Overview of Climategate

 Posted by on 30 November 2009 at 12:00 pm  Environmentalism
Nov 302009
 

Christopher Booker has a useful overview of the scandal of “Climategate” in a UK Telegraph column. The whole article is well worth reading, but I liked his identification of three basic points of scientific scandal:

First:

Perhaps the most obvious … is the highly disturbing series of emails which show how Dr Jones and his colleagues have for years been discussing the devious tactics whereby they could avoid releasing their data to outsiders under freedom of information laws.

Second:

The second and most shocking revelation of the leaked documents is how they show the scientists trying to manipulate data through their tortuous computer programmes, always to point in only the one desired direction — to lower past temperatures and to “adjust” recent temperatures upwards, in order to convey the impression of an accelerated warming. …

Third:

The third shocking revelation of these documents is the ruthless way in which these academics have been determined to silence any expert questioning of the findings they have arrived at by such dubious methods — not just by refusing to disclose their basic data but by discrediting and freezing out any scientific journal which dares to publish their critics’ work. …

For more details, go read the whole column.

Also, Glenn Reynolds just published a column on the scandal in The Washington Examiner. (I was particularly interested to hear the views of independent programmers about the code used in the climate models.) I very much hope that Glenn’s final prediction is right:

My prediction: The Copenhagen global warming conference will feature a lot of pretty words and promises, and no admission that things have changed. But we’ll see little or no actual movement, as politicians around the world realize that there’s no percentage in pushing these programs on an increasingly wary public.

I could live with that!

Earth First Cries over Trees

 Posted by on 18 November 2009 at 5:00 am  Environmentalism
Nov 182009
 

Wow, wow, wow:

These people should be huddling naked in a dank cave, not wearing fleece and gortex. Honestly though, I cannot take that crap seriously without wanting to pull out my hair. So here’s a hysterical response from a hippie-hating tree:

Ha!

Nov 162009
 

The November 5, 2009 Economist highlights further convergence between environmentalism and religion in their article, “Religion and climate change: Sounding the trumpet“.

Here’s an excerpt:

…As environmentally minded clerics, and greens with a spiritual bent, confer in increasing numbers, in particular over climate change, acquaintances are being struck that transcend many ethnic, ideological and theological obstacles.

…[UN Secretary-General] Ban told an audience of gorgeously attired Bahais, Buddhists, Christians, Daoists, Hindus, Muslims, Jews, Shintos and Sikhs that “you are the leaders who can have the largest, widest and deepest reach” when warning people about climate change. Religions, he said, had established or helped to run half the schools in the world; they were among the world’s biggest investors; and the global output of religious journalism was comparable at least to Europe’s secular press.

The Economist article observes that this trend seems to be further advanced outside of the US. But the US is probably not far behind.

Although religion and environmentalism may seem to be fairly disparate, Onkar Ghate spoke about this coming convergence at the 2008 OCON conference in Lecture 2 of the 3-part series, “Cultural Movements: Creating Change”.

Here is an excerpt from my notes of his lecture:

…Lately, the evangelicals have started to move away from a primary focus on issues such as abortion and sexual orientation/conduct, and towards a broader range of issues which includes “social justice” and environmentalism. Environmentalism and religion in particular have the potential to form a truly “unholy marriage”, because in a crucial way they both need and complement the other.

The religionists have previously been concerned with issues in the spiritual realm, such as sex. Environmentalists have previously been concerned about issues in the material realm, such as industrial production. But a combination of the two gives each other strength, and feeds an ideology in which your very existence is a sin. This alliance grants a powerful moral foundation for environmentalist condemnations of mankind’s physical activities and it also expands the domains by which religion can assert control over man’s spirit through guilt.

The video of his lecture can be found on the “ARC: Culture” web page, middle column, under the heading “Cultural Movements: Creating Change”. Use the scroll bar on the embedded video to select between the three separate lectures.

(BTW, I highly recommend listening to all three lectures).

Green = Smart?

 Posted by on 5 May 2009 at 12:04 pm  Environmentalism
May 052009
 

Joseph Kellard recently sent me the following inquiry. I couldn’t think of any examples offhand, so with his permission, I’m posting it here:

I’m looking to write about the environmentalists’ use of the term “smart” to describe some of their policies: e.g., the anti-”sprawl” greens are pushing “smart growth” city planning, while other environmentalists tout wind, solar and their ugly new light bulbs as “smart energies.”

Are you aware of any other uses of this term in environmentalist circles? (Yes, I know, there are other uses of “smart” today with no green connections, such as “smart phones”).

Please post your replies in the comments — or e-mail Joseph directly at [email protected].

Renewal

 Posted by on 13 April 2009 at 12:01 pm  Environmentalism, Religion
Apr 132009
 

Here’s a scary but potentially useful resource on religious environmentalism: the documentary Renewal. Here’s how the film’s web site describes the project:

Across the nation, people of faith are standing up for the environment. Evangelical Christians are fighting mountaintop removal, a coal mining process that is decimating Appalachia. Muslims are supporting sustainable farming. Jews are helping children experience the bond between nature and spirituality. Interfaith Power and Light is mobilizing people of all faiths in a religious response to global warming.

For the first time, the combined energy of these diverse activists is the driving force behind a feature-length documentary, entitled RENEWAL. Veteran film producers Marty Ostrow and Terry Kay Rockefeller have crisscrossed the country to capture these exciting stories of people whose passion and deep moral commitment are making a difference in a time of grave ecological threats.

The RENEWAL Project has been designed to make the documentary and its inspiring stories available to people and organizations who want to be a part of this growing movement to protect life on our planet and reverse the damage that humans have done to the environment. Learn how you can get involved today!

You can view a trailer on their web site. (Via Ari Armstrong.)

Yaron Brook Lecture On Environmentalism

 Posted by on 9 April 2009 at 3:02 pm  ARI, Environmentalism
Apr 092009
 

At the recent Heartland Institute 2009 conference on climate change (featuring dissent views to the environmentalist orthodoxy), Yaron Brook gave a lecture on the reasons people keep accepting bad environmental science.

He dissects the bad moral premises that Americans unwittingly accept (and must be challenged) in order to defeat the underlying anti-man ideology.

You can listen to his lecture here.

(Via VfR.)

Earth Hour FAIL

 Posted by on 3 April 2009 at 2:10 pm  Environmentalism
Apr 032009
 

I love this news: Earth Hour had no discernible effect on electricity usage in the Green Republic of California. Go see the graphs for yourself. Perhaps the proud people celebrating Edison Hour offset the guilty greens.

(Via Jennifer Iannolo of Food Philosophy.)

The Meaning of an Hour in the Dark

 Posted by on 28 March 2009 at 2:00 pm  Environmentalism
Mar 282009
 

Here’s an excellent letter by OActivist Roberto Sarrionandia published in the UK’s Daily Telegraph from on tonight’s “Earth Hour”:

Turning the lights out is an attack on civilisation

SIR — This Saturday evening, for “Earth Hour”, we are encouraged to turn off our lights as a symbolic sacrifice for nature.

This is a terrifying concept. The electric light has brought safety to our streets, and enabled us to work and enjoy ourselves long into the night. It is, in many ways, the symbol of civilisation.

One hour in the dark may be enjoyable if it is temporary, but existence without electricity would bring death en masse.

When we declare our opposition to the electric light bulb, we declare our opposition to man.

Roberto Sarrionandia
Saundersfoot, Pembrokeshire

For more from Roberto Sarrionandia, see his blog, Tito Says. For more on “Earth Hour,” see Keith Lockitch’s op-ed on its real meaning.

Most of all, don’t forget to leave on your lights in honor of Edison Hour tonight!

Edison Hour

 Posted by on 27 March 2009 at 1:53 pm  Environmentalism
Mar 272009
 

Tomorrow evening, Paul and I will celebrate Edison Hour. Amy Nasir explains this festival of lights on the New Clarion:

On Saturday, March 28, from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m., in contrast to the dubious “Earth Hour,” there are a couple of new movements celebrating the achievements of Thomas Edison and those men and women who–as Ayn Rand eloquently phrased–”took first steps, down new roads, armed with nothing but their own vision.”

In honor of Edison Hour, which was coincidentally established by the University of Michigan Students of Objectivism and myself, and also in tribute to Human Achievement Hour, households and businesses across the nation will be keeping their lights and other electrical devices on, and refusing to concede the unearned guilt that environmentalists want to establish in our culture.

We live in the most innovative, life-sustaining and “money-making” country in mankind’s history, and we should never apologize for human happiness and success. So please remember to keep your lights on this coming Saturday. You may want to spend the hour by sitting down by the bright light of your lamp reading Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal or revisiting her uplifting novella, Anthem, from which I’ve selected a quote from its main character who rediscovered electricity and the light bulb:

I have learned that my power of the sky was known to men long ago; they called it Electricity. It was the power that moved their greatest inventions. It lit this house with light which came from those globes of glass on the walls.

Let’s make sure that the precious inventions that freed the world from darkness are never taken for granted, and especially not destroyed by the anti-man philosophy of environmentalism and “Earth Hour.” Let’s change the tide of the culture by celebrating human achievement and literally fending off the darkness.

Hear, hear!

P.S. Ari Armstrong has a good post on Edison Hour too.

Environmentalist Propaganda Video

 Posted by on 18 March 2009 at 11:01 pm  Environmentalism
Mar 182009
 

When someone asks if environmentalism is really anti-man, you can point them towards this video:

One of man’s cardinal values is self-esteem. If a person believes he is evil and unfit for existence, then he won’t fight for his life.

Environmentalism attacks self-esteem by portraying man as such as evil and unfit for existence. If Americans ever fully internalize that code of values, then we’ll be in big trouble.

Hence the importance of identifying (and opposing) that deadly code whenever one sees it.

Suffusion theme by Sayontan Sinha