Since Science and Economics Have Failed, It’s Up To the Arts to Win the Gorebal War on the Weather

Guest AEUHHH??? by David Middleton

Opinion, Arts Council England

The arts have a leading role to play in tackling climate change

Nicholas Serota

Cultural organisations are in a unique position to challenge, inform and engage audiences in conversations about the environment

‘The message is clear: everyone is responsible for creating a more environmentally sustainable world.’ Photograph: Steve Parkins/REX/Shutterstock

If we are to avoid irreversible global warming that will have devastating economic and social consequences for the world, “rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society” are required. This was the conclusion of a special report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published in October. We – the collective “we” – have been given 12 years to arrest climate change. The message is clear: everyone is responsible for creating a more environmentally sustainable world. And the arts and cultural sector is no exception.

We have been talking about these issues at the Arts Council for a long time, and over the past decade have worked with the climate change charity Julie’s Bicycle to help arts and cultural organisations reduce their environmental impact. In 2012 we became the first cultural body in the world to include environmental reporting and action in our long-term funding agreements with arts organisations. Recognising that we had to create the conditions for change to happen, the Arts Council buttressed these requirements with a programme of support from Julie’s Bicycle. Together we substantially increased understanding about the role of the sector in addressing environmental issues and associated social challenges.

[…]

The Grauniad

At first glance, I thought this was a Monty Python skit… When I realized they were serious, my reaction was…

No offense to “Arts Council England,” but neither creative banners nor Julie’s bicycles can alter the fact that the IPCC said they need a $240/gal gasoline tax and $122 trillion to fight the Gorebal War on the Weather.  And the answer to that is…

 

Happy Thanksgiving! Or an early “Festivus for the rest-of-us”, if you prefer.

Sir Nicholas Serota

Chair
Arts Council England

In February 2017, Nicholas Serota took up his post as Chair of Arts Council England for the period through to 31 January 2021. Previously he was Director of Tate between 1988 and 2017. During his directorship, Tate opened Tate St Ives (1993) and Tate Modern (2000, expanded in 2016), redefining the Millbank building as Tate Britain (2000). Tate also broadened its field of interest to include 20th century photography, film, performance and occasionally architecture, as well as collecting from Latin America, Asia, the Middle East and Africa. The national role of the gallery was further developed with the creation of the Plus Tate network of 35 institutions across Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Nicholas Serota has been a member of the Visual Arts Advisory Committee of the British Council, a Trustee of the Architecture Foundation and a commissioner on the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment. He was a member of the Olympic Delivery Authority which was responsible for building the Olympic Park in East London for the London 2012 Summer Olympics. He is also a member of the Executive Board of the BBC.

Nicholas Serota was born in London in 1946. He studied History of Art at the University of Cambridge and the Courtauld Institute. He joined the Arts Council of Great Britain’s Visual Arts Department as a regional art officer in 1970 and then worked as a curator at the Hayward Gallery. In 1973 he was appointed director of the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford where he worked for three years before he became the Director of the Whitechapel Gallery in 1976.

Nicholas Serota was knighted in 1999 and appointed a Companion of Honour in 2013.

Term of appointment: 1 February 2017 – 31 January 2021

 

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kent beuchert
November 22, 2018 7:25 am

That $122 trillion estimate is totally absurd if one is looking to achieve no carbon power generation and
low carbon transportation, private and commercial. Try less than $6 trillion using molten salt reactors and electric vehicles.

Trebla
Reply to  David Middleton
November 22, 2018 9:34 am

We tried Bixi bicycles in Montreal. The bikes were distributed at locations across the city, but they all ended up down town. The problem? Montreal is a distortion of Mount Royal. The city is hilly with gravity helping those cycling down toward the old downtown core. Now I see they are adding battery packs to the bikes. When I was a kid, I had a Whizzer. I guess that’s next.

Bryan A
Reply to  Trebla
November 22, 2018 12:42 pm

I had a Mattel Vrroom ride in electric car similar to this
comment image
But large enough to fit a 5 year old
It was a blast…still have the key too

Reply to  kent beuchert
November 22, 2018 3:51 pm

Turning to the arts to promote climate change is admitting that the whole thing is a figment of imagination.

Michael Ozanne
November 22, 2018 7:26 am

“And the answer to that is…”

Most Brits would differ on the reply..

JohnWho
Reply to  Michael Ozanne
November 22, 2018 7:31 am

No English equivalent because there is no antonym – “Fxxx on” just doesn’t work at all.

/grin

Rocketscientist
Reply to  JohnWho
November 22, 2018 9:29 am

….but “F**K YEAH!” does 🙂

Bryan A
Reply to  Rocketscientist
November 22, 2018 12:44 pm

So does “Go Thank Yourself”
Which could be extended to
“Go Thank Yourself and the horse you rode in on”

Reply to  Michael Ozanne
November 22, 2018 12:23 pm

🂮🂾🃎🃞 hilarious!

Dodgy Geezer
November 22, 2018 7:30 am

…Since Science and Economics Have Failed, It’s Up To the Arts to Win the Gorebal War on the Weather…

I didn’t think Science and Economics had been tried.

Most of what has been tried so far is Religion. With a touch of Magic, and trick Photography….

lee
Reply to  David Middleton
November 22, 2018 4:03 pm

But at least Sir Nicholas Serota seems to have the qualifications to be a Climate Scientist.

LdB
Reply to  Dodgy Geezer
November 22, 2018 8:47 am

That is one of my beefs the problem has never been given to scientists, engineers or economists apparently climate scientists are formally trained in all those fields especially Climate Scientists with English and Geology degrees.

dodgy geezer
Reply to  LdB
November 22, 2018 11:40 am

If they gave the problem to real Engineers and Scientists they’d be told that there isn’t a problem.. ..

Ben Dickson
Reply to  dodgy geezer
November 22, 2018 12:29 pm

I would say that the problem isn’t critical and that solving it would cause many worse problems. There are lots of engineering situations with that answer, so we’re used to it.

Farmer Ch E retired
Reply to  Dodgy Geezer
November 22, 2018 12:00 pm

Economics was tried – using a disingenuously low discount rate which totally masks the “Social Benefits of Carbon.”

Javert Chip
Reply to  Farmer Ch E retired
November 22, 2018 2:28 pm

For the record, economics is not a science. Period.

Economics is an observational activity, like bird-watching or psychology. Any activity based on “the rational investor” and ceteris paribus might as well be called astrology.

Don’t believe me? Try getting an “economist” tho give you a scientific prediction of where GE will be in 18 months, with 10::1 odds.

Come to think of it, try the same thing with a climate shaman (my prediction: absolutely zero takers)

Farmer Ch E retired
Reply to  Javert Chip
November 22, 2018 3:45 pm

Javert Chip – Agreed – At the university, I majored in Chem Eng w/ a minor in Economics. I also took the university course “Plant Design and Economics for Chemical Engineers” where cost estimating was more specific and rigorous than in my Econ courses. This Ch E course was more useful during my carrier.

Gamecock
Reply to  Javert Chip
November 23, 2018 6:50 am

Not even dismal?

Tom Abbott
November 22, 2018 7:33 am

From the article: “f we are to avoid irreversible global warming that will have devastating economic and social consequences for the world, “rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society” are required. This was the conclusion of a special report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published in October. We – the collective “we” – have been given 12 years to arrest climate change.”

After this 12-year period is up will the Alarmists finally give up making dire predictions about the weather and the future?

They should. They have been wrong on every occasion in the past. Their track record is not very good.

Wolf!!! Wolf!!! Wolf!!!

Reply to  Tom Abbott
November 22, 2018 8:37 am

Tom Abbott…
After this 12-year period is up will the Alarmists finally give up making dire predictions about the weather and the future?

Nope. Just like Global Cooling, they will claim they never said it.

Ron Long
Reply to  Tom Abbott
November 22, 2018 8:59 am

Tom, this crying wolf bit is pervasive. I did my Masters Thesis in the Seven Devils Mountains of Idaho. The name came from an Indian story about a boy sent to guard some thing in the mountains, and he came running down to the village six times shouting Devils! But the seventh time they realized he was crying “wolf” and they didn’t listen to him anymore. We should wait and see how many times us modern culture persons listen to the climate doom prediction before we understand it is crying “wolf”.

MarkW
Reply to  Tom Abbott
November 22, 2018 9:49 am

“that will have devastating economic and social consequences for the world”

Of course the so called solutions are also going to have devastating econonic and social consequences for the world.

Global Warming itself, not so much.

Freezedried
Reply to  Tom Abbott
November 22, 2018 9:52 am

So, am I interpreting this correctly? “to avoid irreversible global warming that will have devastating economic and social consequences for the world” we need to implement devastating economic and social programs for the world.

Ron
Reply to  Tom Abbott
November 22, 2018 10:46 am

“the collective “we” – have been given 12 years to arrest climate change.”
So why does China, the world’s largest emitter, get a pass on emission reductions for the next 12 years(2030) according to the Paris Climate accord agreed to by the collective “we”.
And they wonder why Trump is leaving the deal!
The more important question is, Why would anyone stay in the deal?

BillP
Reply to  Ron
November 22, 2018 12:16 pm

“The more important question is, Why would anyone stay in the deal?”

Because most countries do not have to actually do anything, and they may get given some money, if the west is stupid enough to give any more.

Alasdair
November 22, 2018 7:36 am

Judging by the juliebicycle site this lot have their beady eyes on the $122 trillion up for grabs. Busy sustaining the sustainability of the scam.

Reply to  David Middleton
November 22, 2018 8:24 am

How come you get to display jpg’s!!

Unfair.

Reply to  Joel O’Bryan
November 22, 2018 2:36 pm

Joel O’Bryan

Can you possibly conceive of the consequences of allowing the WUWT community to display jpg’s?

We might post a shot of a green and Anthony would cop the flak. I mean, it could be a porn community but god forbid we post a shot of a green.

Scott W Bennett
Reply to  Joel O’Bryan
November 22, 2018 2:43 pm

A visual meme is worth a thousand words. “We” can’t let the plebs have that propaganda superpower; anymore!

*Superusers officials and authorities only!

commieBob
November 22, 2018 7:42 am

… the IPCC said they need a $240/gal gasoline tax …

The population doesn’t care about global warming. When a carbon tax really starts to bite they will.

Any government that tries to do anything meaningful about CAGW will go down in flames. Wasting money on windmills and jacking up the price of electricity a bit causes a bit of grumbling. When people can no longer afford to commute to work or heat their homes, watch out.

Reply to  commieBob
November 22, 2018 8:21 am

When a carbon tax starts to bite, they will already be like most Californians, and South Australians, and Germans…. sheep — convinced that being led to the slaughterhouse is for their own good. And those that didn’t buy into will be too few to matter.

Think I’m wrong? Just look at Venezuela. In the early years of Chavez, so much of the population was taken by the thoughts of “Chavismo” leading them to the life of the wealthy. Easy emigration allowed the smart ones to Get the Hell out before it all went South. Same with California. Those remaining still think it can’t get that bad… Well yes, it can. And it will turn in the blink of an eye.

As a political tool, Climate Change is just one of the many tools that Socialists are weilding to come to Power. And power is the End. Lying a about climate change is justified to acquire more political power. Just as easily as lying about Brett Kavanaugh and throwing any remaining ethics was justified by Democrats to stop a Constitutional originalist from the Supreme Court.

If they get you to accept that gender is whatever a person decides it is today, they’ve got you.
If they get you to believe that the words of the Constitution means whatever they want it to mean today, they’ve got you.

Reply to  Joel O’Bryan
November 22, 2018 12:28 pm

Saludos from Calizuela!!

Phillip Bratby
November 22, 2018 7:44 am

For anyone in the UK, this was covered by the BBC. It was the most ridiculous programme that the BBC has ever produced (in my opinion).
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00017b8

SuffolkBoy
November 22, 2018 7:45 am

There is a lot of state money available for arts groups (usually professional, though some amateur groups might get a look in) who stage events or create material to “raise awareness” of “climate change” (and a lot of other fashionable “good causes”). It’s an unstable system. The more that “awareness” is raised, the more people there are who either believe in the cause or at least contribute cash, either voluntarily (via charities) or by compulsion (via taxes), and the more money is available to stage similar events. We may already have reached a tipping point of number of people who subscribe to this type of fraud.

damp
November 22, 2018 8:05 am

Art in the service of politics is always so beautiful. Don’t you think so, comrades?

LdB
Reply to  damp
November 22, 2018 8:52 am

They are just getting in practice for drawing tears as it’s only ten days until the COP24. Perhaps China and France will turn up with buckets of cash for all.

Peter Plail
November 22, 2018 8:19 am

What is wrong with the Arts Council promoting fiction?

Bruce Cobb
November 22, 2018 8:30 am

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as the rising sea

Greg Cavanagh
Reply to  Bruce Cobb
November 22, 2018 1:00 pm

I think that the rising sea
Is a thing you will never see

November 22, 2018 8:36 am

Cultural organisations are in a unique position to challenge, inform and engage audiences in conversations about the environment.

Hey guys, why not get your street cred tacking a slightly smaller problem first. How about:

Cure Cancer
Solve the Opioid Crisis
Stop child sex trafficking
Get teenagers to help clean up the environment in their rooms

Show some progress on one of these and I’ll be more inclined to believe you can save the planet.

Or if you really want impress me, how about:

Get movie/TV writers to produce content actually worth watching

That crisis is actually aligned with the traditional role of arts organizations …

Javert Chip
Reply to  Alan Watt, Climate Denialist Level 7
November 22, 2018 2:36 pm

AW,CDL7

Plainly you are bigoted.

I’m all in favor of allowing folks with only an arts education to build tall buildings, bridges and airplanes that can only be used by other people with an arts education.

Javert Chip
Reply to  Alan Watt, Climate Denialist Level 7
November 22, 2018 2:45 pm

AW,CDL7

/sarc

ScienceABC123
November 22, 2018 8:49 am

Question: Why is that the only solutions to ‘climate change’ all involve giving vast sums of money to people who have great difficulty rationally debating their position?

Javert Chip
Reply to  ScienceABC123
November 22, 2018 3:50 pm

Because these schemes are created primarily by (direct or indirect) government employees. These folks, insulated from realities of the real world, are absolutely convinced they are better equipped to solve existential problems because…well, they just are.

If you have to ask “why”, you won’t understand the answer.

Sophocles
Reply to  ScienceABC123
November 22, 2018 6:18 pm

How many know that Maurice Strong, the guy who invented this Climate Change hoax, dumped a few million of the UN’s money into one of his companies a few years ago and ran away to live happily in China?

Chris Morrison
November 22, 2018 9:02 am

Usual virtue signalling from the luvviekissies. Meanwhile in the real world the rhetoric doesn’t quite match the reality.

Recently new European Union green lighting rules came into effect. But according to Mr Rufus Norris who runs the state-sponsored National Theatre in London, the costs of replacing the light bulbs was many millions of pounds. One would have thought that this was a small price to pay for saving the planet, a cause always uppermost in their thoughts. It was therefore a little surprising to discover that Mr Norris sought a theatrical exemption and indeed suggested that not exempting their workplace was “an oversight”.

Around this time a committee of green parliamentary activists noted that asthma sufferers were contributing to climate change by using in inhalers which emit potent greenhouse gases. Noted a wag at the time (it might have been me) – expect future visits to the theatre to be gloomy affairs with slightly more coughing and wheezing from the audience than normal.

Over at the Royal Shakespeare Company, the luvvies got the hump in 2017 over a scheme by the oil company BP to buy tickets and sell them for £5 to people under 25. So a bunch led by Mark Rylance, Emma Thompson and Vanessa Redgrave announced that they would raise money for a similar scheme. In addition, 10% of donations were promised for “grassroots groups fighting BP environmental and human rights impacts”.

Thirteen months later – amount raised – £3,720. Of course little or no publicity was generated when the results came in, but then of course that was not the intention. Virtue points had long been banked by all the wealthy actors.

Henning Nielsen
Reply to  Chris Morrison
November 22, 2018 9:14 am

” theatrical exemption”, that’s the right expression for all the silly symbolic measures to “save the planet / climate / humankind / boiled snails.

Paul
November 22, 2018 9:02 am

I will prevent global warming and won’t cost a penny.

Bill Murphy
November 22, 2018 9:05 am

If we are to avoid irreversible global warming that will have devastating economic and social consequences for the world

Actually, that is Orwell-speak for “we want to cause devastating economic and social consequences because we hate civilization and humanity.” Those of us who remember the gas lines and panic during the 1973 oil embargo caused by the Yom Kippur War got a taste of the “devastating economic and social consequences” we can expect if these people get their way. The folks living in my area got a much more recent taste of that future a few years ago when a bearing went out in a hydro plant generator one cold, calm winter night and 3 counties lost all power for 3–4 hours as the windmills sat silently by in the cold, dark and still winter air. The quiet night in my small town was disturbed by the sound of personal generators starting up and chain saws working in the wood piles. My own wood pile had been long since stacked and ready, as it is again this year.

Henning Nielsen
November 22, 2018 9:10 am

What’s a “Companion of Honour”? And only for four years? Dishonourable after that, no doubt. Well, the arts have been at it for a long time already, Leo di Caprio is buzzing around in his jet to warn us about global warming because of…flying.

Roy W. Spencer
November 22, 2018 9:29 am

the arts have solved time travel, provided us hyper-drives, explored strange, new worlds…. so why not solve the Climate Crisis(TM)?

Schitzree
Reply to  David Middleton
November 22, 2018 3:54 pm

PLEEEEASE don’t mention that movie. I knew it was going to push the Climate Change/Extreme Weather meme, and went into it thinking I could just suspend my disbelief and enjoy some Sci-Fi.

What I found I couldn’t suspend was my knowledge of basic physics. Almost EVERYTHING in that movie regarding space flight or orbital mechanics was absurd. From the solid global net of linked together satellites to the shuttle that flew straight up through it and was then magically in orbit with a space station (That had large rotating portions. For artificial gravity? Because it seems to extend into the parts of the station that DON’T spin, as well).

Mind you as bad as it was, it still wasn’t the worst Sci-Fi Disaster film I saw this year. That dubious distinction goes to Shockwave : countdown to disaster. A movie about a secret weapon that will cause global earthquakes and volcanoes, that doesn’t know the San Andreas fault doesn’t run through Yellowstone.

>¿<

Robert of Ottawa
November 22, 2018 9:36 am

This global warming is getting the full communist propaganda shtick. The populace will reject it the more they are forced to believe it.

Archie
November 22, 2018 9:39 am

Very interesting. I had a former life as an asst director of a university biological field station in the 90’s. Field stations all across the country started adding artists to the mission statements in an attempt to gain more relevancy. I guess science at a science field station was not enough for university officials.
Then they added art to the STEM programs to make STEAM!
LOL.

Bob Hoye
November 22, 2018 9:40 am

It’s all about the money and there is the definition of a promotion from the old and speculative Vancouver Stock Exchange.
“In the beginning, the promoter has the vision and the public has the money.
At the end of the promotion, the promoter has the money and the public has the vision.”

There have been two promotions. One is that the Fed can “manage” the economy. The tout in 1913 was that it could prevent the financial setbacks that preceded recessions.

There have been 18 recessions since then.

The other promotion has been the vision that a committee can “manage” the temperature of the nearest planet.

Financial markets have completed an extraordinary bubble and the contraction is underway. The public will recall that the Federasts spent Trillions on the boast that they can prevent “bad things” from happening.
A severe contraction is possible and it would start the condemnation of “managing the economy”.

As this cooling trend becomes more noticed, it will prompt condemnation that a committee can control the climate.

Two of the most absurd promotions in history are about to be seen as failures. Expensive ones.

MarkW
November 22, 2018 9:44 am

When precisely did they determine that Gorebull Warming was irreversible.

Reply to  MarkW
November 22, 2018 12:35 pm

When? When “it’s worse than we thought” stopped working.

E J Zuiderwijk
November 22, 2018 9:45 am

An investment banker once quipped that he knew to sell stock when his mother in law urged him to buy. Perhaps now that the arty farties are in on the act, it could be the signal for many to abandon the warming bandwagon.

Curious George
Reply to  E J Zuiderwijk
November 22, 2018 10:40 am

Hollywood has been on it since Day 1 – actually, they created the whole hullaballoo. The movie got an Oscar.

November 22, 2018 9:45 am

AEUHHH??? is starting to wear a little thin.

MarkW
Reply to  Tasfay Martinov
November 22, 2018 9:59 am

No it isn’t.

Reply to  Tasfay Martinov
November 22, 2018 12:09 pm

Is

Bruce Cobb
Reply to  Tasfay Martinov
November 22, 2018 1:00 pm
Reply to  Tasfay Martinov
November 22, 2018 1:34 pm

Could you summarise that for us?

MarkW
Reply to  Tasfay Martinov
November 22, 2018 6:21 pm

I suspect that the only thing getting thin is your skin.

Marcus
Reply to  Tasfay Martinov
November 22, 2018 12:34 pm

You can always change the channel ! .. D’OH !