Thursday
Jul292010
by 
Bishop Hill
Bishop Hill THES on climate bootleggers
Jul 29, 2010 Climate: other Greens There is a really interesting article at the Times Higher Ed Supp, discussing the coalition of big business and big green - the baptists and the bootleggers - who have joined forces to enrich themselves at the expense of everyone else.
BP has a representative at the top of the Earth Institute. The European Commission funds offices for Friends of the Earth and the WWF. The UK government supports climate-change research. Have the poachers turned gamekeepers? Yes - although it might be more precise to say that the bootleggers have become Baptists. Everywhere, the bootleggers can be seen walking around in black, spouting biblical prophecies of doom - and growing ever richer in the process
Reader Comments (12)
A very informative article, some penetrating comments on the renewables' follies, as well as exposing various collaborations in the carbon juggernaut.
The by-line also has mention of a intriguing concept:
'Martin Cohen is a writer and philosopher with a particular interest in environmental ethics. His latest book is Mind Games (Wiley-Blackwell, October 2010), which discusses, among other things, the social creation of reality.'
The 'social creation of reality' sounds like it could provide a productive perspective on the core team in and around the IPCC.
As a certain iconic 20th Century anti-regime activist has written, "What is to be done?"
Great to see that the odd sensible (and in this case brilliant) article like this one managed to get through all the gagging procedures.
A previous scintillating piece by Martin Cohen in THES may be found at: http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=409454&c=2
Excellent article.
This is my page of links on the creation of carbon trading by Enron, BP and Occidental (Gore) , the support of Kyoto by Shell and BP. The finance industries' control of the world's biggest environmental organisation, how big business is given excess carbon credits and much, much more :->
Take a look at Richard Black latest...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/richardblack/2010/07/the_apologies_issued_by_two.html#comments
Saudi nameplate down toliet by activists, defending the activists..
By saying think of the 'islands that are sinking'!!!!
My response, when/if it appears..
-----------------------------------------------------------
Richard
I have news for you, the small islands states like Tuvalu and kiribati, these are the IPCC/Media scare 'Poster Childs' of choice, are not sinking, and were never going to..
Check out Darwin's theory of coral reef formation, from 1842...
Coral grows, storms, high tides, deposit debris onto the islands...
They Are NOT going to sink...
they NEVER were.... The peer reviewed science is in, from over 150 years ago!!!!
How do I know this, some 'sceptics' website told me ;) ! !
So it must be true ;) !
BBC: Low-lying Pacific islands 'growing not sinking'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10222679
"In recent times, the inhabitants of many low-lying Pacific islands have come to fear their homelands being wiped off the map because of rising sea levels.
But this study of 27 islands over the last 60 years suggests that most have remained stable, while some have actually grown.
Using historical photographs and satellite imaging, the geologists found that 80% of the islands had either remained the same or got larger - in some cases, dramatically so."
---------
As for land in the largest tidal delta, (bangladesh) yes the landmass is also growing, and will continue to do so, until the himalayas erode away to nothing, even IF the sea levels rise. River channels and island that may have been there for 60 uyears can, have and will continue to change..... naturally, by the processes I learned in my O level geography exam.
THere is a reason we do not allow people to live on mud islands in the Thames estuary..
The population of Bangaldesh has triple in 50 years (all the high ground - only 5m was taken 50 years ago)
It is a delta......
Richard, please go and be an activist journalist somewhereelse, you are very good at it. The bbc is suposed to be impartial, and reliant on facts, not emotion.
Mike Post
And here is another good one by Martin Cohen, this time on Wikipedia, entitled 'Encyclopaedia Idiotica', which perhaps gives a strong hint on his take!
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=403327
He strongly reminds me the Prof Philip Stott type of essay in the Clamour of the Times blog
http://web.mac.com/sinfonia1/Clamour_Of_The_Times/Clamour_Of_The_Times/Clamour_Of_The_Times.html
Barry Woods
Its posted there. Well done!
Enron and the Politics of Influence
Rent-seeking in Washington is a highly developed art-form and when really humungous amounts of money are involved, it is always the case that a Baptist-bootlegger coalition has been put together to get the necessary legislation through Congress.
snip
The Baptists provided the political cover and the bootleggers pocketed the proceeds.
http://tinyurl.com/9byffd
The egg's on the warmists' faces, I think. Surely people who think the world is getting warmer due to the actions of humankind should be talking to people like BP? But away from the table, they brand their interlocutors as the big villains1
As THES is directed at a British audience, I think mainstream British Baptists might be deeply offended at being compared to the environmentalist camp. These Baptists are proud of their history as non-conformists and dissenters. Their "data" is a book. They do not think the theology is settled, nor that a small group of experts should decide what they believe. Rather they would accept a range of views as valid. Also contemporary theology looks to putting a passage in context. The very antithesis of this theology is to cherry-pick a few juicy passages, mistranslate from the Hebrew and Greek, and mix it in with plenty of non-biblical assertions. You will not get these British Baptists looking for signs of the end times in every minor event, or proclaiming that those of other denominations or faiths are agents of the Devil.
"WWF is drawing up a code of conduct for its campaigners".
This could be fun. I hope they are sufficiently 'open and transparent' to publish it.