Greens are oil company shills?
I have to say that as a concept this makes sense. Large parts of the 'Green Movement' may be funded by established oil companies in order to promote the use of natural gas (produced largely by OilCos), obstensibly as an alternative to coal, but in fact as an alternative to nuclear (funny how the greens all hate nuclear, isn't it?).
Read about it here: http://atomicinsights.com/2011/05/flush-with-cash-how-did-climate-activists-get-so-much-money.html
I can't see any actual evidence there, but an interesting theory it certainly is.
Celebrate ‘Human Achievement Hour’
As found via Dizzy Thinks: http://dizzythinks.net/2010/03/human-achievement-hour-turn-lights-on.html
Now, I didn't know it was imminent but I had heard of it before; once a year environmental organisations encourage people to switch off their lights and otherwise fail to consume energy for an hour, once per year under the banner of "Earth Hour". Presumably this will act as a sacrifice to placate the righteous and vengeful forces of Gaia and draw her attention from the bare faced audacity of our living on the earth.
The libertarian think tank Competitive Enterprise Institute have another idea- that we should go about our lives as normal to celebrate the massive beneficial effects of technology in our lives, they dub this "Human Achievement Hour".
“Environmental challenges will not be solved by turning off our lights and symbolically hiding in the dark,” ... “If anything, we should be looking to technology and innovation to help solve environmental problems.” - CEI policy analyst Michelle Minton
I would go one step further- turn all your lights ON as a beacon of optimism and truth to anyone cowering in their darkened home, or anybody out patrolling (presumably by bicycle) to estimate support for Earth Hour.
Do you want a future of 300mph flying cars, pocket computers and ever-rising standards of living; or a future whittling bits of wood in huts, shitting into a straw-filled bucket ready for composting to grow your own meager beans? The choice is yours..
27/03/2010 8:30pm - switch ON!
Bullshit of the week: “Oil shortages by 2020 due to Western ‘profligacy’”
As seen in The Daily Telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/oilprices/7206410/Oil-shortages-by-2020-due-to-Western-profligacy-says-energy-boss.html
"Drivers need to start treating oil as a scarce commodity and switch to green transport to avoid shortages by 2020, according to the chief executive of Scottish & Southern."
So; we need to stop using oil now, to prevent us from having to stop using oil in the future..
""It's GCSE economics that if production is constrained and demand increases from emerging countries, the price will go up and up and up," Mr Marchant said."
It's also GCSE economics that the price rise itself will curb the rise in demand
"One car in China adds far more value than a second car sitting in the driveway of some house in the UK."
Newsflash: An unused car uses no fuel
"Mr Souter, the transport boss, has proposed more radical solutions than incentives to buy green vehicles. He called for the abolition of the lowest bands of tax that hit those with problems paying their energy bills and the establishment of a tax on carbon emissions. "This would help redistribute wealth and the people using carbon would be paying for it," he added."
So now he wants to increase taxes on energy (increasing the price) to make energy more affordable? Is this the same logic that says we should deal with rising oil prices by artificially inflating the retail price of fuel using fuel duty?
The industry group [the Industry Taskforce on Peak Oil and Energy Security] wants the government to explore electrification of the railways and overhaul the transmission and distribution network.
Does it now? Would this be the 'industry group' that consists of Ian Marchant, head of Scottish and Sourthern Energy; Sir Richard Branson, head of amongst other things Virgin Trains; Brian Souter, the chief executive of Stagecoach, and Philip Dilley, chairman of engineering group Arup? Are they trying to say that rail magnates, electricity companies and civil engineers want government investment in civil engineering projects to benefit railways and electricity companies? Whatever next!
As a forklift dealer and part-time radio DJ I think that the government should invest billions of pounds in buying lots of new forklifts and subsidising internet radio stations, paid for with a new "not using forklifts or listening to internet radio" tax. If they don't do that they are condemning the UK to certain economic and environmental doom.
£150k to send ‘artists’ to Arctic for ‘inspiration’
Here is something I found on the blog of David Thompson, seemingly £150,000 of Arts Council (read "taxpayer's") money was spent on sending a gaggle of arty types to the polar regions, "to inspire the creative team to respond to climate change".
Highlights include the projection of images onto a glacier, the opening of a CO2 cylinder (profound) and the collection of poppies. It is unknown what the 'carbon footprint' of the carbon-footprint-awareness junket was (seemingly always the case).
£150,000 of your and my money well spent then.
Full details here: http://davidthompson.typepad.com/davidthompson/2009/11/artists-for-gaia.html