Guest essay by Eric Worrall
The UK parliament has caved in to Extinction Rebellion climate protests and declared a climate emergency.
After weeks of protests, UK becomes first country to declare ‘climate emergency’
THURSDAY 2 MAY 2019 6:59PM
The UK has become the first country in the world to declare a national climate emergency following protests and acts of civil disobedience from a grassroots environmental group that launched in October.…
The Extinction Rebellion has changed the paradigm of climate protests, according to Leo Barasi, the author of Climate Majority, a book investigating how to shift public opinion about climate change.
He’s also written a Master’s thesis on whether climate protests will ever convince lawmakers to act on climate change (his conclusion, they wouldn’t).
“I found that extreme weather sometimes influences public opinion, while UN climate conferences and IPCC reports often trigger media coverage and parliamentary debates,” Barasi wrote on his blog.
“But climate protests generally have little direct effect on any of these.”
…
For 10 days in April, tens of thousands of people committed acts of civil disobedience, including blocking traffic across the Thames, gluing themselves onto trains, graffiting the headquarters of oil giant Shell, and blockading the stock exchange.
And it apparently worked: The protests led to two separate parliamentary debates, and these were capped this week by the successful climate emergency motion.
…
How did the protests work where others have failed?
But showing the protests have worked doesn’t help explain why this happened now, in April 2019, after apparently failing every other time.
One theory is that the climate denial movement has run its course.Richard Black, a former BBC environment correspondent and author of Denied: the Rise and Fall of Climate Contrarianism, told the Guardian the BBC appears to have stopped giving air time to climate deniers to ‘balance’ the debate.
Mainstream media is now taking the issue seriously, he said: “The facts have changed. And in the end, if you want to be credible you have to go with the facts.”
…
Read more: https://www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/hack/uk-becomes-first-country-in-world-to-declare-climate-emergency/11074582
The government funded BBC dominates UK broadcast media, so their decision in 2007 to exclude competing viewpoints may have had a significant impact on public opinion.
The following is a video of the speech which led to bipartisan UK parliament agreement there is a climate emergency (speech by Jeremy Corbyn, the brother of British climate skeptic Piers Corbyn ).
British MP Michael Gove responded by agreeing there is a climate emergency (an apparent change from his previous position when he was negotiating with climate protestors). According to Breitbart Gove said;
“I want to make it clear that on this side of the House we recognise that this situation IS an emergency, it IS a crisis, and it IS a threat that all of us have to meet.”
Read more: https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/05/01/goves-green-cant-is-a-betrayal-of-conservative-principles/
The UK does not have a constitutional right to free speech – in my opinion, any escalation of government sanctions against climate skeptics for the duration of the “climate emergency” could mean difficult times ahead for climate skeptics based in Britain.
Climate extinction and the Guardian certainly seem to be driving the agenda here… the climate skeptic movement is on the back foot, responding to the agenda they have set.
True.
The sceptic movement is based on science so we do not set the agenda on politics.
That’s the other side’s bailiwick.
When it all ends in tears just don’t expect any sympathy from the rest of the world.
It appears England is in serious decline, since they were once a leading Literary and scientific nation, that gave us Alan Touring, Adam Smith, Shakespeare, Winston Churchill, Jane Austen, and many more. Now about all they are famous for these days are a few but declining quality of actors/actresses.
What a sad decline!
Cromwell to Parliament:
‘In the name of God, go.’
http://www.emersonkent.com/speeches/dismissal_of_the_rump_parliament.htm
“The government funded BBC” ? Correction needed, Tax Payer funded BBC, governments have no money, it’s the taxes from the people they possess!!!!
And it is a tax extracted under threat of fines and/or imprisonment if you happen to have a TV or mains radio too.
As soon as a sane Government gets in they cut the BBC block grant by 52% and make it quite clear that they will cut it by another 80% if the BBC continues being a pressure group for the Metrosexual Leftie blob.
Amazing how quickly unprincipled harlots will do their jobs when the punters refuse to pay them.
The next thing must be ten years imprisonment without trial for any Green Luvvie who ever gets on an aeroplane, uses a car or eats meat, owns a second home etc etc. The extremists set the standards and they are punished ten times as harshly.
I have no interest in their human rights. They are strident and totalitarian and think Green jollies involve flying around the world, not logging in virtually.
They are unprincipled, utterly avaricious and totally without credibility. Bullshitters and liars, swindlers and con(wo)men.
They can experience the other end of totalitarianism.
Labour have zero percent chance of any vote of mine. Zero.
The real reason for this? global PTB want Britain to collapse and have ordered the traitors to cave in to hasten the economic armageddon.
Never believe anything a UK politician does is out of principle. It is ALWAYS some sordid nonsense that gives them some meagre little pot to piss in.
IIRC, Blair’s attempt to make ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ compulsory viewing for school children led to a court case in which CAGW came in for some proper scrutiny and was found guilty of lies and distortion. Our idiot politicos May have offered another chance for judicial review of the science. It would certainly help the ailing cause of sanity if these specious claims were publicly dismissed again.
Keep mixing red and green and watch the filthy brown mess resulting…
Beng the first to do something stupid is what the british call “leading the world”.
And the stupid brits still keep voting for these idiots.
“And the stupid brits still keep voting for these idiots”
Not all of us. The biggest problem we face is lack of a coherent alternative. Millions vote for the Tories, not because they support them, but to try and stop Labour getting in…
It is such a pity the Labour Party elected the wrong Corbyn as leader…they could have had the one with brains.
They did that before. They chose Ed Milliband instead of his brother David with disasterous effect, basically opening the way to a far-left takeover.
Gove is an idiot. Ignore him. We all do.
All Gove has done is set himself up as a laughing stock for years to come.
Declarations such as this are as pointless as they are meaningless. They can declare anything they like but it changes nothing – other that to convince the British public that this lot of politicians are even more ignorant than we previously thought.
And on that subject, a recent poll indicated that British politicians have never been in such low regard by the public as they are today, and declarations like this are hardly going to improve their standing.
“Gove is an idiot.” I agree entirely, but let’s not forget he is being backed by some of his buddies as a possible future Prime Minister, And let’s not forget either that he has taken a left wing stance on private education in which he has promised to withdraw tax benefits from private education establishments if he becomes leader of the Conservative Party, which will have the effect of bringing those establishments to their knees, with many of them having to close.
Gove is not an idiot, he’s one of the brighter MPs, but he does seem to be extremely ambitious and therefore needs to jump on to a popular bandwagon when one appears. Why anyone with intelligence would want to be PM at this point is what I can’t understand.
Hmmm… a declaration of intentions with nothing of substance whatsoever, why does it ring a bell?
Straight from ‘yes minister’
One good thing about Extinction Rebellion is that it provokes a debate – a debate about climatism that is largely missing in the UK.
Politicians (and the BBC) don’t really want to have this debate because it upsets a comfortable echo chamber. The echo chamber allows them to virtue signal, not do much, and not face up to the practical and economic realities of what they are saying (set 2050 targets or whatever). This is comfortable because action and costs are not noticeable today or at the next general election: nobody feels they are being prevented from noticeable actions (changes to lives) that would motivate a reaction.
Pandering to Extinction Rebellion and Greta Thunberg will set expectations among the people who are convinced by the decarbonisation debate. They will feel emboldened to ask for more and to take much more meaningful, specific targets. This puts the pandering politicians on a collision course with part of the other part of the electorate who don’t really give this much of their time or attention.
That’s why there is so much debate about denial. The climatists know that there is a passive section of society, and they are seeking to discourage the reaction before it starts.
The EU issue followed a similar course. There came a point when the EU impact on UK legislation reached a point when the electorate said “enough is enough”. Most politicians and BBC were so stuck in their bubble that they couldn’t see the coming Brexit result. The UK was supposed to be largely pro-EU, and the shock of the reality was written all over the faces of politicians and BBC journalists when their bubble burst.
Declaring a climate emergency is fantastic. We are now in an emergency situation and tangible life-changing policies will need to be imposed on the UK electorate. The BBC will go into over-drive (already has) and the politicians will foolishly follow (already have). That’s exactly what we need to expose climatism to open and testing debate. And it will drive the politicians into an uncomfortable corner of seeking to pass laws which will be very unpopular.
This was a debate in the HoC. Has it been passed into UK Law?
I don’t think so and I doubt it ever will be.
If not, it’s meaningless.
But if it gets the Extinction Rebellion people out of central London for a while it will be a win for the politicians.
In 1959 I arrived in London from New Zealand , I traveled from the airport to Liverpool Street Station by train, looking out the window I could see ZERO the smag was so thick visibility was (+ – ) 10 feet !
What a shame that HISTORY as a school subject has become politicized
Smog relected sunlight. It therefore reduced surface temperature. After 1970s clean air acts we saw 30 years of surface warming as smogs were removed.
I’m quite sure that in 100 years that short period of HUMAN CAUSED WARMING and the insane response of governments will have our generation referred to as the quintessential idiots akin to “flat earthers
Josh, could you do a cartoon showing the UK shooting its self in the foot?
No.
It’s just Gove shooting his mouth off.
Britain laughs at him.
Under EU and UK, referring to a person as a “denier” is slander.
“Under EU and UK, referring to a person as a “denier” is slander”
I think it could also classify as a “Hate Crime” – the only category our useless police are interested in investigating…
It is a pity the marxist militant tendency puppet Corbyn does not listen to his physicist brother but then Jezza is not very clever.
Full retard in the UK. 50 years of marxist digging away and now here we are in the 21st century with medievalism death cultism oh and the bully boy winning the day.
Truly a day of infamy when democracy and common sense left the building.
I am ashamed of the nation of my birth,
The British need more reflection with the inspiring words of JRR Tolkien.
There are a lot of inspiring passages of bravery, hope, and rebuilding in the face creeping darkness and despair.
Don’t forget the elves!
It is amazing how many normally sane columnists have fallen for this rubbish. I wonder how many of them have any idea what the Second Law of Thermodynamics says?
I would say none.
Britain has Brexit chaos, and it’s failed attempted coup against President Trump to worry about.
Trump will make a state visit in June, hopefully asking for a state apology for UK Intelligence interference, and stressing why he had to dump the Paris Accord.
BBC would likely be served a D-Notice on that Tea Time speech.
Meanwhile Dr. Happer and the CO2 Coalition meet in D.C. to discuss the Presidential Panel on Climate Science.
Strangely enough, just as Britain declares a State of Emergency, Ms. May just fired the Secretary for War, sorry Defence, Williamson, over Huawei leaks.
The strategic question has to be : CO2 or the Russians, er, China. Maybe Williamson got priorities in a twist?
“Britain has Brexit chaos, and it’s failed attempted coup against President Trump to worry about.”
I doubt Britain’s leadership had the deliberate intention of trying to harm President Trump.
My guess is the Obama administration’s FBI and CIA and others were involved in trying to set Trump up so it looked like Trump and the Russians were cooperating, and the U.S.agencies were sending in their agents to try to compromise the Trump people, and as part of that, the U.S. intelligence agencies went to the British and the Austrailians and lied to them about Trump/Russian colusion and asked for their help in exposing it.
What are the British and Australian intelligence agencies going to do, refuse to help? For all they know, the U.S. intelligence agencies are on to something, so they agree to contact some Trump people and talk to them and maybe plant some information that looks compromising of Trump and his people.
Of course, it is hard to say. These British and Australians involved may have been acting on their own,, which is entirely possible, since they worked with U.S. intellignce in the past. The Australian involved apparently was instrumental in getting millions of dollars donated the the Clinton Foundataion several years ago, so it looks like he may be on Hillary’s team, and was doing her a favor rather than acting on behalf of Australian intelligence..
The good thing about it is it looks like we are eventually going to find out all the details about all of this sedition and treason on the part of the Obama administration and Hillary Clinton in their illegal attempts to overthrow a duly elected president and thwart the Will of the People.
One reason the Democrats are going after Attorney General Barr’s character and honestly is because they are trying to smear him in advance of the coming revelations about the illegal activity of the Obama adminsitration. They are trying to change the focus from the illegal and treasonous acts of Hillary and the Obama administrtion to the character of the Attorney General.
Changing the focus might work with the Leftwing News Media, but it won’t work with a Grand Jury. A Grand Jury will focus on the facts.
Yes, it’s going to get real interesting, unless you are a Democrat. If you are a Democrat expect things to get worse for you. Your political party is not only corrupt it is criminal, and the whole world is going to see it. Well, at least the part of the world that doesn’t get all their news from the Leftwing News Media.
Barr is going after the cabal, the Dems and neo-cons are scurrying, and all roads lead to London.
See ZH Barr Launches Wide-Ranging Probe Into 2016 FBI Spying
When MSM and GCHQ itself orders us to ignore Trump’s tweet on UK Intelligence, well, they are simply ignored.
Treason and a foreign power, not Russia, rather Britain, is the theme.
Now that Trump is free of the witch hunt, he talked with Putin and is ready to get to work on delayed projects, bringing China in as well. Will we see an end to decaying geopolitics?
When I hear someone ranting about CAGW already happening I usually try to ask what they consider to be the number one threat. Usually they start the usual rant and cannot choose one single issue. But they usually gets upset by the question. So what do the climate emergency adress, what is worse than before?
I wonder if the N°6 (in The Prisoner) was in fact just a skeptic …
Gee, that dates you; I’m getting on in years and I can barely remember Patrick McGoohan (although I was glued to it at the time.) Was it over half a century ago?
But you’re probably right; he was definitely a sceptic (he would have embraced British spelling I’m sure.)
The “emergency” is that the drum beating, data-adjusting, clamoring, fretting and scoldings about this expensive #FakeCrisis is increasingly failing to move society towards the urgently desired goal of creating the Socialist Utopia. It is becoming too clear that the lie has run its course. Time to regroup and devise a new lie.
I think you are on to something there, Ewin.
CO2 is climbing, but the temperatures have been cooling for the past three years.
The CAGW speculators claim that increasing CO2 means higher temperatures, but that’s not happening. Perhaps they are wrong.
Yes, I know, it’s only three years, but there’s also that troublesome (for alarmists) pause thing, too.
It really is bizarre in the UK. If you look at what is happening, you know no one gives a damn about this climates cult – particularly the cult leaders who liberally burn petroleum as they fly everywhere trying desperately to drum up support for their hypocrisy.
I’d liken the situation to a kid’s wheel in a car by which they imagine they are steering. Indeed, the only reason they vote for such extremist drivel is that they know nothing will happen.
Great analogy, Mike. I will try to remember it and use it myself, hope you don’t mind a bit of mild plagiarism!
“the climate denial movement has run its course”
If “climate denial” has run it’s course, why are people who’s only expertise is manipulating public opinion still using nonsense terms like “climate denial?”
Exactly. ‘Climate denial’ has no meaning.
The Left puts forth a Talisman constructed of mashed up language, then demands obedience to it.
The UK’s politics is a Monty Pythonesque reality.
More popcorn please.
They might look more believable with tin foil helmets on their heads. Go for it!
For those of us who live with this nonsense it is far from entertaining.
Congrats, UK, on becoming the first country in the world to go full retard. Who’s next?
I would say Australia, from May 18th.
Once a colonialist now a colony.