News Brief by Kip Hansen – 26 April 2022
Only the New York Times could use the word “amassed” for a crowd generously described as “several hundred” climate protesters who gathered in Lafayette Park in Washington, D.C. for an Earth Day protest. The story written by Coral Davenport, “Protesters Amass at White House, Demanding Action on Climate” had to be illustrated with ground-level photos of the few demonstrators that showed up or risk exposing the tiny size of the crowds.
As nothing even vaguely significant happened the Washington protest, there is nothing to report about it. Thus, this is a very short report.
The event was so uneventful (pun intended) that it had to be augmented by random quips about the few other “rallies held across the country”, all of which showed even smaller crowds.
Back in the day, and I mean the late 1960s, even a small university town could raise a crowd of a couple thousand to protest even the silliest of issues, such as the lunch menu in the Student Commons.
Maybe there is hope. Maybe climate pragmatists and climate realists are having an impact, chilling down the overheated ardor of climate activism in the United States.
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Author’s Comment:
As covered elsewhere here, the Washington, D.C. Earth Day protests were marred by the sad suicide of a climate activist from Boulder, Colorado, who self-immolated in front of the Supreme Court building, an act that illustrates just how harmful and dangerous the media’s intentional campaign of spreading climate alarm and despair can be.
Care should be taken by parents and grandparents to ensure that their children and grandchildren are properly informed about the climate issue and not driven to despair, depression and hopelessness by the media and their teachers in their schools, most of who are ignorantly parroting the false climate alarm propaganda threatening them with a hopeless dystopian future.
I can recommend the latest Heartland produced booklet: “Climate at a Glance for Teachers and Students” by Anthony Watts and James Taylor (edited by H. Sterling Burnett).
Please, fill your children with the truth about our beautiful world and the wonderful future they have in store for them.
Thanks for reading.
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It was also Vladimir Ilich Ulyanov’s (Lenin) birthday. Given the political alignment of many of the greens, a more likely holiday memorial.
I went to the main Earth Day event at the Boulder Public Library auditorium out of respect to an honoree. Almost every presenter mentioned, “crisis, crisis, crisis.”
Anyway, I estimated less than 100 people in the auditorium and the youngest seem to be about 50 years old, most were over 65 I would guess.
Hippies are keeping Earth Day alive. The young, not so much.
Well, y’know, when it’s cold enough outside to make you sit up and take notice…..
….then being outside in the cold isn’t quite so attractive, is it? 🙂
First of May approaches, and the overnight temps from Saturday through next weekend are low 40s to even lower 30s. So I’m guessing that Spring is out somewhere, guarding her little cat feet next to a nice warm fire, while she’s curled up under a fuzzy blanket. And snow on April 18th was not my idea of a good time.
Sara ==> Hmmmm…where are you ? (approximately).
We had snow/frozen rain and the mountains outside our windows are again covered with snow — from that same storm.
But — because the whole Global Warming thing is silly, we still have four seasons, and this one is SPRING!
Daffy’s are up and there are blossoms on the cherries and pear trees.
About 8 miles west of Lake Michigan, 35 miles north of Chicago, and happy I no longer live there. I still have the furnace running, which annoys me. Never have I had to run that machine this late in the year.
Also, I have “snow on my steps” photos, the most recent being April 18. Now the maples outside my west-facing window are finally allowing their buds to open, and yet, there are NO BEES or other sugar-seekers around right now: probably indoors, with a snapping fireplace and hot cocoa and a good book, if I know the honey-seekers.
It took THIS LONG for sap to rise in the maples up here in my kingdom. Never have seen Spring come in this late. My sister lives in the central (farming) part of the state and tells me that it’s just as cold down there, 30s overnight.
Up here, we have 30s daytime and high 20s night-time. This means that wildflowers like woodland anemones and trilliums, which should be out NOW, are still curled up, taking naps. Yes, we had snowflakes swirling briefly yesterday, but not so far today.
Does Spring wear insulated boots if little cat feet don’t keep her happy?
Sara ==> Sounds like good weather for making maple syrup!
We have maple leaf out, apple, peach, and other fruit blossoms, daffy’s and hyacinths are up, even bleeding heart going like mad.
Spring may be a little late, but ain’t we glad to got it!
In my youth we noted that it always snowed somewhere in Massachusetts on Patriot’s Day (April 19th, except in Laguna Beach, where it is the first Saturday of March).
More importantly than that, it was my granddaughter’s third birthday. We video called her, sang happy birthday to her, and when we asked he how old she was, she said three and held up three fingers
It is an objective truth that she is the most brilliant, the most beautiful, and most adorable child in the world.
Walter ==> and a very Happy Birthday to her too!
This was not much of a problem before, was it? Or they’d fix it.
See the link: 2014, “People’s Climate Rally”, the “watermelons” openly indulge their red side. There was even CPUSA. https://www.zombietime.com/climate_movement_drops_mask_admits_communist_agenda/
Perhaps it’s time to take over Earth Day Protests with significantly larger crowds holding signs of gratitude for Earth’s Abundance. Drowning out their pitifulness and banners of insignificance with signs and banners extolling the virtues of abundant cheep reliable energy and reinforcing the use of ALL materials dependent upon Petrochemicals
It’s my belief that many of the XR and Stop Oil protestors in the UK think fossil fuel are just petrol (gasoline) , diesel and gas for heating and cooking.
They’ve no idea that there’s virtually nothing in their lives that doesn’t require fossil fuel in its production. Nor that the organic food they consume requires manure produced by farm animals, mainly cattle, and chickens.
Griff from the Home Counties is probably one of these misguided people
Those protesters probably don’t do a lot of thinking. Environmentalism is just a morally
righteous cause they use to justify their violent aggression which gives them the attention,
power or sadistic pleasure they enjoy. They’re emotionally wrapped up in it to where
it’s an adrenaline rush! They could’ve just as easily been Skinheads or gangsters as
both are always angry & enraged. (Vito Corleone did it supposedly for his family.) Griffo
isn’t that passionate about it otherwise that anger would’ve surfaced a long time ago
IIRC, most of the Provisional IRA members weren’t church goers but people
who had take up the cause for whatever reason.
The Provisional IRA and the Irish Republican (NI advocates for unity with Eire) movement had been infiltrated by communism quite successfully. It’s interesting to see just how many Republicans were also Marxists throughout the 60’s and 70’s.
We already have the hour of power. We just need to get the socialists in the media to admit it.
Hivemind ==> They media are the opposition to reality and common sense on climate. They, the media, are the Climate Crazies!
Life is good for most of us most of the time … so who has time to “demonstrate” for that? It’s what life is supposed to be like.
It’s when things are going very badly that public demonstrations are of any value whatsoever – to get the world to change away from the bad towards the good stuff.
Whenever someone or a group is trying to get you to go out and demonstrate for or against something, be sure and grab your wallet and hold on to your rights, because they are trying to take both of them away from you.
And don’t forget your Yellow Vest under your coat. Imagine an XR protest with 300 people present, suddenly 250 remove their coats and it turns into a Yellow Vest Rally. XR Trumped
Bryan => A great image!
Duane ==> The Environmental Movement has been hijacked — when it ran out of really important things, the global warmists and lefty-progressives snuck in and took over all the leadership positions and turned the movement into a political party for all the nasty woke-isms.
“Perhaps it’s time to take over Earth Day Protests with significantly larger crowds holding signs of gratitude for Earth’s Abundance. Drowning out their pitifulness and banners of insignificance with signs and banners extolling the virtues of abundant cheep reliable energy and reinforcing the use of ALL materials dependent upon Petrochemicals”
*************
If I lived in NYC or Washington or L.A. or London, I would be half-tempted to join a counter-protest against XR is one was being organized. I would gladly hold up a placard that said “CO2 is Life” or “Celebrate a Greening Earth” or “The Climate Scare is a Lie” or something else similar.
Problem is that it is always the Left (probably the FAR left) that protests in the streets. The Right not so much.
ADHDs demand climate change!
And Pop Tarts. Or Pizza Rolls, depending on time of night.
Wonderful world awaiting for them. Klaus Schwab and his minions agree. “You will own nothing and be happy”.
The green activists pale beside the woke ones.
Klaus might own nothing and be happy.
I however plan to own lots of things and be happier.
I love the bumper sticker HE WHO HAS THE MOST TOYS WHEN HE DIES WINS
Terry ==> Philosophically, and in the real world, personal happiness does not depend on possessions, personal wealth, the size of one’s house. I have spent many years in the Third World where I have met the happiest people ever, and they often owned nothing at all.
That said, they would have been better off, more secure, and more likely to raise their children to adulthood with a higher standard of living.
And those of us living in the highly developed world do rightly like our toys and nice things.
Remember, those who wish to lower your standard of living are not your friends.
We live in the best of times: long life expectancies, freedom from illness, rich comfortable lives, and protected from the elements. Where are these alarmists finding all this gloom?
I don’t think they are – hence the dwindling numbers; I think some form of ‘protest fatigue’ is setting in. Perhaps that’s all that is needed; for the easily swayed to lose interest and move on to the next cause du jour leaving only the hard core climate zealots to their fringe theories.
Agreed.
I think that Brandonflation’s effect on the YOUNG in the US, you know, those who usually are active in these protest movements, has greatly reduced their desire to be “active” in these nonsense protests. They have more important things to do, like earn enough money to pay for their next tattoo of smart phone or even rent and food.
The election of Brandon may have just created an historically “unbalanced” political class of the youth voters, i.e., a much larger % of conservative voters then usual. We all know that as people age and gain responsibilities, they become more conservative in their values and voting. Brandon and the Democrat party’s actually saying out load what they stand for over the last year MAY have a lasting effect on US electoral politics for a generation.
One can only hope.
Don’t forget that the kids that were subject to the authoritarian edicts of the left are now voting age. Kids will remember the diet that Moochelle Obama tried to force on them in schools and want nothing to do with them.
Let’s hope…no pun intended
Richard ==> and in my most pessimistic moments, I fear that they stayed home from demonstrations because they couldn’t afford the gasoline to attend…..
And if that was the case, may the light bulb come on about how important affordable and reliable energy is…
Helen ==> We certainly do. Most of the new things were science fiction when I was young.
The deluded doomsayers have not been out and about and lack an understanding of the world. Some people just get in the habit of seeing only the sad and the bad– and insist in sharing their personal misery.
I am no Pollyanna — I spent a decade working among and for the poor of the Dominican Republic, Haiti and other parts of the northern Caribbean. People who are happy despite their circumstances — and aware the the future can and will be better for their children.
A little known fact was that the first Earth Day was actually on March 21st, 1970, a full month before the April 22nd date that Senator Gaylord Nelson had created, with aims to create the future EPA, the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act, which followed fairly soon after. The first Earth Day in San Francisco on March 21st was created more by international UN folk while the April 22, 1970 was more of a USA Earth Day, and more sponsored by USA Democrat corporate interests, than UN global interests.
I sometimes wonder what if the globalists had secured the spot on March 21st, instead of Senator Gaylord Nelson and the USA interests on April 22, (who heavily borrowed from the first gathering in San Francisco), would anything be any different, worse or better? The Equinox Earth Day has now all but faded from memory, with April 22 now being the magical date, for no apparent reason why that date was chosen. It was a Wednesday. I think we all know why.
https://earthsocietyfoundation.com/garland.htm
I remember the ‘first’ Earth Day on April 22 in 1970 as a high school student as they gave us the afternoon off from school to go the huge gathering, which was also an anti war and anti nuclear protest because of Amchitka nuclear testing. Remember all that like yesterday. Don’t remember a lot of other stuff, although just now other memories are coming back.
Was more of an awareness to take care of the good Earth after we all saw that first photo of the rising full Earth from Apollo 8 circling the Moon for the first time on Christmas eve, 1968. The protest was about Vietnam and nuclear testing. It was a big deal as all the baby boomers of the day were pro environmental, anti nuclear and anti war which led to the Don’t Make A Wave Committee, which morphed into Greenpeace a year later, to protest Amchitka. Was in the front row for all that, as a kid in high school and carried some water for them. Sorry. Had I known it all would boil down to CO2 is the root evil for everything, I would have protested the event and warned everyone about the future.
It looks like we both grew up in the “Age of Groovy, Man”! Even though I was a bit younger than you
were, the usual things you supported were “where it was at”. The hard part of being young is to
“keep an open mind” to all there is to learn but yet not to open it so far that your brains fall out. At
our age, you usually can tell where the latter was the case! In spite of our “vigor & vanity” of youth,
we both managed to muddle through. In the words of Red Green, “Keep your stick on the ice”! 🙂
Earthling,
While you were protesting against nuclear, my mates and I were busy exploring for uranium.
Two questions come to mind.
1. Whose efforts back then eventually produced the biggest benefits for mankind?
2. What, specifically, drove you to be anti-nuclear?
Cheers. Geoff S
Geoff ==> I think he (and others) were protesting the development and deployment of nuclear weapons — not nuclear power stations.
Yes, in my case that was the case about nuclear weapons when I was 18 years old, but the Hanoi Jane China Syndrome was also just taking off and all nuclear bad. Jane Fonda really did a lot of structural damage to the nuclear industry that we never recovered from.
Earthing ==> Jane Fonda is on my “enemies of good” list.
Ironically, if you watch the movie (“The China Syndrome”) when the “event” ultimately takes place due to the failure to properly inspect and maintain/replace the piping, the plant’s safety systems kick in and it ends without any catastrophe.
I also remember the First Earth Day in the San Francisco Bay Area, as I was in the eighth grade and our entire middle school was released at mid-day to “march” through the downtown of my small conservative upper, upper, middle class bedroom community in Contra Costa Co. I don’t recall there being any sort of end point or Rally at the end of our “march” … but just a parade of middle schoolers (what could be more frightening to the suburban moms?) walking through the downtown. I recall it being a nice warm day, and the girls were wearing miniskirts and short shorts … my primary focus, as there was no such thing as “gender transitioning” in 1970 … I wanted to be with a girl … not be one
It’s amazing to me in retrospect that our teachers, and school administrators had so much power to USE the children of an entire middle school in this way. I recall they justified the “student march” as some form of political “education” … as part of our social studies program, and because we started from school, the State would have to $pay for our re-education that day. The teacher UNIONISTAS must have been so happy. It was a (half) day off … so naturally all the students were stoked! Hey! Let’s have an environmental rally every week! And since we had just seen film of the Cuyahoga River on fire (1969) … and EVERY day in LA was critical smog alert … it seemed as though better environmental stewardship was a reasonable cause. And Paul Ehrlich had convinced us we were all gonna die young … but without a satisfying rock star career like Jimmy Hendrix (died later in 1970). He predicted worldwide famine for the 1970’s. But nobody was calling for the total elimination of carbon. The CA PUC wasn’t telling PG&E that it was OK to jack up utility rates to punish the citizens into less energy use. And nobody … nobody … thought it would be “smart” to eliminate natural gas hookups.
Yes, we’ve spiraled totally out of our heads since the First Earth day as it appears the entire world is full of Paul Ehrlich’s… trying to make a name for themselves with even greater tales of doom and gloom. We would all be wise to stop and consider what we’ve become … what we’ve unnecessarily done to ourselves and our formerly fabulous culture in the name of Co2 Armageddon. The most dangerous Religious cults … all preach the imminent destruction of mankind. And the anti-Co2 cultists make Paul Ehrlich appear … sane.
Kenji ==> To be fair, the first Earth Day has grand purpose and good ideas. The air in many California cities was unbreathable much of the time, the rivers were sewers, the roadsides littered with trash and industries dumped the worst sort of poison where ever it was convenient.
Much good was accomplished over the next 20 years.
I believe I said that … LA skies and the Cuyahoga River …
Much of the good was accomplished without Federal government involvement. Because the horrors committed by industries was publicized, corporations were admonished enough to clean up their act on their own.
Cuyahoga River was not the only river that caught fire. A river by me caught fire several times when I was a kid and it had a large pushback from the community. This shows that citizen action is a powerful tool for change. Water treatment was required before the federal government got involved.
The EPA was only established because the government saw an opening to gain more control (with public approval) and jumped on the bandwagon. Granted the progress probably was quicker with a government agent looking over their shoulder but it would have happened nonetheless due to public pressure.
Now we are stuck with a humungous bureaucracy that thinks CO2 is a pollutant.
Dude – “all the baby boomers” is bullshit. You aren’t aware that 10 million of those hated boomers served in uniform, most of them volunteers, in the Vietnam War era, and many gave their lives and limbs while protecting your ass from Soviet domination, and built businesses and industries like today’s information technologies, aerospace, medicine, and all those other little conveniences you live your life by… while at most, the peace and love anti war demonstrators numbered only in the thousands.
You are confusing television news camera coverage with actual numbers. Lefty demonstrators gather news cameras like dead animals draw maggots and blow flies .. while people who are actually working and serving and carrying on productive lives don’t demonstrate, and don’t make the 6 o’clock news for doing so.
Excellent points, Duane.
I was sitting in Vietnam on Christmas Eve 1968. I’m a Babyboomer. I volunteered twice for Vietnam service. I thought it was a good idea to oppose communist domination of the world. Still do. Many of my fellow Boomers thought the same way. Putin shows us what we were trying to prevent.
‘I thought it was a good idea to oppose communist domination of the world.’
Agreed. Unfortunately, communism and all other forms of socialism are much more likely to be imposed from within.
That’s indeed why I joined the USMC. On that first Earth day, not long back from Viet Nam, I thought, oh kee-rist, another commie front celebration.
Duane ==> On the other hand, many of those young people, both Viet Vets and the Anti-War demonstrators, the same generation, grew up and built the world we see today.
Don’t get yer knickers in a knot Duane. If you had been old enough, it would have been evident that everyone at those protests in the 1960’s and 1970’s were mostly baby boomers. The mantra then was don’t trust anyone over 30 and the majority of participants were in the 15-25 year old range. The older folks (over 25-30) were the organizers. The protests were anti war, anti nuclear and clean up the dirty environment we were creating. Things are much cleaner today in the first world than they were back then. And you don’t need lecture me about the horrors of communism.
You’re the one with bloomers full of bullshit. 100% of the leaders of the protests and the drug culture were much older than the boomer kids – from the Jane Fondas to the Timothy Learies to the Jerry Rubins’s – all born well before WW Two. For every protestor 100 boomers got jobs, raised families, and served in uniform protecting your young ass.
I guess those downvoters don’t like hearing the truth for some reason.
Good one! Thumbs up.
Earthling ==> Thanks for sharing your memories. The environmentalist movement has had many great successes — and I applaud us (having been one of them). Cleaner air, clearner waters, less trash and garbage on the roadsides, improved national parks and wilderness lands.
To stand atop Mt Whitney and look across the desert to Death Valley is an experience everyone should have.
Kip – I thought Earth Day was great, and important. Pollution was pretty bad, both air and water, back then.
Coal scrubbers weren’t in use back then, so I thought nuclear power was the way to go. For some reason, the anti-nuke stance never caught on with me.
But when the air and water got cleaned up, the Earth Day crowd seemed to me to be getting, well… it seems they all had a few loose screws. They had lost the plot.
I never participated in any Earth Day events. Mom taught us that ‘virtue signaling’ was not substitute for actually doing something about a problem. So I participated in some stream cleanup days and did some environmental cleanup just all on my own.
Now, anyone who is all in for and all about Earth Day is just sending me the message “Warning! Do Not Engage!”
. ==> Your Mother was right.
Not all of us.
Elon Musk is so disappointed by Earth day poor public response, he just tweeted HE is buying the Earth !
He will be blackballing all Dem/Progs for being un-American, and pro-Communist.
They will have to move to their own planet, and take all present illegals and undocumented, and future “refugeeeees” with them
Correction: future Democrat voters. What did I just say!? I mean current Democrat voters … the minute they cross the southern border
You forgot their most important voting bloc that gets them over the top in really,
really tight races- those whose body has assumed room temperature. For this
reason, I have a nephew who has agreed to check the names on the voters list after
I’m gone so I can’t vote “Democrat”! 😮 😉
Some talking head on tv yesterday was wishing Musk would buy the U.S. southern border and fix it, too..
Considering how much the Mexican cartels are making while THEY control illegal crossing of the US southern boarder, I am surprised some US corporation has not tried to take control of the boarder crossings.
The Democrats and their Chamber of Commerce allies are making big money from their open boarder policies. The Democrats by federal funding jobs for their politically like minded voters, the Chamber of Commerce by the downward pressure on wages produced by the massive influx of compliant cheap labor.
Fortunately being in Australia we have the much more important 25th of April (ANZAC Day) to think about.
By the time we all came back to work the 22nd was long gone. Sure the Day Job did post some link on the internal home page about celebrating Earth Day complete with a thumb nail of some fun vacuum and/or cat lady ‘expert’ who, if I was foolish enough to follow the link would have no doubt gone on about the importance of a sustainable future.
Honestly, why to left leaning talking heads all tend to look the same? Vegan diet?
Craig ==> Long time since I heard the term ANZAC….
Only those rendered feeble-minded by their vegan diets believe leftism is “good” for anything but the people at the top.
Please, fill your children with the truth about our beautiful world and the wonderful future they have in store for them.
____________________________________________________________
The Climate scare isn’t the only pack of lies being shoved down our throats.
Louis Armstrong sang it about the best I think:
We need to look on the bright side of life, despite all the problems.
anyone who has never heard Louie do that song needs to listen to it
It’s a treat
Steve ==> Sadly, you are right. Lots and lots of lies being dumped into our kids minds….
I wonder how much the “protestors” were paid to attend?
The first time I heard the term Astroturf in a political context was Nancy Pelosi saying Tea Party activism was Astroturf paid for since no one thought that way.
When thousands of “protesters” show up in DC to hassle Republicans during major events, many flying in and out of DC, you know that is Astroturf.
Like it or not, most people are mostly concerned with personal issues – family, friends, relationships, education, careers, jobs, income, wealth, inflation, housing, transportation, health care, child rearing. The stuff that clearly affects one’s quality of life every day.
The promoters of Big Ideas like climate activism would refer to that as “small stuff” – but it is the small stuff that is what life consists of for most people most of the time, at least when things are going relatively well on the small stuff front.
Big Ideas are great for the activists, the wannabe thought leaders, the politicians, the promoters, and wannabe dictators. And sometimes, when all of the everyday stuff gets really, really bad, then people tend to be more responsive to the Big Ideas. But usually, that is just a prelude to and an excuse for dictatorship, war, trampling of individual rights, and such.
In other words, the Big Ideas promotions virtually always lead to something very bad for most of us. Spare us, please.
And while on the subject of Earth Day 2022 and the small size of crowds “celebrating” the event, let’s keep in mind all those blathering bureaucratic non-scientists that claim (a) “surveys show” climate change is among the top
3510 topics concerning most US citizens, and (b) climate change™ is a current emergency/crises, even an immediate existential threat!The blathering non-scientists? You know . . . Joe Biden, John Kerry, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, AOC . . . the full list is far too long to post here.
Yep. The art and poly-sci majors make such good scientists.
You forgot the /sarc tag.
I know it’s obvious but we do have leftist trolls here that would agree with that statement.
Haven’t heard from Pennsylvania State University Distinguished University Professor Micheal Mann recently.
He is, as they say, “resting on his laurels” . . . well deserved, I might add, as that is closest to the orifice from whence his “proclamations” issue.
I actually had included him—pre-editing for final version— but then had to drop him because his is more properly classified as a scientist than a bureaucrat.
Well, if education “credentials” are sufficient for the “classification” maybe.
But if being a scientist means actually practicing the scientific method, Mann is a snake-oil salesman, not a scientist.
If “climate change” makes any “top 10” (or whatever number) list of “concerns,” it’s because the “surveyors” put it on the list.
Let people make up their own “lists,” and “climate change” wouldn’t be on it.
In 1948 an event called the Donora smog [about 24 miles SE of Pittsburgh, PA] was an air pollution disaster. Worth a read:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_Donora_smog#Aftermath
My favorite quote:
“I didn’t take any [O2] myself. What I did every time I came back to the station was have a little shot of whiskey.”
John ==> Thanks for the link on Donora!
Reminds me of my own one-man massive protest in Washington DC a couple of years ago…
So, it looks like only the commissars and the desperate came. But even a few years ago better crowds assembled to cry about #OrangeManBad. Huh. It’s looks like after that level of excitement the decades-old dreary stuff in which nobody with working brain believes (If even 10:10 types handle it as an obvious fake, who doesn’t?) just can’t make anyone dance. And of the hastily cooked up palliatives there’s just Fake Missile Crisis, which is widely mocked (especially the Redditors’ attempt at interbrigade LARP).
«The name is Turkey… Cold Turkey», indeed.