Bishop Hill Book review: The Age of Global Warming
Aug 5, 2013 Books 
This is a guest post by Messenger.
I take my hat off to Rupert Darwall for tackling this knotty and diverse subject, so full of devious twists and turns and sometimes almost unbelievable actions and decisions. It is a fascinating, if complicated story, creating an important record of the machinations producing the madness of crowds that has overtaken so many governments and people around the world.
Darwall pins down the seminal moments, the recurrent scares, and the prime movers, beginning with Malthus and Malthusians and identifying the publication of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962) as an important watershed. He notes the innate pessimism of the much of the environmental movement, typified by the Club of Rome in 1972 when it asked if the human species could survive without falling into a state of “worthless existence” and its development into the depressing topos that man must be at fault in one way or another for all environmental damage, and that therefore we must do- and apparently be persuaded or forced to do- without. It is this demand for self-sacrifice, originally aimed at Western nations, that has now become an attempt by our “global governors” to hold back development world-wide.
Darwall identifies another watershed moment at the Toronto summit in 1988 seen as the time when the scientific method began to be undermined, standards slipped and among some climate scientists at least, verification was apparently no longer a requirement. He considers that many scientists pretend to know more than they do about the workings of the climate, and the environmental movement and the media, “with its ever present appetite for alarmism,” have for many years reinforced this fear by constantly stressing the imminence of disaster in spite of repeated failures of calamity to appear. Politicians and political advisers have aggravated matters through their uncritical acceptance of the prognosis and sometimes nonsensical actions such as the demonising of coal and carbon dioxide, aimed at preventing the so-called disease. Darwall also analyses the contribution of other institutions, the IPCC, The Royal Society and the green NGOs to the creation of the current parlous and polarised state we are in.
Many of these matters are well known to climate blog readers, and from time to time I found the book somewhat fragmentary, chopping and changing from one subject to another with great rapidity. This is minor criticism, however, because it is such a complicated subject to deal with, with so many ramifications, and the assembly of this detailed history in one volume makes it a valuable, and we hope, noticeable contribution to the records. Darwall’s closing chapter sums up the crucial dilemma that has been created by the events recorded in this book: “In believing scientists and politicians can solve the problems of a far distant future, the tangible needs of the present are neglected.”
The Age of Global Warming: A History Rupert Darwall (London 2013)
Reader Comments (20)
Club of Rome
"In searching for a common enemy against whom we can unite, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like, would fit the bill. In their totality and their interactions these phenomena do constitute a common threat which must be confronted by everyone together. But in designating these dangers as the enemy, we fall into the trap, which we have already warned readers about, namely mistaking symptoms for causes. All these dangers are caused by human intervention in natural processes, and it is only through changed attitudes and behaviour that they can be overcome. The real enemy then is humanity itself.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Club_of_Rome
>the environmental movement and the media “with its ever present appetite for alarmism"
Exactly. One can only hope they soon reach 'peak hyperbole'..
The problem for many in the environmental movement, is that they are really just afflicted with angst. I once saw this diagnosed as something suffered by people with no real problems.
There are two basic strands to the enviromental movement.
Firstly, the left leaning anti pollution lobby of the 1960s and 1970s which was very successful.
Secondly, the ultra conservative deep ecology movement which found its highest fulfillment in the merging of politics and environmental movements which became the National Socialist Party. Approx 60-70% of the German greens were Nazi Party members, compared to only 10% of the population at large.
" . This striving toward connectedness with the totality of life, with nature itself, a nature into which we are born, this is the deepest meaning and the true essence of National Socialist thought."
Ernst Lehmann, Biologischer Wille. Wege und Ziele biologischer Arbeit im neuen Reich, München, 1934
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecofascism
Paul Kingsnorth's Dark Mountain Project is a modern manifestation of ultra conservatism. Their festival at which (self styled anarcho-primitivist) George Monbiot appeared is called 'uncivilisation'.
Ivy League Dartmouth College environmental professor Michael K. Dorsey referred to it in the following way in the Guardian.
Everyone should stay vigilant and keep their danger sniffers on full alert when the likes of those high on the Dark Mountain and others associated with "deep ecological" tendencies get on about "crises" of "humanity." Sadly, we have a great deal of evidence now, that such 'dark' tendencies have been built upon a legacy of misanthropic meandering, petty eco fascism and immigrant bashing-- souped up in talk of waywardness from the "myth[s] of human centrality"--by the likes of Teddy Goldsmith, the gaggle of old Ecologist sods, inter alia, some of whom helped precipitate the Cornerhouse.
http://discussion.guardian.co.uk/comment-permalink/5160452
Who is George Monbiot ?
http://alturl.com/py3pf
See also
http://climaterealists.com/index.php?id=11257&linkbox=true&position=4
and
http://climaterealists.com/index.php?id=11194&linkbox=true&position=17
This seems a well written review. I have sent for the book. I was in two minds as it seemed to be covering old ground. But it looks like a good overview.
The French writer Pascal Bruckner also has a new book out called The Fanaticism of the Apocalypse, in which he notes:
It is an excellent book, but I must say it is slow-going to get through it at times. I'm nearly done now, but I remain, like the reviewer, greatly impressed by it. Darwall is clearly well-informed, and sharp, and penetrates into many areas with lots of insights. May there be many more studies of this standard in all sorts of area, politics, journalism, the humanities, sciences, engineering, planning, and even theology - is there anywhere the CO2 catastrophe alarm virus has failed to reach? As the shameful nonsense of this alarm continues to unravel, I suspect there may be a flood of them. Let's hope so.
It is this demand for self-sacrifice, originally aimed at Western nations, that has now become an attempt by our “global governors” to hold back development world-wide.
But hasn't it always been the case (in this country, at least since the Norman conquest) that this class of people believe that the rest of us exist merely to keep them in opulence? That would make our existence for any other purpose "worthless."
The thing they don't want to admit is that most of them are, for all practical purposes, useless.
I do wish our inglorious leaders would grow up.
Part of brilliant article by James Heartfield
Elite environmentalism
Edward Goldsmith. brother to the financier Sir James and a key figure in
the ecological movement, clarified the substance of the anxiety over growth.
Urbanization, he told the Alternatives to Growth Conference in 1975, ‘is a
particularly frightening prospect, since it is in the existing conurbations that
the ills from which industrialized society is suffering are to be found in the
most concentrated forms’ (Meadows 1977: 331).
The misanthropic impulse of ecology was expressed in Republican senator Paul Ehrlich’s overpopulation thesis: ‘Too many cars, too many factories, too much pesticide . . . too little
water, too much carbon dioxide – all can easily be traced to too many people’
(1971: 36).
In 1978 British diplomat Crispin Tickell (Monbiot's mentor) wrote a pioneering work,
Climate Change in World Affairs, which sought to remotivate western domination of the Third World as a response to impending environmental disaster
http://www.heartfield.org/interventions.pdf
"Republican senator Paul Ehrlich’s "
?
How many Paul 'population bomb' Ehrlichs are their?
Eddy
Sorry. Saw that, blinked, but posted it anyway. Mistake.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_R._Ehrlich
Yes, I read Silent Spring, and yes, it had a significant effect on me, back in the day. It really was true that DDT, whatever its good points, was causing several bird species to become very rare, because their eggshells were too thin and broke in the nest when adults tried to keep them warm. (Yes, I've gone back and read the science again in the last several years.) Humans really could destroy part of nature without knowing, on a wide geographic scale.
The problem, today, is that so many of us got that lesson, but didn't get the second lesson, that enviros could spin tales just as well as the people who work for various industries. We can't buy what anyone says, just on trust. We have to look at the science itself, now. We live in a world of spin.
This is the lesson we all need to follow. Don't try to say Silent Spring was wrong, as many do. Instead, recognize that it is the evangelism of today that is so anti-scientific, not the evangelism of Rachel Carson.
John
And presumably you fell for the usual "black and white" argument that "DDT is affecting the shells of birds' eggs therefore we must ban it completely."
And when somebody pointed out the other benefits you either mocked them or shouted them down or stuck your fingers in your ears and sang "la-la-la".
(Not you personally, perhaps!)
Exactly the same thing is happening now with neo-nicotinoids and bees. Ask anyone who really knows about bees and they will tell you that of the various assorted problems which bees currently have, neo-nicotinoids is not one.
But it's a "chemical" and the environmentalists don't like "chemicals" and since they are normally strangers to the truth any old story, provided it sounds plausible, will do to tell the ignorati (which is most of us) and when it turns out that the "last stage is worse than the first" they will simply grin happily, shrug their shoulders, add another pyrrhic victory to their list, and pass on to the next campaign.
Anti-fracking, perhaps.
To Mike Jackson, re "And presumably you fell for the usual "black and white" argument that "DDT is affecting the shells of birds' eggs therefore we must ban it completely."
Yes, in the 60s and 70s I did.
I've since learned, as presumably you have, that the limited indoor use of DDT in thatched dwellings in South Africa keeps mosquitos away, drives the malaria rate down, thereby saving lives. Used in such a way, it is a good thing.
It appears that concern over the environment has attracted a strange group of bedfellows, marxists, deep greens and fascists plus those who are happy to make a quick buck. What appears to attracts people is a deep defeatist attitude combined with a rejection of basically Whig view of the world. Britain and The USA success is based on some the following
1. Anglo-Saxon common law- a law devised by the people for the people,
2. Judo -Christian morality( which influenced Anglo-Saxon Law),
3. Private property, freedom of speech,
4. A lack of any concept of divine rule, absolute and central authority ,
5. Representative government which can be traced back to Anglo Saxon times ( City of London in 1215 was ruled under Anglo Saxon Law ),
6. An acceptance that reason , common sense, fair play and the requirement for evidence upon which to base decisions ( empiricism/ scientific method as defined by Sir F Bacon) is the basis human inter action,
7. A faith in the people who respect liberty, to know what is best for them, to solve their problems, to be responsible and rule themselves in their best interests.
The Whig concept of progress has done more to improve the quality of lives than any other concept of rule. If the marxists, deep greens and fascists want to reject the Whig view of the World and return to some pre-industrial society, then the weak have no chance . The World will return to time when warlike peoples such as the Vikings and Mongols ruled. Before the invention of steam shovels a British navvy was expected to excavate 20 T of soil a day. Digging out of doors in some windswept location with the temperature just above freezing and being soaked from the rain and sleet is very unpleasant.
Those who reject the Whig view of western progress very rarely appear to be the types who would thrive in a warlike Viking or Mongol Society or be capable of hard manual work.
Charlie
When Goldman Sachs chairman Lloyd Blankfein said in a 2009 interview that the firm was "doing God's work, it caused cries of horror and disbelief round the world. AFAIK, Judaism is unique amongst religions in a belief that, as the hands of God on earth, man's role is to have dominion over and improve the world. Progress is central to Judaism.
Jews have a mandate to improve the world in which they live
http://judaism.about.com/od/beliefs/a/tzedakah_what.htm
That is precisely the opposite of the deep ecology movement in which it is man's role (as far as possible) not to control nature or to have an impact on it. It seeks to oppose the idea of human centrality seen in Judaism. It is also a belief that the world was purer the further back in time and that man should not seek to, for example, mix the races. That is one of the reasons deep ecologists are anti globalisation.
Monbiot
(Science) shows us that humankind is not the purpose and pivot of the Universe, that Man has not been cast in the image of God to control the rest of creation. Science teaches us humility. It tells us that we emerge from the natural world, and remain subject to its laws and limitations
http://www.monbiot.com/2000/05/25/god-versus-greens/
The peculiarities of the Abrahamic religions - their astonishing success in colonising the world and their dangerous notion of progress
http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2005/03/22/god-of-the-soil/
Hitler
“When people attempt to rebel against the iron logic of nature, they come into conflict with the very same principles to which they owe their existence as human beings. Their actions against nature must lead to their own downfall.” . Here, of course, we encounter the objection of the modern pacifist, as truly J***** in its effrontery as it is stupid! 'Man's role is to overcome Nature!'
There is literally no suggestion that Monbiot supports any policy of the Nazi Party or its modern equivalents in any way shape or form. Like his colleagues, the Goldsmith family, he claims Jewish heritage. This is a purely philosophical matter.
eSmith.
What I was suggesting that the deep green movement had attracted some odd bed fellows, groups one would think are opposed to each other. What these groups have done is reject the Whig concept of the improvement in man's condition through using our talents wisely, working hard and learning from our mistakes.
The entry of extreme left wing groups into the German Green Party from the mid 70s onwards and Trotskyists into the UK Green Party post 2000 are just a few examples of how when people migrate politically , they can end up in some unusual situations.
Many protest organisation appear more motivated by what they are against, rather than what they are for.
Largely, post mid 1960s they attract disaffected middle class types who have little experience of the World and have little practical and technical expertise. These protestors are not people who have built sewerage or water works, railways, roads, ports , mines , improved agriculture , reduced disease or done anything useful to improve the lot of the poor in the developing World. If they had done they appreciate what we have in the UK, USA and developed World.
Nature is not logical, it is only Nature . Only that which has memory and can reason, can be logical.
Humans have changed the World , not because they wish dominion over it but because they want a more comfortable life and live longer. Only those who have never witnessed starvation, disease, thirst , squalor and continuous violence ( Read Steve Pinker on violence amongst tribal societies) could wish us to return to some hunter gatherer existence and the deaths of billions of people.
As late as the 19C, people were living in peat covered crofts made with stone walls. Most people would prefer to live in dry and warm homes with central heating. The use of damp proof courses under floors using plastic sheets and damp proof courses in walls ( using bitumen) has done much to remove damp from homes which did much to cause lung problems and cause smells in homes. Using washing machines and dryers means less manual labour , especially for women, enables clothes to be free of body odour and removes damp from homes. Hanging wet clothes in front of a fire when it is raining is excellent for increasing damp in homes and related diseases. Of course we could go back to using wells rather than public supplies . However, wells tend to less than 10m deep, often only 4m deep , often contaminated with E.Coli from septic tanks and provide sources of typhoid and cholera. Of course walking to the village well ( most people could not afford to have well sunk on property ) does provide healthy exercise but also is is exhausting. As Freeman Dyson has said , the use of paraffin wax rather than tallow( sheeps fat) tallows enabled the vast majority of the population to be able to read after dark and therefore helped increase literacy.
A pre or early industrial means a life spent undertaking hard work to survive, living in damp an often cold homes, a lack of light to read by , an extensive effort to keep bodies and clothes clean and free from body odour, common child mortality and extensive deaths from fevers ( Prince Albert died of typhoid).
All those people who buy Lush/ body shop toiletries would probably hate to return to the time before cheap soap made from coal or oils using industrial processes and easy heating of water for bathing. Many people bathed once a week even in the early mid 20C and as consequence , they and their clothes smelt appallingly. Heating water requires a lot of energy. In the UK, public baths , where people bathed still existed up to the mid 70s. Whether Roman, Arab, Japanese or mid 19C , European civilisations keeping humans free of disease with plenty of potable water, warming water for bathing and removal of sewage requires vast amounts of cheap energy.
I think some parts of western civilisation are like third , fourth of fifth generations of a family who have been brought up in affluence and treat with contempt the hard work of the first one or two generations who made it all possible. They are guilt ridden by their affluence and yet have an inferiority complex and defeatist attitude because they lack the faith and technicals skills of the generations who created the wealth in the first place. Most protestors would be unemployable in any pre -1960 society.
Charlie
Thanks.
I wasn't disagreeing with you. Many deep ecologists today including so called climate scientists sincerely believe they are left wing because they are anti capitalism. I went to Green party meetings and deep ecology was what I heard. Almost all the members were hubris stricken academics.
Have now read this and generally am impressed. It is a very good overview. There is a lot of delving into the politics of it all, which is really what it is all about. I don't remember Margaret Thatcher being such a fervent advocate, and I found the description of John Prescott as realistic and thoughtful a bit difficult to swallow, but that should hopefully dispel any easy criticism that it has a political bias and agenda.