Not many people understand climate change. But they can recognise hypocrisy when they see it, and are also likely to count their spoons whenever wild-eyed politicians invoke the impending end of the world.
On Tuesday, Prince Charles flew to Copenhagen to attend the climate change summit, where he delivered a keynote speech. He informed his audience that 'the world has only seven years before we lose the levers of control'. Not at all long, then.
For the Prince this was an important speech with an important message. If we have so little time, and man-made climate change is such a terrifyingly imminent threat, he might have taken a boat or train to Copenhagen, or even, as a symbolic gesture, decided to walk. But he commandeered a jet belonging to the Queen's Flight, generating an estimated 6.4tons of carbon dioxide, 5.2tons more than if he had used a commercial flight.
Meanwhile his fellow prophet of doom, Gordon Brown, was making his own way to Copenhagen the same day. This is the man who proclaimed in October that we had '50 days to save the world'. Before leaving he conjured up on a television programme the certainty of 'floods and droughts' with 'climate change evacuees and refugees' if agreement is not reached in Copenhagen.
Mr Brown chartered a 185-seat Airbus to take him and 20 aides to Denmark. Was a smaller plane producing less carbon dioxide not available?
Could he perhaps have shared an aircraft with Prince Charles? Might he have considered taking a scheduled flight to the Danish capital, of which there were 16 on Tuesday?
Evidently not. It is odd, isn't it, how climate change doomsayers such as Prince Charles and Mr Brown are so often unprepared to make the smallest sacrifice in their own daily lives to address a threat which they assert is literally deadly. Presumably any contribution would be helpful. And it is not easy in life to persuade people to give up things if you are almost ostentatiously unwilling to do so yourself.
The Copenhagen summit, supposed to produce an agreement limiting greenhouse gases, has, according to experts, the same carbon footprint as a medium-sized African country such as Malawi.
There are an amazing 34,000 delegates attending the event, and the grander among them are forced, says my colleague Robert Hardman in Copenhagen, to park their private jets in Norway because Denmark has run out of Tarmac, and to procure their gas-guzzling limousines from Germany.
Show me a climate control zealot and I can often show you a hypocrite, and a hypocrite, moreover, who speaks in apocalyptic terms about the world coming to an end - at a time not long hence and usually implausibly specific - if the rest of us do not immediately curb our lifestyles so as to produce fewer greenhouse gases.
The double standards and the grotesque exaggeration go hand in hand.
Some, at least, of the zealots do not really, honestly believe that things are as bad as they say. If they did, they might not go on serenely generating carbon emissions on such a scale. They are trying to shock us into action by employing emotive language and invoking terrible dangers. In other words, they are treating us as fools. Politicians shamelessly twist the facts to scare us witless.
There has been an appalling case in Copenhagen this week.
4 comments:
I've been waiting a month for new Philbony!
Despite my general reluctance to weigh in on political issues (me like music videos), I'm sitting here in Edmonton drinking Grand Marnier while it's 20 degrees out, listening to the 80s music channel on Deb's mom's TV...in short, I don't have much else to do, so here goes!
As much as I enjoy it when fat cats and political types are found to be full of shit, I think that the Daily Mail article is a classic example of ad hoc argument, finding an easy target in the world leaders whose carbon footprints are disproportionate to their intended message. Yes, they could carpool or do something else symbolic of their commitment to the cause, but realistically, these guys need their security details, communication apparatus, staff, etc.--if they didn't have them, it might as well be one of us turds showing up with a smile and a tequila shot, for all it would accomplish. However, nothing gets people's attention like symbolism (witness the same issue re: the auto execs flying to testify to Congress, or other silly arguments about the need for prayer in schools or the 10 commandments in courthouses), so I tip my hat to the Daily Mail for finding the right button to push.
Regarding the whole global warming contro, my take is: shit happens. I consider myself an environmentally conscious world citizen (I drive a Civic in large part because of its fuel economy, am a Sierra Club member, regularly recycle, etc.), and I have heard all of the science that says (A)it's happening, (B)it's a disaster, and (C)it can be fixed. However...my jury is still out. (A)We only have a little over 100 years of really reliable data on the climate (ice core samples are not as definite as actual in-time measurements), so I'm not convinced that it's changed in a significant way in relation to long term, "natural" changes. (B)This planet has weathered (haha) catastrophic floods, earthquakes, meteors, nuclear bombs, and all manner of extinction level events, and it's still here. As Philobony once said on a visit to Red Rock canyon, "The Earth is Strong." (C)Even if all of the advanced world economies do an "Escape from L.A." Snake Pliskin-style return to a pre-industrial model (NEVER GONNA HAPPEN), all of the up-and-coming third and fourth world wannabes are going to grab for their share of the pie, and they are not going to let anyone else tell them how to do it. The cat's out of the bag, a bell cannot be unrung..whatever metaphor works for you, there is no going back.
So: shit happens...it always has, and always will. Just try to be good to each other and to yourself (Jerry Springer).
I'm just sayin'. Happy Holidays!
I meant ad hominem (look it up, Thurman). And I actually teach this stuff...oh well, I'm off duty.
a) Dr B, VERY NICE to read your extended comments. Seasons Greetings to the Great White North!
b) Security details are one thing. But chartering a 185-seat jet for 15 people is another. And why go for a limousine when a minivan or bus is surly available to take an entire (or multiple)entourage(s)?
Again, if the issue is so important, so deeply believed, so all-important to the viability of all humankind then figure out a way to travel lightly.
c) I too consider myself an environmentally conscious person. It's ironic that while I seem to be the only one in my household that doesn't subscribe to man-made global warming theory, I'm always the one to turn off lights, TV's, water spigots, etc that aren't in use. Guess that's just being a Dad ("Why are these lights always on, dammit?")
d) The Earth is indeed strong. Thanks for remembering something I said nearly 15 years ago. At the time it was taken by the group as a cheesy comment, but I meant it.
e) 'Philobony'? How 'bout Philo-Beddoe-bony.
f) Shit does happens.
g) Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Good Night & may your God go with you.
In the end it seems nothing really matters anyway except what you choose to believe and live by- like Dr B said "a bell cannot not be unrung". The Earth will sort the rest of it out like it always has so what can any of us really do? Excuse me now while I go turn all of my Christmas lights on-
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