By Allan M.R. MacRae, B.A.Sc., M.Eng.
1. Introduction.
Ever wonder why extremists attack honest scientists who oppose global warming and climate change hysteria? Ever wonder why climate extremists refuse to debate the science?
It is because global warming and climate change alarmism was never about the science – it was always a false narrative, a smokescreen for the totalitarian objectives of the extreme left.
The novel “Nineteen Eighty-Four”, written by George Orwell in 1949, foresaw a time “when much of the world has fallen victim to perpetual war, omnipresent government surveillance, historical negationism and propaganda”. It now appears that Orwell had remarkable foresight.
Here is the real “Nineteen Eighty-Four”, an interview that year with ex-KGB officer and Soviet defector Yuri Bezmenov, who described their long-term program to ideologically undermine the western democracies. Jump to 1:07:30 for Bezmenov’s discussion of “ideological subversion”. It is all about manipulating the “useful idiots” – the pro-Soviet leftists within the democracies.
One commenter on the video wrote: “this is crazy, almost everything predicted by this guy is already happening.” Bernie Sanders, AOC and other socialist-Democrats are openly saying what Bezmenov predicted decades ago. The last democracies are under attack by leftist extremists.
All over the world, countries that once had a future have fallen into dictatorship, poverty and misery. It is notable that of the ~167 large countries in the world, most are totalitarian states, and all but “the chosen few” citizens of these countries suffer under brutal leftist dictatorships.
Radical greens have used wildly exaggerated stories of runaway global warming and climate change to stampede the gullible, in order to achieve their political objectives. The greens claim to be pro-environment, but their policies have done enormous environmental damage. Radical greens have also been destructive to humanity, causing millions of deaths. I wrote recently:
2. Radical Greens Have Cost Trillions of Dollars and Hundreds of Millions of Lives.
Here is some of the supporting evidence:
· The banning of DDT from ~1972 to 2002, which caused the malaria deaths of tens of millions of children, and sickened and killed tens of millions more of all ages;
Reference: “Silent Spring At 50: The False Crises of Rachel Carson”, 21Sept2012
“Carson made little effort to provide a balanced perspective and consistently ignored key evidence that would have contradicted her work. Thus, while the book provided a range of notable ideas, a number of Carson’s major arguments rested on what can only be described as deliberate ignorance.”
https://iea.org.uk/publications/research/malaria-and-the-ddt-story
· The fierce green opposition to golden rice, actions that blinded and killed millions more children; References here, here, here and here.
· The misallocation of scarce global resources for costly, destructive intermittent ‘green energy’ schemes, which are not green and produce little useful (dispatchable) energy;
· Properly allocated, a fraction of the trillions of dollars squandered on green energy schemes could have installed clean drinking water and sanitation systems into every community on the planet, saving the lives of many tens of millions of children and adults; the remaining funds could have significantly reduced deaths from malaria and malnutrition;
“Global Crises, Global Solutions”, The 1st Copenhagen Consensus. Bjørn Lomborg ed., 2004.
· The number of Excess Winter Deaths and shattered lives caused by runaway energy costs in the developed world and lack of access to modern energy in the developing world probably exceeds the tens of millions of malaria deaths caused by the DDT ban; Excess Winter Deaths (more deaths in winter than non-winter months) total more than two million souls per year, which demonstrates that Earth is colder-than-optimum for humanity;
· Indoor air pollution from cooking fires contributes to illness and premature death in the developing world, especially among women and children;
· In addition to runaway energy costs and increased winter deaths, intermittent wind and solar power schemes have reduced grid reliability and increased the risk of power outages;
· Huge areas of agricultural land have been diverted from growing food to biofuels production, driving up food costs and causing hunger among the world’s poorest people.
3. There is NO credible scientific evidence that climate is highly sensitive to increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2), and ample evidence to the contrary. Catastrophic humanmade global warming is a false crisis.
Competent scientists have known this fact for decades. In a written debate in 2002 sponsored by APEGA and co-authored on our side by Dr. Sallie Baliunas, Dr. Tim Patterson and me, we concluded:
“Climate science does not support the theory of catastrophic human-made global warming – the alleged warming crisis does not exist.”
“The ultimate agenda of pro-Kyoto advocates is to eliminate fossil fuels, but this would result in a catastrophic shortfall in global energy supply – the wasteful, inefficient energy solutions proposed by Kyoto advocates simply cannot replace fossil fuels.”
Many scientific observations demonstrate that both these statements are still correct.
The current usage of the term “climate change” is vague and the definition is routinely changed – it is a “non-falsifiable hypothesis”. It is therefore non-scientific nonsense.
“A theory that is not refutable by any conceivable event is non-scientific.” – Karl Popper
Climate has always changed. Current climate is not unusual and is beneficial to humanity and the environment. Earth is in a ~10,000 year warm period (‘interglacial’) within a ~100,000 year cycle of alternating glaciations and interglacials. A warm period is NOT a crisis. A glacial period (‘ice age’) with a 2 km thick continental glacier covering much of the world is a crisis.
The term “catastrophic human-made global warming” is a falsifiable hypothesis, and it was falsified decades ago – when fossil fuel combustion and atmospheric CO2 increased sharply after ~1940, while global temperature cooled from ~1945 to ~1977. There is no credible evidence that weather is more chaotic now – both hurricanes and tornadoes are at multi-decade low levels of activity.
Even if all the observed global warming is ascribed to increasing atmospheric CO2, the calculated maximum climate sensitivity to a hypothetical doubling of atmospheric CO2 is only about 1 degree C, which is not enough to produce dangerous global warming. Ref. here & here.
Global warming alarmism is based on the false assumption that increasing atmospheric CO2 causes catastrophic global warming. In fact, atmospheric CO2 changes lag global temperature changes at all measured time scales. Tropical Sea Surface Temperature changes, then tropical humidity changes, then atmospheric temperature changes, then CO2 changes, in that order.
Climate computer models cited by the IPCC and other climate activists employ much higher assumed sensitivity values that create false alarm. The ability to predict is perhaps the most objective measure of scientific competence. All the scary predictions by climate activists of dangerous global warming and wilder weather have proven false-to-date. The global warming / climate change alarmists have a perfectly negative predictive track record, so no sensible person should believe them.
Based on current knowledge, the only significant impact of increasing atmospheric CO2 is greatly increased plant and crop yields, and possibly some minor beneficial warming of climate.
4. Humanity needs modern energy to survive – to grow and transport our food and provide shelter, warmth and ~everything we need to live. Wind and solar power are too intermittent and too diffuse to be practical or effective. Green energy schemes have been costly failures.
Fully ~85% of global primary energy is from fossil fuels – oil, coal and natural gas. The remaining ~15% is almost all nuclear and hydro. Green energy has increased from above 1% to less than 2%, despite many trillions of dollars in wasted subsidies. The 85% fossil fuels component is essentially unchanged in past decades, and is unlikely to significantly change in future decades.
The fatal flaw of grid-connected green energy is that it is not green and produces little useful (dispatchable) energy, primarily due to intermittency – the wind does not blow all the time, and the Sun shines only part of the day. Intermittent grid-connected green energy requires almost 100% backup (‘spinning reserve’) from conventional energy sources. Intermittent wind and solar electrical generation schemes typically do not even significantly reduce CO2 emissions – all they do is increase energy costs and reduce grid reliability.
Claims that grid-scale energy storage will solve the intermittency problem have proven false to date. The only proven grid-scale ‘super-battery’ is pumped storage, and suitable sites are rare – Alberta is bigger than many countries, and has no sites suitable for grid-scale pumped storage systems.
5. The trillions of dollars of scarce global resources wasted on global warming hysteria, anti-fossil fuel fanaticism and green energy schemes, properly deployed, could have improved and saved many millions of lives.
About two million children below the age of five die from contaminated water every year – about 70 million dead kids since the advent of global warming alarmism. Bjørn Lomborg estimates that a fraction of these squandered green energy funds could have put clean water and sanitation systems into every community in the world.
Waste of funds and loss of opportunity due to global warming alarmism and green energy nonsense have harmed people around the world. In North America, Europe and Australia, trillions of dollars have been wasted on grid-connected green energy schemes that have increased energy costs, increased winter mortality, and reduced the stability of electrical grids.
In the developing world, the installation of electrical energy grids has been stalled for decades due to false global warming alarmism.
In the winter of 2017-2018, England and Wales experienced over 50,000 excess winter deaths (more deaths in the winter months than non-winter). That British per-capita excess winter death rate was ~three times the average excess winter death rate of the USA and Canada.
Energy costs are much higher in Britain, due to radical green opposition in the UK to the fracking of gassy shales.
The anti-oil-pipeline campaign has cost ~$120 billion dollars in lost oil revenues and destroyed ~200,000 jobs in Alberta and across Canada. This is an enormous financial and job loss for Canada. Canada, mostly Alberta, is the fifth largest oil producer in the world and the largest foreign supplier of energy to the USA. References here and here.
The funds wasted on baseless global warming hysteria, anti-fossil-fuel fanaticism and destructive green energy schemes, properly deployed, could have saved or improved the lives of many millions of people.
6. The conduct of climate activists has been destructive, deceitful and violent.
Global warming alarmists have shouted down legitimate debate and committed deceitful and violent acts in support of their false cause.
The Climategate emails provide irrefutable evidence of scientific collusion and fraudulent misconduct.
In Canada, skeptic climatologist Dr. Tim Ball and other skeptics have received threats, and buildings related to the energy industry including the Calgary Petroleum Club were firebombed. In the USA, skeptic scientists have had their homes invaded, and several highly competent skeptic scientists have been harassed and driven from their academic posts.
7. Radical greens have caused enormous harm to the environment, for example:
· Clear-cutting the tropical rainforests to grow sugar cane and palm oil for biofuels;
· Accelerated draining of the vital Ogallala aquifer in the USA for corn ethanol and biodiesel production;
· Clear-cutting forests in the eastern USA to provide wood for the Drax power plant in Britain;
· Destructive bird-and-bat-chopping wind power turbines.
8. Why are the radical greens so anti-environmental?
Dr. Patrick Moore, a co-founder and Past-President of Greenpeace, provided the answer decades ago. Moore observed that Eco-Extremism is the new ‘false-front’ for economic Marxists, who were discredited after the fall of the Soviet Union circa 1990 and took over the Green movement to further their political objectives. This is described in Moore’s essay, “Hard Choices for the Environmental Movement” written in 1994 – note “The Rise of Eco-Extremism”.
For radical greens, it was never about the environment – the environment was a smokescreen for their extreme-left totalitarian political objectives. When radical green extremists take power, it will be ‘One Man, One Vote, Once’ – the end of democracy.
To understand radical green objectives, see http://www.green-agenda.com/, excerpted below:
· “The common enemy of humanity is man. In searching for a new enemy to unite us, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like would fit the bill. All these dangers are caused by human intervention, and it is only through changed attitudes and behavior that they can be overcome. The real enemy then, is humanity itself.”
– Club of Rome, premier environmental think-tank, consultants to the United Nations
· “We need to get some broad based support, to capture the public’s imagination… So we have to offer up scary scenarios, make simplified, dramatic statements and make little mention of any doubts… Each of us has to decide what the right balance is between being effective and being honest.”
– Prof. Stephen Schneider, Stanford Professor of Climatology, lead author of many IPCC reports
· “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
· “The extinction of the human species may not only be inevitable but a good thing.”
– Christopher Manes, Earth First!
· “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
· “One American 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
· “No matter if the science of global warming is all phony… climate change provides the greatest opportunity to bring about justice and equality in the world.”
– Christine Stewart, former Canadian Minister of the Environment
· “I suspect that eradicating small pox was wrong. It played an important part in balancing ecosystems.”
– John Davis, editor of Earth First! Journal
· “We’ve got to ride this global warming issue. Even if the theory of global warming is wrong, we will be doing the right thing in terms of economic and environmental policy.”
– Timothy Wirth, President of the UN Foundation
· “The extinction of Homo Sapiens would mean survival or millions, if not billions, of Earth-dwelling species. Phasing out the human race will solve every problem on Earth – social and environmental.”
– Ingrid Newkirk, former President of PETA
· “The goal now is a socialist, redistributionist society, which is nature’s proper steward and society’s only hope.”
– David Brower, first Executive Director of the Sierra Club, founder of Friends of the Earth
9. Conclusion
Radical green extremists have cost society trillions of dollars and many millions of lives. Banning DDT and radical green opposition to golden rice blinded and killed tens of millions of children.
Green energy and CO2 abatement schemes, driven by false fears of catastrophic global warming, have severely damaged the environment and have squandered trillions of dollars of scarce global resources that should have been allocated to serve the real, immediate needs of humanity. Properly allocated, these wasted funds might have ended malaria and world hunger.
The number of shattered lives caused by radical-green activism rivals the death tolls of the great killers of the 20th Century – Stalin, Hitler and Mao – radical greens advocate similar extreme-left totalitarian policies and are indifferent to their resulting environmental damage and human suffering… … and if unchecked, radical environmentalism will cost us our freedom.
The 1984 interview with Soviet defector Yuri Bezmenov has been censored by YouTube as “Hate speech”, which it definitely is NOT.
I have applied to YouTube to have it reinstated, but in the meantime a shorter version is available at
Thank you, Allan
“Radical green extremists have cost society trillions of dollars and many millions of lives.”
This is perfectly true, but it is not by chance that they act like this:
– their main purpose (or the goal of those who advance behind these useful idiots) is to destroy Western civilization and reduce the world’s population.
All this tragedy is related to Malthusians (as was Hitler, Paul Ehrlich and his disciples, Holdren (Obama’s science advisor), most of the politicians who push the CO2 scam, organizations, as the UN, WWF, etc., billionaires as Ted Turner, etc.).
Radical greens are the useful idiots, the henchmen of an actually powerful and terrifying Malthusian movement which is spreading all over the planet, based on junk science falsified decades ago.
After the 3 days of a tiny heat wave in France (with fake records as at Gallargues le Montueux), one of the dumbest French greens declared : “This is a war … !”.
We will very soon hear from those same pychopaths that “The end justifies any means”.
A Final Solution
Had a recent conversation with a relative that worked on a committee last year advising the Trudeau government on how the world must restructure in the next 30 to 40 years. Many of the ‘good’ ideas the group discussed sounded like they came from Maurice Strong, Naomi Klein or the Club of Rome. It seems that economic man is the enemy and we have to have a strong global government to redistribute the wealth. He thought that this would entail a revolution in expectations of how one would live and would require strong controls on business, environment and people.
I’m afraid that it isn’t just the ecolunes anymore.
You have two excellent talking points:
Direct attack against virtue signalling might not be the best strategy.
I would propose doing our own virtue signalling with ideas of greening the planet with CO2 and prosperity. This also about educating the people about the carbon cycle. Hijacking the recycling meme to recycling carbon by simply burning it and letting plants to do the rest.
And who controls the propaganda machine ( education, the press, social media etc) ?
Who is providing the unlimited funding for this scheme? Who can print all the dollars needed to corrupt the system since 1913 ?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Reserve
Federal Reserve? That was last year’s conspiracy. Allan places the blame squarley at the feet of the KGB.
“Soviet defector Yuri Bezmenov, who described their long-term program to ideologically undermine the western democracies.”
Or are they the same thing? Maybe Allan could clarify that.
Loydo: conspiracy
Projecting again.
Distraction and re-direction.
It’s all he’s got left.
Yes and they have useful idiots in the National Society of Professional Engineers, editor of publications Dave Sigel never vets anything, such as this piece of work that appeared in NSPE Daily Deigns Daily Propaganda offering:
https://www.axios.com/paris-climate-target-energy-use-climate-change-8bfe89e4-2d19-4fe0-aea2-aa50b2efb615.html
Robert . How right you are…
“Bonus Presentation here: http://www.hiddensecretsofmoney.com Who owns the Federal Reserve? You are about to learn one of the biggest secrets in the history of the world… it’s a secret that has huge effects for everyone who lives on this planet. Most people can feel deep down that something isn’t quite right with the world economy, but few know what it is.
Gone are the days where a family can survive on just one paycheck… every day it seems that things are more and more out of control, yet only one in a million understand why. You are about to discover the system that is ultimately responsible for most of the inequality in our world today.
The powers that be DO NOT want you to know about this, as this system is what has kept them at the top of the financial food-chain for the last 100 years.
Learning this will change your life, because it will change the choices that you make. If enough people learn it, it will change the world… because it will change the system .
For this is the biggest Hidden Secret Of Money.
Never in human history have so many been plundered by so few, and it’s all accomplished through this… The Biggest Scam In The History Of Mankind.”
Who does the money printing to keep this scheme alive? America is broke and Big Government is expensive.
America is broke because Big Government is expensive.
I think you will find this presentation on the Fed interesting too, along with many other topics discussed by James Corbett: https://www.corbettreport.com/episode-292-century-of-enslavement-the-history-of-the-federal-reserve/
There is also the cost to common folk who have sacrificed their time freely to fight this nonsense. I’m not complaining – just saying that there are so many more causes that are more worthy of our attention, but we feel compelled to fight the insanity, so we engage in any way we can to try to get people to see reason. I don’t know at what level the battle will be won, but win it we must – because if alarmists succeed in electing another climate change maniac, I’m not sure we will ever win this battle. I believe there is a tipping point – but it has nothing to do with climate. It’s about common sense, reason, and control.
Now tell us how you really feel!
Great work Allan . . .
Yes!
Otherwise all these insistent self-esteeming substitutes for long proven real virtues, promising that we can make a personal difference by joining a historic movement of advancing cadres overturning what has actually benefited countless ordinary people (because we are so much wiser than all who preceded us), fueled by a blind emotive zeal, has been no walk in the park for those who suffer collateral damage from us. You don’t say. How about they get a real job rewarded for the regular performance of a service valued by someone.
Not that I give much weight to what “The Economist” says, their highest ranking “Full” democracies are the most radical purveyors of climate hysteria and repressive climate policies. Canada, Scandinavia, New Zealand, Oz, Germany etc.
Maybe democracy is not always rational.
Democracy is never rational because those who promise the most free stuff get the vote.
Of course they will always run out of other people’s money and then the private banking system (Federal Reserve) takes over. We The People are no longer in control.
Hi Sky,
The Economist went “full warmist hysteric” more than a decade ago, and I cancelled my subscription.
The referenced paper from the Economist is useful, but must be heavily discounted due to the far-left bias.
Same, cancelled my sub to the so called economist when I realized it was a radical leftist shill
Thank you for a superb reminder why anyone with a conscience should be resisting the disgraceful green monster. Your piece should be required reading in schools and colleges, but we living through a period of eco-fanaticism which crushes any dissent in the public domain and is the very opposite of true scientific or moral value. I fear the price of green deceit will be very much higher yet.
Allan,
Brilliant, thank you, and very timely.
I am in touch with my Member of Parliament in the UK over Theresa May’s astonishing pledge of £1Tn to support the Climate Change Act here. I received an encouraging response and he has passed my information directly to the Energy Minister for review.
Would you mind if I sent this to my MP, and I recall you have posted your resume here before which would be useful for me to append, can you direct me to it please. Or perhaps Anthony could pass my email address directly to you.
Regards.
Theresa May is just a puppet. Who controls these puppets?
Hi HotScot my friend,
You can forward this essay to anyone without my permission. It is also published without Comments at
https://thsresearch.wordpress.com/2019/07/04/the-cost-of-society-of-radical-environmentalism/
Some of my background is here:
“Summary of Award Nomination Documents:
Dr. David Devenny, P.Eng., P.Geol., Past President of APEGA, the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta, Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, nominates Allan MacRae, P. Eng., for {awards}.
Some of MacRae’s achievements include:
A) Initiatives that drove major economic growth of Syncrude Canada, the Alberta oil sands and the Canadian economy
In the 1980’s and 1990’s, Allan initiated (or co-initiated) and successfully proposed three of the four major changes that drove the successful growth of the Alberta oil sands. Changes included new income tax terms, new Crown royalty terms and a low-cost 50% production increase that reduced Syncrude unit operating costs by 30%. Allan also recommended that Syncrude acquire new leases for growth, and technical innovations that improved performance and reduced costs.
Allan incorporated these initiatives into a comprehensive strategy for Syncrude, which was implemented and was instrumental in the successful evolution and growth of Syncrude and the Alberta oil sands industry.
The oil sands industry became the mainstay of the Canadian economy for 15 years, with over $250 billion in new capital investments and approximately 500,000 new jobs created. Canada became the fifth-largest oil producer in the world and the most successful economy of the G8 countries.
B) Actions that prevented a potentially catastrophic sour gas disaster at the Mazeppa project near Calgary
In May 2016, Allan MacRae, as an uninvolved citizen, became aware of unsafe operating procedures at the Mazeppa critical sour gas project near Calgary. At some personal risk, he investigated, consulted with trusted colleagues, and following the Code of Conduct of Alberta’s Professional Engineers (APEGA), he reported his concerns to the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER), and followed up to ensure proper compliance.
The AER quickly shut down the Mazeppa project, and canceled all 1600 operating licenses of the parent company, which was placed in receivership and bankruptcy. The Managing Director was fined and sanctioned. This was the most severe reprimand of a company in the history of the Alberta energy industry. A 2005 analysis of Mazeppa wells by the Alberta ERCB concluded that an uncontrolled sour gas release would affect an area within a 15km radius and could kill or injure up to 250,000 people.
C) Service to Calgary’s Homeless
From 2002 to 2017, Allan was volunteer member of the Board of Directors of the Calgary Drop-in and Rehab Centre (“the DI”). The DI provides food, shelter and services to homeless single women and men.
According to Dermot Baldwin, the former Executive Director of the Calgary Drop-In and Rehab Centre:
Early in Allan’s tenure on the Board, there was a critical shortage of funded shelter beds at the DI. Allan was instrumental in obtaining provincial funding to increase the capacity of the DI from 600 to 800 beds during that crisis, immediately before the onset of winter.
Later Allan steered the challenging sale of a building from the DI to Inn-from-the-Cold. That allowed homeless Calgary families to live in their own rooms, instead of staying in church basements and moving frequently from church to church.
During his tenure on the Board, the DI grew from 600 funded shelter beds to over 1200, and provided 1.2 million free meals per year. Allan served on the Board Executive, the Governance Committee and the Fundraising Committee, which financed the DI’s large real estate portfolio. The Calgary Drop-In and Rehab Centre is the largest such organization in Canada.
D) Provision of medical services to a remote native Amerind community in the High Andes, Jujuy Province, Argentina
Circa 1992, Allan co-initiated the re-discovery of a borate deposit in the high Andes of northwestern Argentina at 4200m elevation. The opening of the new mine caused medical care to be introduced to a remote native Amerind village.
E) Successful proposal for a new Tax Class 53 to assist Canadian manufacturing industries
In 2014, Allan proposed improved income tax terms for Canadian manufacturing industries, through his Member of Parliament Joan Crockatt. As a result, a new Class 53 CCA rate was introduced for a ten-year period in the 2015 Budget.”
************************
I recently resigned from APEGA.
Allan,
thank you. I will be forwarding all this to my MP who seems to have sympathy with climate sceptics.
Hi,
Agree with this, except golden rice. I’ve read that to get enough Vitamin A you would need to ear a week’s ration in one day. Vast majority of all genetic crops have less yield than locally grown crops.
How to give the poor a good source of vitamin A? Give them some pumpkin seeds to grow. Other vegetables also provide good amounts.
According to wikipedia, 144 grams a day would give enough vitamin A. The problem might be that vegetables just don’t provide enough calories for the land they take. Farmers there know their options better than we do here. Golden Rice is just another option. As long as the seeds are freely available and breed true, they should do more good than harm.
Rice forms PART of their staple diet. There is likely to be vitamin A in other foodstuffs but not enough. Including golden rice rather than white rice might be just enough to reach the health threshold.
To Rod Gill:
Andy Pattullo wrote here:
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/04/14/hypothesis-radical-greens-are-the-great-killers-of-our-age/#comment-2680618
“I am not sure why Greg believes claims of “killing and blinding babies” doesn’t qualify as science. I am a specialist in infectious diseases and these facts are part of what I teach about the history of infections and policy decisions. The banning of DDT did indeed lead to a marked increase in deaths of infants and children in sub-Saharan Africa from malaria and, when DDT was reintroduced, those death rates fell dramatically. The ban itself was not scientific but emotional, based on unfounded claims of harm. Engineered rice which provides vitamin A to malnourished children in developing nations has proven benefit and can indeed prevent blindness and immune deficiency that will harm or kill millions of children. Radical environmentalists have done everything possible to prevent those children from being saved.”
Also, read all the references in my article about golden rice. I am appalled by the number of people who speak out against golden rice without doing their homework. Being indifferent to, or even encouraging the blinding and killing of children is NOT acceptable.
DDT as a vector insecticide didn’t really make it to central sub-Saharan Africa. In 1963, when Fred Soper’s UN-sponsored malaria-eradication program was gearing up to wipe out malaria south of the Sahara, they discovered most mosquito populations there were already resistant or immune to DDT, largely due to DDT overuse in agriculture.
Since the mosquitoes refused to die with DDT, there was nothing else to do but end WHO’s malaria eradication program, which Soper did in 1963 (Operations formally suspended by the bureaucracy in 1965, and by the board in 1969).
Consequently, anyone who claims deaths rose after DDT was banned, nine years later, is full of beans.
In reality, malaria deaths fell from the ban on DDT in the U.S., in 1972, to 1990, leveled off, and then started falling again in 1999. There was no spike in malaria deaths in any group due to the U.S. ban on DDT on U.S. farms.
Think about it for a minute.
1. Mosquitoes didn’t migrate from the U.S. to Africa (and malaria never returned to the U.S.).
2. U.S. suddenly had a lot of DDT to get rid of; USAID encouraged African and Asian nations to buy all they could, since DDT was never banned in Africa or Asia. U.S. sales to Africa continued until U.S. DDT makers got out of the business in 1984.
3. African nations weren’t about to give any special listen to Rachel Carson, if malaria threatened and DDT would work. Africans are not stupid as that claim assumes.
The U.S. ban on DDT was based on science. Every study of DDT and Silent Spring, from 1962 to the present day, finds that Rachel Carson was right about DDT, and still is. The President’s Science Advisory Commission said in 1963 that Carson was right, and recommended immediate reductions in use of DDT to save it for fighting vector diseases, and to save wildlife. The Mrak Commission, and then the Hilton Commission for HEW/HHS/EPA all confirmed Carson was right. Rule making hearings before EPA confirmed Rachel Carson’s accuracy. A literature search by Discover Magazine in 2007 found more than 1,000 peer-reviewed studies backing Carson’s work on birds, with nothing contradicting what she wrote.
Opposition to Rachel Carson, as Allan MacRae’s expressed above, is wholly emotional and political, based on no good science done anywhere at any time.
Is everything else he says similarly emotion-based, and contrary to science and history?
I see that another anti DDT liar has showed up with zero evidence to back it up.
What the Liar seems to have not realized that the EPA own science board didn’t recommend that DDT be banned, neither did the Judge who presided over the case. It was William Ruckelshaus who banned it on his own.
Meanwhile the liar make thumper claims without evidence and lies anyway since there were a lot of published literature showing DDT wasn’t the cause of the many claims as shown here:
EXCERPT:
III. EPA HEARINGS. DDT was banned by an EPA administrator who ignored the decision of his own administrative law judge.
17. Extensive hearings on DDT before an EPA administrative law judge occurred during 1971-1972. The EPA hearing examiner, Judge Edmund Sweeney, concluded that “DDT is not a carcinogenic hazard to man… DDT is not a mutagenic or teratogenic hazard to man… The use of DDT under the regulations involved here do not have a deleterious effect on freshwater fish, estuarine organisms, wild birds or other wildlife.” [Sweeney, EM. 1972. EPA Hearing Examiner’s recommendations and findings concerning DDT hearings, April 25, 1972 (40 CFR 164.32, 113 pages). Summarized in Barrons (May 1, 1972) and Oregonian (April 26, 1972)]
18. Overruling the EPA hearing examiner, EPA administrator Ruckelshaus banned DDT in 1972. Ruckelshaus never attended a single hour of the seven months of EPA hearings on DDT. Ruckelshaus’ aides reported he did not even read the transcript of the EPA hearings on DDT. [Santa Ana Register, April 25, 1972]
19. After reversing the EPA hearing examiner’s decision, Ruckelshaus refused to release materials upon which his ban was based. Ruckelshaus rebuffed USDA efforts to obtain those materials through the Freedom of Information Act, claiming that they were just “internal memos.” Scientists were therefore prevented from refuting the false allegations in the Ruckelshaus’ “Opinion and Order on DDT.”
https://junkscience.com/100-things-you-should-know-about-ddt/
Here is the Book REVIEW of DR. Carson’s Silent Spring:
Chemicals and Pests
J.L. Baldwin
http://bwcase.tripod.com/sci1962.pdf
Her book has been exposed for all to see here and in the link I already posted.
Your problem there is that humans are carnivores. I know, I know, this is something the UN and WHO would like to keep a dark secret, but biologically it’s true. Our brains have actually been shrinking, along with our bone density and muscle mass, since the time we took up agriculture and moved to eating cereals. That’s what the archeological record shows, hard to dispute. Additionally, deformities of the mouth and face, dental caries, infertility and dystocia, and most of our modern mental afflictions not to mention diabetes, obesity, heart disease and cancers all show up within 10 years of a formerly isolated tribe taking up the diet of the modern, industrialized West. (Ref: Nutrition & Physical Degeneration, Weston A. Price). This was proven from Switzerland and Greenland to Africa and Australia.
The “plant-based diet” the WHO is trying to literally shove down everyone’s throats is going to result in a world population of low-energy, weak-minded, low-libido and fertility, docile humans whose primary concern in life will be the getting drugs and supplements to offset this purposely created “Save the Planet!” mess, and guess who’ll be controlling those? Perfect Malthusian storm, seems to me! Y’all get back to me with how those pumpkin seeds work out for ya . . .
The “plant-based diet” the WHO is trying to literally shove down everyone’s throats is going to result in a world population of low-energy, weak-minded, low-libido and fertility, docile humans whose primary concern in life will be the getting drugs and supplements to offset this purposely created “Save the Planet!” mess”
Oh, I see you mean Millenials.
Nuttiness on steroids.
7. Radical greens clear-cut the tropical rainforests and drained of the vital Ogallala aquifer.
Etc, etc, etc.
All driven by the KGB and “their long-term program to ideologically undermine the western democracies”.
What I want to know is: who are the leaders of these “radical greens” that are taking over the world causing whole countries to “fall into dictatorship, poverty and misery” (like… what are their names) and exactly how did the KGB manage to brain-wash them? And how come you managed to figure all this out but no actual credible investigative journalists could?
They don’t come much dumber than you, do they?
It takes a lot of training to act that dumb.
“no actual credible investigative journalists”? Sure, just disbelieve any sources not aligned ideologically with yourself, and one can make that statement.
What evidence would you ask for? It is rather like dealing with a Jehovah’s Witness, or a Stalinist. As your ideology is incapable of responding to the real world, you can be smug in your weltanshaaung.
Loydo:
“What I want to know is: who are the leaders of these “radical greens’…”
Loydo – see http://www.green-agenda.com/ – there are many names for you to ponder.
Furthermore:
[excerpted from https://thsresearch.files.wordpress.com/2019/06/co2-global-warming-climate-and-energy-june2019-final-.pdf ]
17. Commentary concerning global warming and climate change catastrophes are typically political propaganda, not scientific reality.
The leaders of the radical greens typically know they are misleading the public. The Climategate emails provide irrefutable evidence of their misconduct. Their followers typically believe the falsehoods, and apparently do not have the education or the intellectual ability to do otherwise.
Reference: https://wattsupwiththat.com/climategate/
Reference: https://www.thegwpf.com/climategate-a-scandal-that-wont-go-away/
Reference: http://www.theclimategatebook.com/about-the-book/table-of-contents/
As I thought – zero evidence, just a list of references to opinion pieces, mostly your own.
The weird part of all this is your belief that the KGB kicked the whole thing off – based entirely on something you heard on Youtube.
Just wondering Loydo….As a true believer how many human lives are you willing to sacrifice? Ten or perhaps hu hundreds of millions?
Hi Griff
(Loydo is NOT Griff) SUNMOD
A straw diversion rebuttal. Do we really need their names?
https://dailycaller.com/2019/07/04/communist-party-flag-burning/
It’s just another identity political culture, it isn’t a conspiracy when vast groups share the same belief system. There are some neophytes and day dreamers even in the communist movement. That doesn’t make it net less destructive or dangerous for those who oppose them.
That was explained in the article.
Try reading for comprehension next time, instead of just cherry picking parts to complain about.
Just How many times does this need repeating.
DDT has not been banned for mosquito control. DDT became ineffective at killing mosquitos when mosquitos became immune to its effects.
DDT did not just kill mosquitos.
read it here:
https://timpanogos.wordpress.com/ddt-chronicles-at-millard-fillmores-bathtub/
How many times does this need repeating.
It wasn’t banned, the US just told anyone who used it they wouldn’t get any more foreign aid.
Thank you Mark – ghalfrunt is repeating one or the many specious “Big Lies” of the radical greens.
Lying is one of the few things the radical greens are good at – they are Masters of Deceit.
Read Andy Pattullo’s comment here:
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/07/04/the-cost-to-society-of-radical-environmentalism/#comment-2738059
Nope. USAID’s policy was to sell as much US-made DDT as possible, until US makers stopped making it in the USA.
Only for a brief time during the George W. Bush administration did USAID NOT push DDT use to fight malaria — and the Bush people finally admitted they didn’t know why.
https://timpanogos.wordpress.com/2011/02/16/usaid-policy-statement-on-ddt-and-malaria-control/
“Winter Deaths (more deaths in winter than non-winter months) total more than two million souls per year, which demonstrates that Earth is colder-than-optimum for humanity;”
————————————
the earth is too hot in some places to support human life (food and water for example)
the earth is too cold in some places.
So just how do you propose stopping these winter deaths?
just how do you judge the optimum whe be are already too hot and too cold?
The point that you work so hard to miss, is that when people have to choose between heating or eating, they die.
Thanks to the global energy scam, energy prices have risen to the point where millions are forced into such decisions.
“For radical greens, it was never about the environment – the environment was a smokescreen for their extreme-left totalitarian political objectives. When radical green extremists take power, it will be ‘One Man, One Vote, Once’ – the end of democracy.”
———————————————–
wow! I think your conspiracy bias is may be showing a little bit(!!!!!!)
With no warning by WUWT, I am surprised that such a ludicrous unsupported piece of conspiracy text got published here
Once again with the cherry picking.
Your question was answered in the article.
HotScot July 5, 2019 at 1:36 am
Would you mind if I sent this to my MP, and …
—————————–
good grief. Why would you want to be tied into this conspiracy theorist. You need incontrovertible data to change a policy (unless Boris gets in!)
But apparently you don’t need incontrovertible evidence to make it in the first place!
ghalfrunt
I have incontrovertible evidence:
No one in the history of mankind has ever demonstrated, by empirical means, that atmospheric CO2 causes the planet to warm.
The ONLY direct observation of increased atmospheric CO2’s effect on the planet is that it has greened by 14% over 35 years of satellite observations. Two continents the size of mainland USA worth of greening according to one NASA scientist.
These simple facts alone means there is something more behind the climate change scam. Allan’s post simply points to some reasonable conclusions, none of which are without considerable evidence.
Moderately Cross of East Anglia July 5, 2019 at 1:23 am
Thank you for a superb reminder why anyone with a conscience should be resisting the disgraceful green monster. Your piece should be required reading in schools and colleges,
——————————–
It should be shown in schools and colleges as an example of a well developed and extreme conspiracy theory – nothing else.
Back those Marxist claims with proof and thing may be better.
ghalfrunt – four comments from you already, and more to come?
I will only allow myself one response to a troll today, and have already used it up above with Loydo. Read that response.
“Progressive” is the new word for Marxist. Do you think that Bernie Sanders and AOC are Conservatives?
🙂
And Marxist need money too. Loads of it.
The proof was provided. Surprised you managed to miss it.
Allan you have written a very good summary of how we have got to this place in time .
You have provided numerous quotes from people who have been in powerful positions and some quotes from some that still are very powerful and the media loves to fawn over.
Then along comes Loydo who resembles the description of the useful idiot .
People like Loydo and there are millions of them cannot think for themselves and really believe that the threat of CAGW is real and if the world leaders do nothing the world will end.
As for radical greens take a look at the Democratic line up for the presidential election in the USA .
As I have said before if these radical greens or any one else who really believed that fossil fuels were doing real harm they would be shouting for the world to adopt nuclear power to produce reliable energy to power the world.
They will not advocate nuclear so that is proof that they want to destroy western democracies with the help of useful idiots like Loydo that have no idea how food gets to the supermarket and how all goods and services in the modern world depends on cheap reliable energy
I’m just being a little bit skeptical Gwan.
skep·ti·cal
/ˈskeptək(ə)l/
adjective: sceptical
1. not easily convinced; having doubts or reservations.
You should try it.
Now that thar is funny.
Meantime back on planet Earth…
Anchorage hit 89 degrees Thursday to break the all-time highest temperature ever recorded at the official recording station. The previous record was 85 degrees set on June 14, 1969.
4 degrees is not “breaking” it is smashing. Pesky, radical, green, human-loathing, marxist meteorologists.
Finally, for once, a nice summer day in Anchorage. Haters, tho, resent people enjoying some brief, nice weather.
Meanwhile, here in Calgary, 10 degrees latitude further South, it is 9 C, should be 20, we have zero media reports on the “cold wave”…
weath·er
/ˈweT͟Hər/
Learn to pronounce
noun
noun: weather
1.
the state of the atmosphere at a place and time as regards heat, dryness, sunshine, wind, rain, etc.
“if the weather’s good we can go for a walk”
Can you say “weather”?
I knew you could.
Yeah, and it’s 48 deg. F in Calgary. It should be in the high 60’s or low 70’s.
So Loydo, by your argument, the planet is cooling. 🙁
“Anchorage hit 89 degrees Thursday to break the all-time highest temperature ever recorded at the official recording station. The previous record was 85 degrees set on June 14, 1969.”
WOW! Talk about a long time frame! How long has the official recording station been recording? And where is it situated? Does it tell us what the temperature there was 200 years ago? 500? 1000? No? Not much good for “all time” records then, is it.
It really is amazing how weather becomes climate whenever it suits the trolls purpose.
Just a few months ago Loydo was one of those who were going on and on again about how a few record lows meant nothing.
So, a one-day temperature record break disproves something. Wow, such idiocy and lack of common sense is hard to imagine. Remember how at the beginning of June everyone in Europe was talking about the record cool weather, and asking if summer was actually going to happen?
Do you think, maybe, that temperature records (which have only been more precisely calculated in the last 100 years or so) are variable enough that it is fairly easy to break such a record every 50 years or so without any problem? Without regard to any factor such as CO2?
Moreover, to repeat the refrain you folks make every time we hear when we hear talk about record cold: weather is not climate. How about you try following your own advice sometime? And try understanding that weather, along with climate, does change all of the time without regard to what YOU think may or may not cause the change. One day does not a proof make, so stop being disingenuous.
Of course the fact that the “official” site is highly contaminated with both UHI and micro site issues is completely ignored by the troll.
All that she cares about is that the data supports her position. That the data be true and accurate is not a requirement.
An absolutely brilliant article and many well-informed comments.
The Llodos of the world will be the first to cry foul and beg for mercy when their backs are against the wall.
This must become the mainstream resistance talking points for the GOP and what remains of global conservative thought.
We’re far from it.
This is among the best summary articles ever posted at WUWT.
The other side of this is that the Greenbeans and Warmunistas and all of them that want to rid the Earth of humans forget that they’re hoomans, too, and they’ll have to go. They should all volunteer to be first in line, from the top (UN/IPCC/ all the rest) down.
If they do that, and we see it happening, then I’ll believe they are sincere.
Starting a new Algorebull religious order isn’t easy, you know.
The Warmunists and their fellow travelers like to call just about everyone who isn’t socialist a Nazi.
The Marxist death toll now exceeds 300 million with the last 50 years of brutal (to 3rd world humans) anti-human environmentalist extremism’s “collateral damage”. The Nazi’s could only dream of such destruction.
The last 25 years these enemies of humanity and freedom have doubled down on their blitzkrieg toward a totally enslaved world population. Climate is currently their strongest tool. Yet, I see almost no organized action to forcefully combat this fraud.
This Climate fraud scheme is an admirably clever political tool. Climate is too complex for ANYONE, including the current batch of scientists, to fully understand, so it’s very difficult to have a public argument against thousands of corrupted scientists who are supported by unrelenting propaganda from liars in the MSM. The Climate fraud is still gaining strength even in the face of overwhelming evidence that the science is wrong and their remedies (renewables and regulation of energy use) will not even come close to meeting CO2 emissions goals…even if there was a real Climate Crisis.
The last barrier to this universal Socialist serfdom are Hillary’s Deplorable people who are naturally suspicious of liberalism. It may not be enough.
That’s a good point doc, keep in mind the Deplorable don’t what their Social Security benefits limited to their contributions either.
I don’t see much progress with ethanol subside reductions, farm subsides or the size of governments.
The “barrier” you referenced may have fallen in the 1930’s in part to the aftermath of the First World War globalization. Of course there was plenty of decline and social rotting before that conflict.
There was still an intellectual class of Roman’s in the 3rd century AD talking about the “Republic” even if they had no living memory of one. It had fallen 400 years earlier. On dark days that’s where I think we are. It’s already a collectivist tyranny in many ways. Skeptics are playing the role of “White Russians” outside Moscow in 1918. Their dislike for each other exceeded the horrible future assured by irrational communism.
Climate socialists control the MSM messaging, academia, many government agencies including those backing the “science”.
The society at large?
About one in five in public High School think the sun revolves around the Earth. Even more think larger objects fall faster then smaller one. Many can’t find Germany of a wordless global map. What X and Y Chromosomes imply? Let’s not even go there.
If there is any hope skeptics have to cure themselves first about what controls the debate results. I doubt a plurality who would support the articles conclusions even if they in private agreed with the facts contained. That’s where skeptics are in this society.
Here’s an example of what happens when Eco-extremists are given free reign:
https://fasmovin.com/f/it-doesnt-look-right
I’m just going to throw this out there to the Greens ….. given that most of them believe that life on earth is just some coincidence of time, the result of random development with no real purpose ….. why is it so important to save life on earth? Who cares if billions of species go extinct? …. or even all species for that matter, …. their existence is pure accident, and since there is no ultimate purpose, time itself would have no memory of their existence …. and frankly wouldn’t care that it had no memory of their existence because it has no memory to begin with.
Simply put, there is no ultimate moral code, therefore there cannot be any moral basis to save life on earth as life itself is a pure accident. Our own existence is meaningless, and as such it wouldn’t matter if we didn’t exist, and it won’t matter that our great great great great great grandkids won’t exist either. …. and we won’t be around to care if they don’t exist! ….. so put in 2 words ….
So What?
Just sayin’
Dr Deanster July 5, 2019 at 7:16 am
I’m just going to throw this out …
“So what?” Is an excellent response to quite a bit of the nonsense from our friends on the left.
You have exposed the fundamental contradictions of the radical and environmentalist Left in one fell swoop.
All that means is this: for them, meaning derives from having power and control over lives as well as “politics,” i.e., everything, under their definition. That is all that matters to them, which is why they are willing to say and do anything to advance that cause, regardless of any internal or external logical contradictions that are identified.
A history of banning of DDT: It was only ever totally banned in 26 countries, most of which don’t have much malaria, and I have yet to hear of any of those being lifted. Also it did not get less banned after 2002, as exemplified by the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants which took effect in 2004 and banned DDT worldwide for all use except vector control.
More standard green falsehoods from Donald L. Klipstein. DDT was effectively banned from 1972 to 2002 and malaria deaths ~doubled. Most of the deaths were children under five years of age, just babies for Christ’s sake!
As Mark explained above , DDT “wasn’t banned, the US just told anyone who used it they wouldn’t get any more foreign aid.”
Andy Pattullo wrote here:
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/04/14/hypothesis-radical-greens-are-the-great-killers-of-our-age/#comment-2680618
“I am not sure why Greg believes claims of “killing and blinding babies” doesn’t qualify as science. I am a specialist in infectious diseases and these facts are part of what I teach about the history of infections and policy decisions. The banning of DDT did indeed lead to a marked increase in deaths of infants and children in sub-Saharan Africa from malaria and, when DDT was reintroduced, those death rates fell dramatically. The ban itself was not scientific but emotional, based on unfounded claims of harm. Engineered rice which provides vitamin A to malnourished children in developing nations has proven benefit and can indeed prevent blindness and immune deficiency that will harm or kill millions of children. Radical environmentalists have done everything possible to prevent those children from being saved.”
I am appalled by the number of people who repeat the green falsehoods about DDT. Being indifferent to the killing of children is NOT acceptable.