on that, I figured out that there is no AGW, at least not measurable.
Bingo.
Public funded propaganda, pretending to be ‘science’, and a supine media that’s fully complicit in enabling an ongoing global crime of misleading the young and impressionable into mental anguish, ignorance, poor education, stupid attitudes and acts, and much depression and misery, under the FAKE guise of informing and enlightening.
Wolves in sheep’s clothing.
Agenda 21 anybody?
Bingoid. Murder by propaganda. But those Warmists that caused his death DON’T CARE! The only thing they care about is converting the world to their insane Socialist hell.
Absolutely. All the global data shows that mankind is better fed, more prosperous and longer living than ever before. And the planet is getting greener due to increased CO2 and global warming.
This is the ultimate madness. People who call themselves green demonise and hate the very thing that makes the planet green. Sadly this madness can literally drive people to their deaths.
Chris
Will those who continue to create mental stress with their false catastrophic warming propaganda ever be brought before the court to account for their part in this type of tragic death?
Leave it to me to definitely have something to say….
This falls squarely on the laps of all these hysterical liberals, lying so called scientists, news media, etc…
….this is the result they have been looking for…..and they don’t even care
And the left will say it’s Trump’s fault because he’s dismantling the EPA.
mikerestin – don’t forget that Trump dumped the Paris Accord non-treaty!
Hit the nail squarely on the first go. +10
Rubbish comment.
First we had the Peta Facebook shooter in Calif. and now this. I think the climate psychologists need to do some good here and stop feeding the psychosis.
Youtube, not Facebook. And had nothing to do with animal issues…it was over revenue and what she saw as Youtube deliberately limiting her viewership.
mr mike- that’s what she said but the real reason was she was psycho
and this flaming [lawyer] who just offed himself was a liar to the end – he didn’t do it for the erf. he did it cuz he had inverted values = psycho.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanterre_massacre
Need anymore evidence Liberalism and mental illness go hand in hand?
Climate change fanaticism is clearly a retreat from rationality.
A Chicken or the Egg problem is the only question.
“Liberalism is a mental disorder.” Michael Savage
Q.E.D.
IMO, just proves how mentally unbalanced he was, on multiple counts.
Survival of the fittest.
The ultimate hypocrisy ….. contributing to AGW.
My thought exactly. Not PC, but true. Couldn’t even stick to his beliefs in death/suicide. I feel sorry for those that will miss him.
This was not a protest. It was self-hatred. It’s actually very difficult for many – if not most – people to love themselves. One has to be at peace with oneself.
Raise your children well. They are our successors in Nature’s grand experiment in bringing forth a being that recognizes the existence of Nature itself. Love your children, and let them love themselves.
Amen
I’m in love with myself.
I don’t know, seems to me I loved myself a lot, especially in high school.
And now you need eye glasses?????
you can’t love yourself without a reason. that’s something one achieves by achieving one’s values
he just had stupid as his standard of value.
he arrived at the ineluctable conclusion.
it’s all good.
gnomish, it would be more appropriate to say that his view was so narrow and so blocked in that he could NOT see the other side of the coin.
Suicide is NOT the answer to anything.
However when the emotional pain is so high that you can’t bear it anymore, it sure does seem that way.
yes, sara. any rational person understands and agrees with you in any normal context.
the agw cult is not a normal context by any stretch of the imagination but until it leaves corpses strewn on the pavement, those who are too innocently generous to grasp the fact that fabian socialism is loathing of human nature and is an engine of self mutilation and suicide on the installment plan.
so good on crispy mcCritter for showing the station at the end of the line. will it wake anybody up?
if it doesn’t, then let the fries hit the floor. the more the merrier and the sooner the better.
those are the monstrosities that threaten every human bean. they are not to be hugged. they are evil.
do you so love life that you will, in equal measure, hate evil? cuz if you can’t bring yourself to do that, your anguish is self indulgence and pretty much coddles the cooters like all the other enablers.
The will to live is powerful. Even when overcome by a suicidal urge, it reasserts itself quickly. A delay, a distraction, an inconvenience, an interruption, any of these can move the individual past that window of impulse and get them thinking “Wait a minute, WTF am I doing?”.
Unfortunately, for some that interruption never comes.
What worries me the most on this is that it WON’T be the last time one of the Climate Faithful chooses to end their life rather then face the world they believe is coming. Many (even Most) of them truly believe that civilization or even the biosphere itself is doomed unless mankind as a whole ‘Decarbonizes’, and as most of us here know that just isn’t possible. As one attempt after another to implement their beliefs fails, they will become more and more depressed.
We WILL see more of the Climate Faithful choosing suicide. We will probably see some choosing to take their families with them. We may even eventually see something akin to Jonestown. In the end it will depend on how much longer their leaders choose to continue pushing them and lying to them.
~¿~
When ideology leads to self destructive dehumanizing madness, it is probably time to question the ideology.
Also true in other areas of life.
Absolutely correct. The ideology IS being questioned, by the rest of us, but someone like this is too blocked by it to even try to question it.
What difference between being blinded by the light and being in the dark?
He did what he chose to do. I hope I get to choose the way I go.
If I have a choice, I’d rather not go.
A sad event in any terms but this guy just seems to epitomise the psychotic take on carbon/CO2 that people like him have. I mean on a planet where ALL life is carbon based and atmospheric CO2 is the primary vector for the creation of said life, WTF is this obscene and utter hatred of carbon/CO2 all about?
Sad, sad stuff.
+100
Oh … oh… oh… Weeping…
To God, all that ultimately, really, mattered was that David was a soul in need of love. A soul that God loved, dearly. No, that God loveS dearly.**
http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.3934027.1523734475!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/article_750/article-park3-0414.jpg
David Buckell, human being.
Why
(youtube – Rascal Flatts)
WHY???
Oh, why…
The pain just got too great.
That — is why.
With nothing but deepest sympathy for all of Mr. Buckell’s family, for all of his friends… so many friends… You could not have done ANYTHING to prevent this. Weep, be angry, but don’t — feel — guilty. The pain just got too great. That’s all.
With love, only love — and tears,
Janice
******************
******************
** I believe in retroactive prayer (yes, I realize that some of you do not believe in prayer at all; this is MY remembrance comment), thus, I prayed just now that God, knowing in advance that I would pray this today, would have made sure that David Buckell believed in Jeshua as his Messiah at some point in his life (even if only after losing consciousness today, accepting the message spoken to him by Jesus in his mind before it was too late to choose). And this may have been futile, but, I am choosing to believe it was not and that David is, right now, in heaven. At peace.
Wonderful song, no explanation, just the truth about life.
Please forgive my misspelling of “Buckel” — tears make it harder to read …
One more thing, from the lyrics to above song, “Why?” — “They lied.” And that makes me angry. The same lie about human CO2 that caused (but — for — the — requirement of UN-necessary cladding (only there to prevent concrete from emitting CO2 per the lies of the AGWers), most if not all of those people would be alive today) the Grenfell Towers burning deaths of dozens of human beings, killed an emotionally fragile human being.
In Tort law, the “eggshell plaintiff” principle says that the tortfeasor (here, the liars about human CO2) takes his or her victim as he or she finds him or her. The AGWists are guilty of wrongful death. That is, the emotional fragility of Mr. Buckel was not a supervening, controlling, cause preventing their liability.
Angry. Weeping. … just weeping…
Janice,
I’m not religious, but if I were David, I would thank you for that.
Whatever this man’s torment, I suspect he would have found one cause, or another to die for.
He was a human being and deserves respect.
We might brand him mentally ill, but we didn’t know him, so can’t make that assessment. We can only hope that death released him from his torment, for he was tormented enough to kill himself in this way.
My thoughts go out to his family, of course, but also to the people who found him, and the emergency services he selfishly subjected to the most gruesome task imaginable.
We often forget the public servants who must clear up after these people. They are affected as well, but few think of them, least of all the perpetrators.
He may not have had a depressive motivation. He may have had a martyr complex, seeking popularity or immortality as a an extreme example who died for ‘the cause’. Maybe he was thinking of the Buddhist monks who self-immolated to protest the war in Vietnam. I see a parallel.
All he proved is that men are mortal. We only get one chance. His has ended. What struggle he failed to overcome in this life, he will face in the next. For anyone considering suicide now or in the future, I recommend first reading or watching, “Life after Life”.
Another book which has been helpful to many was written by a quadraplegic (Joni Eareckson Tada) who wanted to kill herself at one point, When Is It Right to Die?: https://www.amazon.com/When-Right-Die-Euthanasia-Suffering/dp/0756786894#customerReviews
Yes, a portion of blame & shame belong to the climate change scare mongers — especially those who know that such hype is not true. To those who believe that climate hype is true — please move on — none of us want to dwell on this and make any kind of self-sacrificing hero out of Mr. Buckel. It would only encourage a rash of such protests. (During the 1960s there were many self-immolations protesting the Vietnam War.)
It could have been worse. There could have been a few more.
Sadly, this helps again to point out that many people are getting their brains pulled into a cult. Like the Hart family tragedy, with the adoptive parents being so goofed up that all parents and kids end up dead, unless the final couple of individuals happen to be found alive somewhere.
This is not mental illness. Please avoid saying that. It is a disservice to people with a mental illness, or with suicidality.
Find time to go look up how a cult works Most importantly, the process by which someone gets sucked into cult thinking – not so much the “characteristics” of cult thinking.
The appeal of a cult is dual: to be following the correct life, and to be virtuous as opposed to being ignorant or being evil.
Cults work by a certain process. In all of this, I have no idea how a cult gets dreamed up. i have no idea what possesses any individual to dream up a cult, either as a True Believer, or as a Deceiver. I will note how INTELLIGENT, NON-MENTALLY-ILL individuals get drawn into a cult.
This is based on my efforts to understand how so many of my intelligent friends and family have embraced the most ridiculous political ideas, AND how they CANNOT have reasonable, cool-headed discussions of political issues.
A cult has an appeal by pointing out some idea or problem, and making the potential member consider the issue – but this apparently dispassionate issue is actually presented in a manner that will lead to favoring one side. “You are against harming wildlife, aren’t you?”
The subtle but necessary subtext comes next. The people doing the “bad” thing or things are either ignorant or evil. Capitalism is bad, polluters are bad, Big Oil is bad, SUV owners are bad, etc.
The rhetoric progresses to include a MORAL evaluation: it is not just dumb that you wasted fossil fuel with your SUV, it was somehow immoral: you were killing off the planet, hurting Gaia, ruining the legacy for future generations, etc. I call this the “virtue” aspect.
We mostly think of cults as being centered around God / gods / divine revelation / great spiritual insight and practice.
But I want to ASK you all to consider: the matter of a cult is the matter of being virtuous versus being ignorant or evil. This can include being virtuous by following a religion, or also by following some tenets of virtue, without a God attached to the virtuousness.This expanded concept includes religious cults, such as Jim Jones, Vernon Howell, and Joseph Smith, but also includes the atheist naturalists, members of the Cult of Man-made Global Warming, etc.
In the long run, dispute and shades of grey disappear, and the promoted view is framed as the obvious, virtuous view, and holders of other views (lukewarmers, etc.) are framed as either ignorant or evil.
In the long run: since the opponent is IMMORAL, the believers, the virtuous, are not “ethically” required to engage in civil debate, to tolerate diverse views, etc. This would be like a Christian church having a meeting to decide if Satanist principles should be added to the Creed in order to be more inclusive. [More later on why Christianity, specifically, is not a cult.]
The process is that you first consider, and accept, some “obvious” things. CO2 is increasing, etc. Then, a subtle process advances. Two main things: the “virtue” issue has to cover a great deal of daily life, so that you get increasingly cut off from other aspects of daily life, and opponents get increasingly framed as distinctly woefully ignorant (often due to the promotion of evil ideas by the Evil Guys), or simply as evil.
It has been close to a decade, but some may remember the flare-up of concern over “phantom” power consumption: that LED light on your Keurig that notes that it is plugged in? EVIL!!!!!! –So, the label of evil gets promoted to cover more and more. Pretty soon you cannot take a s#1t without worrying about how your dung is harming Mother Earth. And, feeling guilty and deciding you would s#1t less if Consumerism did not drive you to eat so much. These virtue-concepts advance on you, and you increasingly see your behaviors, and those of others, as ignorant and or evil. As you grow in Virtue, you shift away from the evil behaviors and thoughts.
At the same time, a lifestyle of Virtue gets advanced. Buy “green,” etc. You can relieve guilt of your evil ways by following the Virtuous lifestyle. Buy a Subaru because their plant is zero-emissions.
The final crucial aspect is this: A cult controls you by getting you to buy in to a World View, but it is an inaccurate World View. It can be shown to be inaccurate to reasonable people by logic and reason.
So, another crucial aspect of the cult is this: there must be mental detours to the obvious reasoning that makes the cult look as foolish as it is – since it is not in accord with reality.
There are two main cognitive tricks that are promoted and parroted to the increasingly duped cult members: name-calling and change-the-topic. They simply are what they say.
If someone counters the AGW idea with some genuine data, you do not have to dispute it; instead, you paint the person presenting the information as “funded by Big Oil,” or an “acolyte of Fox News.” IOW, you do name-calling. Once the reasonable person, who will bust a hole in your world view, is discounted as being a bad or evil person, you DO NOT HAVE TO ENTERTAIN THEIR POINT OF VIEW. This is NECESSARY for a cult to survive.
Also, Change-The-Topic. If someone brings up a point such as “solar cannot possibly handle more than 10% of a nation’s energy need,” the topic GETS CHANGED TO: “Kyoto – we need to reduce demand,” or “Big Oil is subsidized so solar doesn’t have an economic chance,” or “in some cases, we will also depend on wind,” etc.
The “tell” for “change-the-topic” is this: two things: 1. you never get back to your valid point; 2. as you try, you get labeled as being dogmatic, or as being unable to expand a discussion, etc.
Finally, and this has happened to me, and to you all, and to many: once the cult member gets challenged, and gets feet held to the fire, they create a huge emotional tantrum, and fly off in a huff – all the while labelling you as the unreasonable, emotional one. And, no shame: they are merely exiting a discussion with an Evil person.
These cult members CANNOT engage beyond a second round of serious, reasonable discussion on their Cult View.
In may forums, I have PREDICTED exactly when someone will dis-engage form debate, and how. They deny this, and then it occurs, like clockwork. Because a cult world view cannot stand a challenge. Because it does not accord with reality. Why engage? Why predict where the debate will go? I at times also state this: because others are reading the interchange, and can thus become aware of how the rhetoric works.
This guy was a cult member. He guilted himself so far as to lead him to kill himself. Sad. But not mental illness, or just being unintelligent. He suffered from something that sane, intelligent people can get drawn into: a cult.
Why are we told that cults can only be religious? We are told this in our schools so that we don’t catch on: the environmentalist extremists are in a cult. A virtue cult.
[Bonus: why is Christianity not a cult? This would take more explanation to really lay out, but basically a cult CANNOT have you examining its tenets, or questioning authority. In my church, we have The Bible, and leadership, but NO AUTHORITY. You either investigate, explore, ask questions, and accept Jesus ON YOUR OWN TERMS, or you don’t , and we pray that you will, one day. We do not require you to attend church, to tithe, to listen to any preaching, etc. We invite you to learn yourself, with good instructors, and reflect on what you are hearing. IOW: we are very much an open system, regarding our substantiation of our beliefs. We DO have a clear set of beliefs – you cannot change them much, and still claim to be a “Christian.” But, you can – there is no one who will run you down or sue you. Because it is an open deal. We are not afraid of difficult questions or of skeptics. In my church, and among the many Christians I know, there are many who have gone on to teach themselves how to read Hebrew so they CAN investigate scripture on their own. There are those who have gone on to study Egyptology, or Ancient Near East history so they can explore and figure things out; it is NOT a closed system, where dissent cannot be tolerated. How are we like a cult? We have a definite world view, and we believe there is good, and evil, and ignorant. And, we believe in educating others – but not in the way a cult does. And, if a “Christian” adopts Christianity along the lines of this cult process, their life experiences will not go well, and they will fall off the wagon, eventually – i.e., if family simply urges “believe, or be evil.”]
TheLastDemocrat
Well-written. Thank you.
Is this your blog, LastDemocrat?
Why so quiet for so long, when you write so well?
Hi – Thanks, Dave. I have a lot of skills and abilities, but operating a blog is not one of them. I tried, but could not figure out how to get menus, shortcuts, etc.
Also, I know I reach a much bigger audience by judiciously dropping relevant comments on sites like WUWT, where many readers will take in the bit of information, judiciously, along with the opinions of all of the other two-bit arm-chair Monday-morning-quarterback know-it-alls.
”… once the cult member gets challenged, and gets feet held to the fire, they create a huge emotional tantrum, and fly off in a huff – all the while labelling you as the unreasonable, emotional one.”
Flight from rationality that impairs personal relations that otherwise should matter. A mental illness symptom.
Good analysis, Last Democrat but IMHO you miss the point of the cult. Cults are started, organized and led by men, they have to be charismatic to suck people in, and their ultimate purpose is that they, the leader(s) get to boff all the chicks (I’m not trying to be humorous BTW, this is a serious observation). Any religious content is window dressing.
In that sense, AGW is not a cult, or yes it is a sort of cult but without the charismatic leaders (charisma is not a word that comes to mind when looking at Mann, Gore, Lewandowsky etc.). It feeds on guilt, it promotes guilt, as all the best religions do, and it provides a source for the guilt that some people seem to need and in the post judaeo-christian world there’s critical shortage of guilt, or rather there’s a lot of guilt looking for a place to park itself. AGW gives the true believer all kinds of good things to be guilty about, and those who really, REALLY need guilt, they can wallow in it until they hate themselves for just being alive. Without knowing a thing about poor David Buckel, I can speculate that he was one of these.
I seem to recall that self-immolation was common among buddhist priests in Viet Nam in the 1960s, protesting against the US presence there. I hope it doesn’t catch on among the warmists.
Smart Rock: Just for the record, the buddhist priests in Viet Nam who immolated themselves were coked to the gills on opium. Imitators in the US were not told this and unnecessarily died horrible deaths as a result.
Sure seems like the actions of someone mentally-ill.
Cult…of one? Unless this becomes a regular happening, it is just one sick individual.
Excellent comment.
Very nice comment.
Waste of perfectly good fossil fuel if you ask me…
Are you suggesting he should have bought a gigantic magnifying glass and left the sun to do its work.
Yes, Let the climate cultists climb up on top of the Ivanpah central tower at noon in June.
0x01010101 is correct.
The suicider chose a flashy horribly painful exit method.
A very risky suicide method, to boot!
Any alert passerby with a fire extinguisher could have ended the flames, saved his life and left him painfully maimed for life.
Passerby’s do not even need a fire extinguisher; wrapping the victim in a coat and rolling them can extinguish the flames.
Choosing a flashy method, may be to make a statement; but the flashy method isn’t convincing when the suicide victim claims everyone allegedly will suffer the same fate.
There is a gulf of difference between self immolating and enduring a few degree temperature increase sometime in the future.
Why the flashy exit, then? Some final fifteen minutes of fame? Maybe.
Perhaps it was emulating self immolating monks?
I suspect the flames were a message to someone(s) specific.
We may never know if there was some family member, employer or lover involved in this suicide.
The sheer pain of burning alive could be a martyr complex; where the suicide victim insists on a very painful self punishment. Again, a maybe.
A far more efficient and effective method would have used car exhaust; or virtually any undiluted fossil fuel engine exhaust.
More effective, quieter, very efficient and without the risk that someone would put the fire out, leaving an almost suicide victim in painful burn treatment traction for months.
Car exhaust would not endanger nearby people, trees, pets and waterways (floating gasoline)
Cold
One has to wonder how prevelent suicide over climate change is. (or, for that matter, people killing themselves because they’re sick and tired of climate change alarmism) It’s difficult to believe that this sort of thing is an isolated case…
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1254619/Baby-girl-survives-shot-chest-parents-global-warming-suicide-pact.html
Fffkt! What an outcome from all the public climate p0m and panic. The greens should stop now the immoral raising of hatred and self-hatred.
I don’t remember seeing this case documented. Partly it is good, since suicides are copycatted, but partly it is so wrong since greens should be told what they cause to weaker people.
IIRC, there have been other warmist suicides and suicide attempts in the past.—maybe half a dozen.
I don’t know any, but I have read of people who have decided not to have children because of what they believe regarding climate change.
A form of cultural suicide.
On the old show, “All in the Family,” season 5, show 7, “Gloria’s Shock,” the Bunkers’ daughter, Gloria, and her husband, Mike “Meathead,” have conflict because she wants to have kids, and Mike, the progressive character, does not want to drag another human being into this polluted planet.
Rant at 12 minutes –
Sadly, this is the outcome and/or genesis of the “sky is falling” syndrome. Regardless of your view of Glabal Warming, the view of humanity is one of life and survival. Whether the planet warms or cools, humanity is not killing itself and the rhetoric that one side or the other is causing death or desiring it is a big problem with the debate.
Too much cool aid,like Jim Jones followers. There will be more.
John Anthony …. Bring ’em on!
“How much pain have cost us the evils which have never happened!”
– Thos. Jefferson, 1816
Lies kill. David Buckel’s blood is on the hands of everyone who has hyped the climate scare beyond what the evidence warrants.
Mark Baumer is also dead because of the Climate Warriors’ lies. He died, not intentionally, but because he took risks with his life, on a fool’s errand, to “raise awareness of climate change.”
Eight year old Friday Mukamperezida also died because of those same lies. He was sick in bed when when his home was burned down to make room for a carbon offset tree plantation in Uganda.
Worse yet was the case of Francisco Lotero & Miriam Coletti. They shot themselves and their children, because of their despair over global warming, because they believed the alarmists’ apocalyptic lies. Miraculously, one of their children survived.
Climate alarmism and “climate mitigation” killed those people, and are killing many others, but a lot of radicalized Climate Warriors just don’t care very much. They think of humanity as a blight on the planet, and wish that a large percentage of the Earth’s population would just die and “reduce the surplus population,” anyhow. For example, here’s the first comment on an article at The Independent Online (UK), by one of those Climate Warriors:
http://sealevel.info/climate_activist_misanthropy_01.png
Ironically, “climate mitigation” is also doing immense environmental damage. For instance, the United States now has about 50 million acres devoted to growing Roundup-Ready monoculture corn for producing “renewable energy” (ethanol), to “mitigate climate change.” That’s more than the entire land area of the nine (9) smallest States in the United States, combined. It is an environmental disaster — caused, not by climate change, but by ill-considered efforts to mitigate climate change.
Worse even than the individual and environmental tragedies is the human toll when tens of thousands of people are made destitute because “climate friendly” and “renewable energy” policies turn their homes and gardens into monoculture palm oil plantations for making biofuels. Some of those people do not survive.
The same is true of people whose food is priced beyond their means to pay, because ever-increasing portions of the world’s grain and edible oils are being burned as fuel, to meet renewable energy goals. Even in relatively prosperous Europe the human cost of climate alarmism is heavy. Thousands there are dying because they can’t afford to pay the very high prices of “renewable” energy, to heat their homes:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/fuel-poverty-killed-15000-people-last-winter-10217215.html
Here’s a German article, google-translated to rough English:
http://www.sealevel.info/Energie_Die_grosse_Stromluge_Warum_Strom_zum_Luxus_wird-FOCUS_Online-Google_translated.html
Translated title:
“‘The big current lie’: Why electricity becomes luxury”
Excerpt:
Some people “get it,” though. The Climategate whistleblower was one of them. He (or she) was motivated by his understanding of the tragic cost of climate lies. He wrote:
daveburton
Excellent post – thank you.
My sincere condolences to the family and friends of this poor, sad man.
These days, I’m happy when a suicide involves only the death of the one person who wants to die, and the victim doesn’t feel the faddish need to make a name by taking other, innocent people with him. There have been so many mass shootings, terrorist bombings, truck attacks and knifings where the suicide is secondary and the killing of as many innocents as possible is primary. Motivations for a high body count vary, of course, but an extra body count of 0 is always good. So on that score, good for him and his discretion. There is at least some dignity there. If that sounds harsh to people’s ears, I’m sorry, but it needs to be said. We should try to celebrate the discretion and “restraint” of solo suicides, IMO, so that this private, solo, individual example, horrible though it may be, might be emulated over other examples where innocents are also killed.
Best regards to his family and friends; this is surely a hard thing for them.
Fossil fuels are the greatest boon to mankind’s history. We now have the highest standard of living the world has ever known. Even many poor people today live in better conditions than past Kings and Queens – think on-call heating and air conditioning, electricity, and modern conveniences, like refrigeration, that we take for granted. Fossil fuels helped the Allies defeat the Axis partners in WWII, and now fossil fuels continue to provide energy, plastics, and other materials and benefits for advancements in medicine and technology, and standards of living. Praise God (of the Bible) for His provision.
This tragedy is 100% the responsibility of the purveyors of the propaganda that produced it.
If he was truly mentally ill, he would have found a cause to die for eventually.
Climate Change is currently the most fadish.
This is “one” possible solution, but I don’t recommend it
One down, how many million to go.
Sad but better that he took his own life rather than killing others in the name of his ideology. Frankly, given the rhetoric of the CAGW fanatics, I’m amazed that someone hasn’t been assassinated to “save the world from CO2”.
The Unabomber assassinated some folks.
True, though I was thinking more along the lines of an assassination of a well known skeptic who is a public figure. I won’t mention names since I’m not about to give anyone a target.
How many millions have they starved to death by forcing up the price of grain with their bio-fuel crap, not to mention the ban on DDT and malaria.
I love it when greenies say DDT was NOT banned. Right, I go and buy some, then, as it was not banned, right? The ban, which is real, caused real deaths which greenies never admit. Slimebags.
Very sad that anyone’s mind can be disturbed that much by hype that it should literally result in a death cult. : (
Because this is a climate blog, and he specified his demise was due to “fossil fuels”, everyone here is far too invested and focused on the wrong thing. The fact is, ALL Darwin Award winners are tragic characters, with the cast ranging from incompetently stupid, invoking hilarity, to mentally ill, invoking more humane responses.
All Greens such as him are to various degrees mentally ill. My condolences to his family, whom I suspect are not that surprised.
Agreed Bob, that was my first thought too, he was particularly vulnerable to obsession and overloading and over-reacting to doomer bunk and greenie drivel. However, pointing out why he became so fatalistic through greenie over-concern, may assist others to steer clear of the extremes of the climate-change neurosis. Genuine Darwin-Award people will always die due to dumb choices, though. Do people like this guy fantasise obsessively that their feeble idiotic act of ‘martyrdom’ will trigger global change and bestow iconic ‘hero’ status?
Yup.
Will it?
Nope.
He’lll be plowed-in and totally forgotten—no problem at all.
Unless he wins a Darwin-Award …
the Martyr thing WILL get airtime..
wait just a tiny while for the warmists to begin their “he cared so much etc etc ” campaigns..and fundraise using him as the excuse
I would make sure, that he wasn’t murdered.
Many times it is impossible to discuss things with people today or perhaps it has been forever. Very often any reasoned explanation given to another results in a salvo of memorized (or brainwashed) dogma. Rather than an intelligent exchange of ideas it seems to be perfectly acceptable to attack another’s intelligence and repeat slogans rather than be troubled with actually listening to someone else’s opinions or what they suggest as facts. When groups of like minded individuals glom together and reinforce the same idea they become reduced to human lemmings where group pressure allows not even the slightest deviation from the group theology. This man obviously was an extreme example. He accepted the ‘green’ philosophy and convinced himself or was convinced by others that the world was ending and everything was hopeless because every human being didn’t believe as he did. He believed this so fervently that he felt he felt he was the problem and was willing to end his life. We look back on history and ask how so many millions could believe Hitler, Stalin, Chairman Mao or Al Gore but sadly it happens.
Clearly a sad and foolish move by him. We can at least thank him that he didn’t take his family with him, which happens all too often.
it’s surprising that someone so smart could be so taken in by a lie that is, to be honest, quite easy to see through. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that he was so self-righteous, self-centred that he wouldn’t dare challenge even his own beliefs. A very sad outcome, and truly sad for his family and friends who now have to bear his burden.
I am saddened by this. I believe in the scientific method and the not post modern science. I hope that I would have helped to talk him round from this. Possibly not. Ouch for him and his.
I’ve never understood (and probably never will) how it is that setting yourself on fire, starving yourself, blocking an intersection, or just being a general nuisance, is supposed to get people to support your cause. How is being obnoxious, or just noxious productive in any way?
Darwin +1
He showed us.
Darwinism only works if the selection is done before reproduction for an individual that was likely to reproduce. It is not the survival of the fittest, as usually told, but the reproduction of the fittest. Darwin was poorly understood. Once an individual has finished reproducing and is no longer required for his progeny survival, or has chosen not to reproduce, there is no natural selection involved. His life or death becomes irrelevant for his species evolution. That’s one of the reasons we don’t live longer. There is no reproductive advantage from living longer.
Hey, I’m 73 and can still get the leg over.
You are assuming of course that he wouldn’t have reproduced again at some point.
Oops, soz Ve,
You beat me by seconds….. You ARE vigorous chap!!!
Well then… Lamarck +1
They first convinced many smart, healthy people not to have kids. That was unfortunate, but ok, their choice. Self limiting perhaps, as there will likely be less liberals in the next generation, but still ok. The next step is actually proposing that people euthanize themselves to save the planet. If society is ok with that, I hope that they will make it less painful and messy for the people who want to go. Personally I am against it, but I see this as the next logical step of their crusade.
This case is truly tragic, and those who promote the idea of CAGW as a crisis should be forced to experience a true crisis. It is a rich, self-important, first world crisis that does not compare in any way to every true human crisis that we see everyday. Logic and rationality are lost and replaced with crazy, irrational drama. So sad.
Well they’re the sane and normal ones! We who do not believe are the extremist reactionary radicals you know!
You know usually those that believe in the 97% like to do things in large groups.
Koolaide?
wow, he’d have left two carbon footprints…
As I recall, a court just found a young lady guilty in a trial where she encouraged her boyfriend to commit suicide. …… may be time for the mentally ill leftist driving this CAGW drivel to answer some questions about the effects their lies and propaganda are having on people.
Seems to me there is no question that the Alarmist are complicit in this poor fellows unfortunate, and untimely death.
Maybe it is time for the sociologists and psychologists to study the effect of doom and gloom environmentalism on the attitudes of young people. There may well be an association between fatalism and drug use, gang membership and the lack of personal responsibility. Too much free stuff allows survival, but may lead to lack of personal worth. The opioid epidemic, legalizing weed and ease of groupthink all could be involved. The old justification was “here for a good time, not a long time”.
Did he follow the words in the WUWT sidebar?
“Walk toward the fire. Don’t worry about what they call you.”
Geoff
36.000 people in the UK died in 2016/2017 winter conditions because they can’t afford the fuel to keep warm. Even a labor MP admits to that: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jul/13/liberal-mp-says-people-will-die-of-cold-because-renewable-energy-drives-up-fuel-prices
Frankly I no longer feel a wit of sympathy and someone should sue his estate and donate the money to what ever organization helps the people who can no longer afford their heating bills because the EU’s version of democrats want to ruin the landscape with their stupid windmills. Good riddance is my thought.
Just as people have become addicted to dopamine reward pathway stimulation from daily social media usage, people have become addicted to dopamine reward pathway stimulation from daily selective moral outrage.
This addict died from an overdose.
Into The Fire
by Thirteen Senses
(and fossil fuel)
+10
Most people that commit suicide either have a serious mental condition, or are in a very desperate situation, or both. As such the suicide note was probably a lie and the real cause was other. No doubt he wanted his death to be used politically to advance his anti-fossil fuel advocacy in a pathetic final gesture. It is pretty disturbing that people go to such extremes to defend their beliefs, and not too different from suicide bombers, except that more civilized and less damaging to others. If he really cared about CO2 levels he should have chosen a different method and requested to be buried instead of going up in flames.
“and requested to be buried instead of going up in flames.”
Actually, many people decide to not be buried and choose “going up in flames” instead. They just usually make sure they’re already dead.
I just can’t fathom what he thought he was doing. Perhaps he was thinking of the Buddhist monks immolating themselves in Viet Nam? Again, condolences to his family.
They shouldn’t if they believe atmospheric CO2 levels are a problem. Proper burial is the adequate carbon capture and storage (CCS) solution. I guess incineration prohibition might happen if this pesky CO2 keeps rising.
I’m not gonna bite. This is a set-up to elicit crass remarks from the opposition. Even IF it was an actual suicide, it points to the point that other opinions and logic not matter to these people.
You have to wonder why, if he was so ‘woke’ concerning CAGW, that he chose a way out with such a large carbon footprint.
As sad as it is it reeks of performance art.
People using fossil fuels arrived to try to save him, but were too late.
The sad suicide of Adolf Hitler, June 2nd, 1934.
The terribly sad suicide of Joseph Stalin, December 18th, 1904.
The unbelievably sad suicide of Mao Zedong, February 3rd, 1943.
The world devastatingly sad suicide of Pol Pot, March 23rd, 1959.
People who do bad things, bring bad things to life, help the enemies of civilization do not really rate sad statements when they leave this world. While this guy is not on par with the above people, who would have left our world far better off if they had offed themselves in advance of the greatest destructive activities they are known for, the man was part and parcel of the movement that would cause even far worse upon humankind than even those 4 individuals who were responsible for the deaths of as many as 160,000,000 human lives.
And by the way, you are doing him a service by spreading his message on your blog. It is your blog, do what you want. But I certainly would not have given him the coverage if I were in your position.
Yes, it is truly sad. But cAGW, as widely reported in the media, thrives on spreading the mantra of imminent environmental doom and disaster. Such continuous inculcation of messages of despair among the vulnerable will inevitably produce some victims like David Buckel. It is not in bad taste to point this out. He is a victim of the environmental-alarm movement, and there are people in the catastrophic global-warming industry who are culpable.
And I can also name organisations and people who are responsible for spreading a low regard for human life. The BBC were doing it a few days ago:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/stories-43699464/i-m-not-having-children-because-i-want-to-save-the-planet
He picked the wrong gas.
What did him in was O₂
Not sad at all, better him than me, but then I am a sceptic, so I will continue living and use the fossil fuels to assure myself that my family will not freeze in winter and that the Air Conditioner is working well in summer time, all thanks to fossil fuels. If he is that sicko, someone should have put him in the looney bin long ago,
There is a section of the cagw chorus that do not believe the hype but believe the end justfies the means. Its worth while invoking the bogey man in order to achieve a green paradise. These are the ones who are knowingly lying, they have blood on their hands.
Another perverse expression of the human condition, letting ones negative thoughts and irrational fears become the basis for self destruction.
May God have mercy on his tortured soul….
When I read the headline, I suspected perhaps it was weepy, histrionic Bill McKibben.
Death is no solution to the problems of life.
Actually Greens advocate death or destruction of human beings as necessity to save the planet. This guy takes it to heart
Kill all humans? Please, what humans have done doesn’t compare to what Mother Nature has done. Have you read history books? Countless extinctions, massive natural disasters, huge waste of life. Before we take ourselves out, I recommend we first put Nature on trial. Besides, even if we manage to kill humans, nature and evolution will guarantee that some other species will rise up. Do you want intelligent cats destroying the planet? Only way to save the planet is to destroy it! It will be hard, but we must do it. Is is the right thing to do. For the planet! Kill the planet!
Climate change did not kill David Buckel. Climate change propaganda did.
Hysterical global warming propaganda, repeated endlessly by nuts and hustlers for years on end, so twisted the man’s mind that he killed himself in a gory display of personal depravity.
People cannot unsee or unknow what this sick man did to himself. I find it hard to feel sympathy for someone who seemed to want to hurt others by harming himself so publicly. It does not make global warming theory any more credible.
Murdered by the Greenies
People in his activist surroundings must have seen this coming. Why did no one stop him?
The end justifies the means? In that case I hope those people will be trialled for this.
Like the Buddist monks in Vietnam who assisted in burning their fellows – which this action was likely intended to emulate in the world press! – his fellow cultist probably did know about (or suspected it) and either actively assisted him, or benignly ignored it and did not try to get him professional help, or discouraged him getting help but encouraged his deepening depression and anger. Which, given liberal psychiatry today, may not have helped at all.
Other sites tracking this individual claim he is an activist, a very liberal lawyer active in the homosexual movement. Loss of power in the US government (from being the center of every group in Washington to being rejected in every one of his lifestyle choices) is near-certainly a trigger.
I think it is time we recognized that this whole AGW cultist belief is becoming more and more dangerous by the day.
More proof that it’s a cult.
It was so very sad that he was taken in by all of the hype. But the reality is that the climate change we have been experiencing is caused by the sun and the oceans over which mankind has not control. There is no real evidence that CO2 has any effect on climate and plenty of scientific rational to support the idea the the climate sensitivity of CO2 is zero. The AGW conjecture depends upon the existence of a radiant greenhouse effect caused by trace gases with LWIR absorption bands. Such a radiant greenhouse effect has not been observed in a real greenhouse, in the Earth’s climate system or anywhere else in the solar system for that mater. The radiant greenhouse effect is nothing but science fiction. Hence the AGW conjecture is nothing but science fiction. The guy was taken in by science fiction and because of it suffered a painful horrible death. His action cannot possible have any effect on climate change.
The message in the bottle could just be a ruse to cover up a murder. Other wise, a suicide, women deciding to not have children to ‘save the planet’ and the Lewandowskis who want to sacrifice others for the cause . The goddess Gaia has some seriously challenged customers.
I’ve said before I wish those preaching supreme sacrifice to save Mother Earth would start by sacrificing themselves, but I never intended to be taken literally. Sheesh.
Killing ourselves to “save the planet” sounds illogical. Even if we manage to do it, Mother Nature and evolution will just raise another species. Next we have cats “destroying the planet”. The difference will be that they won’t give a shit. They will rule as supreme leaders of Earth and destroy anything that opposes them. All this of course pales in comparison to what Mother Nature has herself done.
“What a book a devil’s chaplain might write on the clumsy, wasteful, blundering, low, and horribly cruel work of nature!” -Charles Darwin
“The planet has been through a lot worse than us; been through all kinds of things worse than us. Been through earthquakes, volcanoes, plate techtonics, continental drift, solar flares, sun spots, magnetic storms, the magnetic reversal of the poles, hundreds of thousands of years of bombardment by comets and asteroids and meteors, worldwide floods, tidal waves, worldwide fires, erosion, cosmic rays, recurring ice ages – and we think some plastic bags and some aluminum cans are going to make a difference?” – George Carlin
The planet will survive just fine. It’s contradictory how we praise the resilience of life and then complain how fragile it is. Ultimately it’s Mother Nature who will eventually destroy the planet and there is nothing we can do to stop it.
Odd, ain’t it? I searched CNN News’ web site, there is not trace of this story there. I believe the MSM will quash it, as it shines light on several unflattering aspects of the AGW hoax.
It made the local papers
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/charred-body-found-prospect-park-walking-path-article-1.3933598
Are they sure it was suicide? Activists have a tendency to do this type of thing in front of crowds to gain as much attention as possible.
What a staggering waste of a life, and laid firmly at the door of the alaramists.
Even if he was a green snoflake and a lawyer.
Ironic way to go…
I was reluctant to write on this thread – it is too easy to take a cheap shot, hand out a Darwin Award, etc. Let’s not.
First, condolences to the families and loved ones who grieve at their terrible loss.
Next, a reflection on the needless waste of a life, apparently of a good, decent, if troubled man.
Finally, a comment on false global warming alarmism, the alleged cause of this man’s suicide:
There is NO credible evidence that Earth is warming dangerously due to increasing atmospheric CO2 – NONE!
Those who preach this climate nonsense have largely done so for personal gain – and it is the greatest fraud, in dollar terms, in the history of humanity. We have known this reality for several decades. Richard S. Lindzen of MIT wrote the following, published in the Wall Street Journal on Monday, June 11, 2001:
“Science, in the public arena, is commonly used as a source of authority with which to bludgeon political opponents and propagandize uninformed citizens. This is what has been done with both the reports of the IPCC and the NAS. It is a reprehensible practice that corrodes our ability to make rational decisions.”
These global warming lies also kill innocent people – not just the late Mr. David Buckel, but millions more who have died due to the forced imposition of costly green energy schemes that are not green and produce little useful (dispatchable) energy.
We are being governed by scoundrels and imbeciles, and the late Mr. Buckel is just one of their many victims.
Regards to all, Allan
Sorry, tap, tap, sympathy meter appears to be stuck on zero.
“One day, the entire adult population of an idyllic world awakes with a shared vision of a unknown disaster about to end their civilization. After long consultations with the mystic elders, they all agree on the truth of this vision and are resigned to their fate. That night one couple, wishing to spare their children this horror, kill them painlessly in their sleep. The next morning, they awake to an intact world, but find that all the parents in their world have done exactly the same. Vision fulfilled.”
Then again, “The Songs of Distant Earth” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEfJRXL3kJU
HUMANS, never, ever, give up.
Disturbing but credible scenario, given how foolish all too many people are.
I haven’t read the comments so sorry for the repetition if one. I feel an anger at the lies spouted that has led to this man taking his life. Add on the rules and regulations which are holding back third world countries, the useless biofules that made food more expensive for third world countries. Truly an malign type of person pushing this idiocy.
There must be more to this story than simply depression over AGW.
If anything environmental activists should be delighted with the way everything is moving in their preferred political and economic direction . By contrast it is the sceptics, deprived of a voice in MSM, in political parties and in any of the Parliaments or senates houses in the western world who should be suicidal.
I certainly am after reading some of the comments from the UK Govt recently .
Putting together the information from recent news stories on Paul Homewood’s site, concerning the UK drive to all- electric cars by 2030, and 80% renewables by the same date, with the Govt preference for on- shore wind farms, and knowing that solar contribution in winter months is insignificant, the 34% capacity factor for wind to make up the 230GW required means that 20% of the available non urban land in England and Wales will have to be sacrificed for wind farms and power lines.
Goodbye to the green and pleasant land, to National Parks, Green Belts around cities. And that must happen because there is no opposition to it.
Now that is truly depressing.
What a waste. Climate alarmism seems more dangerous than the actual climate change. Green alarmists should answer for this.
Weird that he used fossil fuels to kill himself. Doesn’t that contribute to climate change he believed in? So, thanks for making it worse for the rest of us, I guess? Maybe i’m going to commit suicide by drinking too much water, thus showing to everyone how water is danger to us all.
Too many people and they are all= want want want.
If its not money they want, its things that they want you to do, or especially not do.
You have less and less control day by day by day.
e.g. Tony Blair, inside 10 years and while Prime Minister, tripled the size of the UK Statute Book.
Since it was created in 1215, Blair tripled the number of crimes you are able to commit
What Matt Ridley recently wrote about in his piece “The Censorious Society”
It is very stressful. Having all this technology watching you, recording everything you do, everything you say, who you say it to, everywhere you are, when you were there.
And if its not generating automatic fines for trivial offences it’s bombarding you either Doom & Gloom or appeals to buy endless junk junk and more junk.
Assuming suicide, what this guy did became his only way to regain control.
Like my younger brother back in 1987, although of course farmers as he was, along with doctors and veterinarians, are the Top Three groups of people who fall foul of suicide.
Wonder why that is…….
Fortunately, most people have worked out a way to handle the stress.
The use sugar
and booze
and cannabis
and opiates
and… Trash TV
and…..nicotine
and….. (what’s *your* poison? Coffee maybe)
and…… the Government Machine (scientists and doctors) say that that is good.
After all, we NEED glucose for ‘energy’ don’t we?
See all the tax revenue tobacco and booze create
And only folks who were gonna go nuts anyway use cannabis. yeah right
And booze is part of the mythical and wondrous Mediterranean Diet
What could possibly go wrong?
Age of first stroke— http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-42871861
Loneliness— http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42887932
Opium— http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-42452733
Sugar— https://www.webmd.com/diet/features/how-sugar-affects-your-body?
And then is half the world either pre, or actually, diabetic?
—– 2 thirds of Americans are. half of all Europeans and at least half the Chinese.
Look at the stress of managing *that* when you’re diagnosed positive
Is it any wonder that the only real growth industry in the Western World is- Healthcare.
and where was the healthcare system for this guy…..
He must have been very anxious and depressed,feeling that his ‘cry’ was not being listened to.
Being intelligent is no defence against suicide, in my area of work it is the intelligent and compassionate that kill themselves, more than the detached intelligent, with proportionate in response compassion.
At least, if one happens to be Christian, my comment to the over compassionate is
‘Even Christ took 40 days off, if its good enough for Christ, it should be good enough for you’.
The fear of climate change, an inevitability however caused, has made some of my acquaintances on the streets over anxious.
When mentally ill and ‘psychically processing information’, particularly the current obsession with climate change, they can become more dysfunctional.
Responses vary from putting solar panels on the roof to blowing up coal fired power stations, from those who can, putting them in a position of ‘control’ of the ‘problem’, so in that sense, rational decisions which are sane.
For the mentally ill and poor there is no easy way out.
The problems are beamed to them , especially by our SBS and ABC carriers on the news, with lots of graphic pictures on other subjects, people being washed away by climate change and gassed babies in Syria with the threat of war, to quote two items on tonight’s SBS news in Australia.
When someone commits suicide we have the obligatory ‘beyond blue’ contact details, as if this solves the underlying problems.
The graphic publicity keeps churning out.
This man was trying all he could to solve the problems he saw.
He gardened and no doubt, defended or prosecuted green ideals.
As such he was true to himself.
However it seems , no one he felt listened.
So he defined his life and himself as a response to what others thought of him.
He felt totally useless and life futile.
My thought and prayers are with him and those who he left behind.
The person who felt she could have just dropped in the day before, and all would be well.
The man who had a great job for him at the gardens that could help, but it never happened.
His mentors and friends who told him he was worthwhile, and he never felt that mattered.
For all of us who are diminished by his death.
This was someone who truly believed that humanity was close to committing suicide as a species. There would have been no way to dissuade him otherwise. He had a moral imperative to follow.
You have a similar issue with abortion – one side believes that not allowing abortion is a fundamental oppression of females, while the other believes that it’s murder of babies.
Similarly in war – one of your soldiers who charges up a hill at a machine-gun post, or falls on a grenade to save a comrade is considered a hero. One of the enemy who does the same is considered a fanatic.
The only way to avoid this strange human failing seems to involve having no morals at all. Like me….
Sad for his family and sad that he won’t helped with his low mental state.
Apparently sudden prayers make God jump……. The reality is we only get one life and he threw his away and left his family in torment and guilt….. undeserved imho. Green policies will not save the Earth but stopping Climate Change grants to money grabbing Warmistas would be good for this Climate Deniers soul…
Sad for his family and sad that he now won’t be helped with his low mental state.
Alarmist scaremongering works, as we can clearly see.
He was a truly brave man, leading by example…
Very sad that he felt so desolate. People are losing relatives and lifelong friends over politics and now their lives. He should have known at his age that things run in cycles and he did not need to protest in such an horrid fashion for his voice to be heard. Such a shame!
In his protest, he showed the usefulness of fossil fuels.
The really sad thing is that this guy gave up his life to make a statement that will be forgotten by Tuesday….as it should. A wasted gesture.
If there is life after death and he finally learns Global Warming is all a lie, he will be awfully annoyed.
This is the tragic but logical and predictable result of the self-hatred preached and proselytized by the irrational logic of the extreme environmentalists.
Well that’s one way to solve an non issue with permanent solution…. What a miserable, small minded man, so wrapped up in his own self importance that he gave no thought to those who would find his stupidly charred remains.
Wow. Just.. wow. You truly think and believe that?
When the pain in that man’s life was so much greater than the pain of setting himself on fire, doesn’t that tell you he was in a truly bad place? He needed professional help. I don’t know why he didn’t seek help, or why none was offered. But he was suffering in a way I can’t comprehend, and he choose this because it represented the least painful solution to his pain.
Let that sink in for a second: Setting himself on fire to burn to death was the least painful path.
I feel sadness for this. For him. For the failures of the mental health system that didn’t – or couldn’t – help. For the people who found his remains. For his family and friends. This is a tragedy. His beliefs and “side of the argument” don’t matter; his pain and suffering did.
“Wow. Just.. wow. You truly think and believe that?”
…
“Let that sink in for a second: Setting himself on fire to burn to death was the least painful path.”
Pain killer overdose. Carbon monoxide poisoning. Being executed for mass murder. Hell, shooting yourself in the head would be less painful.
He burned on Earth, he can burn in hell. And no, I feel no desire to feel compassion for someone who would use the force of government to lower my standard of living for false reasons. Useful idiots, while not knowing of the falsity of their knowledge, enable those who do, and still represent a clear and present danger to freedom.
You are making several assumptions, so I will also. When he felt the intense pain of his burning skin and he
could smell his own burning flesh, he could not breath anything but hot air devoid of oxygen, he experienced pain and fear like never before and he realized he had made a mistake.
“For the failures of the mental health system that didn’t – or couldn’t – help.”
Wut?
What is this “mental health system” you speak of, what is the failure you think it had? Is it supposed to know everyone’s state of mind, and to step in when there is a problem?
A creepy thought.
Why not do it in front of people or recording the event on Facebook live if your suicide is a protest? There is, of course, much more to this than meets the eye.
No sarcasm:
Sad. Very sad. Taking the reasoning that he left at it’s face–a demonstration. But the loss of the life, when he did so much to convince the world of the equal rights of humanity, regardless of “morality”….that’s just a tragedy.
Whatever mental condition, be it anger turned inwards, or ego—the sad part is, he suffered. Horrendously suffered in the manner he chose his death.
I guess it’s sad that anyone can be this stupid – stupid for believing that the Earth is doomed, stupid for believing that his suicide has any meaning (no one thinks suicide is a smart or normal thing to do). Of course, anyone who believes transgenders/gays are normal can probably believe most anything.
“Of course, anyone who believes transgenders/gays are normal can probably believe most anything.”
They too are insane.
ow, that brought back memories (not the self immolation but the park). I grew up on Prospect Park West, crossed it to go to Ebbets Field to watch the Brooklyn Dodgers play, played baseball there often with my dad and uncles and brothers and later my high school friends, fished and road the peddle boats in the lake, got mugged, another time was beaten up and on another occasion had my life threatened. Starting with college, I became a country boy/man/old man.
When someone who means well does something like this, something that makes no sense to the rest of us, the excuses/reasons for it vary. The real reason is to have an ‘effect’ on “other’, whoever or whatever “other” may be, whether it was the war in Vietnam or the current ideology/cult of CAGWerism.
It is an entirely selfish thing to do, generated by anger turned inward. The “effect” is never what the suicide intended, nor have any of them ever seen the results or the real effects of what they did. It is the most selfish act possible.
The post about cults and how they warp the minds of their followers is on the money and I’m glad I read it. Cults feed on an emptiness in the souls of their targets.
My very real concern is that this may become more widespread, destroying the lives of people who could have done something worthwhile.
Now we will never know what this man could really have done with his life.
It is always difficult balancing the obligation to honor sacrifices for the greater good, with the need to guard against emulating needless self- immolation for an otherwise worthy cause. Media of all kinds — including social media — have a duty to limit the risk that any self-destructive symbolic act might prompt copy-cat gestures by others. We can, if we act wisely, walk that tightrope, and find ways to honor worthy goals, without encouraging more sensitive souls to deprive us of their essential gifts, in a world and at a time ever-more dominated by the more callous and less caring.
Let’s set examples for practical action on climate, that will make more sad, symbolic self-sacrifices unnecessary.
What is the worthy goal here? To cause billions of humans to die from exposure to the environment and starve to death on low nutrition low density farming?
He has done what we only ask of others, not necessarily to take your own life but to simply practice what you preach. If he so firmly believed in the evil done to the Earth by humans then he rightly removed himself as one of the causes.
One of the reasons why such suicide is wrong is that it is SELFISH & BULLYING with emotional blackmail
‘ Do what I say or I’ll smash your face in,
… oh I can’t do that, so I’m going to kill myself ..and that will be a punishment to YOU”
.. We should not give into such bullying
My commiseration to his relatives and friends, it’s pressure from the outside world that can drive people to such flawed logic.
He sent letters out to the NYT, among others:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/14/nyregion/david-buckel-dead-fire.html
“Pollution ravages our planet, oozing inhabitability via air, soil, water and weather,” he wrote in the email sent to The Times. “Most humans on the planet now breathe air made unhealthy by fossil fuels, and many die early deaths as a result — my early death by fossil fuel reflects what we are doing to ourselves.”
What delusional, and completely backwards thinking. Fossil fuels have made our lives better, not worse, and pollution is less of a problem now in the US, in large part because of fossil fuels creating a vibrant economy which has the means to do things to reduce real pollution.
““Pollution ravages our planet, oozing inhabitability via air, soil, water and weather,” he wrote in the email sent to The Times. “Most humans on the planet now breathe air made unhealthy by fossil fuels, and many die early deaths as a result — my early death by fossil fuel reflects what we are doing to ourselves.””
Nothing about global warming in that. He seems from that to be a fan of renewable energy for another reason—pollution.
largest composting program in the country
*********************************************************
well, he’s halfway there to being compost. toss him in the pile now rotate often nothing left in few weeks
Where will the first climate Jonestown tragedy occur? Perhaps Oakland or Berkeley or maybe the NYT building
I don’t want to be insensitive, but this might be the result of the endless headlines of doom and despair on top of someone’s depression.
Fossil fuel, or nuclear powered electricity would have been easier.
I gotta believe there was much more going on with him than just his CAGW beliefs.
IMO this should be taken as a warning . Shows how far some alarmists will go .
A short step away from murder . Beware those who use the ” D ” word …
We can conclude he was genuine, and not one of the climate hucksters. So, tricked by the unprincipled organisers of this fraud, he loses his life for no reason. More blood on their hands.
I think this is very, very sad. He was obviously a tormented soul who took his own life in a particularly distressing and painful way. We should add his death to the other 1000’s, possibly millions caused by the AGW myth. The money spent on foolish tidal projects, windmills etc could have supplied water to those who don’t have water and feeding those who do not have food. The high cost of renewable power and preventing cheap energy from shale gas being exploited has no doubt caused hypothermia in the elderly. Before I am accused of being charitable with other people’s money, that is not the case. If money is thrown away it should at least be thrown to relieve misery not as a vanity project for the Left leaning few based on dodgy “science”.
My sympathies will remain only with the 1st responders who were needlessly exposed to this event. They are exposed often enough to crash victims and victims of accidental fires, all of which accumulates through their lifetimes and can result in PTSD, similar to what military vets can suffer from.
Must say that I also suspect something else was going on in his life; maybe a deathly disease or -cancer. He probably thought that if he died [soon] due to a natural cause – or disease, his death would serve no purpose. Instead he decided to make himself a martyr for the big ’cause’ he believed in: to make people stop using fossil fuels.
Of course you all know that in IMHO there really is no man made warming due to the burning of fossil fuels; so, that is the real tragedy in this drama/
Unfortunately, according to the state of science, the problem is realistic. The last case in history when science was ignored by politics was Trofeo Gyenyiszovich Lisenko and Stalin’s case. Trump now.
Mihaly
please elaborate.
What was ignored in that case in history?
Perhaps they are referring to how Lysenko and Stalin used “science” to starve millions of people to death in the heart of CCCP’s most productive farm region?
This is not the first time an individual has committed suicide because of their angst over ‘the planet’
Usually it is a younger person under age 20 and usually they do it in a less gruesome manner but it is more common than you might think.
One step further: who is at fault for that feeling you rightfully describe as “angst”? We can name some of them easily: Alarmists, the Church of Climate and its High Priests, the IPCC, MSM and these pseudo-scientific contributors and quite a lot more. Be their attitude towards a changing climate right or -presumably- wrong: they managed to frighten and scare him to death. They deserve the IgNoble Prize.
The above alarmist individuals and organizations deserve to be bankrupted in a class action suit by the millions of innocent people who have suffered loss or damage due to their ongoing alarmist activity.
That is a class action suit I would happily sign on to! Even if the money does end up going to the lawyers.Bad language either directly or implied not allowed in WUWT MOD
I think eventually, the real tragedy of this horrific incidence will come about when natural drivers become the accepted reason for this small recent blip and will cause millions to so turn away from all conservatism that pollution will explode. People will come to realize they were duped. So in the end his death will result in the very thing he chose to died for because humanity will become jaded to all environmental voices and live in true destruction.
What an idiot. Good riddance. I have zero sympathy for a fool like this except for his poor relatives/family.
You never know, he might have been tormenting them, trying to get them to live the life gaia demands of them to live.
He wanted to protest humanity killing itself with the use of fossil fuels, but what he really did was highlight the insanity of the extreme green movement
Will we ever know the real reason he killed himself? Was he facing imminent bankruptcy? Been diagnosed with some fatal disease? Huge personal scandal of some type? Does anyone really care? It had nothing to do with climate, he would have had far more effect on that by remaining alive.
He sure did
I’ve heard of flaming gays, but this is rediculous
Well, there is his 15 minutes of flame
Just did a little web browsing. Found a tribute article which called him a: Community Composting Giant.
At least two words are now accurate.
It shows how strong the beliefs of some Global Warming believers are……
We really need some kind of assisted-suicide program in this country. That way people at-risk will actually have to get help, which could possibly save them or help them before they do something drastic.
When you are so low you don’t value your own life anymore, it becomes very easy not to value the life of others. That’s why we see so many mass shootings, murder-suicides and suicide by cop in this country.
I dont think any government program is a good solution to suicide. Most any that I have seen have the opposite effect in the end.
Even the act of committing suicide relied on fossil fuel, and the burning of the body introduced more CO2 into the atmosphere, as well as nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, particulate matter, mercury, hydrogen fluoride (HF), hydrogen chloride (HCl), NMVOCs, and other heavy metals (I think).
This noble symbolic sacrifice, thus, is the ultimate hypocrisy.
… alarmism gone wildly awry.
Those polyethylene tarps, though amazingly inexpensive, are also quite useful.
I intend to protest the next ice age, but it won’t do any good.
How would one go about protesting the next ice age ? — by freezing your “ice” off ?
I see AGW mainly as an economic issue. I can’t help but wonder what might be achieved if the vast sums of money wasted on climate research were instead spent on mental health research to relieve the suffering of tortured souls like this poor man.
Everyone wishes events like this would not happen. It can become virtue signaling be commenting how sad this is. I believe a more effective way to minimize suicides is to ignore them. I don’t want other depressed people believing they will get a lot of sympathy for ending it all.
My uncle told a story about his bartender handling a depressed patron. The patron said something about shooting himself and the bartender said, “Wait right here, I have something for you.” He went to the back room, returned, and placed a 30-30 round on the bar saying, “Do it right and use this.” The guy got mad and left in a huff. No sympathy in that bar. The end result was the guy was upset at the derision, but it changed his depression into a little anger and he never did kill himself.
This was a man desperate for meaning, a warrior in his soul searching for a war in which to fight. His gay, transgender and green activism didn’t resolve anything, so his acts became, practically-speaking, meaningless. He wanted to be valuable and valued – ehich is why he didn’t burn himself with others watching – that would have been disreputable.
Or so I interpret.
Without meaning the everyday tedium, struggles and absurdities are overwhelming. Which is why we have friends, family, jobs and religion.
When you are invested into a cult experience, it becomes your reason for existence. I was born into a religious cult where it was the only world that I knew. Everyone that I knew and loved was invested 100% into the cult, as far as I knew. If they had reservations, they were always couched into “the perfection of the cult, but the inherent weakness of people” who can’t accept God’s plan for the chosen few.
When you start to see through the cult and realize that your choice is to continue to embrace something you don’t believe, or destroy your relationship with everyone you love, that is when the suicidal thoughts become an everyday occurrence.
If you are fortunate enough to survive the experience, you would not wish it on anyone.
I have never meet this man or know anything about him. But if he really believed in the values his cult stood for, I think he would still be alive. The challenge is the transformation from cult member to independent thinker. And that takes time. And it is a daunting task to watch your world implode, and be able to give it time.
Well said, Russ.
Very interesting insight, Russ. Glad you made it out in one piece.
He should have electrocuted himself with a solar panel, or cook himself with mirrors and the sun.
Here are seven threads about depressed warmists and others on WUWT: I suspect I’ve missed a few, such as links in the SEPP weekly posts.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2015/07/14/more-depressed-scientists/
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2016/12/03/good-grief-a-support-group-for-the-climate-faithful/
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/01/17/oh-ffs-researchers-explore-psychological-effects-of-climate-change/
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2017/02/14/climate-activists-final-act-as-they-move-into-the-last-stage-of-grief/
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2016/11/27/five-stages-of-climate-grief/
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2015/12/05/activists-go-thru-5-stages-of-grief-for-the-climate-change-campaign/
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/08/18/joe-romm-of-climate-progress-exploits-the-death-of-robin-williams-for-climate-propaganda/
Mentally ill activist lawyer
…Disco inferno…
Was this the first known auto-sacrifice to Gaia on behalf of unchanging climate for progeny?
The Church of Omnipotent Greenhouse In Warming should grant him martyrdom.
Judging from the majority of comments so far this man’s death did little more than further convince those holding the opposite view that the cause he espoused is unsound and dangerously false. I suspect his death will do little to convince those who are unsure to endorse his views. He was preaching to the choir and his sermon was incoherent. What a horrible, wasteful, fatal futility he ended up embracing.
Indeed.
I’ll just come out and say it. This guy wins the Darwin Award for stupidity and it’s one less gene stain in this feasting shit pit known as ecofacism.
Meh, you guys are way too polite.
I’m wondering why this has been printed on a site that prides itself in providing quality arguments and information around climate change? Is it to highlight the sadness of the suicide of a man who clearly believed what he was doing made sense, or to throw a bone to the rabid right who like nothing more than to mock those they don’t agree with? If it is the latter, it is pretty low.
Just as this man cried out to be heard, so are a lot of people on this site.
They see futility of death when the problems confronted by this man were either fixable, treatable inconsequential, or, in actual reality,good.
The parallel between extreme green views and self immolation seen in the desire not to have children, the sense of hopeless self worth that ‘I’ am the cause of the destruction of the planet,the ‘logical’ need to eliminate the ‘I’
, the hope that this sends a ‘message’.
The response is cynicism, sadness, derision and a sense of fatalistic conclusion that the catastrophists are
the engineers of their own delusions.
This cry from the heart of many bloggers has to be recognised,particularly by those who see catastrophe through the lens of every news bulletin, who, themselves are the victims of the narrative.
Compassion is a two edged obligation.
@ Lewis …excellent response!
That phrase, “rabid right” is so popular. Perhaps because its alliteration makes it easy for the lunatic left to remember. “A plague on both your houses,” is quickly becoming my favorite quote.
It really amazes me how members of the left actually believe that they are the compassionate ones.
When it comes to soup kitchens, and offering help to the actual needy, nobody tops conservatives.
Leftists on the other hand believe that voting for the government to steal someone else’s money so that it can be spent on the poor is all they need to do.
As to attacking and murdering those who don’t agree with them. The left has racked up a victim list of over 250 million in just the last 100 years or so.
MarkW
“When it comes to soup kitchens, and offering help to the actual needy, nobody tops conservatives.”
Bollocks.
So you are out there helping the poor are you Mark? Somehow I doubt someone who sees the world so cynically would be the first to feed those in need. Anyway my comment was not about that it was about the motive for posting this. Seems to me it was set up to invite all the frothing green haters to put the boot in. And if you read the comments, it seems to have been successful.
Every program created by Democrats/liberals/progressives to “help” people in need has had the exact opposite effect, holding thousands upon thousands of people in perpetual poverty for decades, destroying the basic family structure of inner city communities and spreading dysfunction and hopelessness, all while actually helping a very tiny percentage of people.
As for pity, this man had the benefits of an excellent education, successful career before the bar and life in an open society in which he could live that life as he chose, and he pissed all that away. All so he could become a martyr for the false religion of Man Caused Globall Warmining. What a putz.
Liberals/progressives want “government” to help people, conservatives want people to help themselves.
Rob,
With all due respect, alt-right individuals have very little to do with actual conservatives. And, as someone who lives close to C-ville, and knows someone who was at that protest (on the “wrong” side) I can tell you that the views of that side are mostly foreign to me as a conservative. So…no. Sorry. Holding up that incident as an example of the right is false. Flat out incorrect.
rip
Or it highlights the life quandary he was put in by what thing he thought “made sense.” Perhaps it’s clarion call type warning to others who would follow his path into despair. A sense of despair, no less, that is based off disingenuous sources on the matter. Perhaps this serves as a warning to others that if they’re seriously considering an insane decision of this type, they need to step back and do a serious reassessment.
Old school, he had the decency to not take any innocent victims with him.
Rest in peace David.
Christianity has a taboo against suicide for a reason. And showing off one’s own death for the faith and putting the blame on others is even worse.
Perhaps the realization of how much it sucked trying to live w/o fossil fuels overcame his sensibilities and put him in a “no-win” position as an activist, railing agains the very thing that made like much easier.
A direct quote fro the man himself:
“There’s no denying that sticking with renewable resources means a lot of elbow grease with pitchforks and shovels,” he wrote in a 2016 article on the garden website.”
If some (… choose your noun…) decides to burn himself up in a blaze of glory to elicit sympathy from me ….. well, I can view it or respond a couple of different ways.
…..) Why didn’t he just jump from a bridge?
…..) It wasn’t what it is reported to be?
…..) He was an attention seeker to the max?
…..) He felt ‘left out ‘ because no one would grope him?
…..) He found out that he was going to be charged in the Russian Collusion Investigation?
…..) He was told that there were videos of him ‘peeing’ on other men in a bed in Russia in what was called a ‘golden showers’ moment but his ‘pee’ was clear from too much beer and ‘they’ wouldn’t publish it?
….. ) He planned a BBQ with special recipe and main course but no one came or chose to eat? A failed chef or poor planning?
—————————-
*****) What kind of BS got into this guys head? Who put it there? Are they culpable?
*****) Why should I be pressured to feel sorry for someone I’ve never heard of who does something really stupid or just wants my forced sympathy?
*****) Am I just being pragmatic and presenting some readers to view a different perspective void of emotion and forced PC response? Where is my safe space where I don’t have to read about some grotesque suicide and feel the need to endure a mental torment they have tried to force on me with their actions?
*****) Next time I see someone do something stupid or careless and smash their finger, can I console them by smiling and telling them it will feel much better when it quits hurting?
Willis
I also had a meditation moment recently
breadonthewater.co.za/2018/04/16/your-will-be-done-on-earth-as-it-is-in-heaven/
Perhaps Buckel was already dying of some or other disease and he’d rather wanted to die for an issue that he believed in. The real tragedy in this case is that he sacrificed himself for a cause that is a non issue. There really is no manmade global warming.
sorry, the full link is
http://breadonthewater.co.za/2018/04/16/your-will-be-done-on-earth-as-it-is-in-heaven/
To bad Buckel couldn’t talk hundreds of thousand of other tree huggers and root kissers to join him the Buckel Broil-a-thon…
This is the level of insanity greenies have achieved.
Just think what they’d be willing to do to you.
So let’s see… he started out as a lawyer, became radicalized into the CAGW religion and became a gardener… then when he realized that his CAGW religion was BS and the planet was actually experiencing its steepest decline in temperature in recorded history, he self-immolated as means of assuaging his cognitive dissonance brought about by the intrusion of reality upon his skewed little kook world.
He deserves, and should get, no respect from anyone. He was a kook who bought into a lie, then took the ultimate step to avoid reality.
It is one thing to douse yourself in gasoline, quite another to light the match.
Big Oil won: a downright opponent felt an ardent longing to leave this world using one of their most popular products instead of an “ecologically correct” one.