Bishop Hill It's always the silly season for the green journo
Jun 22, 2015 Greens Perhaps it's because the silly season is beckoning, perhaps because the encyclical has emboldened environment journalists to go really preposterous, but the papers over the weekend were a wonder to behold.
Firstly we had the "sixth extinction", a tale of mass impending doom based on a paper by, among others, Paul Ehrlich. Any credible journalist would have chucked this straight in the same bin they use when they get press releases from the Monster Raving Loony Party, but obviously it was quite good enough for the green press corps, whose abhorrence of reliable sources has been noted before in these parts.
Then there was a report about the alleged dangers of fracking, written by a body called the Chem Trust, which seems to make a living for its staff by writing papers alleging evil results from any contact with any chemical anywhere. It also appears to be a joint venture between WWF and Friends of the Earth. With a background like that, it's no surprise to see the contents of their reportl being recycled in the Independent and by Labour leadership contenders.
Also recycled was a story that global warming is going to bring us wheat with a lower gluten content and bread that will not rise. This theory has been doing the rounds since 2008, but is clearly simply too much fun not to be wheeled out once again.
The heady mixture of the religion of the greens with that of the Catholics is going to be nothing if not entertaining.
Reader Comments (45)
It's a joy to see the SJW brigade hail the Pope as a far-sighted and noble thinker – on Climate Change.
The very same Pope who the SJW brigade think is an evil, short-sighted, bigot on everything else.
Could there be any clearer evidence that Green is the new religion?
I wonder if any of His Holiness' advisors pointed out that the Catholic doctrine of untrammelled fecundity is seriously at odds with the Green's policy of population reduction to a tenth of present numbers, or that humans are considered a cancer on the face of the Earth? A few years back, A Chief Rabbi of the UK made the point that "God talks to Man constantly, but sometimes Man doesn't hear too good". Maybe the Pope had his metaphorical fingers in his ears?
"It also appears to be a joint venture between WWF and Friends of the Earth."
So, they are separate organisations!
Well, well, well; that's my new fact for the day.
Journalism, as it was originally practiced, is pretty much dead having being killed off by the rise of the internet and the consequential cost pressure on the MSM.
All that the new journalists have time to do is to regurgitate press releases without checking if they are factual or not
All that the new journalists have time to do is to regurgitate press releases without checking if they are factual or not
Arthur, that is why we call them churnalists, all they can do is format a press release into the various MSM styles.
I am puzzled, I always thought yeast fermented sugars, not protein. Given that at least half the world doesn't eat wheat bread, and the other half are claiming to be on a gluten free diet this scare seems likely to fall flat as well.
As for any of Paul Erhlich's reports I think Dorothy Parker's comment is appropriate - this report should not be put down lightly, it should be hurled with great force.
G#3, the alarmists have been waiting by the phone for a long, sad, time.
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Arthur Dent
I'm not so sure that the explanation for the egregious bias in the dead tree recycling business is attributable to squeezed costs consequent from plummeting circulation.
First off there's The Guardian and The Independent and to my mind there's also the press elephant in the room - The Press Association - which has the largest aggregate news reach of any press in the UK and who rarely get criticism and they actively pump extraordinary amounts of eco-agitprop on a routine basis.
The sausage machine of "news" shapes its output via editorial guidelines and from what I can see the content recipe presently in use adds much green dye, misshapen lumps with added fibs after filtering out evidence and arithmetic.
Genuflects in the probable direction of Dorothy Parker!
I actually think that the pope's message is a boon to the realist side of our debate, I mean even a congenital idiot should be able to work out that the Pope's expertise is in the area of religion right? Well we don't need to tell the idiot that the Pope has a Chemistry degree do we?
Early days yet , with Paris coming up there will be 'lots' more of these types of claims .
Oddly , such an 'over the top ' approach may not be a bad thing , the public have shown already that either through fatigue or disbelief that a constant diet of 'the sky is failing ' claims does not win them over.
Has for the press acting has little than a green PR photocopier, it has been going on for years. either becasue they are lazy or becasue of 'ideological' reason. At this stage it is worth remember that the public think of journalists in the same regards has other groups know for their willingness to lie.
I was just signed up by a journalist friend with too much time on his hands (good joke, Tim, ha ha) to an outfit called 38degrees.org.
Their first post to me - on fracking - will hopefully be their last:
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>> It’s dirty, dangerous, a disaster for the climate, and it could happen just metres from people’s homes. <<
You know as well as I do that this description is absolute bollocks in every respect.
Please take me off your distribution list for this disingenuous drivel.
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Graeme No.3
as far as Paul Erlich is concerned - I'd have to channel Boris Johnston in his response to noisome black cabbies... with added vehemence.
Sometimes you look at who is on a band wagon and no matter what tune they're playing you're sure that you don't want to jump on. Thanks CAGW but no thanks. I'll wait for the next one.
A band wagon is certainly one way to look at them. I think of them more akin to an aggressive drunk trying to walk up the down escalator. They don't make any progress but are always in the way of people who want to go somewhere.
I think you are being unfair to the Monster Raving Loony Party.
Jerry M 11.09am I keep going with 38degrees.org. It claims to be non political so when their bias is showing I point it out. When what they say, as on fracking. is without foundation I point it out. On occasion they have campaigned on an issue where I agree so I do sometimes sign the petition. Whether this regular petitioning has any influence on government I doubt. As with climate drama too much shouting just turns everybody off.
straight in the same bin they use when they get press releases from the Monster Raving Loony Party
Hey!
Not only did Screaming Lord Sutch have the best (and the loudest) rock band in Britain in 1960, he was also a visionary (potential) politician.
I saw the same "sixth extinction" and as it has no relevance to climate I just gave it a miss. Rhere are serious issues with the loss of animal species, but the only impact of the global warming scam has been to take money and attention away from the serious aspects and allow carbon sharks to use a real environmental problem to make themselves lots of money.
Jerrym "I was just signed up .. to an outfit called 38degrees.org."
I sign up to such things to see what the opposition are saying.
They are really really boring and usually they go straight in the trash.
"global warming is going to bring us wheat with a lower gluten content and bread that will not rise".... plenty of communion bread for the Pope and his ever growing flock then.
Ehrlich has an astonishing track record when it comes to making predictions which are not only insane, but are invariably PROVED to be false over time. Do the so-called "science correspondents" not realise this, or do they just assume that, if he carries on spraying potty claims around, he has to get one right eventually?
I note that the Telegraph seems to have learned one thing from the double car-crash of Louise Gray and Geoffrey Lean: they didn't run the risk of permitting comments on the "mass extinction" story.
@Graeme no 3
You are correct - yeast fermentation produces the evil gas that dare not utter its name and the dough rises. But when the protein quality and quantity as defined by glutenin and gliadin ratio and content are deficient then poor elasticity of the dough may not allow sufficient gas entrapment for the loaf to rise and hold its shape. The resulting brick may not be appetising. The same sort of effect may also result from infections - even at a low incidence - by rusts or mildew. The report is essentially correct. It should be noted that the output of starch and protein per hectare will be higher under increased temperature and evil gas in the atmosphere, as any fule kno. The quality aspects will be sorted by food technologists, or could be possibly be arrived at by using less nitrogen fertiliser to knock back cap the potential yield, as lower yield provides a higher proportion of protein in bread-making grists.
Or greens could just get used to eating slightly different bread - who said nothing must be allowed to change?
Did they name the species which have gone extinct or is it based on a model?
Is Ehrlich the Standard Bearer for making dire predictions that everything will be worse than we thought, which then turn out to be nothing more than promotional hype for their latest book, paper or film?
It is obviously very lucrative to be a merchant of doom.
The Chem Trust has 4 current directors (trustees):
Deborah Jann Tripley who is also a director of Greenpeace Environmental Trust
Oliver Harry Barratt Smith a former director of something called Alliance of Religions and Conservation
Leslie David Jones a former director of WWF-UK
Christopher Nigel Austin Haigh a former director of The Green Alliance
It lists WWWF-UK as a "Related party"
It has/will receive funding from:
WWF-UK
Greenpeace Environmental Trust
WWF Austailia
The Marisla Foundation
The Esmee Fairbairn Foundation
The Eranda Foundation
The Ashden Trust
European Environment & Health Initiative
There are 2 employees and the total wage bill (including social security and pensions) was £134,829
@TerryS
That is a devastating bit of research mate and if followed up then I would bet that all the contributions ultimately came from the tax payers.
re the Sixth Extinction, (also quite a good book by Richard Leakey) and any other extinction, come to think about it, my view has always been that if a species is endangered/nearly extinct, then its influence on its ecosystem must be fairly small, just because of lack of numbers. Therefore eliminating entirely will have minimal impact!
Yes, we might bemoan the loss of an 'iconic' species (a slug of some sort probably) but that is an emotional response. The proper 'environmental' approach is to be rational and dispassionate, and view it purely from the overall impact on the/its environment. ie, let it go! I recall Chris Packham saying something similar about the panda!
SimonJ
Stacey, the article in the Telegraph seemed to name just about every species that has gone extinct during the existence of hominids (which ought strictly to include all but one species of hominid, as well). The weasel-logic was that habitat destruction and over-hunting were causes, as well as the inevitable "climate change". The weasel itself appears to be safe, on this evidence.
Terry S - google some of those names and it leads to an infinite line of Green "charities", multiple directorships and the odd "Socialist Conference", loads of guff about the good they do and nothing about where their money comes from.
I think the catholic church allying itself so closely with the enviromentalist movement could well be the death knell for this new age religion. For those who know nothing at all about the science behind CAGW, it must at least engender a strong sense of unease to see one corrupt and hypocritical organisation allying with another equally unsavoury one.
When you consider that way over 99% of all the species that ever lived are extinct then the important thing is to make sure we are not added to the list; not to spend billions on vole roads etc.
At this rate the watermelons will be claiming the Vikings made wine in Greenland
http://vvattsupwiththat.blogspot.com/2015/06/mark-steyn-and-grapes-of-wrath.html
They did make wine in Greenland, even the Pope says so.
In fact Pope Gregory was so pissed of at it that in 1237 he banned then from using it as communion wine.
TerryS, at least vvussell admits the existence of the Medieval Warm Period, which is heresy for most who hold the Holy Hockey Stick sacred.
This witty piece is by Dominic Lawson (son of Nigel) in today's Daily Mail (Monday 22nd June) entitled
"A Very PC Prayer for Our Times"
Our Gaia, Who art in danger,
Sustainable be thy name,
Thy renewable energy resources come,
Thy Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's will be done
On Earth as it is in the the Upper Atmosphere,
Give us this day our daily organic ciabatta,
Forgive us our carbon emissions,
Though we can't forgive those multinationals who emit against us,
Lead us not into excessive plane travel,
Deliver us from generically modified crops,
For thine is the moral high ground,
The onshore wind farms and the subsidies,
For as long as the taxes can be raised
Amen
Terry is in need of exorcism : in 1237 Pope Gregory IX sternly warned archbishop Sigurd of Norway that priests in Iceland and Greenland could use neither beer as communion wine or barleycakes as the host , but had to import the real deal in sacramentals :
"panis de frumento et vini de uvis"
It being too cold to produce either in Iceland or Greenland .
With vines now growing and grapes ripening five degrees north of their medieval limits shouldn't Golf Charlie be speaking of the Medieval Cooler Than The Present Period ?
History happens .
Spare a thought for us antipodeans, we get all the northern silly season rubbish republished in our papers and on the tele and cop another dose in January from the even dumber journalists/stenographers/cut-and-pasters down here.
This was on the TV news a few years back in NZ.
The story was about a melting glacier in Greenland - it had revealed a Viking settlement. They played a film clip from the BBC showing archaeologists digging and measuring, then cut back to the studio in NZ.
TV man [with gravitas]: This shows us how serious climate change is going to be.
TV blonde: Very serious for everyone. Do they know why the Vikings were living underneath the glacier?
Russell
The art of wine making was known in Greenland and according to Liturgy of The Roman Catholic Archdale King 1957 Paul, Bishop of Skalholt, was taught this by John, Bishop of Gardar in Greenland, in 1203*.
> With vines now growing and grapes ripening five degrees north of their medieval limits
We have learnt a couple of things since the medieval times and I would expect that every single crop that we depend upon will grow in harsher conditions than it did in medieval times. This is irrespective of any changes in climate in any particular region.
* I'm trolling you, but don't really have the time yank your chain all day long. The wine was made from crowberries not grapes
Your Grace may care to listen to Radio 4's Beyond Belief which was on the topic of the encyclical yesterday. I kept tuning away from it lest a ris ein my blood pressure affected my driving, so can't fully review it but there were some very tentative attempts to put a not entirely alarmist viewpoint even if these were pooh-poohed by the studio guests. When one of the guests brought up the "97% of all scientists believe..." line the host made some attempt to suggest that figure might not be entirely relieble, but didn't challenge her steaming on that the exact figure didn't matter.
Relax, Tomj.
Nobody expects you to eat crowberries , but those aren't GMO grapes they're growing in Scotland. It well and truly is a couple of hundred degree-days warmer up there today- I've been to a frost-free Boxing Day shoot 50 miles from the vineyards in question.
Re: Russell
> but those aren't GMO grapes they're growing in Scotland.
If they believed* they could grow grapes in the middle of the Little Ice Age, with the limited varieties of grapes and the limited technology they had it is hardly surprising that, out of the more than 10,000 varieties of wine grapes there are now, a couple are hardy enough to survive in Scotland.
* I say believe because it isn't clear whether Adam Smith is speaking from knowledge of wine growing in Scotland or a belief that the technology at the time made it possible.
Terry, check the links or ask ask anyone in the wine trade : we're talking about ordinary out door viticulture , not hothouse grapes or an orangerie.
"I've been to a frost-free Boxing Day shoot 50 miles from the vineyards in question."
And frost makes no difference to grapes ..it's the lack of summer sunshine
..I was camping there the entire month of August 2014 ..it rained almost everyday ..17 August forecast talked of frosts.
Russell,
The Momentum Vineyard in Scotland (which is the one that has had all the publicity) grows the following grape varieties:
Rondo - created in 1964 by Professor V. Kraus
Solaris - created in 1975 by Norbert Becker
Siegerrebe - created in 1929 by Dr. Georg Scheu
Like I said, there has been one or two improvements over the past few centuries.