Josh Battle of Ideas: What is 'new environmentalism'? cartoon notes by Josh
Oct 21, 2013 Greens Josh Mark Lynas Recycling ;)
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On Sunday I went to a Battle of Ideas debate/seminar titled "What is 'new environmentalism'?" produced by Ben Pile who was also on the panel. This included Mark Lynas, Joe Smith and Casper Hewett with Timandra Harkness as the very able and amusing chair.
I am not sure anyone answered the question but it was a fascinating hour or so of discussion. As someone pointed out, there were no 'Greens' on the panel which probably led to a more balanced and sensible dialogue rather than a collection of political clichés and point scoring. Let's hope this kind of conversation continues.
Many apologies for the lack of cartoons in the last couple of weeks, I have had plenty of ideas but zero time to draw them out. Happily I am sketching one out now and it will be posted later today.
Reader Comments (10)
...As someone pointed out, there were no 'Greens' on the panel which probably led to a more balanced and sensible dialogue rather than a collection of political clichés and point scoring....
But then again, that means that there was nobody holding an influential position in the current government/intelligentsia ruling class on the panel. So none of the ideas will ever affect current policy...
Modern environmentalism is really all about substituting a belief in fantasy for reality.. The result of a generation over-steeped in Walt Disney Bambi Syndrome torqued up with mumbo-jumbo socialist faux equality/social justice angst.
"But then again, that means that there was nobody holding an influential position in the current government/intelligentsia ruling class on the panel."
Well of course not, as he already said, there were no Greens.
The only thing that will affect the current policy is widespread power cuts and an electorate grown accustomed to their porn and cooking recipe downloads looking for people to string up from the nearest (non functional) lamp post.
...The only thing that will affect the current policy is widespread power cuts...
I wonder how far you can go in ignoring the public when running a country?
The Iraq war was quite a good example, where a very large percentage of the population were deeply against it. But then, it didn't actually hit living conditions in the UK.
It's been shown quite clearly that the water shortages over the last 10 years in SE England were entirely due to government refusal to build enough reservoirs, and that did hit living conditions. But the people were told it was naturel, and they just grinned and put up with it.
I suspect that we could have people dying in the streets and the population could look at it as a minor inconvenience...
I thought 'citizen Joe' was fairly green, or have I got the wrong one..?
I'm usually a bit sceptical about 'new' anything - with the implied 'improved' after it, as it so often isn't (such as New Labour and IOS7). Are environmentalists trying to re-invent themselves?
BTW, Josh, can we have badgers moving the goalposts? :-)
The new environmentalist is the enviro-mentalist.
Simples.
I'm having a struggle compromising the claim that there were "no greens" on the panel with the presence of Mark "six degrees" Lynas.
The question of a more realistic green approach has been evident in Germany with the realistic greens falling out with the romantic. Usually, you become less romantic the closer you come to making real decisions such as Ed Davey today on Nuclear - how ironic.
There were a couple of lessons I learned during the 2000-2001 California energy crisis: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_electricity_crisis
1. When there are sudden blackouts, road intersections with lights become very, very dangerous. If the stoplights are dark, drivers tend to assume the way is clear, and go running through the intersections without thinking. This caused a number of fatal accidents. I drove a 10 mile route during one of these blackouts, and saw a bunch of terrifying near-misses myself.
2. Those responsible for the blackouts will loudly deny any responsibility. In California, the Sierra Club loudly proclaimed that it had never opposed any new powerplants. A bald lie, but of course no "journalist" ever called them on it.