Nothing is over the top any more. Insanity or hyperbole? You decide.
Despite the obvious parallels with coronavirus shutdowns, states still show little determination to put in place the measures we’ll need to deal with the climate emergency. For Andreas Malm, we need to stop seeing climate change as a problem for the future — and use state power now to impose a drastic reordering of our economies.
A little assertion there, a little leap in logic there and without much in between, voila, pandemics are just like climate change.
From quite early on in the course of the pandemic, commentators began to draw comparisons between the COVID-19 crisis and the climate crisis. However, I argue that such direct comparisons are flawed in the sense that the current pandemic constitutes a specific event, whereas global warming is a secular trend. Nevertheless, we miss the essence of the COVID-19 outbreak if we fail to recognize it for what it is, namely one extreme — but long expected — manifestation of another secular trend: the rise in the rate of infectious diseases jumping from wild animals to human populations. This is a trend that has increased over past decades and is projected to accelerate in the future.
The most important driving force behind the production of pandemics is clear in the scientific literature and it is deforestation — which is also the second biggest contributor to global climate change. The place in which you find the greatest biodiversity on Earth is in tropical forests, and this biodiversity includes pathogens. These pathogens, which circulate among nonhuman animals in wild habitats, do not generally pose a problem to humanity as long as humans stay away from them. However, the problem arises as the human economy makes deeper and deeper incursions into these habitats. The clearance of forests for logging, agriculture, mining, and the construction of roads creates new interfaces where humans come into contact with wildlife. Through these interfaces, animal pathogens are able to mutate and leap into human populations through a process called zoonotic spillover.
Global warming itself also accelerates this trend. As temperatures rise, certain animals are forced to migrate in search of climates that match those to which they are adapted. A generalized chaos ensues in which animal populations — including, significantly, bats — are increasingly brought into contact with human populations, thereby increasing the rate of transmission. While there are upward of 1,200 different species of bats, all share a common trait that makes them unique among mammals, namely their ability to engage in sustained flight. This shared characteristic not only makes them highly mobile and therefore susceptible to climate-change-induced migration, it also requires prodigious amounts of energy, driving metabolic rates to a point where bodily temperatures reach 40°C for many hours on end, a level that would be experienced as fever by most other mammals. This process has been postulated as the primary reason behind bats being the main carrier of pathogens such as coronaviruses. [emphasis mine]
Postulated, and in passive voice. Good enough for me. Gotta love sciency writing.
And of course, it’s always a problem of oppression and inequity.
There was a moment in March 2020 when many of us in the climate justice movement felt a degree of surprise to find that governments in Europe and elsewhere were prepared to basically shut down their entire economies in an effort to contain the pandemic. This is striking, given that the same states had never contemplated undertaking any kind of intervention in the economy for the sake of the climate crisis. The primary reason for this lies in the different timeline of victimhood manifested by these two crises.
Now, overall, the pandemic has played out similarly to that of global warming in the simple sense that those who have suffered most and those who are most likely to die are the working class — most particularly working-class people of color and those in various hotspots in the Global South. The rich, meanwhile, have been able to self-isolate with ease by escaping to additional homes in the countryside and have been able to access private health care.
The good, the bad, and the ugly.
The current juncture therefore provides us with an opportunity to oppose the return to business as usual, to push for the transformation of the global economy and the launch of something like a Green New Deal.
Nevertheless, we have to be honest about the situation we find ourselves in. COVID-19 has brought about the sudden obliteration of the climate justice movement in terms of everything that had been built up by the end of 2019. Since early 2020, COVID-19 has completely paralyzed all the most promising developments in the environmental movement — Fridays for Future, Extinction Rebellion, Ende Gelände, and so on — this is a situation of grave disaster. Prior to this, there had been a growing momentum toward aggressively disrupting business as usual, and while there have been attempts to temporarily move these actions online, there is simply no way to exert the same kind of pressure through digital means.
The article goes on to discuss ways of defeating Capitalism and saving the world through the joyous overturning of the oppressive planet-killing system.
The whole strategic direction of Lenin after 1914 was to turn World War I into a fatal blow against capitalism. This is precisely the same strategic orientation we must embrace today — and this is what I mean by ecological Leninism. We must find a way of turning the environmental crisis into a crisis for fossil capital itself.
You can read the full article here.
Lenin condoned lying as a means to achieving his goals. As such it made it impossible to have an honest conversation with him. I wonder if those calling for “ecological Leninism” realize they are closing off every path to having an honest conversation?
Truth has never been a leftist value.
Well, it worked so well last time, why on earth not do exactly the same thing again.
Embrace it all the way to Stalinist purges, with a sprinkling of Mao sause. 200 million dead people can’t all be wrong. Besides we will need to reduce the world population, so that would be good start.
Lenin turned Marxism into a fatal blow against about 10 million Russians. Stalin, not to be outdone, murdered another 60 million more.
Mao, rising to the challenge, managed a full Marxian 120 million or so murders.
That’s probably the record Andreas Malm (the interviewee) has in mind for the rest of us, when he comes to power. But he’ll be smashing Capitalism, so it’s all good.
Throughout the article one observes Andreas Malm salivating over “state power.” He can’t wait. The guy is a malignant cell frantic to metastasize.
Lenin, Stalin and Mao were pikers.
Depending on which doomsayer you listen to, the ideal population for the planet is somewhere between 200 million and 2 billion. Let’s take the high value which means “saving the planet” from climate change requires eliminating about 5.5 billion people. The previous world-champion population control practitioner was Genghis Khan, who is estimated to have reduced world population at the time by 5-10%.
These eco-totalitarians are aiming to downsize the world’s population by 74%. That’s bad enough, but when you realize they either believe this can be accomplished without violence on a truly unprecedented scale and the consequent collapse of industrial civilization, or they know it can’t and don’t care, then Genghis Khan suddenly doesn’t look all that bad.
Think 12 Monkeys, Alan.
“…surprise to find that governments in Europe and elsewhere were prepared to basically shut down their entire economies in an effort to contain the pandemic. This is striking, given that the same states had never contemplated undertaking any kind of intervention in the economy for the sake of the climate crisis.”
Both are consistent decisions. The virus may may have done hundreds of thousands of us in over a number of months and going all-in on climate would have unquestionably done hundreds of millions of us in every decade. Yeah, nothing striking about it at all. In the USSR, not one family escaped losing members of extended family.
The difference is that (as far as we know) COVID 19 is real. For climate change see:
https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-major-errors-made-by-scientists-in-approaching-a-climate-change-problem/answer/John-Bruyn
Nor has cognitive ability…
CONSIDER…
The clearance of forests for logging, agriculture, mining, and the construction of roads creates new interfaces where humans come into contact with wildlife.
This will still be a necessity for the incursion of Renewable Wind and Solar installations. Both will require:
Massive amounts of Mining
Massive amounts of Deforestation
Massive amounts of access road construction for installation, maintenance, and eventual decommissioning and removal
Don’t forget the thousands of miles of power lines. Where wind and sun are good, is rarely the same place where people choose to live. So you need power lines to move the power from where it is being generated to where it is going to be used.
Either that, or we can just move the people to where the windmills and solar farms are.
Nope. The people will move, of course, because we’ll all be reduced to subsistence agriculture, but the electricity will still have to get to the elites in the cities.
Sierra Club hiking outings are also places “where humans might come into contact with wildlife.” Is he suggesting or implying that such events should be “discouraged?”
Silly Bryan! We won’t need renewables because socialism powers itself.
Bryan A,
Here in the Marxist enclave of Scotland, we must be record breakers.
Between 2000 and d 2019 , 13.9 million trees were felled to build roads and spaces for windmills in Tax payer owned (they call it Government owned) forestery in Scotland.
That is separate from trees felled in privately owned land and those felled to build and access the thousands of miles of pylon supported copper wires.
Then down in Boris Corbyn utopia, we have (or had), Europe’s largest power station sitting on top of a 600 year supply of coal.
It is still Europe’s biggest single power generator – now powered entirely by wood chips transported thousands of miles from America.
And you thought 1984 had passed? I don’t mean you personally Bryan
… after all, communism was SO good for the environment. I mean it was literally a green utopia.
“many of us in the climate justice movement”. They want climate justice, not a pursuit of happiness. The difference between justice and climate justice is the same as between a jacket and a straitjacket.
So you’re saying he was a role model for Steve Schneider?
Indeed, I was just about to reply with that (in)famous Schneider quote when I read your reply, tsk tsk.
“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 between being effective and being honest.”
– Prof. Stephen Schneider,
“Lenin condoned killing as a means to achieving his goals.” FIFY
Here in SE Michigan, my vote is for more warming — global warming seems to have missed our area.
Our planet is always getting warmer or cooler.
My choice is warmer.
Ski bums may disagree.
Out of the past 4.5 billion years, only 1975 to 2020 had a strong correlation of CO2 and average temperature, if you ignore the flat temperature trend from 2003 to mid-2015.
And never mind the past 4.5 billion years of 100 percent natural causes of climate change.
Natural causes died in 1975 — I attended the funeral.
Richard, the surface temperature in West Bay, at 11am today is 52F. We’ve been having a lot of winds from the WNW over the last 2 weeks, and it’s not uncommon to see people in Downtown TC wearing winter coats. We were over at our daughters last weekend halfway up M22 to Suttons Bay and it was 38F at 9am. Sunday morning there was frost in Grayling. Would someone remind me that it’s only 3 days until summer starts
Mark from the MW. You mean the longest day … and then they get shorter again!? I’m originally from Manitoba.
“Global warming itself also accelerates this trend. As temperatures rise, certain animals are forced to migrate in search of climates that match those to which they are adapted. ”
Once again we see the assumption that the “average global temperature” going up means that maximum temperatures are going up. We’re all going to burn to death!
Another sixth grade math failure.
Perhaps ‘Let them all starve Stalin’ would be an even more effective role model. Or better yet, ‘Pile up the bones Pol Pot’. That would really get this show on the road!
AFAIC, Climate change Is about ending capitalism and bringing global socialism into being.
I have long said that CC is a Trojan horse for global socialism. They appear to be not hiding this anymore.
I have many friends, relatives and work colleagues that sit on the left side of the fence.
I am cool with that. We can argue about many policies in a civil way. I am also cool with that.
But Marxist and leninism stuff is deadly. It is not acceptable, and I will challenge anyone about it straight away.
They’re even worse than fascists, if the numbers are anything to go by.
pandemics are just like climate change….and they both belong to China
Is ‘the climate justice movement’ a new thing? Hadn’t heard it before. Justice for whom, exactly?
Read all about it here: https://ajustclimate.org/
Pffft.. they can’t even spell adjust.. 😀
No, the climate adjustist movement is just a the parent company.
No it’s not new it’s been leftard policy for ages. Basically they are trying to extend the concept of human rights to now encompass the idea of universal equality. So just by being born you are entitled to your equal share of the earths resources and good living conditions. So if your living conditions are worse than anyone else then they must contribute to you. It’s basic thinly hidden world socialism.
They tried to pack this junk into the Paris agreement but it all got cut in the last two COP meetings led unsurprisingly by China. There is almost nothing left of any of this junk left save the compensation for past emissions one that keeps getting kicked down the road. China had been promoting that one but now under that principle they would face covid19 damages claims so I expect it will die at the next COP.
Good posting Charles R. It is amazing how the left/socialist/communist/BLM/Extinction Rebellion, etc, either lurch from one crisis to another or simply combine them in one Grand Unified Theory about how capitalism/White Guys want to control/destroy/use everyone else. The current BLM et al riots are claiming to want to eliminate systematic racism (what looting Rolex watches has with this is apparently beyond my intellectual capacity) in order for Black/African Americans to have more opportunity, like, maybe some day elect an African American to be President? What? Been there and done that? Then, other than looting Rolex watches, is the point?
Apparently any criticism of BLM is enough to get you demonitized by Google.
Google might just have gotten a little too heavy-handed.
And Google isn’t just threatening the free speech of the Federalist and Zerohedge, they are threatening the freedom of speech of the posters of comments to those websites. That is what the Left is upset about. Some of the commenters had bad things to say about Black Lives Matter, probably mentioning their marxist connections, and Google hit the websites over the comments.
I wonder if this comment is acceptable to Black Lives Matter and Google and NBC news? I guess we will find out, won’t we.
I think a bill has been introduced in the U.S. Senate that would allow people to sue Google if they interfere in people’s free speech. That sounds like an excellent idea. The commenters at the Federalist and Zerohedge should join in a class action lawsuit against Google.
It’s time to break up the Leftwing Google Monopoly. Their power has gone to their heads and they have become a danger to Democracy and Free Speech, which is essential for Democracy.
Why isn’t there competition for Google, Facebook, Twitter… are electronic engineers gone to the dark side? I can’t see why someone willing to be a pure platform in compliance with “230” wouldn’t have a к;11er business plan. So far, Ive managed to do without this Triumvirate.
Let me help resolve your confusion, Ron. Asking for logical consistency or pointing out their hypocrisy is an intolerable microaggression against them on your part that would readily earn you labor camp imprisonment, if not that capital punishment they currently claim offends their tender sense of social justice. Recall the trend-setting form it took with white guys Vladimir Ulyanov (Lenin) and Ioseb Jugashvili (Stalin), the latter literally a Caucasian Georgian, when they empowered the outlook of Karl Marx. Yet despite all those odious European roots that very pattern was readily adopted without apparent distaste by Chinese, North Korean, Vietnamese, Cambodian, and some African indigenous leadership. I guess it all makes a kind of diabolic (non)sense.
This writer is of the mind, “We’ve got the middle class down on the mat in choke hold with COVID-19 measures. Let’s not let them up. Let’s finish them off with climate policy.”
As I’ve been saying we are at war, just most people don’t realize it yet. The never ending stream of stupid like I just read about mangroves is part of it, so is the SJW movement. It’s priceless to watch the left take over an area and impose police, and borders and rules – isn’t that what they are fighting against – anyone see hypocrisy here? Ah it only matters when it’s not their rules…I see yet again.
It’s time to take the gloves off and return our economies to their former might and simply say NO to Marxism/ Leninism.
I simply fear that people will be lulled into quiet acceptance until it is literally time to take up arms to fight for freedom.
It’s also as stupid as possible to tell us on the one hand, the newest climate models are running to hot, but tell us on the other hand, lower clouds are not cooling but warming. Where is the error ? 😀
“This is striking, given that the same states had never contemplated undertaking any kind of intervention in the economy for the sake of the climate crisis.”
Perhaps this is because they understand that it’s only a political crisis and not an actual threat. While the alarmists act on Goebbels logic, you can only claim that the sky is burning so many times before people catch on that it’s only a sunrise.
I’d say giving billions in subsidies to renewables and shutting down coal plants is an “intervention in the economy for the sake of the climate ‘crisis'”
The piece is one long collection of lies and non-sequitors, which is what I’ve come to expect from Marxists.
There was a moment in March 2020 when many of us in the climate justice movement
Climate justice movement???? These kind of people are truly dangerous.
Crusades typically are.
“These kind of people are truly dangerous.”
Yes, they are.
Say, can I start a Solar Corona Justice movement? I’m sure that the solar heliosphere must be hard done by, somehow.
Let me know when they start pulling down the statues of George Washington. That will be a good indicator of direction and momentum.
Is Jefferson close enough?
How about pulling down the statue of Lenin in the Fremont neighborhood in north of Seattle?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statue_of_Lenin_(Seattle)
They may not stop at Lenin but go straight to Pol Pot.
Lenin might as well have been Pol Pot.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_repression_in_the_Soviet_Union
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_killings_under_communist_regimes#Soviet_Union
“… the driving force of pandemic …..is deforestation”???
My family arrived on this continent in 1653. All my forefathers have died because they cut down trees.
What a fight it was against those pathogens; they were as bad as the flies and mosquitoes.
I had the same thought when I read that. Utter BS.
The bats from which SARS CoV2 is thought to have originated live in remote cases in Yunan. Deforestation had nothing to do with those bats.
That’s amazing how some people use the name of Lenin to defend the crasiest (harebrainde) ideas about «controlling “climate change”» (whatever that means…)
That is also how right-wing and proto-fascist oponents of anything progressive, get a «punching ball» out of Leninism (as if they had any idea of Lenin as a Philosopher… The «Philosophical Notebooks»).
I’m afraid that to suggest a cursory reading of Lenin’s works is a useless proposal.
It certainly is. The man invented fascism before it had that name and created the living hell Orwell wrote about. For those interested, here’s an excellent essay that will help to understand him and his lasting influence without having to wade through his turgid, self-justifying prose:
https://newcriterion.com/issues/2019/10/leninthink
Completely relevant to what’s happening today. Great takeaway:
“What happens is something like this: when a criticism of the true ideology is advanced, or when embarrassing facts come out, everyone learns a particular answer. One neither believes nor disbelieves the answer; one demonstrates one’s loyalty by saying it.”
I strongly suspect Guiherme is one of those academics who has spent his entire life studying the writings of Lenin and other communists, without ever checking to see what happens when those theories are put into practice.
He’s infatuated with the idea of communism, the mere fact that it doesn’t work doesn’t matter. It’s such a beautiful theory, it must be right.
MarkW, NO… I started working at 16… Under a Fascist regime… And I worked in various occupations (namely in Informatics) until I was 60… Not an academic life, for me… I only got my first degree when I was already 52 years old. But then I am insatiable reader and student of all things concerning the Political Economy od Development.
As for communism not working, well, «just look at China».
Of course you will say that «it works because China has turned “capitalistic”» (a good example of the systematic confusion between «market economy» and «capitalism»).
Now, consider this («food for thought«): China has turned «capitalist» because Deng Jiaoping and his fellow leaders decided to adopt an updated version of Lenin’s «New Economic Policy». Funny, how History turns out.
In any case my original point was «why bring Lenin into a discussion about a (childish) attempt to stop climate change»…
You’ve suggested we study what Lenin wrote and said. But I’d say it’s better to look at what politicians do than believe what they say. And regardless of whatever Lenin may have said, his was a murderous regime, killing millions.
As for China, their “leaders” may call themselves “communist” but they never got beyond socialism (the nationalisation of property and the means of production and distribution).
Once they allowed (some) private ownership of the means of production, some semblance of the price mechanism came into play, and capital was allocated on the basis of maximising utility in the eyes of consumers rather than by central planners attempting to meet political goals. The result was the economy exploded, raising hundreds of millions of Chinese out of dire poverty.
The Chinese system is now fascist: nationalist, militaristic, corrupt, and with (some) private property and capitalism.
It’s terrible but still far better than the socialism they had before.
You may read, but it looks like the only thing you read is propaganda.
China only works well precisely because they abandoned Communism. The parts of China that are producing wealth are all capitalist.
The communists are now claiming that capitalism is communism. Or is it communism is capitalism.
I wish I could tell if you actually are as deluded as you make yourself sound, or if you just that good at lying.
PS: I’d love to know what the fascist regime you claim to have grown up under. As near as I can tell, socialists use that term interchangably for any country they don’t like.
Also: piss off, Commie.
Once again, Guilherme trolls in to insult anyone who doesn’t worship communism.
He doesn’t try to explain why were wrong, probably because he can’t, he just flings insults.
The works of Lenin are pretty obvious, 100’s of millions dead, billions impoverished, environmental destruction on a scale never before seen on this planet.
All to make the people who run communism fabulously wealthy.
What insult?
Now you are being dense.
Dear «MarkW», let me see: Some «Tiger Bee Fly» (funny name) responds to my post with the words – «Also: piss off Commie». Obviously an insult addressed to me, «yours truly«, not you (MarkW).
And you (MarkW), upon my question «What insult», assume that «I am “dense”.
Now who is being insulted here?
But then as they say «sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can’t».
I was born in 1941 in Portugal. And I was a conscript «reserve lieutenant» in the colonial wars (in Africa) between 1961 and 1964. A «veteran» as the Americans say.
As for the arguments on China being fascist, or communist (or “what have you”) the fact remains that China is nowdays an economic superpower and, under the leadership of ther Communist Party, have liftec about 600.000.000 people out of poverty… The «Economist» magazine published soe time ago a main article – «cover page and all» – titled «How the West Got China Wrong». Compare China with India and its capitalist regime… The only State in India that is ruled by a coaltion of communists and other other progressives (Kerala) is by far the more advanced and developped. As Lenin once quipped «facts are stuborn». Deal with them and have a nice day.
Apparantly you don’t believe that calling people fascists is an insult.
The communist party is in control, therefore the country is communist.
Is that really the level of thinking that you wish to rely on?
China was dirt poor, when they were communist. They only started to advance when they abandoned pure communism and started allowing capitalism back into the country.
No country has ever advanced by implementing communism. On the other hand many countries have become poor under communism.
That is also how right-wing and proto-fascist oponents of anything progressive,
Progressive IS fascist IS marxism IS communism. They’re all about state control instead of individual control. Get an education in simple common sense.
Guys like Guillame think fascism and socialism must be opposites because one is “right” wing and the other is “left” wing.
As every good communist knows, communism works. If it doesn’t work, it isn’t communism. By definition.
Like trying to claim that when China adopted capitalism, it was just another form of socialism.
Yes Guilherme, I insulted you, and so did several other people, because you’re a Communist. Deal with it, and have a lousy day, although I’m glad you think my name is funny. Some might say your name is funny too.
You probably don’t have Tiger Bee Flies in Portugal or wherever you are, but trust me when I say they aren’t funny. The right word is interesting. 🙂
A Left Wing publication recently warned….it could happen again…what?…..another Hitler – that’s what. Watch out for that Hitler coming back….Lenin-Stalin-Mao will help you prevent Hitler from gaining power again. The End justifies the means….do anything to win……might makes right.
Of course Fascism is a form of socialism.
As for the racism portion, nobody takes a back seat to progressives when it comes to racism.
Fascism arose in opposition to Leninist Marxism. Socialists realised that the excesses of the Bolsheviks were tarnishing the brand and switched their shtick from class consciousness to national consciousness.
Mussolini described fascism as a “third way” between the extremes of socialism and capitalism, which collectivist politicians managed to persuade many voters was to blame for the great depression.
FIFY: “…all share a common trait that makes them unique among mammals, namely their ability to engage in sustained flight. So let’s chop them up with giant windmills!”
Maybe this wackjob hasn’t heard, but tree-planting has been ramping up enormously of late, and in his pursuit of the Workers Paradise he must have missed hearing that the number of trees on the planet turned out to be 7.5 times greater than previous estimates.
I love estimates, don’t you? “Yes, our initial estimate was very, very wrong, and kindly shut the hell up about it, because science!”
The only reason force is required is because the solution is so stupid, dumb and expensive. If these global warming energy ignorant assholes could add twoand two, they would see that 1) electric cars are the future, the near future, with driving ranges of 400 miles, recharge times of less than 20 minutes, battery lifespans of 1 million miles (or 16 years) , and selling prices that are near gas powered jobs and costs that are less, long term.
Therefore no govt subsidies are needed. As for power generation, molten salt small modular reactors are everything one could possibly want in a power generator : cheap, safe, quickly built and deploed and the ability to eliminate the need for fossil fuel peak generators (which renewables require).
Molten salt reactors are widely used in the Heavens.
Yeah, but they don’t want us to have energy and transport! They want us to huddle fearfully in our freezing or sweltering shacks and suffer and die.
”The prospect of cheap fusion energy is the worst thing that could happen to the planet.”
– Jeremy Rifkin, Greenhouse Crisis Foundation
“Giving society cheap, abundant energy would be the equivalent of giving an idiot child a
machine gun.”
– Paul Ehrlich
“A total population of 250-300 million people, a 95% decline from present levels, would be
ideal.”
– Ted Turner
“Childbearing should be a punishable crime against society, unless the parents hold a
government license.”
– David Brower, First Executive Director of the Sierra Club
“The only hope for the world is to make sure there is not another United States…We have to stop these Third World countries right where they are.”
– Michael Oppenheimer, Environmental Defense Fund
“It would be little short of
disastrous for us to discover a source of clean, cheap, abundant energy, because of what we
might do with it.”
– Amory Lovins, Rocky Mountain Institute
Had enough? Yes, it’s turning into a war, and not just an ideological one. The entire apparatus of totalitarianism is being readied for deployment.
Built and deployed? Where? I’m still waiting for this thing to break out of the lab.
Ah, I see: you think the word “apparatus” refers only to a material artifact; also, I don’t see where I used the word “built.” Merriam-Webster:
2. the functional processes by means of which a systematized activity is carried out the apparatus of society such as
a) the machinery of government
b ) the organization of a political party or an underground movement,
You’re welcome! 🙂
If you check the indenting you will see that I was replying to the Col.
Ah, sorry about that! Maybe it’s the same for Bruce Cobb. If so, apologies all around.
It was fun arguing though, even if it was with nobody. Keeps the old thinkin’-instrument sharpened. More likely I just need a nice de-stressing walk through the devastated dystopian hellhole we call the earth. 😉
What color is the sky on your planet?
I suspect it is the color of molten salt.
You’re right: it could never, ever happen here. Never. No chance. Not in a million years. No way, Jose. Uh-uh. That’s for sure!
Too many
Biden/Sanders/Blackwater/Gore/Ocasio-Cortez/UN/Soros/Extinction Rebellion/Vatican/mainstream media/Royal Family/”education” systems/China/scientistscheck and balances. Darn tootin’! I must be on drugs! What on earth was I thinking?Except checks and balances, not excluding the Constitution of the United States, can be done away with. Like police forces and the rule of law. Like what happened to Carter Page, General Michael Flynn, and the bloody President. Star Chambers, “hate speech” courts with no appeal, and on and on and on.
My sky is blue – what cave have you been living in the last twenty years, and the last few in particular? You think the steady ramping up of the hysteria, not excluding city-wrecking riots, and the flood of doom-laden “science” papers, and the call for fewer liberties and a “downsized” economy for the developed world are just a fad? Well if so, it’s a fad that has been with us for at least thirty years and has shown no sign of losing steam – very much the opposite.
Maybe you just haven’t lived long enough to see exactly this kind of thing come to pass in many, many countries in your lifetime? So believe whatever you want if it gives you comfort – some people just aren’t any good at seeing the big picture, and can’t make connections out of multiple streams of information. And very clearly I’m hardly alone in my worldview.
To abort climate change, we need an ecological Choice. #PlannedPopulation to reduce excess [human] lives. Wind Turbines to whack excess birds and bats. Photovoltaic panels, a blight on the environment, to reduce excess green flora and brown fauna.
“To Halt Climate Change, We Need an Ecological Leninism”
Disgusting
It’s funny how Lenin isn’t as reviled as Hitler. Or Mussolini, at least.
He employed better propagandists. Just about everyone who worked at the NYT for starters.
BTW, everyone who loved Lenin and Stalin, also loved Hitler, until Hitler turned on Russia.
Over the top is the new new method for attention seekers.
The 2nd Amendment of the US Constitution was emplaced to provide the necessary means for the citizen militia (We The People…) to reject the attempted forced takeovers from wannabe tyrants espousing deadly crap like ‘environmental Leninism’. Between the politically forced Wuhan virus lock downs and the politically endorsed, terrorist infiltrated, violent riots, Americans have quietly secured another 2 million personal sidearms for family and property protection. The increasingly dictatorial, violent, and irrational political environments in democrat run states like Washington are spurring main street Americans to provide their own ‘necessary security of a free State’.
You are correct. The 2nd amendment is the linchpin of the entire document. Because without it, all the rest of the guarantees and protections in the constitution can be taken away by the government; a disarmed citizenry having little recourse. That is why attacks on the 2nd amendment are so disconcerting. Once that right is gone, the rest will inevitably fall as well.
For all practical purposes, the rest are either already gone, or on their way out.
“those in various hotspots in the Global South” – I assume he means UK, Belgium, Italy, Spain, and other counties in the global south
Why stop with Lenin. Why not go the full Stalinist famine; should be able to cull a billion or so.
CAGW has always been a political phenomenon rather than a physical one.
CAGW has always been an evil Leftist tool to destroy Western Civilization and free-market enterprise in order to create a Utopian totalitarian world order..
So in reality, the CAGW Hoax required the pursuit of Leninism for its very existence…
I looked up a photo of author Andreas Malm…and…OMG what a LEFTIST! Just another hypocrite liberal, I bet he uses fossil fuels every day!
We need more literacy and numeracy and I wish you luck with that madam-
https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/nsw-to-declutter-school-curriculum-and-re-prioritise-literacy-and-numeracy/ar-BB15z533
Maybe we could swap the police and school teachers around for a while? Might work as not much else is at present.
Because the USSR, the People’s Republic of China, North Korea and the former Soviet-bloc satellite states have a better environmental record than the USA, Western Europe, Canada, etc?
“Modern society is hypnotised by socialism. It is prevented by socialism from seeing the mortal danger it is in.
And one of the greatest dangers of all is that you have lost all sense of danger, you cannot even see where it’s coming from as it moves swiftly towards you.” – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
“In our country (Russia) the lie has become not just a moral category but a pillar of the State”. – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Malm appears to be suffering from, among other things, an extreme case of verbal diarrhea. Such people couldn’t speak truthfully about anything if their life depended on it.
Sooner or later, our governments are going to implement their plans to reach their impossible climate change targets and it will be too late to change anything until our economies are in ruins.
Our politicians believe that the science is settled and are keen to respond to every alarmist story that the BBC, ABC or any other network churns out by promising ever more ambitious carbon dioxide reduction targets without ever considering what negligible difference this will make to our climate.
Their vision of a new green economy appears to be entirely built on everything being electric without any hint of a reliable source. What has happened to the thousands of power engineers who know the energy plans are impossible? Are they all yes men or have they given up?
We need to get our act together. The science is flawed and we need to spell that out, for example the models are not fit for purpose. The energy plans are flawed and we need to have an appropriate statement there too.
Our arguments need to be heard and they need to be consistent.
Perhaps those who frequently post on these matters could suggest arguments that we can all use when convincing others that the proposed green energy policies are madness and the climate change science is unsound.
Now those leftists are starting a new attempt to sell us the overcome rule of mass murderers like Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Che & Co, as eco-model for the future.
Their old wine in new bottles is relabeled “eco-socialism”. In this brave new world we will be tortured and killed, we will starve and die inside and outside of concentration camps as before under rule of “xxx-socialisms”, but we will suffer for the sake of “Mother Earth , “Environment” and “The Great Transformation”, not for a better life in a communist paradise! The best we can hope for is something like a futuristic “People’s Republic of China”?
Isn’t that wonderful?
“This is striking, given that the same states had never contemplated undertaking any kind of intervention in the economy for the sake of the climate crisis”
Really? What about generous taxpayer-funded subsidies for wind farms? Generous subsidies to buy EVs? Mandating the closure of coal fired power stations, either directly or by imposing emission restrictions so severe that they have no choice but to close? Forcing conversion of Europe’s largest thermal power station to burn wood from American forests? Banning fracking wherever you can get away with it? Using endless delay in the “approval process” to block construction of pipelines (Obama)? Simply not approving pipelines (Trudeau)? Creating an environmental review process so onerous that companies give up and walk away (Trudeau)? Giving territorial rights to hereditary chiefs who oppose a pipeline and refusing to even talk to elected chiefs who see a pipeline as a way of lifting their people out of poverty (Trudeau)? Closing down all your nukes so you have to buy Russian gas and open a big lignite mine (well, they don’t actually have to make logical sense)? These are just a few examples of what look awfully like “intervention in the economy” to me.
I suppose the Leninist style of intervention is more what he has in mind. (“Give me the keys, I’m in charge now, you go to Siberia”).
To your average progressive, anything less than total commitment to the cause, is indistinguishable from active opposition.
“We are the true carbon copy clones, we know ‘ What Is to Be Done, Burning Questions of Our Movement’, we are the AGWs
http://www.vukcevic.co.uk/AGWs.htm
It is all insanity with a bit of a profit/control motive mixed in.
“The most important driving force behind the production of pandemics is clear in the scientific literature and it is deforestation — which is also the second biggest contributor to global climate change. ”
You realize, of course, that in the US there is much more more forest than there was 100 years ago?
One of the American Scientist book reviewers said almost the same thing without the obvious pejorative names. At least this one is more openly honest, but calls others juveniles. Also calls it a secular problem, ok let’s do it that way, dictionary says long time for the word. Thinks that he can just turn a switch like all petty, and not so petty, dictators.
“The whole strategic direction of Lenin after 1914 was to turn World War I into a fatal blow against capitalism. This is precisely the same strategic orientation we must embrace today — and this is what I mean by ecological Leninism. We must find a way of turning the environmental crisis into a crisis for fossil capital itself.” He gave away his totalitarianism. I am old enough to remember when we used to denigrate all the communists in universities in other countries.
Why is it that every generation gets trapped in leftist mindset and gets angry? Because lazy wishful thinking is incompatible with laws of nature: probability density function of any natural phenomena is never flat, never equal. Whether this is about rainfall, crop yields, population of salmon, person’s height and weight, or his cognitive ability, or performance on the job, or susceptibility to virus, etc., nothing is equally distributed in space or time. We live in a multi-dimensional world with millions of variables, these variables are interdependent, most often nonlinearly, and their distributions are anything but flat. Even talking about distributions is not the right language: most of the observable phenomena is best characterized as complex metastable attractor spaces with highly nonlinear dynamics. So much for demanding the equality of outcome.
Born in USSR, lived there for thirty years, plus the last thirty in the US. When the name of Lenin is invoked as a rallying cry, this is not about science or climate or economics. To put it in the starkest of terms, the question is whether this stupid world can escape yet another catastrophe of mass murder, mass fear, and mass misery. Fight it as much as you can! Do not dismiss it as some sort of background noise. Demand that the history of Russian revolution is taught as a mandatory subject in schools and colleges. I wouldn’t bet on common sense prevailing, or scientific reasoning, or anything. Lenin was shameless in exploiting the stupidity of uneducated masses, and those who resisted were simply killed off. The new leninists are latching onto the same mass ignorance, and the outcome may be the same.
Well said. I live and work with Aussies who yearn for an Australian version of the USSR, yet they don’t know what they talk of and what it REALLY means. I was in a discussion yesterday with my workmates about the terms “Master” and “Slave” in coding and that the terms are being actively banned because of racial connotations. It’s complete BS. It’s Orwellian 1984.
Henceforth all bodies shall be displayed in wax body form with long orderly lines for viewing.
Don’t forget what happened to all the international useful idiots that followed Lenin to Moscow.
All to prevent something hugely beneficial to the earth, increased CO2 (and maybe a little mild, beneficial warming).
No shortage of neo-socialist dumb-wits is there? Or should they be called neo-anarchists?
I found this interesting reading:
A study of cultured bat cells shows that their strong immune responses, constantly primed to respond to viruses, can drive viruses to greater virulence. Modelling bat immune systems on a computer, the researchers showed that when bat cells quickly release interferon upon infection, other cells quickly wall themselves off. This drives viruses to faster reproduction. The increased virulence and infectivity wreak havoc when these viruses infect animals with tamer immune systems, like humans.
You’ll find it on https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/02/200210144854.htm
I’m gunna use the Sin Gas to make building blocks for cheap offset homes and really clean up-
https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/technology/there-s-a-sustainable-new-way-to-convert-co2-waste-into-building-blocks-for-fuel/ar-BB15Ah1K
These watermelons are ripe for the plucking.
This whole charade of CAGW was never about the climate, but a smokescreen for the far left to reorder the economic system. To this day I will never understand what the attraction is to give up freedom and private property, and replace it with a jackboot to the throat. After all, Communism is essentially about big overbearing government telling adults when, how and where they can live. There must be some serious mental issue in individuals who think big government (bloated petty bureaucracy) is an improvement in the human condition. Mediocrity, shoddy scarce consumer goods, drudgery and limits on all the freedoms we assume are desirable, like travel, a nice home, abundant choice, etc etc would evaporate. Perhaps a whole generation needs to be forced to live under the repressive vindictive system of Communism to understand what was lost. Let’s hope not but these far left types can never be trusted with our liberty. The current generation is alive in the most ideal conditions ever (The Covid virus is nothing compared to war or famine).
Lefties have a fundamental pathological flaw that they believe they know what’s best for everybody and the way to Utopia. That pathology naturally leads inevitably to only one Fearless Leader with the Great Leap Forward that knows the one true light and the way there. Unfortunately lefties don’t get the fallacy of composition here and hence Hitler Stalin Mao Pol Pot uncle Kim etc and welcome to leftism in context. The day pathological lefties gain a democratic majority we’re all in deep trouble being contextualised like that.
“ecological Leninism”
A system whereby the peasant majority who are excluded from the ruling party elite are forced to live a life of minimum subsistence in the name of saving the environment, whilst the ruling elites live a life of excess and abundance on the hard toils of the peasants.
A better idea would be to send all of these people to Greenland or Antarctica so as they can create their dream lifestyles without fear of warmth and without impacting those who seek a different path.
Author is worried about a “grave disaster”. Is that like a zombie apocalypse?
I believe we should adapt the method of Patton and Macarthur, in this case. To defeat the Leftist and Environuts, we will need to attack such. This is the only way to beat back the enemy. If the Leftist and Environuts really want to eliminate our society, we should engage them.
What are we waiting for? War is want they want, then war it is.
Note there is no “sarc/”.
Bryan A,
Here in the Marxist enclave of Scotland, we must be record breakers.
Between 2000 and d 2019 , 13.9 million trees were felled to build roads and spaces for windmills in Tax payer owned (they call it Government owned) forestery in Scotland.
That is separate from trees felled in privately owned land and those felled to build and access the thousands of miles of pylon supported copper wires.
Then down in Boris Corbyn utopia, we have (or had), Europe’s largest power station sitting on top of a 600 year supply of coal.
It is still Europe’s biggest single power generator – now powered entirely by wood chips transported thousands of miles from America.
And you thought 1984 had passed? I don’t mean you personally Bryan