By Robert Bradley Jr.
“[I am] worried that events like this could harm the cause to which I (and so many) have devoted my life. From a communications standpoint, the protest seemed like an even bigger mess than the soup-splattered painting.” – Michael Mann (below)
The activist climate fringe finds their cause in trouble. Their termite cause is losing to consumers who want the best energies in terms of price and reliability; losing with taxpayers who are on the hook for ‘energy transition’ bribes; losing with the public that is tired of the rhetoric, exaggeration, and now targeted inconvenience. And, losing with nature as energy sprawl accelerates with industrial wind, solar, and batteries.
Yet the anti-modern-living Deep Ecologists myopically target carbon dioxide (CO2), the green greenhouse gas, the gas of life. Turning to civil disobedience only inflames the public against a selfish fringe. Yet the apologists are out in force.
“There seems to be no end to the destruction being wrought by Big Oil,” complained climate activist Assaad Razzouk on social media. He quoted from a Guardian article that said “lobbyists working for major North American oil and gas companies were key architects of anti-protest laws that increase penalties and could lead to non-violent environmental and climate activists being imprisoned up to 10 years.”
The “peaceful protests” are being squashed by authoritarian government. The Guardian article, “Revealed: How the Fossil Fuel Industry Helps Spread Anti-Protest Laws Across the US,” stated:
Amid ongoing record oil and gas expansion in the US, activists say they have turned to protests and non-violent civil disobedience such as blocking roads and chaining themselves to trees, machinery and equipment as a way to slow down construction, raise public awareness, and press for more urgent climate action by governments and corporations.
Losing Fight
The climate movement has encountered a populist revolt, as documented by Politico. “Conservatives are aggressively targeting efforts to reduce carbon emissions across the continent.”
Leaders across the continent who have embraced aggressive climate policies are facing a political backlash as the programs drive up the cost of electricity, home heating and even ordinary goods. In New York, Washington, Pennsylvania and California — and even Canada — concerns about the costs of curbing greenhouse gas emissions are fueling voter revolts and prompting some liberals to scale back or reframe their own climate ambitions.
What sociologists call the “radical flank effect” has alarmed at least one leading climate alarmist. “I have devoted much of my time and effort over the past several decades to the cause of meaningful climate action,” wrote Michael Mann.
[I am] worried that events like this could harm the cause to which I (and so many) have devoted my life. From a communications standpoint, the protest seemed like an even bigger mess than the soup-splattered painting.
Keep on with selfish, nutty displays, and public opinion will continue to side with common sense and civil discourse, not obstructionism. It is a futile, wasteful cause. Carbon dioxide (CO2) deserves a lot better–and wind, solar, and batteries a lot worse, another story.
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The left are experts in sophistry and ‘non-violent protest’ is a prime example. There is a big difference between violent and harmful; sitting at the side of the road with a plackard is different from sitting in the middle of the road. Both are non-violent, but the latter is definitely harmful.
Not an expert on Thoreau or Civil Disobedience, but wasn’t part of civil disobedience acceptance of the consequences? These people want to destroy works of art, destroy equipment and hinder legally approved construction projects, and cause harm to others (e.g., sitting in the middle of the road as you pointed out) and then whine and cry that there should be no consequences because they’re trying to save the planet. that’s way more important than the ambulance getting you or a loved one to the hospital in an emergency.
“acceptance of the consequences”
You are correct, Thoreau went to jail for his refusal to pay tax.
But who actually reads “Civil Disobedience” these days?
I’ve read it several times. He’s one of my favorite writers.
He also comes from your neck of the woods.
Way back in ‘ 97 I put up a forestry web site. One section was a collection of quotes from Walden. I’ve been planning on going to Walden, about an hour drive from me, to make a video there- I’ll walk around the pond.
Not sure if you will see this (old thread), but my sister used to live in the Boston area and we went to Walden pond one time when I went to visit. Also went to Mount Monadnock (NH), for which the glacial erosion feature monadnock was named. Lotsa history in the area, government sucks.
A “monadnock” is also a term in geology- for a land feature rising above an elevated plateau. Part way up that mountain you can see a level surface around the mountain- that supposedly is part of what was once called “the Cretaceous peneplain”. That plain was later elevated. The part of the mountain above that flat surface was above the plain before it was raised. A few years ago a geologist told me that this theory is now obsolete but I’m not sure of that. It makes sense to me.
Me too. Several times.
Over the last 55 years.
But soup can girl??
Thoreau refused to pay the poll tax which helped pay for the war against Mexico. He was sent to prison. His friend, Ralph Waldo Emerson saw Thoreau looking out the jail window and asked “what are you doing in there?”. Thoreau replied, “what are you doing out there?”. So he accepted the consequences.
Yeah, Mann will only go down in history as doing as much damage to mankind as some little dictator. I wish he would suddenly get the gumption to empty a can of soup onto a work of art, and of course get caught and actually be punished instead of being rewarded for his dirty deeds.
I’d rather he get the gumption to sit in the middle of a road and get run over by a semi.
Or light himself on fire like a monk. Really show his commitment to “The Cause.
I shudder to think how many brains have been polluted with his spew.
You remind me of a verse from Leonard Cohen’s The Future:
There’ll be the breaking of the ancient Western code
Your private life will suddenly explode
There’ll be phantoms, there’ll be fires on the road
And the white man dancing
You’ll see your woman hanging upside down
Her features covered by her fallen gown
And all the lousy little poets coming round
Trying to sound like Charlie Manson
Yeah the white man dancing
Cheers –
Sitting in the road is violently limiting my freedoms! So, it’s not non-violent.
It is actually a kind of imprisonment…
Obstruction someone going where they want to go.
One day these goofballs will block, say, a bunch of Hells Angels…
.. and totally regret their stupidity.
“I have devoted much of my time and effort over the past several decades to the cause of meaningful climate action,” wrote Michael Mann.
so, Mann admits he’s an activist, not a scientist.
And over the last several decades what has changed besides not very much?
Has he? Really? Or has he been self-promoting for his own enrichment?
Curious minds want to know.
I get your point, but I don’t think activism and narcissistic self-promotion are necessarily mutually exclusive.
I get your point and I agree in principle, but it seems MM is more today about enrichment where in the past it seems more about activism.
If Mann and his ilk were honest/objective, they would admit that their actions have had little or perhaps even the opposite of their desired effect, in that CO2 emissions and its concentration in the atmosphere continue to rise.
Many times, the best action is no action. Wait to get a real assessment of the situation.
It doesn’t take a genius to realize their folly, and therein lies the problem.
If Mann and his ilk were honest/objective, they wouldn’t be narcissistic, self-promoting activists (I love being able to use narcissist and Mann in the same sentence).
That’s like an oxymoron on steroids (with emphasis on the moron part).
Would that make it a oxyMann?
It doesn’t take genius- it takes courage to admit your mistakes. One climate scientist did that a few years ago- can’t recall his name or the story- but nobody has heard from him since. I’m sure someone here will recall it and locate the story on WUWT.
Was it Pielke (not sure I spelled it correctly).
No, not him. I think the guy wrote a book or major essay where he dismissed some major part of the cult. Of course never mentioned in the MSM.
Or a decent upbringing.
I was raised to “own” my mistakes.
Admit. Make reparations where applicable. And learn from them to reduce the risk or repeats.
I was raised this was part of being a good person.
And there you have it. Michael Mann’s open admission to the world that he is NOT a “scientist” but, rather, an ACTIVIST.
Once you adopt a “CAUSE,” you have LOST YOUR OBJECTIVITY and by extension, YOU HAVE LOST ANY RIGHT TO REFER TO YOURSELF AS A “SCIENTIST.”
Thanks for the honest admission, snake-oil salesman.
“key architects of anti-protest laws”
you can protest if you don’t disturb the public- like in a field or along a road but not in the road
And of course, spinners gonna spin. They’re not “anti-protest laws,” they’re anti-disturbing the peace laws, or anti-violence laws, or protecting-normal-citizens-from-activist-stupidity laws.
Is that dufus in the photo attacking Stonehenge? With sand?
Orange powder paint
There you have it. The definition of “the cause”. It has to be meaningful though, like filing defamation lawsuits and designing red noise hockey stick producing statistical functions.
And yet has never made any meaningful “climate action” (whatever the **** that is) in his pitiful little life.
I would like to take a moment to thank “Charles the Moderator” for republishing from MasterResource and adding the excellent illustrations. I like to tell my social media critics that WUWT is the world’s most viewed climate website (yes it is). I also like to point out how the ‘talented amateurs’ (many of you readers and commentors) have significantly evened the science debate with the college/university PhD IPCC crowd. Onward!
As Napoleon said, “Never interrupt your enemy when he’s making a mistake.”
[I am] worried that events like this could harm the cause to which I (and so many) have devoted my life. From a communications standpoint, the protest seemed like an even bigger mess than the soup-splattered painting.
Well you lefties had a big hand in creating what you can’t control now-
‘Snowflake situations’: Sky News contributor slams Gen Z as being ‘mollycoddled’ (msn.com)
They were either going to coil up in the foetal position paranoid about every weather event on their touchscreens or lash out at the dooming you rammed into their little Gretaheads. Enjoy all your broken eggs.