Bishop Hill Simon's Caribbean climate capers
Mar 30, 2015 BBC Climate: WG3 Greens The BBC really is ramping up the pressure on climate change. Having made my way back to the episcopal palace late yesterday afternoon I collapsed in a corner to catch up on my reading. Meanwhile, on the TV in the corner was Simon Reeve's Caribbean, a travelogue show which this week featured visits to Venezuela and Colombia.
I wasn't paying any attention until, towards the end, I was forced to sit up by the (perhaps inevitable) introduction of the climate debate. This centred upon Reeve's visit to the Sierra Nevada mountains of Columbia and an Amerindian tribe called the Kogi. You got a hint of what was coming when the first Kogi interviewed told the camera that her people did not damage the Earth (from 51:00). But it really kicked off from 54:30 when the same interviewee asked:
How can [you] expect us to live when you come from the other side of the world and destroy mother Earth so that multinational companies profit? ...river levels have fallen, the rains don't come when they should, crop seasons are changing. Only when this stops can life carry on as normal.
Cue Reeve giving us a little lecture on the perils of climate change, and how shocking it was to hear about the "profound change" that the Kogi were allegedly experiencing. This was apparently something Reeve was hearing "more and more about" on his travels around the world.
To round things off, Reeve took a group of the Kogi down the mountain to the seaside, where they stared meaningfully at a power station. Reeve asked them what they thought:
Before this was built, everything was normal. Building this here has harmed the Earth. It could kill everything here....Mother Earth is in pain.
You can guess the rest. So, if Reeve gets his way it's a prehistoric lifestyle and early deaths from woodsmoke inhalation for the Kogi and perhaps a lot of other people too. But lots of picturesque destitution for him to coo over.
And if anyone should think that Reeve actually believed any of the stuff he was spouting to camera, this Twitter exchange should clarify things:
Every Sunday @simon_reeve makes me want to quit my job on Monday and travel the world #travel
— Dan Goodrich (@DanGoodrich1) March 29, 2015
@DanGoodrich1 Do it Dan. Life is so short.
— Simon Reeve (@simon_reeve) March 29, 2015
Reader Comments (88)
Roy,
The stone age ended when we ran out of stones.
The steam age was never going to end, because we would not run out of steam.
Malthus never did evolution very well.
@DanGoodrich1 Do it Dan. Life is so short.
Totally agree, travel is great, though as pointed out on the thread it is called tourism. In Myanmar currently where the electricity drops out pretty much every day, (probably not idealif you try to sell ice cream for a living, need a guaranteed backup really...). I do actually wonder if the eco friendly e-bikes that have instantly taken over the horse and cart in Bagan might be partly responsible for the evening outages (about now normally)
On a different note I love the papers in all of the region. Very well written and just present the facts with no spin. Just the other day The Global New Light of Myanmar had 2 stories side by side. One of climate change officer guff (it is everywhere) and getting renewables investment next to 'electricity now provided to 6 new villages' down to the technical level of a 300MW transformer I believe.
Don't get me started on the irrational hated of the government here and all the various ways of how to dodge the entry fees that have 'only go to the government'. It just isn't black and white and the whole country is a slight potential powder keg of very different ethnic groups, I'm not sure just whacking full on democracy in would work that well. As regards the payment to them, surely some of that went to build the Yangon-Mandalay motorway that took forever to build.
...also Colombia is a fantastic country (incredibly friendly) if you fancy a great holiday.
Google the Kogi for a rich seam of twaddle; stuff like this:
"To penetrate a Kankurua is to enter into contact with the nine worlds and the nine states of consciousness that make it up. Some say they have moved beyond verbal language, using tones to create colorful images in their minds rather than thoughts expressed as sentences. Some Kogi speak telepathically to each other. "
"The nine-layered universe of their cosmology, the nine-tiered temple where they gather, the nine months a child spends in its mother's womb are all expressions of creation, and each reflects and informs the other. A hill can also be a house, the mountains a model of the cosmos. The white hats worn by Arhuaco men also symbolize the snowfields of the sacred peaks. The hairs on a person's body echo the forest trees that cover the mountain flanks. "
Inspirational! Much better than Attenborough.
The replies sounds rather scripted , as if it came straight out of Greenpeace PR document .
Meanwhile I wonder if you asked them want changes would they like to make their life better , how many would have said east access to energy and modern services/products and how many a 'return to nature'
Re: Robert Christopher
> "..destroy mother Earth so that multinational companies profit"
> Isn't the BBC a multinational?
So is Greenpeace, WWF and FoE.
Knr, indeed. In fact its a noticeable phenomenon worldwide where the nob sav/ peasant gets the opportunity to get off the land and have a job in a factory with wages, he jumps at it. Semi-naked, semi-starved, clinging onto life thanks to nature's whims, might seem jolly good to Rousseau inspired fantasists looking from afar, the behaviour of those on the ground tells a different story, again and again and again.
Sorry Bish, but you really didn't do very well on Sunday. From the beginning you made too many concessions and missed an opportunity to put a much stronger case. With these people there is no reasoning - just sock it to them. And anyway, some of us - maybe many - do not believe that carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas (not in the concentrations that it exists in the atmosphere) nor do we believe that man has influenced climate in any way at any stage of evolution. Far stronger forces are at work.
Seedy:
How right you are, Seedy. I have been on record with this point on many blogs. The alarmists like us to argue 'the science' with them as that allows them to keep us diverted from the real reason for the AGW scare. People like ATTP and other like-minded Trolls are very adept at this and can construct all manner of circular arguments to support their brief. Unfortunately, if we call them to account for things like 'Common Purpose', 'Agenda 21', or 'One World Government', to name but three, they label us as tin-foil hat wearers and conspiracy nuts.But there really is more to this than meets the eye. I sometimes think that AGW is merely a deflection strategy. Put it this way, if it didn't exist they would have to invent it - oh, they did that already....
The coca chewing Kogi have swallowed the ecotourists koolaid , and the Bishop has inhaled deeply of the antismoking incense of the WHO shamans.
We're in deep cultural trouble.
@Harry Passfield
I totally agree but even here on BH there is now a certain view that you need to endorse in order to be accepted. I have tried for years to focus attention on the empirical evidence that is available by the bucket load, backing the fact that CO2 is not causing the average global temperature to rise. However most people on BH really enjoy discussing the science (I have to say that I also enjoy it) and so those discussions continue ad infinitum even though we humans know so little about the science.
People seem more interested in the discussion than in the facts.
Dung: Thank you for your support. However:
And thereby hangs the tale...we talk about a 'Global Average Temperature' as if it is real, when in fact it is a construct to help play us along in the AGW argument. GAT (whatever that is) is meaningless: all it does is assist alarmists who want to rule the world to cow sceptics with BS.Mar 30, 2015 at 4:46 PM | Dung
Surely the empirical evidence is science, which you want you discuss. In fact the empirical evidence is where you start when you want to explain things with your shiny new theory.
Mar 30, 2015 at 4:59 PM | Harry Passfield
Eventually the 'climate scientists' might not play along with the politicians and the media if some real scientists take a stand. Plenty of people are interested in science and not politics so definitely worth discussing it. I do understand your point though.
Russell (Mar 30, 2015 at 4:45 PM) says "We're in deep cultural trouble."
Yes, maybe it's time to start praying to the Great Old Ones... lä! Shub-Niggurath!
Rob Burton: Quite right...'definitely worth discussing it' - but we need to define the terms, not the 'other side'. We need to call out the BS (GAT, incompetent models, dodgy science in dodgy papers, etc). We need the public to know - to know - that scientists like Mann do not play by the rules of science - not releasing data and code with their papers, or Jones - who just 'loses' his data, or Lewandowsky/Cook (words fail me with them). We will not win this game by playing under their rules. It will not be acceptable - again - in a future world, freed from the hysteria of AGW, for the likes of Mann and his acolytes (eg: ATTP) to merely say they were only following orders.
As authentic an credible interview with a person "who does nothurt the Earth" as that tribe in Ecuador that was used by Big Green to fabricate a sham lawsuit:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/05/business/federal-judge-rules-for-chevron-in-ecuadorean-pollution-case.html?_r=0
It sounds like the compulsive liars who lead the Big Green movement are not particularly creative, and are hoping to use yet another tribe to promote their money stealing schemes.
Good point, hunterter. The Ecuador scam against Chevron was a most unholy alliance of environmentalists, lawyers, and locals in it for a fast buck. Extortion by any other name.
The funny part was that these criminals then went after Sharon Stone with lawyers for not producing the 'anguished concern' that she was paid to deliver. There is a lesson there for everybody.
Sharon Stone Is Being Sued for Skipping an Anti-Chevron Protest
I'll rescind part of my earlier statement, regarding criminality. None of these profit-seekers riding on the back of environmental sentiments has yet been convicted in court of law. Not to my knowledge. They've just had their hides tanned by a Judge.
The alarmists like us to argue 'the science' with them as that allows them to keep us diverted from the real reason for the AGW scare.
Mar 30, 2015 at 4:31 PM Harry Passfield
It just doesn't matter!
Resistance is futile. Your life, as it has been - is over. We wish to improve ourselves. Your culture will adapt to service ours. From this time forward, you will service - us.
"A global climate treaty must be implemented even if there is no scientific evidence to back the greenhouse effect."
-Richard Benedik United Nations
"We redistribute de facto the world's wealth by climate policy...Basically it's a big mistake to discuss climate policy separately from the major themes of globalization...One has to free oneself from the illusion that international climate policy is environmental policy. This has almost nothing to do with environmental policy anymore."
-Ottmar Edenhoffer United Nations
Priceless. I'm being to doubt Darwin's theory of evolution, seeing as how many of these single brain celled Wusses are running around in this country.
if they ever utter a sentence without a reference to climate, it is to tell that the NHS is fantaaastic..Or that muslims all are very peaceful (in contrast to evil white christians and Israel and Boooosh)
What I struggle is whyso should I be forced to fund the copious lifestyle of these propagandizing liberal retards when I just want to watch, say, Sky ??
Maybe some career politician shyster can formulate an answer on that one??
The female village elder had no interest in climate or global corporations; those claims were only made up in the sub-titles. She was asking for the number of a good dentist.
Paul in Sweden: I like to think that your: 'It just doesn't matter!' is a comment in support of my contention that arguing 'the science' is only to divert us from the real objective - as your quotes from the UN also support most clearly. AGW is a means to a redistributive end - from the poor to the rich (Al Gore - the new Sheriff of Nottingham....who will be our Robin Hood?).
Reeve is just one of many little children at the BBCs beck and call. They just have to wave the BBC credit card and say boys fun. Cox et al are living the high life on UK taxpayer's.
The unbearable longness of watching........
BTW the country is Colombia not Columbia.
Paul in Sweden: I like to think that your: 'It just doesn't matter!' is a comment in support of my contention that arguing 'the science' is only to divert us from the real objective - as your quotes from the UN also support most clearly. AGW is a means to a redistributive end -'
Mar 30, 2015 at 8:23 PM | Harry Passfield
In part Harry. We hear from the warmists that we believe in conspiracies. The academics publishing paper upon rubbish paper are not knowingly participating in a conspiracy but in the natural feeding of their 'blob', be it more citations, grants, staff, resources, celebrity, etc. Those in government do what government does best, expand the government blob. Local municipalities hire Global Warming officers and panels to save the world, consultants are hired, permits are issued and fines imposed, the blob grows. Same on the national level and certainly true with the EU and the United Nations. There are armies of useless bureaucrats that remain after each and every elected administration comes and goes. They are in constant effort to expand their domains.
It is 'Yes, Minister', and the bureaucrats know it.
The EU & UN level bureaucrats decided long ago that they were going to rule the world, CAGW is just one of the concurrent most visible of their efforts.
@ Dung "--The Kogi chap seems a shoe in for the job of Minister for Energy --"
That typo puzzled me. I suppose you meant "shoo in"?
Harry Passfield:
Perhaps the most insidious approach is the disingenuous admission that "we may be wrong but at least we must have an insurance against the fact that we may be right". At which point the objective is achieved.
<I>Of course, "..destroy mother Earth so that multinational companies profit" is exactly the kind of phrase you'd expect to drop from the lips of a tribe of Amerindians who've lived in mountain isolation since the time of the Spanish conquistadores - isn't it?<;I>
Lib Reb, I follow Brazillian news and this is exactly what the local tribes say, they spout leftist junk so they get free stuff and special status. The same happens here in Canada - oh, those ancient spirit places and how they respected mother nature.
Actually, no. They killed each other in tribal wars and invasions, raped, pillaged and .... need I go on.
Slightly off topic, but still on the subject of the BBC, can anyone explain to me how the "balance" of the following panel of experts was determined? Knowing how important such things are to the BBC, obviously.
Will the Dalai Lama reincarnate?
At Tony Heller's "stevengoddard" website, he showed an Australian newspaper article from 1847 in which Aboriginal Australians were quoted as saying the white man's arrival resulted in destructive weather.
https://stevengoddard.wordpress.com/2011/08/08/1847-climate-change-in-australia-caused-by-evil-white-men/
That great changes have taken place in the climate of Australia all testimonies satisfactorily prove
The aborigines say that the climate has undergone this change since white-man came in country.
Plus ca change...
How does an interviewer and his TV crew travel to remote places, or even travel at all without using fossil fuels and without emitting carbon dioxide: indeed how does he live without emtting carbon dioxide?
Old Goat: "Where did it all start?"
It started when the last round of authoritarianism failed with the fall of world socialism in the late 80s.
The bossy types had to look around for a new excuse to tell us all how to live and take our stuff, and lo and behold, they found a doozy.
Once this one's defeated by reality, they'll find something else, never fear. The urge for power knows no limits.
A grab from today,s Daily Mail
"Top Gear’s replacement in the Sunday 8pm BBC 2 slot this week was Caribbean with Simon Reeve.
The show got an average of 2.58million viewers peaking at 2.78m, compared with Top Gear's average of 5.5million this series.
BBC director general Tony Hall sacked Clarkson, 54, after an internal inquiry found he had launched an ‘unprovoked verbal and physical attack’ on junior producer Oisin Tymon, 36.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3018155/Taking-easy-Jeremy-Unshaven-Gear-star-Clarkson-catches-taxi-star-James-meets-TV-boss-BBC.html#ixzz3VwqIBFhI
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook"
Two interesting things here - firstly this replaced Top Gear, it is almost like the BBC is rubbing our noses in it. And 2 I wonder what the viewing figures are like compared to TG. I suspect somewhere south of appalling, like this series really.
Outrageous illegal multinational corporate tie in as Reeve is influenced by "special interest money" - Reeve just tweeted this -
Point 0 : political tweetsHe does a live twitter commentary during the prog seemingly a lot of political ones & plugging NGOs (is that allowed ? & it would benefit unGreen party ?)
: just plugged plugged fairtrade
another : +three-quarters world’s reefs at risk severe decline, threatened by pollution and changing climate. happening on our watch!! @wwf_uk
Point 2
He seems quite happy to pose with this scantily clad 'tribe" in a "natural" environment
- bikiniclad promotion girls outside a big hotel in Surfers Paradise, Australia
Point 3
We lost on twitter, the eco-loony won and totally dominated the tweets, as 'the public lapped' up the romantic dream
(I am here in the reality of the tropics and spent 90 mins this morning taking action against bedbugs, lots of bloodsplats on the sheets)
Point 4 ..BBC Replaced pro CO2 CarPorn loved with, anti-CO2 TravelPorn
(love by car multinationals, now loved by travel multinationals)
The BBC took 2 weeks to go from a slot that promotes Cars and CO2 use to replacing it with an eco-warrior Climate propaganda drivel
Did you guys spot the prog was put on to replace the slot occupied by Top Gear ? It's viewership 2.6m, less than half of TopGear's average
point 5 ..go back to the time of the prog and you do find more sceptical tweets
"@simon_reeve re the Cogi people's white clothes. Do they make them themselves & if so how? "
good point
.. @simon_reeve Yeah, you could have bad teeth, be 4ft tall and probably be dead by 40.
#PovertyPorn Travel
Compare how bbc blame us corps for killings but not a Venezuelan socialist govt creating world greatest murder rate!
locals complained about the price we pay for bananas, but thank us for the cocaine industry
Multicultural BBC sent a rich white male again !
Top Gear and Reeve prog are the same ..BBC sending White men to patronise the locals
#PovertyPorn Travel
This what they now put on Sunday evenings in place of Top Gear....
I had noticed, but haven't watched it. The BBC hierarchy must have been overjoyed at Jezza's temporary "brain out of gear".
from Top Gear to "top Gear ...man !"
Did you notice the bit plugging cannabis smoking ?