Tim Nicholson opines in CiF on his recent legal victory. Given the stomach churning nature of his self-righteous eco-wankery, I don’t intend to fisk the whole thing, it’s just too much. However, there are a couple of points to make. The majority of commenters – warmists and sceptics alike – are tearing him a new one. The warmists because, quite rightly, they realise that this has left an open goal for the sceptics. The sceptics, of course, are enjoying that open goal.
Nicholson bases his ridiculous posturing on the effects of a charity run that he did in an old Morris Oxford.
We drove a (very slow) 50-year-old Morris Oxford car from Oxford, England, to Oxford, New Zealand on a fundraising journey that required fuel, flights and shipping. Ironically it was on this journey that we witnessed some of the effects of climate extremes and their impact on people’s lives. In north Africa we stayed with people living underground to escape the intense heat; in India we witnessed the problems of severe flooding, and in Australia we stayed on a farm where the family struggled to grow crops due to drought. On the positive side, in New Zealand we saw some of the low-carbon technologies that can facilitate a comfortable, low-carbon lifestyle.
As several commenters have pointed out to this buffoon, north Africa has been hot for millennia – something to do with being near the equator, I suspect, you know, being nearer the sun and all that. Australia has, likewise been hot for an awful long time, certainly predating the industrial revolution and the same may be said of India. One wonders whether Nicholson ever did Geography at school. Certainly, “people in a hot country go in caves to stay cool” – as they have done for thousands of years – is not by any stretch of the fevered imagination, evidence of catastrophic climate change. It is, however, evidence of Nicholson’s rampant ignorance.
We no longer fly, we have eco-renovated our home, most of our journeys are by bike and we don’t eat much meat. I am also a big supporter of the 10:10 campaign.
Again, as others have pointed out in the comments, this is pious, self-righteous wankery of the highest water.
As I suspected from the coded comments in the earlier reports, Nicholson believes that it is his role to evangelise.
I believe there is a moral imperative upon us all to individually take action to cut our own emissions as well as making others aware of what they can do.
While there is evidence of climate change, there is also evidence that it has changed before. It is, therefore reasonable to expect it to change again. The response to it is another matter and returning to an agrarian, medieval society such as the prophets of doom would like us to, is not something to which I am prepared to subscribe. If, therefore, some twat like Nicholson decided to evangelise to me in the workplace, I would ask politely that he desist. If that was not enough, then I would tell him in no uncertain terms where to put his piety.
I await the outcome of the tribunal with interest.
He drove half-way around the world in an incredibly inefficient car, yet he is still one of the ‘good’ guys in his own strange, deluded world.
Indeed, plenty of commenters lined up to point this out to him.
Tangentially: if I was a shareholder of Grainger plc – his erstwhile employers – I’d try to get the idiot(s) who hired this dildo fired sharpish. I suspect that 30 seconds conversation with this guy would establish his credentials as a loony of the first water. Mind you, any company creating a “head of sustainability” deserves all it gets.
And it got it, good and hard.
Presumably with this ruling, not employing the twat because he is a raving, greenie nutjob could also get you in trouble.
That one is relatively easy to get around – you simply demonstrate that a more suitable person was appointed.
If they all did this, a company could invoke its “no tattoos” policy:
http://media.causes.com/ribbon/607605
“Anna C Keenan is a climate activist, thinker and organiser working to create the paradigm-shift that we all so desperately need.” Oooh, pass the sick bag.
But then if they all did this, the problem would go away entirely:
http://media.causes.com/ribbon/607605
As a libertarian, I believe in a person’s right to do as they wish with their body which belongs to them and noone else. However, MrsBud, who works in mental health, would ask “are they mentally competent to take that decision” and I’d have to agree that these people are mentally deranged.
I just loved this:
Anna won’t be too pleased at my recently adding to my already extensive wardrobe, then… Having deeply interrogated my values, I decided that I really, really needed that new coat. So I bought it.
Apologies, second link should be to here:
http://www.climatejusticefast.com/
Oh, good god!
That some credulous young people believe that this is a cause that they should, apparently, be prepared to lay down their lives for shows that those who choose to peddle alarmist fears need to understand that in pursuing their agenda, people may get hurt. With climate change one tends to think more often of the world’s poor who will stay poor as the global economy is slowed, but this shows that others with names will also be victims, as does this:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-495495/Meet-women-wont-babies–theyre-eco-friendly.html
I also noticed this sad consequence of an older scaremongering campaign:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/andrewbrown/2009/nov/06/religion-atheism?showAllComments=true#CommentKey:17888d90-2289-4cd0-bf6a-377b42bbdfb8
The fact that Tybo refers to Ronald Reagan as the one who will bring about the planet’s nuclear destruction shows from what mindset he was coming. It was all the more poignant to me because 1982 was the year our eldest child was born. It never crossed our minds for a nanosecond that it would be wrong to have brought him into the world. I don’t think we beleived that there was any significant risk, I certainly never lost any sleep despite the film “The Day After” and other attempte to scare us witless..