The UN climate-change panel that cried wolf too often
You can’t set multiple deadlines for Doomsday. It’s a kind of one-off by nature. Do it too often and people cease to take notice or even care.
By Rex Murphy
Everybody loves the Apocalypse. The idea of the end of the world, the more imminent the better, has always had enthusiastic popular support. For as long as we’ve enjoyed life on this delightful Earth there has been a morose and righteous sect of one sort or another telling us the lease was nearly up, the doomsday bailiff coming any minute now to shut things down forever. And whether from the abrasive thrill of the message, or the melodrama of the scenario, people have lapped it up.
Indeed there is a whole category of philosophy devoted to that time when the world in flame and fire renders itself into ash, when time stands still, life evaporates into eternity and all is dead and cold. It is impressively called eschatology — the study of The Four Last Things. Not, as might be facilely assumed, Feminism, Ecowarts, Don Lemon and WE Day, but the rather more appetizing quartet of Death, Judgment, Heaven and Hell. It is the four last things, not the four most annoying.
As an attention-getter, The End is Near is right up there with the fabled cry of “Fire” in a crowded theatre. Identical really, as claiming the world is about to end any moment now is the loudest possible cry of “Fire” in the largest possible theatre of all. The call does gather a crowd. Under the spell of lunatic prophets belching Armageddon, people have done the craziest things — crowded on mountain tops or gone off into the torrid desert — to await the end, only, of course, in the end (that never happens) to be disappointed.
Its enchantment never fades. However often it proves hollow, there is always another set ready to take it up. (It’s like the Quebec referendum: if at first you don’t secede, try, try again. Sorry.) Summoning the shadow of universal doom has advanced many a fretful cause, spawned numerous sects, and wrought tribulation and anxiety in the minds of men since ancient times.
Religious pretenders, in particular, have demonstrated a fondness for the imagery and idea of extinction and collapse and none quite so gluttonously as the modern sectarians of the environmental movement. They have been throwing out scares of population bombs, famine, extinction, wars, world floods, vast migrations and — the favourite — imminent and absolute global ecological collapse for decades now. It would take a master of the abacus to tot up how many “deadlines” and “last chances” and “tipping points” and “if-we-don’t-act-NOW-it-will-be-too lates” the world has been teased with, whether from Prince Charles on his private train, sundry ecological anchorites, or the pursed pious lips of the “we’re-here-to-save-you, send-in-your-money-now” megacorp fundraising machines of Greenpeace, the Sierra Club and all their green ilk.
None however, have more versatility with the alarm bells of the apocalypse than the annual gatherings of the Gotterdammerung club, the Infinite Projectors of Climate Collapse, the assembly of existential dread known as the IPCC. For them, as Paris was for terse Hemingway, the end of the world is a moveable feast. For near three decades now they have held their annual jumbo jamborees. And every year the news is worse, the threats are greater, and it is always just a hair’s breadth from being too late. The scene is always the same. A keening goes around the assembled multitude of worshippers as a fresh and even more definitive deadline than any of the past 20 or 30 for Saving the Planet as inscribed in The Book of Climate Revelations.
The IPCC enjoys a delightfully recurrent state of despair over the world’s imminent collapse, which happily coincides with the release of each annual report. This is not without some burden of paradox. Had the world come close to ending when and as many times as its green sages have foretold, there wouldn’t be enough of it left to hold their next conference. An extinction event “devoutly to be wished.”
Things are looking, unsurprisingly, down. 2100 used to be the final frontier. It’s been moved up some 70 years to 2030. And we’ve lost half a degree. The new threshold is 1.5, where we used to have the full comforts of a whole two degrees. Other good news. No one is living up to their commitments. Even the most sanctimonious on the subject.
The greener-than-thou Canada of Mr. Trudeau and Ms. McKenna it has been noted is singing all the hymns in the right key and enjoys a friendly smile from the preacher, but $10 a tonne, $20 a tonne, even $50 dollars a tonne won’t cut it. And they know it. To be true to their own sermonizing, Mr. Trudeau and his Cabinet colleague would have to deal with the United Nations report that estimated governments would need to impose effective carbon prices of $135 to $5,500 per ton of carbon dioxide pollution by 2030 to keep overall global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius.
And Canadians will see that when grand pianos take wing and Donald Trump is invited for a few beers over a weekend at Harrington Lake to pick up a few tips about the best restaurants in Mumbai for his next trip to the subcontinent. The Liberal government’s fabled plan, by the IPCC reckoning, is actually more of a ploy.
The trouble with apocalypses is that they can’t be plural. You only get one by definition
The trouble with apocalypses is that they can’t be plural. You only get one by definition. Neither can you set multiple deadlines for Doomsday. It’s a kind of one-off by nature. Do it too often and people cease to take notice or even care.
Everyone knows the sad story of Cassandra, the woman given the gift of true prophecy by the gods and simultaneously cursed to have no one believe her. The IPCC’s problem, up to now, is like that but reversed. Always off, but generously credited. I think that string has run out. They can play Wagner and whistle the Ride of the Valkyries all they want from here on. People are tired of that music, and sick of the band.
Full essay at the National Post
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After forty years of Doomsdays coming and going benignly, we are seeing yet more proof that the Earth and its Climate are remarkably stable and very regular. Responding to the threat abatement, New Zealand has banned the sale of homes to foreigners after too many people started treating the island like a doomsday hideout
NZ is a clean, beautiful and magnificent place with a very low population density. You don’t need to be a prepper to what to live there, but you probably will need an external source of income.
I can understand them wanting to maintain the low population density.
Taupo can take care of that in one shot.
There has been ash found down in Chch from a previous eruption in the Taupo area.
Taupo was several orders larger than Krakatoa. It’s a real interesting site to explore. I once used to work for a company that “managed” a lahar monitoring system on Mt. Ruapehu.
Something that is not hot in NZ: Lots of earthquakes, some of them being very intense.
The VEI 8 Taupo eruption of c. 27 Ka was about two orders of magnitude greater than VEI 6 Krakatoa. Possibly rounding to three orders.
In the past more than 300,000 years, the only more powerful eruption was the larger VEI 8 Toba, credited with almost wiping out humanity. Not only did it eject more than twice as much material, but more sulfur compounds, and it was closer to the Equator (~2 degrees N vs ~38 S).
No larger eruption is known until you go back to ~340 Ka, which was also of supervolcano Taupo.
Two out of the three biggest volcanic events in the past 340,000 years isn’t bad. Unless you happen to be living on North Island the next time it blows.
Not as bad as living near Yellowstone when it goes off, but still, not droll.
Failed to mention that the alleged killer Toba eruption has most recently been estimated to have occurred ~77 Ka.
Tarawera went from “Hello” to full on in about 2 hours. North Island has some spooky stuff underneath it.
Sure does. That eruption buried the famous Pink and White terraces.
A great analysis. The last IPCC report seems to be the last one to come out. They have now shot their own toes off. Before 2040, the report demands that all combustion motors be silenced, all over the world, from diesel engines to gas turbines. Are we ready for that? Do we have enough alternative mobile energy sources? No, – not at all. So, it means that they have pointed us in the wrong direction. None of us any more believe this new and horrifying narration. It is pure science fiction they are preaching. They have gone to the utter extreme, and 2030 / 2040 is near, – it is laughable. IPCC is from now on TOAST!
‘Do we have enough alternative mobile energy sources? No,..’ Darn, no real “Flux Capacitor”, no real “Mr. Fusion”.
Yes but the DeLorean still needed gasoline. Even in the far future of 2015..
Yup, it still needed gas to get up to 88 mph for the flux capacitor to activate.
“They have gone to the utter extreme”
It doesn’t get more extreme than their trying to kill the internal combustion engine overnight, and calling for a $240 per gallon CO2 tax on gasoline and for spending 122 Trillion Dollars!! on Green infrastructure.
It’s crazy talk. Good luck talking the average citizen into going along with this madmess.
Time to get out the nooses.
Not, as might be facilely assumed, Feminism, Ecowarts, Don Lemon and WE Day, but the rather more appetizing quartet of Death, Judgment, Heaven and Hell. It is the four last things, not the four most annoying.”
I just had to complement the author on one funny line, right there – that made me LOL!!!
Rex is a real Canadian gem. He can turn a phrase better than anyone at the same time as stabbing his opponents in the back.
Rex Murphy is a national treasure. And to think that he once worked for the dreadful CBC.
No wonder he left.
He is a treasure indeed.
And even when he was being paid by the CBC he used to ‘yank their chain’.
His ‘dissertations’ were the only ‘shows’ I used to watch on our, left wingnut, ‘National Broadcaster’
You’re also blessed with another treasure, Mark Steyn, although he went to school in the UK and lives in the US (although close to Canada).
After forty years….believe it or not…it’s been over 100 years
The world’s largest and most expensive gated community, maybe?
Of course, it is the run up to this December’s IPCC meeting!
Were it not for this doomsday oriented Press coverage, how could legions of delegates justify $800 per night Hotel rooms, and let’s not forget the gourmet meals either!
Hang onto your hats! They have just announced a “Climate Summit” for this September, realizing in advance that this meeting too, will mandate another round of $900 per night Hotel rooms (inflation, of course), and let’s not forget the rising costs of gourmet meals either!
Notice how the participation and “solution” costs keep on rising at an accelerated pace, while sea levels refuse to cooperate!
tomwys,
You failed to also mention the $1000 per night….er….ladies of ill repute….
Allegedly.
Those are “feminine personal service providers . . . ” please get your terminology straight. (grin)
Be nice, “Night shift workers”
Now, now, be PC and include the women delegates needing escorts.
Im sure all those gourmet meals were of the vegan variety too.
But I hear the salted pork is particularly good.
Ladies of negotiable affection please
It amazes me that anyone takes any notice now after so many false prophecy’s.
One thing that has changed, at least in the UK, is that doubt has been banished, though not sure what difference that will make, it may even generate more doubt in the public.
There are always new converts coming along@ur momisugly four births each second of every day.
Plan minimizing power consumption. Make people plan use of computers to a minimum by corporate network. Make the corporates to minimize the power for lighting. In these cases keep a tab and increased the rate of power charges. Make them to use solar power.
Dr. S. Jeevananda Reddy
Given that we know that the Medieval Warm Period was around 1 C Hotter, the Roman Warm Period around 1.5 C Hotter and rhe Minoan Warm Period around 2C Hotter than the 1980s does the IPCC think we are stupid?
Civilisation flourished in those periods that were 1-2 C Hotter than the IPCC’s latest doomsday temperature. So where, apart from the ignorance and stupidity of the ‘scientists’ and money grubbing eco activists, is there anything to fear in a further rise of 0.5C.
This IPCC scare scam is total nonsense dreamed up by alarmist fantasists and contains the seeds of the death of the IPCC and it’s climate con.
They don’t care if we are stupid or not. It is only important that the politicians, MSM, “opinion makers” and the international bankers are either stupid, or in on the con.
Jim, an excellent reason to do all we can to inform as widely as possible about the MWP, RWP and Minoan WP to put this ludicrous scare in its true context.
OE
“does the IPCC think we are stupid?”
That’s a stupid question !
I am in total agreement with you Old England.
These so called scientists and politicos have mush for brains.
If the main world governments attempted to impose these crazy so called solutions on their countries they will cause widespread disruption and poverty .
These people pushing this nonsense have absolutely no idea how the world economy works and for that matter how individual countries economies work .
Every single item in the supermarket depends on fossil fuel to grow , process or manufacture and to transport by truck , ship or plane .
Even a ten year old can reason that as you increase the cost of energy every item has to increase in cost until the poorer people cannot afford basics and then the well off start getting squeezed as all prices increase until only the very wealthy are able to afford to live comfortably.
The voting public will vote these governments out as the famous saying goes ‘ You can fool most of the people some of the, some of the people all of the time but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time”
In Australia, we are soon to vote a socialist government in! How stupid are we! Please don’t answer that I’m embarrassed enough.
Geoff, don’t you be embarassed, your on the luminous side. However, it wont be long before Australia is the last holdout in the International Clime Syndicate it seems. Cheerleaders of the ruse, Germany and UK, have pretty much wrapped it up. They know that without the United States of A footing the bill, there can simply be no тотаliтагуаи Klimate Kumbayah. The best way to look at it after 30yrs of marxymeningutis is Trump cancelled CAGW with a a few words and a smile, holding thumb and index finger a few mm apart to show what we are in for with sealevel rise.
It has been my impression that Australia has an order of magnitude more “clisci” types than any other country. It would be good to get an actual roll call. When John ‘Crook’wrote the 97% consensus study, the big news to me wasnt the silly study, but rather that he had reviewed absracts from over 11,000 published papers put out in one decade!!!! Assuming they were only written on work days, 1100 papers published a yr is 6 paoers a day!!! Struth! And they have one linear formula to cope with and the science hasn’t changed in 40years.
Wolf. Wolf! Wolf! WOLF!!
Damn it, I said wolf, why isn’t anyone listening?
Exactly! People might care about global warming but the shit will hit the fan when you ask them to make major disruptions in order to save themselves from a climate whose change is so mild and so in line with historical variations. I think a lot of people will stop and question the whole thing more closely when it threatens to hit hard in the pocketbook.
So far the “climate” has been one of the suppression of dissenting voices. When push comes to shove we might hear those voices much louder, and quite angry.
It wasn’t the greenies who elected Trump. Surprise. They’re out there, folks.
Don132
Here Wolfy! Nice warm Wolfy! Come on, boy!
Watch out
Doomsday is
Coming Soon
If not today
tomorrow at noon
Burma Shave
As a kid I remember those Burma Shave ads along Route 66
Think I saw them on Route 1 and maybe Route 13 on Delmarva Peninsula.
Where I can buy a ticket?
Be careful – referring to “Feminism, Ecowarts, Don Lemon and WE Day” as the four most annoying things (as true as it may be) can get you into trouble. The shouting heads on Don’s CNN show will not be amused.
One of the best things about Rex Murphy is that he calls it as he sees it. He understands the issues and appears to be oblivious to any push back from the hyperzealots.
“It’s like the Quebec referendum: if at first you don’t secede, try, try again. Sorry.” – GRRRROOOOOAAAAAANNNNNNNNN
Made my day as a fellow Canuck but the more accurate version ends with “fail, fail again”.
Ah, preach it Rex…
We laugh at the flagrant BS and cries of doom and gloom that societies in the past have fallen for and used as excuses to eliminate political foes. We like to think we had outgrown such superstitions of days gone by, but alas, we are being conned yet again-big time.
Future generations will LAUGH at us idiots in the current era and say what a pack of fools we were to believe that human CO2 that has probably added less than 100ppm -1/10,000 th of the atmosphere was going to cause the world to burn in flames. Those future generations will shake their heads at their crazy ancestors that destroyed everything and allowed their entire technology and energy based civilization and society to collapse in to oblivion because they refused to call out flagrant BS.
Looking back in history, of all the flagrant BS to be shoved down people’s throats, the catastrophic anthropogenic global warming/ “climate change” hoax would have to be one of the most absurd and blatant hoaxes ever perpetrated on humanity.
It never stops. That future generation has a group trying to frighten it to death over the dangers of fluoride in water. “We must remove fluoride” they scream “or the Earth’s mantle will suffer a irresistible meltdown”.
Not everything the greens say is total nonsense. Fluoride is not a nutrient in any sense of the word (despite attempts to prove it is, it ain’t, folks) and I’d argue that there’s compelling evidence that it’s harmful to the body and especially to young children. No one needs fluoride for good teeth, and if you think you do then simply use fluoridated toothpaste.
Fluoride in water was originally a waste product from phosphate mining, a product that would otherwise be a hazardous waste if it could not be farmed out to municipalities. http://fluoridealert.org/issues/water/fluoridation-chemicals/
The earth’s mantle will not meltdown from fluoride but my guess is that any reasonable person, after reviewing all the evidence, would have to agree that the harms of water fluoridation outweigh the (supposed) benefits.
I used to think my sister-in-law was bonkers for opposing water fluoridation. I was wrong.
In fact, my friends, fluoridated water was what got me down this rathole of recognizing that things are not what they seem, even though the authorities scream at you if you disagree. Does this sound familiar to anyone?
Don132
Doubtless you are aware that teeth are composed of calcium fluorophosphate … the body needs fluorine for a healthy apatite.
But that is not what they are adding to the water. Check out the link to fluoridealert.org that he posted. I’ve changed my mind on several issues like fluoride in the water supply and global warming.
If you can find anyone to publicly debate Dr Paul Connett, PhD, please let him know. He thought nothing of the issue until he looked into it at his wife’s insistence then got so mad that he travelled the country on his time & dime to debate anyone from the pro-fluoride side.
The pro-fluoride side learned quickly not to debate the issue with him and emails even were leaked that said “whatever you do do not debate them publicly”. Not only can Dr Connett debate the technical issues with other PhD chemists but he can turn around and explain to the audience what was just said in plain english.
It’s like debating the anti-Vaxxers. They throw up phoney studies faster than they can be shot down.
Don, we get fluoride in wheat germ/bran and other grains and in a host of other natural and food sources. A teaspoon of dirt basically has all 92 elements in it – the same folks who want to tuft the globe with windmills are those scaring us about all the other things.
Yes you can have too much of anything. A lethal dose of organic orange juice will kill you. That said, the spin part of the story doesnt compute. 250 billion metric tonnes of Phosphate rock is produced a year globally. Yeah Im sure they market what they can of byproducts but that isnt a game changer for them. Oh I’m sure you have outraged links on all this. The biggest danger to our wellbeing is the fear mongering and what the fearmongers have planned for us once we submit.
You may want to check out Dr Paul Connett, PhD over at fluoridealert.org
There is zero proof that adding fluoride to the water supply improves dental health. Nothing that stands up to scrutiny.
The best the pro-fluoride side could come up with after a 10+ year study of 80 counties and close to 40,000 people as 0.6 of a tooth surface less damage in fluoridated communities. With over 100 tooth surfaces in the average mouth that is not statistically significant.
What does work? The glass or ceramic coating they put on kids teeth. Now that works great in study after study.
Yes, you can have multiple Apocalypses.
You can because too many people today in our technological society are as stupid as a cow.
Everytime a cow blinks, it’s a new day for the cow.
No long-term memory. No applocation of critical, skeptical inquiry.
In the US, the Democrat’s base proves this cow-like memory thesis every day. And the Democrat’s are building the educational system to perpetuate a cow-like ignorance for generations to come.
+10
Go easy on the cow. Nietzsche’s “throwness” is what is being cultivated – pure fas-cism.
As Trump said yesterday do not give the Dems matches!
(Don’t know but maybe referring to the Reichstags-brand -arson in Berlin 1933?)
Apocalypse is just Fear of Death.
That may be the origin of the word but we know what Apocalypse means.
The origin of the word is Greek for “revelation” (apo- “after” and kalupto “I cover”). Its present meaning in English derives from the “apocalyptic” visions in the Book of Revelation (of “John”), last of the New Testament.
Not to be confused with the nymph Kalupso or Calypso, whose name is from the same root.
Of the many things Canadians should treasure,
Rex is right up there with Polar Bears, and the land itself.
Rex’s cogent disputation is matched by his inimitable style. Watching him deliver his thoughts on CBC television is always a treat.
No one I know of can write (or talk) like Rex. He can speak more wisdom in fewer words with greater elegance than anyone I have read. And that subtle sarcasm! It’s the Newfie in him.
To prove how utterly tone deaf the Democrat Party is there newest ranting squirrel Cortez wants to shut down all fossil fuel . Yep not just coal miners … the whole fossil fuel industry . Bye bye economy hello mass genocide .
Quoting an IPCC study sponsored by the globalist industry ,climate con-man and representing virtue signalers
Cortez waves her finger and puts down the singe greatest thing that has advanced life on earth .
Someone didn’t get Hillarie’s memo on the ways she peed away a sure thing election .
The disgraceful Democrats need a good long time out to grow up .
I always wonder whether this is just typical politician behavior: say whatever you think will get you airtime and votes with no genuine conviction or intention of actually following through. Or whether these statements are an accurate reflection of what that person actually believes and intends.
15% of the coal mined worldwide each year goes into the production of new steel. Now I cannot predict the outcome of today’s college football games, or the coming midterm elections, and certainly not what “the climate” will do over the next 30 years. But I can predict one thing with near certainty: absent a worldwide economic collapse production of steel is not going to decline. Not in the next 10, 20, 30 or 50 years. Steel is the single most useful material human civilization has developed to date; in 2014 the world produced 1.6 billion (10E9) metric tons of it. Aside from a general economic collapse the only thing that could reduce steel production is the emergence of a superior material.
Not to mention as David Middleton has pointed out, over 2 billion people have enough to eat because of fertilizers produced from natural gas using the Haber-Bosch process.
Anyone who actually believes we can stop using fossil fuels completely without reverting to 18th century technology and living standards simply does not grasp the scale of modern industrial civilization and what it takes to keep it going.
Doesn’t “18th century technology” almost entirely depend on fossil fuel too?
Shelly:
Just starting to. In Europe anyway the primary heating fuel was still wood, but coal was widely used in England by the late 18th century. Blast furnaces using coal began to produce iron in England starting in 1700; prior to that charcoal was the fuel. But the steam engine did not become a factor until the 19th century. Transportation was dependent on animal and wind power.
The first experiments with “town gas” for lighting took place in the very late 18th century; prior to that it was vegetable oil lamps or candles (tallow or beeswax).
So the beginnings of the fossil fuel transition occurred during the 18th century, but the large-scale effects were not felt until after 1800.
If we went back to the way almost everyone lived in Europe from 1700-1799 we would be using very little fossil fuels. We would also be poor, sick, cold and starving.
ocasio/hogg 2020 make Jonestown geat again!
LOL ……… ocasio/hogg 2020 …… gore, hillary, pelosi, feinstein, obama, etc. …. hell …. the list of left wing political nutcases goes on almost endlessly so it’s entirely possible.
The thought is funny but scary that it could happen and a nightmare that they may have a chance of getting elected. We are living in the fringes of the twilight zone.
Canada really has to get rid of the monarchy. Past that, I’m invoking my mother’s dictum that, if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything (no matter how funny you think it is).
Oz might stage another vote on going republican after ERII goes to her reward. If Oz votes the monarchy out, then Canada might follow suit.
Elizabeth is popular. Her jug-eared twit son, not so much.
My one regret is that I did not visit the Maldives while they were still there????
Don’t worry, they are low in the water but not in danger of sinking (except for the weight of tourists).
what if they capsize?
“Don’t worry, they are low in the water but not in danger of sinking (except for the weight of tourists)”. Think tsunami..
Theyve been low in the water forever. They must have experienced a few. Anyway CO2 isnt to blame.
The thing about the IPCC We’re All Doomed fests is that they finish having reached an agreement which will save the world and which they all joyously congratulate each other about.
Only to return and do it all again a little while later.
I haven’t worked out if they truly believe the agreements will do what they want, if they are horribly disappointed to come back and do it all again. But most importantly why the repeated optimism that the latest agreement will be adhered to by anyone.
Slime boy is at it again.
https://freebeacon.com/politics/bill-nelson-sends-fundraising-email-hurricane-relief-build-donor-lists/
Surely we are already past the tipping point and drowning in those yet to be shed boiling acid tears of our future generations because we will not (or can not) pay the $122trillion the UN says we should pay to save the planet.
Pay the money or build ever more insane CCS facilities with large quantities of borrowed money – money the generation after the next one will fail to repay. Or totally halt all production of CO2 now, thus stopping all economic movement, stopping all trade. and give the future generations the gift of a double-speak utopian world of UN administered socialism with the murderous smile of an unelected collective conscience.
It’s crazy to think that the path leading to predicted increasing droughts and crop failures would be decreasing drought, a greening planet and bin busting record crops and world food production.
You don’t get to one extreme by going to the opposite extreme.
The honest/objective response to these observations would be to at lest stop projecting the opposite of what’s happening.
Sadly, some of those “bin busting record crops” are now threatened by snow and freezing temperatures.
https://www.myndnow.com/news/minot-news/early-cold-snap-and-snow-impacts-crops/1507017287
I’ll go with what Donald K said – It’s the fear of death
Puritan style religion? Always made to feel guilty about something/anything/everything
If anyone *does* find something ‘nice’ to do (= a source of Dopamine) – it will be relentlessly controlled and taxed.
Think alcohol, nicotine and all other recreational drugs upon which A War is constantly being waged upon
Driving your car (burning of fossils) is beautifully exemplified in UK at least when you go to buy the mandatory insurance.
The question form will ask first and foremost what you will use the vehicle for and for ‘normal’ punters, the answer will be “Social, domestic & pleasure”
See that?
Pleasure.
Somebody gets enjoyment out of driving.
Right.
Tax it till the pips squeak. Wrap so many rules, fines, punishments and endorsements around that everyone is made to feel guilty just by owning a vehicle, well before they actually sue it.
And all that is still not enough. Hence 240 $$$ gallon tax on fuel.
(Have they no self awareness? What *has* gone wrong here?)
The Knut (Canute if you prefer) story is interesting.
Supposedly a wise and benign ruler, knowledgable of his own limits and weaknesses.
OK
So he adopts Christianity – the ‘guilt’ religion as opposed to the plethora of Good-Time-Gods we had previously.
Why?
So he (the king) could/would be God’s representative down here on Earth. Hence, if you upset The King, you are upsetting God and thence The King is entitled to deliver God’s punishment.
And so he did.
Canute was a vicious and murderous little rat – witness what he did in Wessex. Right up there with Saddam when it came to chopping up people. Literally.
Any parallels here.
To my mind, what makes it very worrying this time around is that they are enacting ‘remedies’ to try save themselves.
The worst remedy of all, the true crime against God, Life, the universe and everything, is the burning of the trees and the plants. It will accelerate the arrival of the next Ice Age.
How wrong could they be? Hell is not a hot place after all.
It is actually & literally, perishingly cold.
Check out Mars if you don’t believe me and assuming The Sputnik is still flying.
NASA is rapidly becoming A Joke and National Embarrassment – do you *still* believe them about what causes Global Greening or, have you become just a wee bit skeptical?
Oh did you see that. The Windows 10 October upgrade was postponed because, this is unreal, it ripped through your PC deleting everything you’d ever put there.
Ain’t that gorgeous. Especially how ‘Technology will Save Us All’
Riiiiiight. Just like a hole in the head will. (Sorry, I got back onto gasoline tax there)
sue the vehicle. haha What am I like?
Government maybe….
(see how bad it is, this came from Windows 8 with its updater disabled)
I’m old enough to have read the apocalyptic eco-lit from the 1960s and 1970s when it was published: Limits to Growth, The Population Bomb, etc. NONE of them were right. Collectively, the authors were badly in need of a physic, full of more potential fertilizer than a Christmas goose.
And yet I believed it . . . for a time. Shame on me.
And the press colludes with the purveyors of gloom and doom. One of the most egregious examples was an interview of James Hansen done some years ago by Scott Pelley on 60 Minutes. “We’re at a tipping point,” Hansen say, most solemnly. He says it several times during the piece. Not once did Pelley inquire: “How do you know we’re at a tipping point? Can you show me the data, the theory, whatever it is you have that successfully predicts this tipping point?” And neither does Pelley say: “Jim, could I have a peek in your tobacco pouch? ‘Cause you seem to have tied into some really good stuff, and I’d like a couple of hits.”
Michael Crichton put it neatly in State of Fear. If you’re at a gathering and somebody ask you: Hey, how do you think it’s going, and you say Pretty Good; they’ll say That’s Nice and turn away. But if you say “It’s bad, and it’s gonna get worse,” you’ll soon have a group gathered round, paying rapt attention. We all want to keep the wolf from the door, the bogeyman out of the house, and the “nattering nabobs of negativism” all know it and play on it.
The plain fact is that CO2 cannot be the primary driver of global temperature because there were at least two times when CO2 levels were many time higher than they are now, and the earth was in the middle of an ice age.