The British government owned BBC has hosted a talk from privileged Oxford Professor Danny Dorling, demanding that rich people (which includes everyone from the USA) be “controlled” for the good of the planet.
i’m Danny Dorling, I’m professor of Geography at University of Oxford, and in my very humble opinion one of the worst things about high economic inequality is it damages the environment.
High economic inequality is extremely damaging to the environment, because the greedy do not know how to control themselves.
Thomas Piketty, who is a brilliant economist from Paris, has done incredible detailed work recently, looking at the consumption and pollution patterns of the richest one percent, and he has shown that the richest one percent disproportionately contribute to greenhouse gasses and to carbon pollution which are damaging our planet.
This is because they buy so many things they do not need, because money is not an issue for them.
It’s because they have so many homes that they travel between, is because when they travel they don’t travel in a sustainable way. At the extreme they’re flying in private jets; there isn’t a better way to heat up the planet and damage our environment than to fly in a private jet and they need to learn the importance of this.
Because climate change is the biggest threat that we’re facing, and we’re partly facing it because we’re allowing the greedy people to carry on being greedy, and we’re not controlling them for the good of everyone.
…
Video: https://www.bbc.com/ideas/videos/opinion-the-super-rich-are-damaging-the-environmen/p064kjgj
If you listen further the professor extends his definition of “rich” people to include poor people in America, who are rich by global standards – so pretty much everyone in the USA is part of the target group the professor believes needs to be “controlled”. Professor Dorling blames the celebrity culture for driving poor people in rich countries to spend more on extravagances, to try to keep up with the rich people.
Professor Dorling’s solution is for everywhere to somehow become more like Germany and Europe, with government enforced redistribution of income and assets. This enforced equality would create fewer aspirational super rich cultural icons to excite poor people into trying to buy expensive stuff they don’t really need.
. Oh, the danger of swallowing socialism whilst sitting in a palace!
The Professor betrays his socialism and his envy with a desire that all share an equal economic misery. He is only reaffirming that Churchill was indeed correct:
“Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.
– Winston Churchill
I should have read your post first before posting mine!
Wise words from Winnie.
John Endicott
A pity our current PM has never taken the time to read them.
Perhaps read but ignored, thanks to progressive programming and the need for total political correctness.
Liberals, except for those like Mr. Dorling, want us to share misery equally
This mullet is just tagging along on the heels of prior ecochondriacs —
“One America burdens the earth much more than twenty Bangladeshes. This is a terrible thing to say. In order to stabilize world population, we must eliminate 350,000 people per day. It is a horrible thing to say, but it’s just as bad not to say it.” - Jacques Cousteau, UNESCO Courier
“The only hope for the world is to make sure there is not another United States. We can’t let other countries have the same number of cars, the amount of industrialization, we have in the US. We have to stop these Third World countries right where they are.” – Michael Oppenheimer, Environmental Defence Fund
Thomas J. Friedman in 2010 while visiting Taiwan said. “I’m gonna tell you a secret. Don’t let anybody else know,” he said. “There are too many Americans in the world today.”
deguello13
It is estimated the 200,000,000 (yes, two hundred million) people in developing countries will die prematurely by 2050 because they have no access to cheap electricity, instead the have to burn wood and dung indoors for heating and cooking, and the smoke kills them.
That’s only 30 years to kill off the combined populations of the UK, France and Germany (roughly).
Americans have done nothing wrong other than work hard and defend what they have worked hard for. Europeans are little different, as are wealthy Asian and Middle Eastern nations.
What would this moron be saying were it his country destined for extermination?
Earth has survived ice ages, volcanic eruptions, asteroid bombardments, floods, erosion, climate change, mass extinctions and who knows what for billions of years but now it’s suddenly threatened? If anything, Earth can’t survive Mother Nature.
He’s just being honest about what his global warming scam is all about. It’s actually refreshing to see it plains stated.
This is just envy dressed up as a social cause; envy, otherwise known as one of the Seven Deadly Sins.
Well said.
‘High economic inequality is extremely damaging
‘we’re allowing the greedy people to carry on being greedy, and we’re not controlling them for the good of everyone.’
“Attack the rich!” Cos reasons.
Ivy tower boob culture continues to amaze with the increasing vapidity and astounding cluelessness of their statements. That’s the comedic part.
The depressing part is that a significant minority of the population as well as a sympathetic press continue to show respect and deference to these nincompoops.
Piketty = Pique Tout!!!! (translation: take it all!)
Dear Danny Dorling,
This is an open letter to you. I highly doubt you would ever read this, but life is like that some times.
I have read and listened to your refreshingly straight forward comments and find myself curious. I too believe that some people need to be controlled before they damage the rest of society. I find that you and I think alike, although the individuals being controlled probably differ dramatically.
See, for the good of society, I feel that Oxford Professors should be controlled. Your every step, your every thought, when you use the restroom, and how much you sleep should all be controlled. You must be forced to do as I think is proper for the good of the rest of society.
What, you don’t like that idea. I’m shocked. You promote it for others, why should you not also be willing to make the sacrifice yourself. Truly, I just assumed that since you…..well, never mind.
You sir, are a frightful bore, just as are all the power mad, ivory tower, clueless, elitist simpletons who hold your view of the world. You, of course, are allowed to believe what you wish, but once you start expressing a desire to control others through force I believe you should be identified for what you are…a special kind of evil.
May the lice of a thousand scab covered hyenas infest your underarms.
Sincerely,
Andrew Cooke
Piketty’s study of inequality was based on a poor interpretation of US income levels. Inequality is much lower than he claims.
Just one of many wounds to Piketty’s story:
https://www.nationalreview.com/2014/11/pikettys-missing-entrepreneurs-tino-sanandaji/
I love these foreheads with no practical skills whatsoever who seem to think they should be running everything – especially after choosing to hide in academia their entire .
It reads like it was written by a ten year old.
Only rich people care about the environment – poor people care about tomorrows lunch!
The biggest improvements in the environment all happen in developed countries once they reach a threshold of adequate living standards and can afford to care. This is the history of the world and anyone who has studied geography really should know that.
Numpty nattering nabob of nincompoopy……..
Eric
The bbc has never been owned by the British govt. it operates under a royal charter. The licence fee is set by the uk gov but the BBC is fiercely independent. It is run by annoying liberals but many of its programmes are exceptionally good and have nothing to do wth climate change.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC
Some do of course and when they get on their high horse they can be insufferable.
Tonyb
climatereason
You know full well the BBC had its wings severely clipped by the British Government over the WMD controversy and the suicide of Dr David Kelly.
The BBC was always the stealth mouthpiece of the British Government. It’s fierce independence was always subject to mutual back scratching. Now, it’s subject to a foot on the throat.
“Once incorporated by Royal Charter, amendments to the Charter and by-laws require government approval.” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_charter#United_Kingdom (as much as I hate to use the vile wikipedia).
Not so independent of government influence then.
None of which gets away from the fact that it is NOT owned by the govt or that it is stuffed full of liberals.
climatereason
It’s worse, it’s owned by the public, and run by the government.
Hot Scot
I caught some trailers that there will be some (no doubt preachy) daily programmes on climate change on radio4 at 9.45am next week (or it could have been this week ) I will check the i-player and see.
tonyb
It is not far from such philosophy and thinking to sending people to re-education (concentration) camps, out to the farms in the country and even to the gas chambers. Most of the major attempts at socialism have ended up just that way. Remember that Nazism, Fascism, was National Socialism.
Hey Danny,
‘Member that time the Germans wanted to tell everyone what to do through military force?
‘Cuz I do, and I fail to see any difference between that Germany and the current one, except they’ve traded guns for weaponized science and bureaucracy.
I can’t believe the once proud British have surrendered their will to their longstanding rivals over an imaginary problem.
Peter Morris
Not all of us mate.
Rich David Suzuki be “controlled ” ? The great Virtue Signaler? No chance .
The next targets of mass genocide will be the poor and frail . Help them on their way policies like fuel poverty .
Human of course .
This man is as dangerous as Lenin when the Germans shipped him to Saint Petersburg on April 16, 1917 to topple democracy in Russia.
Watermelon geography. Sir Halford Mackinder is rolling in his grave.
I have been to 49 states, and I have been to 36 countries mostly third world. I will say straight up that poor countries could give a f&$^% less about the environment except (sometimes) in areas that cater to white virtue signaling tourists. With the exception of democrat controlled controlled ghettos in the US and a few places like southern Arkansas, the US and most of europe are the cleanest placest on earth. Half of China is so Toxic it makes 1970s New Jersey and the Cuyahoga River of Ohio look like a Evian bottling source
Reminds me . . . I had a pickup golf game a few years ago with a man whose wife is Chinese. She rode along with him in his cart and took so many pictures that I thought about contacting the government.
What amazed me was that she took pictures of the sky. Wut? The man explained to me that she had never seen blue sky. She was amazed by it.
“Oxford Professor: Rich People…”
Yes, he falls in to that category. Arrogant with it too.
Ah. You mean Gore and the left coast of California. Multiple homes. Private jets. Multiple garage bays. Homes of the rich and famous. Those folks? Okay! Now you’re talking. I will help you tar and feather them! DeCaprio goes first.
For governments to control the rich, they must take ownership of the corporations, no?
I will say just 1 word “Communist”