by James Delingpole
Why is it that so many prominent environmental campaigners turn out to be such scumbags, sleazebags, hypocrites or frauds?
The latest to be exposed is, of course, New York’s ex-Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.
When Schneiderman wasn’t busy – allegedly – “choking, beating and threatening” women, he was busy bullying the people he calls “climate deniers”.
Here he is on a video in 2014 declaring that “climate deniers have no place in public life.”
He was also one of the lead instigators of a scheme by liberal Attorneys General to use lawfare to harass fossil fuel companies such as Peabody Energy and Exxon Mobil. In 2016, he hosted 16 fellow Democrat AGs and former Vice President Al Gore to launch a coalition called AGs United for Clean Power.
“With gridlock and dysfunction gripping Washington, it is up to the states to lead on the generation-defining issue of climate change. We stand ready to defend the next president’s climate change agenda, and vow to fight any efforts to roll-back the meaningful progress we’ve made over the past eight years,” said Attorney General Schneiderman. “Our offices are seriously examining the potential of working together on high-impact, state-level initiatives, such as investigations into whether fossil fuel companies have misled investors about how climate change impacts their investments and business decisions.”
My, how the wheel of fortune has turned since!
Schneiderman’s departure from the scene represents a major blow for the Climate Industrial Complex and its efforts to undermine the Trump administration’s environmental and energy reforms. The jubilation among skeptics has been unconfined, as E & E News reports:
“A lot of climate skeptics are smiling at his downfall because he was an out-of-control, really wacky guy who held a lot of power,” said Marc Morano, who runs the blog Climate Depot.
Morano and his allies have been especially disdainful of the legal attempts Schneiderman led to hold Exxon Mobil Corp. and other oil companies accountable for global warming, calling him “the ultimate shakedown artist.”
“Let’s take a moment to pause and take a look at the strategy of blaming energy companies for bad weather,” Morano said. He added that Schneiderman’s resignation and quick disappearance from the public scene will force climate activists to reconsider their approach.
“He was the lightning rod,” he said. “He was the instigator. It definitely limits the movement when you take out the lead guy.”
Yup. But we still haven’t answered the question: why is it that so many prominent environmental campaigners turn out to be such reptiles?
Let me give you a few more examples:
Al Gore and the Portland massage therapist (one of several victims, allegedly, of his tentacular groping…)
Rajendra Pachauri, former head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, exposed as a serial sex pest.
David Suzuki – Canada’s most feted eco-campaigner who just happens to be a dick who is extremely rude and – see also Gore – an appalling hypocrite:
Suzuki, who did not return calls to respond, spends a lot of time hectoring others about over-population (but he has five children), reducing our carbon footprint (he has a jet-set lifestyle of the rich and famous), living smaller (he owns four houses in B.C. and an apartment in Port Douglas, Australia) and much else besides.
‘Suzuki is fond of flying all over the planet to deliver his $30,000 to $50,000 speeches, while hypocritically imploring others to stay close to home.’
Michael Mann – creator of that discredited artifact the Hockey Stick – who apart from being a hypersensitive and hyper-litigious bully likes to claim, falsely, that he won the Nobel Prize.
etc.
This is only a hypothesis – though it’s a lot more plausible, I think, than man-made global warming theory – but I think it might have to do with the well-observed phenomenon that unpleasant people are attracted to environmental causes in order to greenwash their image.
They’re a bit like sinners who in the past tried to expunge themselves of their earthly vices by engaging in particularly bracing acts of religious devotion.
Championing green causes is the modern equivalent of donning a hair shirt, or going on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, or renouncing society altogether and living on top of a rock in the desert.
The difference is, of course, that there is no personal cost, no suffering involved. You just parade all your green virtue and, hey presto, it magicks away all your vices without any of the trouble of forcing yourself to become a better person.
This isn’t just true of green virtue-signaling, by the way. It’s true of people who espouse liberal politics generally.
Greens and liberals are always looking for dirt in the lives of leading conservatives. The psychological term for this is “Projection.”
Full story at Breitbart
In other news:
Fate Of Schneiderman’s Climate Fight Could Hinge On NY’s Conservative Senate
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Moral crusades often attract highly moral people, but they also attract the opposite — psychopaths who recognize that people’s good intentions leaves them open to manipulation. Just spout a few words of alarm over some presumed ecological crisis, et voila! They are presumed to have hearts of gold. So easy.
This is also, I believe, why socialist regimes can become brutally oppressive, despite their ostensible concern for the average citizen.
How could you possibly have left out Peter Gleick? Think about it, the head of “Ethics” conducting mail fraud.
I don’t care for attacking the person instead of their message but here’s my .02. These people are no more nor no less scumbags than some everyday citizens. The only reason their moral failings are coming to light is because they’re prominent in society. Why we do, or should, hold them to a different moral standard is questionable. You don’t hire a brain surgeon because he/she is beyond moral reproach do you? This whole concept of holding people morally responsible for something/anything they do in private and it’s not in their job description is a new phenomena foisted on us by the Liberal/Progressive movement. Failing to gain the respect of voters with their policies they muck rack and base their platforms on demeaning the opposition. And as the Left has recently learned it’s a slippery slope once you start down that path. Don’t think for a second I condone the personal behavior of these elected and non elected but powerful bureaucrats that’s being brought to light. I just don’t care about their moral failings and especially when the deeds happened decades ago. I care about what they will do in their position that will affect me today and in the future. Would I vote for a convicted child molester? No. Would I vote for someone that used a hooker? I may have and could care less. Unfortunately some people care because that’s the new public service paradigm that’s been promoted by the MSM and it forces all sides to take part in the sleeze.
You really don’t get the hypocrisy of the “Do as I say, not as I do” mentality of these people?
That the former NY AG is a “dirtbag” has nothing to do with any discussion of climate change. If the only argument to be made is that people who don’t agree with you are all perverts you can never convince anyone of anything. There is enough science out there to question AGW. Stick to it.
Would that it were so simple, hornblower.
Schneiderman’s safety net of NY State’s Martin Act had nothing to do with climate change or science. Unlike virtually all other AG’s, Schneiderman had, because of the Martin Act, no requirement to show intent. He used this safety net to harass Exxon, and then encouraged other state AG’s to do the same despite the fact that those AG’s faced a higher bar.
There is no evidence that Scheiderman knows anything at all about the science of climate and no evidence he cares about it. The man used a dubious act of legislation to harass other people and then encouraged other AG’s to simulate his legal process to amplify this act of bullying. He didn’t rely on scientific facts to do this, he relied upon his broken moral compass to this.
Aristotle say’s that the good is that which all things aim. I think all people are basically good, but some have a far better aim than others. Schneiderman’s aim is so bad if he shot an arrow into the sky he would miss.
The fact of the matter is that state AG’s have nothing at all to do with climate change. The intrusion by those AG’s into a highly contentious policy matter merits all sorts of derision, particularly when those runners stumble.
What NYT, PBS, NRDC, Sierra Club, UC Berkeley slot is he aiming for now with a signing bonus?
Another related question is why are environmentalists (and liberals in general) so easy to deceive?
It’s probably not one size fits all but short attention span and virtue signaling works for a lot of them.
I’ll give it a shot:
Environmentalists start out with a flawed (well, ok, corrupt) premise: even though they seldom have the scientific training to comprehend, they accept/believe/stumble-onto the premise that the world is ending (acid rain, ozone hole, CAGW, rain-forest depletion) and they are among the chosen few who see the danger and “know” the solution.
If that piece of arrogant stupidity is your opening gambit, it’s pretty easy to go down hill from there.
When people want to be deceived, regardless of their political bent or activist leanings or lack thereof, they’ll do whatever is necessary to be deceived.
He should at least get the John C. Beale Public Service Medal.
Spoilage attracts pests.
Frauds attract frauds.
Not hard to understand really.
Money attracts the unscrupulous.
Power attracts the biggest of the thieves and liars.
Yea, not hard to see it. That’s why we don’t trust or believe the UN.
And let’s not forget that he is also totally ignorant about climate science.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/09/24/climate-campaigner-david-suzuki-doesnt-know-what-the-climate-temperature-data-sets-are/
Her is a failed geneticist.
Do as I say, not as I do. Some animals are more equal to others. Summary …. Green on the outside, red on the inside
Any reasonable assessment of the tactics and motivations of these low-lifes would clearly indicate that boundless ambition and aversion to morals are a prerequisite for a career as an evangelist of the Eco-Socialist religion of Global Warming.
They are the movement’s equivalent of pedophile priests!. The louder they preach the more they are trying to distract from their own behaviour.
It is all about relativistic morals taught colleges today especially in many if not most law schools today. The USA graduates around 40,000 law students each year. If they don’t practice law they often go into government as high level bureaucrats or politicians. They pervade all aspects of our lives. They are fundamentally taught winning and winning by any means is what it is all about. And if you are not caught, indicted, and convicted then you have done nothing wrong, e.g., Hillary. Morals to them are for sissies or just do not exist at all. If they are not raised with morals it makes it even worse, basically we have then created high paid sociopaths. Of course it all comes down to morals. The attack on the Judeo-Christian foundations of the USA and many western democracies has been quite successful and in doing so morals have been tossed into the bin. If you are not raised with a clear moral compass it becomes easy to lie, molest women, steal, cheat, etc, etc. It becomes even easier if you then pay for a expensive college and then law school where they really twist morality.
This could get interesting.
Many state democrats were pushing for Zephyr Teachout to replace schneiderman, assuming that any cuomo appointee would be thoroughly corrupt. Zephyr ran against cuomo in the gubinatorial primary in the last election cycle, primarily on the corruption issue. She is still being encouraged to run for the full AG term this Fall.
She is the daughter of Hon. Mary Miles Teachout, a state judge in Vermont. Yes, that state judge who ordered the Vermont AG to turn over his communications with schneiderman, regarding EXXONKNEW, without compliance with her ruling.
Zephyr might just comply in a fire-hose of documents from the NY side. She is to the left of cuomo, but appears very honest. Imagine the possibilities.
“Why is it that so many prominent environmental campaigners turn out to be such scumbags, sleazebags, hypocrites or frauds?”
Easy to understand:
The self-styled “Progressives”, the US Democrats, the Canadian Liberals and NDP, the Socialist and Green Parties worldwide are pawns of the extreme left and have been so since the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Here is some history:
“Surprisingly enough the second event that caused the environmental movement to veer to the left was the fall of the Berlin Wall. Suddenly the international peace movement had a lot less to do. Pro-Soviet groups in the West were discredited. Many of their members moved into the environmental movement bringing with them their eco-Marxism and pro-Sandinista sentiments.”
Source: “The Rise of Eco-Extremism”, by Dr. Patrick Moore, a co-founder of Greenpeace (1994).
http://ecosense.me/2012/12/30/key-environmental-issues-4/
Many of these imbeciles don’t even know it, but they are following a covert Marxist agenda intended to damage our economies, cloaked in phony green rhetoric.
Marxism made simple:
The Groucho Marxists are the leaders – they want power for its own sake at any cost, and typically are sociopaths or psychopaths. The great killers of recent history, Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Pol Pot. etc. were of this odious ilk – first they get power, then they implement their crazy schemes that do not work and too often kill everyone who opposes them.
The Harpo Marxists are the followers – the “sheeple” – these are people of less-than-average intelligence who are easily duped and follow the Groucho’s until it is too late, their rights are lost and their society destroyed. They are attracted to simplistic concepts that “feel good” but rarely “do good”.
George Carlin said: “You know how stupid the average person is, right? Well, half of them are stupider than that!”
One can easily identify many members of these two groups in the global warming debate – and none of them are ”climate skeptics”.
Need more evidence? Read the quotations at http://www.green-agenda.com
Just a few examples:
“The goal now is a socialist, redistributionist society,
which is nature’s proper steward and society’s only hope.”
– David Brower,
founder of Friends of the Earth
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“If we don’t overthrow capitalism, we don’t have a chance of
saving the world ecologically. I think it is possible to have
an ecologically sound society under socialism.
I don’t think it is possible under capitalism”
– Judi Bari,
principal organiser of Earth First!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Isn’t the only hope for the planet that the
industrialized civilizations collapse?
Isn’t it our responsibility to bring that about?”
– Maurice Strong,
founder of the UN Environment Programme
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“A massive campaign must be launched to de-develop the
United States. De-development means bringing our
economic system into line with the realities of
ecology and the world resource situation.”
– Paul Ehrlich,
Professor of Population Studies
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Q: “Why is it that so many prominent environmental campaigners turn out to be such scumbags, sleazebags, hypocrites or frauds?”
A: Because scumbags, sleazebags, hypocrites and frauds recognize a really good scam when they see one.
Posing as an ‘environmentalist trying to save the world from man made global warming’ is just about the best scam ever invented! As the Dire Straits song foretold:
“That ain’t working – That’s the way ya do it! Money for nothing and the chicks for free!”
(i want my mtv)…
All the ones mentioned here are horrible narcissist.
Gore is in the news, right now! A Canadian pipeline will cause global warming doom!
——————————–
Al Gore joins fight to block ‘destructive’ Kinder Morgan oil pipeline
Gore says pipeline expansion in Canada ‘would be a step backward in our efforts to solve the climate crisis’
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/may/11/al-gore-canada-kinder-morgan-oil-pipeline
Well said. And that ties in with the greens because it is a movement that has a following that is moralistic. I’m right and your wrong and being wrong makes you evil. These people (and not just lawyers but people who are hungry for power), being the sociopaths that they are, gravitate towards these kinds of movements. It happens both on what people call the right and the left. In the 20’s and 30’s you had the brownshirts of Germany, and blackshirts of Italy as well as the Communists (really socialist and communists) for example. They seek movements that they can get in front of and claim leadership. Once there, they can point to the people that disagree with them or may contest that leadership and declare them enemies inducing their followers to attack them. Now it’s the environmental movement but it could have been anything with the right characteristics.
This was a reply to Edwin
Fascism is a form of socialism.
Not it is not. Under fascism, the means of production remain owned by private individuals, not by the government.
i think you are confusing communism with socialism as far as the ownership of the means of production. Labeling fascism as right wing is a Stalinist libel.
But the industrial performance is dictated (in large part) by the state.
I’m in agreement fascism is a form of socialism (apparently the Na2is thought so, too, their name was the National Socialist German Workers’ Party). Academics (especially socialist academics) bend themselves into spectacular shapes to avoid this fact..
Mark and Javert are right. Socialism comes in various forms. Here is part of the Wiki article on Nazi Germany:
Walks like a duck etc.
“Under fascism, the means of production remain owned by private individuals, not by the government.”
And the state tells them what to do. And expects them to keep producing even if that means they’ll have to sell below cost price and go bankrupt.
Calling fascists ‘right-wing’ is just another of the left’s Big Lies. And, like the rest, it needed a compliant media to prop it up.
“C. Paul Pierett May 11, 2018 at 1:50 pm
Not it is not. Under fascism, the means of production remain owned by private individuals, not by the government.”
A distinction without a difference. If the private owner(s) of a company do not comply with the wishes of a totalitarian government they will be removed or eliminated and replaced with someone that will.
C. Paul – ownership that carries no rights, as found under fascism, does not fit the basic legal definition of ownership. Definition of ownership: the state, relation, or fact of being an owner; also : the rights or interests of an owner
If you have no rights, you own nothing.
They are owned by individuals, but controlled by the state.
Ownership is meaningless without control.
Under fascist socialism, business leaders get to pretend that they own their companies.
Why? That’s easy. It’s because the people who are in the best position to notice their scumbag behavior at an early age and to recommend and participate in corrective steps are (as a group) as morally, intellectually, and politically corrupt as the scumbags: public school teachers and professors.
They can’t rest until the EPA goes back to the regulatory philosophy
https://spectator.org/the-unscrupulous-critics-of-scott-pruitt/
One more thing I’ve noticed when considering the riffraff that promulgate the AGW myth is that they aren’t builders.
Remember the old saying, “Those who can’t do, teach.” (There’s more to it, I know, but I’ll stop there.)
Here is another saying that comes to my mind: “They never built a statue to a critic.”
Well, these folks are the farthest thing from builders: they’re destroyers. They’re detractors. They’re like the dog chasing the car. What is it supposed to do with the car when it catches it? Who really benefits?
I reckon it’s the only dependable way they can get attention. They can’t get respect/attention from building something so efficient that civilized society bases its foundation on it.
Of course, the MSM are also a big part of the problem. They’re all about “make-believe”. Since AGW is a made up myth, they’re all over it. It’s their darling cause.
Remember that Academy Award they gave for Al Gore’s movie? They give out that award to folks who do a bang-up job of pretending and making the audience believe their lies.
As long as government underwrites their criminal activity they will push
the phoney global warming scam for as long as they can .
Scary global warming exists in lock step with the money extracted .
The global warming industry exists because of an inconvenient alignment of interests
all designed to steal from tax payers but like all con jobs they eventually run their course
and the con men move on .
Look at the ring leaders of this massive fraud . All of them are demonstrable shit bags .
There is nothing worse than a ‘righteous’ man.
Embarked on a noble cause, he becomes an absolute a-hole.
Let’s consider the employment drivers:
One side follows, collects, analyses and interprets weather information, honestly.
If that is their employment, they hope that their analysis skills are not embarrassed by weather doing something slightly different than expected.
If they are extroverts, they may apply for broadcast weather and may even achieve weatherperson star status.
This is their life, every day, several times every day.
True excitement arrives with severe weather.
The other side, the side that is pro “blame man whut done it”:
Rarely analyses old data. Instead finds reasons to “correct” the data; which is known as data abuse in every other industry.
Believes the world should revere them.
Loves international travel, meetings and conventions.
Loathes honest science.
Despises honest scientists.
Vigorously approves irreproducible science, bad secret programming, and biased instruments.
Vigorously demeans opponents without addressing science
Vigorously excoriates and often defames anyone who realizes their error(s) and changes sides; again never addressing the science.
Oddly these folks claim mild emotions, humility, shyness, unwillingness to take public positions, nobel cause morality, righteousness, etc. In other words, these people entertain outrageous opinions of themselves.
Even while these characters make public pronouncements and support claims to censure opposing science and scientists, jail opponents and skeptics.
Then there are the climate fund trough feeders; whether politicians desiring money, glory and voters,
or advocates and disciples seeking wealth and religion.
Seriously, just what do you expect of politicians and groupies that want to follow CAGW activists for wealth and glory?
It may turn out that Schneiderman and pals are the least fetid, repulsive, abhorrent, repugnant and malodorous villains in their group of malefactors?
Do you want to know what’s in manniacal’s personal closet?
“unpleasant people are attracted to environmental causes in order to greenwash their image”
Liberals are sponges … Menger sponges — holier than thou.