Essay by Eric Worrall
h/t Breitbart; Boulder climate activist Wynn Bruce has died from self inflicted injuries, after setting fire to himself outside the US Supreme Court in Washington DC.
Boulder climate activist dies after apparent act of protest outside U.S. Supreme Court on Earth Day
Friend of Wynn Bruce says his actions in Washington, D.C., were planned to “bring attention to climate crisis”
By SHELLY BRADBURY | sbradbury@denverpost.com and NEW YORK TIMES | The Denver Post
PUBLISHED: April 24, 2022 at 6:05 p.m. | UPDATED: April 24, 2022 at 6:36 p.m.The Boulder man who set himself on fire in front of the U.S. Supreme Court on Earth Day apparently acted in protest of inaction on climate change.
Wynn Bruce, 50, a climate activist, died Saturday, a day after his actions in front of the nation’s highest court in Washington, D.C. He was airlifted for treatment but did not survive.
Kritee Kanko, who described herself as Bruce’s friend and a Zen Buddhist priest in Boulder, said on Twitter that Bruce’s actions were a planned protest.
“This is a deeply fearless act of compassion to bring attention to climate crisis,” she said in a tweet.
She declined to comment further when reached by The Denver Post on Sunday, saying she needed time to grieve.
However, she told The New York Times she was not completely sure of Bruce’s motivations, the newspaper reported, saying that “people are being driven to extreme amounts of climate grief and despair” and that “what I do not want to happen is that young people start thinking about self-immolation.”
There are indications that Bruce had contemplated this action for some time.
…
Read more: https://www.denverpost.com/2022/04/24/wynn-bruce-climate-change-self-immolation/
We at WUWT are saddened by the loss suffered by Wynn Bruce’s family and friends.
We urge anyone who feels extreme emotional distress about climate change or anything else to reach out to friends and family, and seek professional counselling.
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I am rarely at a loss for words, but this just leaves me speechless.
Bad way to go.
And for what?
To die for a lie. That multiplies the tragedy.
Isn’t it time for litigation against alarmists? They have continually made false doom and gloom predictions which now has had obvious effects on the mental well being of their subjects. Kids are crying in the streets, its become a total farce.
If only he had had a skeptical friend who could have shown him how the Piltdown Mann hid the decline. But he apparently didn’t.
This is commentary either on friendship or on the availability of information in this ‘Information Age’.
===========
Unfortunately, a skeptical friend couldn’t have saved him as he was in thrall to a religious cult. No amount of evidence will do. There is simply no possible means of convincing a true believer that his or her beliefs are false..
At least he set himself on fire instead of a bunch of other people.
Sadly, true…
Suicide is almost always a result of mental illness. I’m sure his friends and family will have seen a pattern of mental health problems. Most suicides are preventable if the people around the sufferer notice the signs and reach out to help or intervene. It is unfortunate that some will politicize this as a message that
climate changeglobal warming is an “existential threat” that people are bravely willing to die to warn the rest of us about. In reality it is a sobering reminder to watch for the signs of suicide and do something.Unfortunately mental illness is more prominent among leftists as many surveys show, which probably comes as little surprise to those of us who watch and wonder at the bizarre ideas that many of them believe.
It is a sober reminder that belief in “Climate Change™” is a mental illness, as is the belief that Communism will lead to something other than universal misery if only we do it harder.
I wish more people who believed these things would kill themselves – it makes the world a better place and it saves us from having to do it later (when they become violent towards people who don’t share their
delusionsbeliefs).Suicide is almost always a result of mental illness
What’s most troubling to me is the comment by his so-called “friend” “This is a deeply fearless act of compassion to bring attention to climate crisis”
That’s a horrible mindset.
Sounds like his so-called “friend” could be next with that delusional comment in response to her fellow cultists action. Oh, well.
This was not suicide. It was political performance art.
Suicide results from despair and the feeling that no other action will make the pain stop. The question is why Mr. Bruce felt this way over such a thing. It makes us realize that this whole “Anthropogenic Climate Change” thing is truly a religion in and of itself and makes up some people’s entire worldview.
What the heck was he trying to do?
Set an example to millions of naive youngsters around the world who happen to believe in the lies propagated by the UN and many governments and their institutions?
If so, Dante Alighieri has reserved a place for Mr. Bruce in one of the rings of the 9th circle.
Yeah, I know it shows that he was insane and not in control of his actions, but to be very brutally honest, I feel nothing but contempt and disgust at this ultimate narcissistic act.
Sorry, not sorry.
His last act of climate protest was to pollute the environment.
I feel sorry for his friends and family, and concern for his fellow travelers in the climate crisis cult – their concern for the environment and lack of critical thinking skills have been taken exploited for political gain, regardless of the cost in lives and people’s wellbeing.
R.i.p. Wynn Bruce – may God have mercy on your soul, you knew not what you did, brainwashed and whipped up into a frenzy by the alarmists.
“What the heck was he trying to do?”
I agree with you, that his goal seems to have been to induce the rest of humanity to take steps that will necessarily cause massive poverty, deprivation, and an uncountably huge number of deaths, if the message were ever heeded, that we must stop using the energy sources that keep us all alive and healthy.
We would not simply revert to how things were just prior to the industrial revolution, because there are now billions upon billions of people who depend on energy for food and warmth, to stay clothed and housed, and for virtually everything we have that keeps us alive.
I believe, as it seems you do as well, that it must be true though that far more harm is done by those who continue on, ceaselessly spreading message of doom and hopelessness and despair, many of them doing so daily to large numbers of young and impressionable minds.
Please tell me he didn’t use a FOSSIL Fuel to set himself alight! The irony….it burns.
I never even thought of that.
The likelihood that he did definitely layers on the irony.
He sat on a Tesla battery.
Well, that wouldn’t work because it wouldn’t have produced the fire ‘on demand.’ Sort of like the types of electric generation such a deluded individual would support.
You win the Internet today!
Plus, they flew him away for emergency treatment. Hope the airplane wasn’t fossil fuel powered.
If you see Buddha on the road – kill him . Lin Chi
For hubris and solipsism. As usual with Puritan sects that show zeal and not only grumbling.
Zealots are convinced Providence or Predestination (in whatever form) is on their side. Thus they always double down if they lose, because they surely will win “in the end”. If in doubt, also double down: this both shows virtue and invokes sunk cost mentality. Eventually, doubling down itself becomes an unquestioned habit, and for warped perception it’s both reaffirmation of faith and a step toward victory. Then the rest of us are treated to an unsettling sight of someone imitating a tortoise from The Encantadas who repeatedly rammed a mast for half the night. Or woodpecker on a concrete post, if you prefer.
Self-destruction is simply the final step of this road.
Finally, I get it! It’s so clear now! Thank you for your sacrifice. /sarc
Seriously, try to convince me again how this is not a cult.
Or better yet a Religion
Planned Martyrhood: self-abortion A wicked solution, but his life, his Choice.
A Twilight Faith (i.e. emanations from penumbras, conflation of logical domains), nominally “secular” Pro-Choice “ethical” religion (i.e. behavioral protocol), liberal (i.e. divergent) ideology to realize his principles in society.
The only thing this deluded fool called any attention to was just how deluded he was.
May God have mercy on his soul…
Good going Greta … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsePPZW4wuY
Powerful. Greta leads a death cult.
Greta has the most evil eyes I have ever seen.
All he did was prove climate activists are as crazy as we think they are.
He proved that media alarmism is deadlier than most realize it to be. These talking heads should be alarmed and ashamed of the deadly influence they are peddling.
or sad
A lot of young activists are responding to their parents’ urgings. This isn’t the first self-immolation. A young protester burned himself to death several years ago when his mother goaded him to act instead of just talking about his beliefs. I don’t see it on Google and don’t remember the source. Mom was a high profile type, so her words of inspiration were on record somewhere or other. Sick.
I think one of the worst things about climate change alarmism is the grief, anguish, and despair it inflicts on people who are prone to worry about such things. They are suffering for nothing.
Inferential logic. Plausible science. A cargo cult. A social contagion.
I have been critical of Sigma Xi because of their unscientific political activities, but maybe they are on to something. “Register today to participate in the next mental health “Happy” Hour this Wednesday, April 20, 3–4 p.m. ET, facilitated by our wellness partner, Happy. This monthly series brings together the Sigma Xi community for conversations about building resilience and finding solutions to challenges we may face as individuals and as a community.
Participants will guide the conversation for future sessions as we tailor the experience to the needs of the Sigma Xi community.
Event Details:Monthly Mental Health “Happy” Hour Date: April 20, 2022″
Worse – if they get their way, we will ALL be suffering for nothing.
Mental illness is frequently tragic and treatable.
But we need the media to recognize mental illness as such. This disturbed individual will be lionized as a martyr on MS/CNN, much like Lia Thomas but for more disturbing reasons.
Social progress. The wicked solution (e.g. self-abortion) is neither novel nor unique. #NoJudgment #NoLabels
and generally initiated around adolescence as the frontal lobes re-arrange cognitive pathways (read Sarah Jane Blakemore ),unfortunately one of the long standing remedies (middle ages onwards) for mental illness was cold shock therapy, i.e. dousing in a cold river, a form of slight vasovagal syncope shock. but I
ve never come across a heat cure. Believe m, unfortunately not all mental illness istreatable` in the general sense of the word and we still use ECT with no gauranteeYou can Google “fatalities wind turbine construction” There are probably other deaths that have a direct link Climate Change policies.
My sympathy for his family and other acquaintances.
True this, and all the lives that will never be because people refusing to have children due to the “climate crisis”.
Not to sound too synical, but I suggest anyone who believes there is a climate crisis, should probably not be breeding.
Difference between cynical and insightful is in perspective.
What you see is a self-regulating system in the particular phase of its cycle. As virtue signalling becomes increasingly self-destructive, this increases selection pressure against predisposition toward drinking kool-aid.
Of course, it’s also destructive toward everyone and everything around. But the Yellow Tiger/Pol Pot type outcome is not the only possibility.
You could yield similar results with Googling “Rooftop Solar Fires” & “Deaths”
On second thought Google is stifling certain searches, Duckduckgo might be the better option
To each steering engine a bias per chance prejudice.
Even DDG recently announced they would be filtering “misinformation”
We can only wonder how many of the people, young and old, who commit suicide, do so in whole or in part because of alarmism induced fatalism?
Add onto those people some huge number of drug overdoses by people who see no point in life on a “dying planet”.
Then realize that for every person who dies of suicide or drug overdose, there are many more who are suicidal or addicted, but do not die…they just suffer on and on, bringing misery and chaos wherever they go, to every life they touch.
‘Kritee Kanko, who described herself as Bruce’s friend and a Zen Buddhist priest in Boulder, said on Twitter that Bruce’s actions were a planned protest.’
Sad. Someone should have tried to intervene.
Like maybe the “friend”? He was obviously in on it.
Wasn’t it described as a “she”?
That’s today. Tomorrow, who knows.
Certainly won’t self identify as a fire extinguisher but a Toaster is possible
Their pronouns are she/her, you monster!
Here is a link for an essay from her.
Sounds like the same old Communism.
You have to admire their perseverance. The Communists identify a cultural institution, then make a headlong rush to infiltrate and take it over.
A lot of stuff you hear out of the middle east will have this communist sound, and sure enough there is a strong vein of Marxist Islam. Do a search.
The Marxists have made many ventures into Christianity. This is pretty well known. “Liberation Theology,” and other efforts.
So, I guess it is no surprise that the Marxists have tainted Buddhism, as well.
Krittee’s essay – from 2020
https://www.lionsroar.com/why-bodhisattvas-need-to-disrupt-the-status-quo/
“According to Zen priest and climate scientist Kritee…”
In Boulder? I doubt it.
“‘Kritee Kanko, who described herself as Bruce’s friend and a Zen Buddhist priest…”
Kritee appears to have got hold of the wrong end of the stick about zen.
Zen is the way of direct perception of reality. Its practitioners have no need of priests.
Kritee is a fake, although she may not have realised it.
Someones gotta ask this…..How much CO2 is generated by a burning body?
That’s what I was thinking….you would think he would have chosen a carbon-neutral way of death, especially with the point he was attempting to make. Like drinking cyanide or perhaps falling on a sword (though of course the sword would have required some CO2 emissions in its forging).
STILL not ‘carbon neutral.’ The body decomposes, regardless of the method of death…
When this starts happening, a line has been crossed that should not have been crossed.
If the skeptics of this climate scare narrative are not taken seriously and are not listened to, I fear there will be more suicides in the years ahead, especially in the Extinction Rebellion movement. The totally irresponsible statements made by the U.N. secretary-general a while back were over the top as are the statements of anyone else making similar comments.
This what can happen when we live in a society where the dissemination of information is controlled by those who are driven by their own activist agenda, belief systems and worldview. And that statement applies to the U.N., the governments of the world, academia, the mainstream media, NGO’s and scientific institutions.
Regarding the climate issue, the needless emotional and psychological suffering that is going on now, as much as anything else, is a result of the scientific illiteracy of the masses. Taking advantage of children only makes it worse. That scientific illiteracy allows the scientifically literate to take advantage of the masses when the climate scare narrative serves the purpose of the literate ones. It is cruel and inhumane.
If and when the fear and panic get worse in the months and years ahead, I fear something far more dramatic than one suicide will happen as a result of this CAGW narrative. What it will be and when it will happen, I know not.
As I have said in the past, human ignorance and stupidity are two of the biggest threats to our own well-being. My condolences to the family and friends of Mr. Bruce.
Found something v-e-e-e-r-r-ry interesting folks, if it is true….
On Twitter, Dr. Ryan Maue is reporting that Bruce’s views on the climate “emergency” were formed by an online course that Bruce apparently took. This is based on a posting that Bruce put on this Facebook account according to Dr. Maue….
https://twitter.com/RyanMaue/status/1518573861780004864
You get just one guess as to who teaches the course….
https://www.edx.org/course/climate-change-the-science-and-global-impact
The teacher? It’s worse than I thought. Sickening.
And for those who haven’t clicked yet, no, it’s not the usual suspect, Algore. You’d expect it from him, but not this time.
I have no doubt Michael Mann is contributing to general feelings of despair, but in my experience with people I knew who reach this point in their mind, anything could tip them over the edge. Even if it was Mann’s course in this case, if Wynn hadn’t done the course the trigger probably would have been something else, like running out of milk, a flat tyre, or too many TV ads during his favourite programme.
“You get just one guess as to who teaches the course….”
Got it in one.
wOw! I’m impressed, jorge! I went for the Goreacle.
I got it in one as well. the Goreacle is just a grifter, in it for the big money and nothing else. a course like that is small potatoes for him.
Mann, on the other hand, is in it for pure self-agrandizement. It’s an ego trip for him (hence his big upping himself as a “nobel prize winner” in legal filings, when he was never the recipient of such an award as the novel prize committee has attested) and he doesn’t care who gets destroyed in the process just as long as his ego is stroked. Teaching such a course helps stroke his ego.
Who sold him the petroleum products and when did they know it could ignite? Is the UN culpable? Is the Democrat Party culpable?
It’s sadly ironic if he used a Fossil Fuel as the flammable agent.
Alternatively, he could have used a Tesla PowerWall battery to electrocute himself.
That is, if the physical exertion of hauling a PowerWall battery along the street didn’t do him in first.
See, a 2-gallon container of gas weighs about 20 pounds.
Whereas a PowerWall weighs 251 pounds.
It’s all about energy density, folks.
Tesla batteries are the new must have for self immolation
One wouldn’t necessarily have to deadlift the PowerWall down the street. work smarter not harder. One can use a non-powered wheeled cart (the proverbial little red wagon) to make transportation more viable. Still would be quite the drag, but not a “do him in first” level of exertion.
Bring it in a Tesla and put a shorting bar over the battery – the resulting fire will be much more impressive!
It saddens me whenever someone, especially seemingly physically healthy, takes their one life.
That said, I wondered what flammable material he used. Based on the intensity of the flames and its sooty smoke, I would guess gasoline.
Another suicide. I thought Boulder had plenty of mental health professionals. Suicide is a sign of mental illness and that’s all that should be considered. Climate has nothing to do with it. If it wasn’t climate it would be some other problem.
I disagree. People don’t commit suicide only because they have a mental illness (endogenous depression). Many commit suicide because they lose hope for the life they live. It is often a situational response when life loses all meaning. Common triggers are illness, loss of friendship or romantic support, loss of opportunity, poverty, psychological or physical abuse, chronic pain. Teaching people that the world is ending because of climate change, that people are the cause, that having children is a blight on the planet and that everything you enjoy in life is just one more nail in the coffin of planet Earth will be the direct cause of many more suicides. There should be accountability.
Are you saying we should sue the IPCC for foisting this climate change crazy on humanity?
Wouldn’t that be wonderful. Get a few Attornies General onside and an Oreskes-type harridan to orchestrate a #IPCCknew and do some serious sue and settle SLAPPstick
There are plenty of Atrocities General to be had.
Extra points for use of harridan. Last heard in reference to the Hilldebeest.
Well worth doing but only if there is a credible prospect of success and sound legal basis for doing so.
A fundamental error in logic would be the assumption that the motivation for “ordinary” suicide is congruent to that for self-immolation. Yes, accountability is necessary.
I disagree The poor chap was literally scared to death by the doom-mongers
Suicide may well be a sign of mental illness, but this illness can unfortunately be encouraged by people who give off the impression that dying for The Cause is heroic.
Every imbecile who applauds this man’s action as a brave statement that brings attention to the need to save the planet, etc., unfortunately encourages the next unstable fool to go out “heroically” too.
Excellent point.
Whenever there is a prominent suicide story, there are always copycats in the days and weeks to come.
Glorifying it seems like a sure way to make sure there are many more, not less, of such acts of madness.
To play the anti-Simon, you are saying that by ridiculing this person, we might actually be saving lives down the line.
There’s a part of me that thinks if all the “climate crisis” true believers want to follow suit, let them have at it. As long as they do it only to themselves.
At least then the rest of us can get on with improving the human condition, as opposed to making it far worse, which is what the “goal” of these deluded idiots is.
This self immolation is brought to you by Al Gore Inc. And now a word from our other greenwashing sponsors.
I guess he did not care what his death by flammable materials would do to the environment. There are other ways to kill oneself that do not harm te environment.
It is too bad he did not seek out mental health professionals.
Indeed. Seems like a strangely carbon-emitting way of killing yourself. You would think that Climate Faithful would do something more thoughtful, like bury themselves alive.
“Climate grief and despair” ?????
I can understand someone reading through some historical tomes and feeling despair at how brutal people have been down the ages. Consider the “enlightened” twentieth century and the tens of millions who have died under Communism and the conditions of imprisonment like in the Russian Gulags. Here we have good reason for despair. However, climate is an entirely different matter. If people are looking for a cause that is really concerned about people, there are plenty and they have nothing to do with climate.
Forest Gump said it best…..”Stupid is as stupid does”….. Its a terrible way to go, but the man was obviously deluded.
As Hawkeye Pierce once wryly observed: “We need more people like that, then we would have less people like that.
Just one more piece of evidence that leftist ideology is truly a mental disorder.
One down…
Too soon. Just too damn soon!
There is some contradiction in the self-immolation being based on the use of a fossil fuel. However, Buddhists apparently believe that the poor sod will be reincarnated into a better life. I’m afraid that he will not be there anymore to be disappointed in that expectation. What a sad waste of a life.
At least he could get nominated for a Darwin Award.
Pre- or post-ignition
I hate to make light of this tragedy, but did he use fossil fuels to do this?!
Hypocrisy to the very end!!
Insanity is wide spread and this is an extreme example. Very sad. Self-immolation? Details are not given, but I’m guessing that might well involve petroleum products, right? In any event it was open burning which produces CO2 aplenty. One the other hand, that’s one less mouth to feed, one less car driving around, assuming he had a car, one less airline passenger, etc., etc. Climate change is not a big issue with people, sorry. “But most people in the world apparently do not agree. For the almost 10 million people who voted in the UN’s “My World” poll that was on the web between 2013 and 2020, “Action on climate change” ranked dead last, despite the agency listing that priority first among issues to be selected from.” What a waste. If he visited WUWT often he would probably still be alive.
“ If he visited WUWT often he would probably still be alive.”
This ^
Maybe not – he could have just visited to be another troll and learn nothing.
You know, like Griff, Lyodo, The Last Nail, etc. ad nauseum.
Litterally Self Immolation is the act of sprinkling ones – self with oatmeal. Apparently Romans used to do this to the poor beastie that they were despatching to the gods via a barbie.
I therefore urge us all to self immolate in the cause of climate scepticism in this harmelss manner!
At this point deaths due to climate change hysteria and anxiety (at least 5) out number deaths due to actual climate change (0). In fact, the dramatic decline in weather related deaths over the last several decades indicate that if climate change is having any effect on mortality it is to substantially reduce it.
Don’t forget February, 2020 in Texas. The hundreds who died there from hypothermia due to the failure of the electricity were victims of the climate crackpots.
Nominated for the 2022 Darwin Award?
You can get almost as much attention if you super glue your butt to the steps. But it hurts much less.
At least until they scrape you off.
I think the people who do that sort of thing should just be left there and ignored. THAT might actually teach them something.
Suffering from Climate Change Catastrophe (CCCDS)? Take two aspirin and half a bottle of whisky twice daily for one year – visit your psychiatrist if symptoms persist…