Sure enough my intuition was proven correct when the subject of Al Gore's Nobel Prize for Fiction Peace was discussed. To be fair, Kielty wondered why Gore was getting a Nobel Prize for Peace. (Kielty is from Northern Ireland.) But he spoiled it all by saying that Gore was merely stating the obvious - that the world is heating up. But that's not what Gore is on about. Gore claims that global warming is primarily caused by the actions of humans - and that's certainly not accepted by all scientists.
Then Kielty's leftism kicked in again. Wasn't it hilarious that the recent court case against Gore's film being shown uncritically in schools was funded by "a Scottish quarrying magnate?" I'm not sure why Christopher Monckton's Scottishness is significant but Kielty clearly assumed that a "quarrying magnate" would inevitably be anti-Gore.
Kielty completely ignored the fact that the global warmers are themselves regularly funded and supported by people looking after their own class interests. Gore's proposals mean more jobs for state-paid scientists, state-paid academics, state-paid politicians and state-subsidised businessmen.
It's that old Bastiat thing again, isn't it?
What is seen is that some people may gain from a particular proposal, but what is not seen is that others may also gain from doing the opposite.
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David Farrer
Excellent!
1 November 2007, 07:17:52 GMT
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Rueful Red
Dunno how closely you follow events down at the local MacWitanagemot, but here's Green MSP Patrick Harvie's motion on Al Gore, which attracted a wonderful amendment from Glaswegian Kenny Gibson:
S3M-642 Patrick Harvie: Nobel Peace Prize—That the Parliament congratulates the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and Al Gore for the work they have done to increase global understanding of climate change and to promote an urgent political response; welcomes the decision by the Norwegian Nobel Committee to award the Nobel Peace Prize jointly to the IPCC and Mr Gore; recognises that climate change poses an immediate and urgent threat to billions of human beings, to the earth’s biodiversity and to the world economy; commits to redoubling the effort in Scotland on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and recognises that this will not happen by targets alone but by fundamental and lasting change in the values of our society, the operation of our economy and the nature of our politics.
Supported by: Rhoda Grant*, Jack McConnell*
*S3M-642.1 Kenneth Gibson: Nobel Peace Prize—As an amendment to motion (S3M-642) in the name of Patrick Harvie, insert at end "believes, however, that the public is becoming increasingly scunnered at being lectured on the need to make personal sacrifices for the sake of the planet by actors, singers and former US presidential hopefuls who are seen to minimise their own tax contributions towards global warming by the expedient of having offshore accounts and highly skilled tax advisors, fly across the world on private jets, own a number of large properties in different parts of the globe, are driven around in gas-guzzling limousines and who have a correspondingly large carbon footprint; believes that cynicism on the need to make lifestyle choices would be tempered if the public saw celebrities and high-profile former politicians actually lead from the front on this issue rather than preach to everyone else; recognises that green politics can be seen as a way of extorting higher taxation from the public, rather than for improving the environment, and urges greater transparency in ensuring that revenues raised are actually invested in projects that directly counter global warming."
26 October 2007, 17:04:42 GMT+01:00
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jameshigham
The thing is that it is actually happening but it has been cynically seized on to the point that detractors of the cynics swing wildly the other way and deny anything is due to human agency. Remember, David, that Them is "human agency" too - not just the common man.
20 October 2007, 11:00:44 GMT+01:00
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dearieme
I suspect that there may well have been a bit of warming, but that the measurements have been so slapdash - in the face of urbanisation and other difficulties - that the warm-mongers have resorted to what is pretty much faking it. So I've moved from describing myself as a sceptic - I am now a cynic.
17 October 2007, 15:06:02 GMT+01:00
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Rob Fisher
Hm, I'm not convinced that it's "obvious" even that there is any warming at all. I've been following Climate Audit for a while and it's far from clear that anything more than urbanisation is being measured by land-based temperature sensors.
16 October 2007, 17:16:00 GMT+01:00
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DAVE T (UK)
This is the same clown who put his feet up on Paul O'Grady's sofa the other night as well. (Mt wife was most annoyed at that) And makes jokes about Maddie McCann. Another of these twits who are not very good comedians but they known someone at the BBC (like Billy Bragg etc) and are dragged on to comment on things they know nothing about.
14 October 2007, 19:12:37 GMT+01:00
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