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Irish. Atheist. Liberal-right. Anti-jihad. Pro-American. Pro-Israel.

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Scepticism - Anti-Green


  Medicine

Agriculture

Global issues

Global warming

Average global temperature

Environmental sceptics

Environmentalism as urban religion

Wealthy greens

Radical environmentalism

Eco-terrorism

The alternative

Scepticism

Atheism

Science and Religion


Anti-Green page

OK so I'm not anti-Green in the sense that I want to pave the whole world. I believe very much in preserving life on earth (and indeed spreading it to the stars). It's just that it should all be based on science, not emotion.

I'm against most things the Greens say about biotech, agriculture, genetics and medicine. Much of it is provably false. The Green movement is largely a movement that does not believe in science and reason, and often even explicitly rejects it.

I'm sceptical about their claims of looming apocalypse due to climate change or population growth. The threat of apocalypse due to nuclear-armed communism seemed real to me. Apocalypse due to nuclear-armed Islamism, or other future tyranny, seems real to me. Apocalypse due to peaceful consumerism seems far-fetched. There might be climate change issues in the future, but whether they will be apocalyptic I am not yet convinced. We shall see.

I'm against almost everything the Greens say about economics, trade, war, terror and international politics. That's because it's just standard socialist nonsense.

I'm big into preserving old buildings, and preserving endangered species, but I'm afraid that much of the other things the Greens campaign for leave me cold. Many of the Green campaigns look to me driven by a fear of wealth, science, technology and knowledge, and a preference for mysticism, ignorance and New Age mumbo-jumbo.





UK temperature since 1659.
Are we simply warming up after the Little Ice Age (16th cent to 19th cent),
and returning to something like the Medieval Warm Period (10th cent to 14th cent),
or is it something more sinister?



Temperature in C from Greenland ice core.
It does show a recent warming, but one that started in the early 19th century,
and also a modest one compared to the Medieval Warm Period,
which itself is modest compared to earlier historical warm periods.



Temperature in C from Greenland ice core.
Years in AD along bottom axis.
Modern warming compared to Medieval Warm Period.




Medicine



Agriculture


Since the banning of DDT in 1972:

people

have died from malaria.

From the Malaria Death Clock.
The green movement has already killed millions of people.




Global issues



Global warming



Average global temperature

Looking at the actual figures for average global temperature may give you a surprise.


While temperature rose in the 20th century before 1998, I must say that the last decade or so doesn't look very scary.
Certainly, the actual figures above seem quite a contrast to the alarmism that everyone is meant to believe in.



Average global temperature in ° C since 1880.
Graphic is from here.
Data is the Dec-Nov averages from NASA GISTEMP above.
At no point since records began in 1880 did average global temperature go down to 13 ° C or up to 15 ° C.




Natural disasters

There is a claim that natural disasters are getting worse because of climate change. There is very little evidence for this.



Some data in response to Obama's UN speech above notes that deaths from storms, floods and droughts have not increased.
If the Greens lie about this, it is hard to totally trust them on more opaque topics such as temperature and sea level.




Environmental sceptics



JunkScience.com



Environmentalism as "the religion of choice for urban atheists"

As I say above, environmentalism (or at least some of it) may be true, but it is funny how conveniently it fits in with left-wing anti-capitalist ideology, and our post-religious need to feel guilty about our fantastic prosperity and consumer riches. It may be just a coincidence. But it's quite an amazing coincidence.





Brainwashed lunatic kid.
From Greenpeace.



Penn and Teller get green enthusiasts to sign a petition to ban water.




Wealthy greens

Of course most greens are wealthy urban consumers, who often lead a far more extravagant lifestyle than I do (e.g. I fly less than once a year). They have to struggle with this hypocrisy and their feelings of guilt. I just laugh at them.





Michelle Malkin is hilarious on the hypocrisy of the modern urban "greens", from the Hollywood celebrities with their private jets to the liberal-left upper middle-class with their regular flights, second homes and multiple foreign holidays. I don't mind them being wealthy and travelling. I just think they ought to shut up lecturing the rest of us.
A commenter on the ridiculous green ad by the immensely wealthy multi-millionaires Cameron Diaz and Gwyneth Paltrow: "You have GOT to be kidding. Those two wasted more energy and causing more pollution MAKING THEIR COMMERCIAL than I do in a year. The private jets and giant SUVs THEY drive everywhere do more environmental damage in a day than I do in a decade. And they're lecturing me?"




Prince Charles




Nice for some: From 1970 to 2008, Prince Charles drove a 4 litre, 280 bhp, 13 mpg, 150 mph Aston Martin DB6 Volante.
In 2008, after 38 years of driving, in a fine example of token greenery, he converted it to run on bioethanol.
Image from here. See terms of use.



Prince Charles also owned a 5.3 litre, 440 bhp, 13 mpg, 170 mph Aston Martin V8 Vantage Volante.
In fact, he had one custom made, the "Prince of Wales" version of the car.
Image from here. See terms of use.




Radical environmentalism

Radical environmentalism, if taken seriously, threatens billions of innocent people with starvation and death.

Of course, radical environmentalism is only a pose by people who live comfortable lives in a wealthy, inter-connected, industrial consumer society, and it will never be adopted en masse. But it is interesting to consider that it is the only major, popular philosophy that, if it were actually adopted, would threaten the human species itself with global death and extinction.




Eco-terrorism

The burning of libraries and research labs by primitive environmental fascists.



The alternative

The wonderful alternative to green poverty and terror is that we use our fantastic human brains, and our ever-improving science and technology, to make the entire world rich and comfortable like us, while preserving (and even improving) the planet. I'm sure we can do it.

Science, democracy and capitalism will save both the planet and the third world.





A warning of the danger of green extremism: The Day the Earth Stood Still



Trailer for The Day the Earth Stood Still.





Theodore Dalrymple has a nice line on how green theory is both incredibly speculative (with a weak track record so far of successful predictions) and yet incredibly arrogant (it almost wants its critics banned or prosecuted):
"though Monbiot says that it is uncertain that anything we do now will make any difference, he nevertheless proposes that every human being on the earth follow his prescriptions."



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