A Few Things Ill Considered

With Opponents Like These, Who Needs Allies?

Posted by coby on March 14, 2008
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One of the favories squeals of the climate change denialists is that proponents of action to slow the current global warming are “alarmists”, exagerating threats and mongering fear to push past rational debate. I have always found this a bit ironic considering the economic doomsday that they asure us will arise if we dare burn one drop of gasoline less than our slightest whims would require.

So this piece from a usually far left blog is especially amusing, and also demonstrates another fundamental law of The Blogosphere: a wingnut is a wingnut, whether you twist to the right or twist to the left.

Here are some choice quotes, though the headline (“New Proposals To Fight Global Warming Would End Civilization, Kill Billions”) really says it all:

What would the effects of almost completely outlawing carbon dioxide emissions be? The complete reversal of hundreds of years of technological progress and man’s return to the stone age.

(this was completed with the suggestion that the use of fire of any kind might also be banned)

Global transport of any kind would cease, manufacturing and production would be a thing of the past, the global economy would crumble, communications would go dark as computer networks and the Internet are abolished. Millions would freeze to death as a result of not being able to heat their homes.

The article adds a nice touch by saying punishment for violation of these horrifying emission reduction policies would likely be execution! It finishes with a few of the usual canards.

With opponents like these, who needs allies?

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Comments

  1. #1 llewelly
    March 14, 2008

    If those people are far left, than why are they so rabidly anti-women’s and anti-gay rights?

    I could go on, but I see no evidence that site is leftist, and plenty that it is not.

  2. #2 Martin Robbins
    March 14, 2008

    Quick question… what are “Oppononets”? :P

  3. #3 Sam Wise
    March 14, 2008

    Actually, the site isn’t “far left,” it’s essentially a New World Order conspiracy site. The trilateral commission is hiding behind every lamp post, that sort of thing.

    If you dig around a bit, you’ll find quite a bit of climate change denial material on the site — pretty much all to the tune that the IPCC is in the pockets of moneyed interests who want to enslave us all…

  4. #4 coby
    March 14, 2008

    “oppononets”…. how embarassing.. :-/

  5. #5 coby
    March 14, 2008

    Sorry, I guess it is not really far left, at least not consistently. I thought of it that way because of the source I end up getting the occasional articles of theirs. They are consistent neo-con bashers, bush-is-evil, Iraq-is-about-oil, that kind of stuff…and lots of 911 conspiracy. But I guess those positions come from all over the spectrum, don’t they.

  6. #6 Art
    March 14, 2008

    Prison Planet might more correctly be termed an anti-government, anti-authoritarian, radical libertarian site which caters to conspiracy theorists.

  7. #7 John
    March 19, 2008

    I see people are sniggering at conspiracy theorists. Well perhaps if some of you chaps had examined 9/11 and statements made by the elite with regards to the New World Order, you would not be so dismissive. I still have an open mind on Climate change but the attitude here towards “wingnuts” says a lot, I have to say. As for Prison Planet, they are concerned about protecting individuals from government that is no longer held accountable for its actions. All I see as a solution regarding Climate Change is reducing CO2 emissions and paying carbon taxes – I do not see a lot regarding alternative power sources which I think we’d all welcome. And you wonder why people are skeptical? I suppose the fact that Al Gore earns US$ 100,000 per lecture is not a concern to your movement? I hope you have the courage to post this comment.

  8. #8 G
    April 1, 2008

    Why have you made no reply to John? I would have thought that someone with such an open and skeptical mind is surely a “denialist wignut”. I wish that people would take a few moments to think things through ad realise the ineffectualness of the measures being proposed to prevent climate change. Emissions trading schemes are not an effective means of reducing carbon emissions, as they only allow polluters to assuage their consciences. Then if those who sell the credits and invest in carbon sequestration projects, see a new technology that is going to allow emitters to reduce their emissions they are going to want that shut down, as it is going to reduce their income stream. Personally I see an element of truth (though it is overstated) to the article. The spiralling costs of taxes and carbon credits is going to impact most on the poorest and most disadvantaged in society. And those who are proposing measures just cannot think through the consequences.

  9. #9 Steven F. Scharff
    April 3, 2008

    “Prison Planet” is the product of Alex Jones, conspiratorialist extrodinare. If he isn’t screaming (often literally) that the US government played a part in the 9/11 attack, the Illuminati or Masons are behind some plot, global warming and peak oil are frauds and Martial Law is about to be brought into effect in the USA, he’s selling some DVD promoting his causes. He’d be laughbale if so many peoiple didn’t take him so seriously. Even the late William Cooper, another conspiratorialist of a similar fabric, called Jones a “scaremonger” and a “bald-faced miserable stinking little coward liar”. There are some interesting links about him here: [http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=75048]

  10. #10 John
    April 4, 2008

    Steven, you quote JREF as proof that Alex Jones is a lunatic? Give me a break, JREF!? Personally I think he overstates the point but he is on the right track on many issues. People like you make me laugh when you dismiss out of hand the 9/11 conspiracy theories because clearly you have not researched them for yourself and clearly you do not know your history, and have not heard of operation gladio, operation northwoods, sibel edmonds, etc, etc. I hope in your quest for halting climate change that you and your cause do not allow politicians, and those that pull their strings, to hijack it as a means of furthering their own agenda, although I feel it is already too late for that. Erosion of civil liberties in the western world is a huge concern and people like Alex Jones are attempting to make a stand. Be careful of the solution to Global Warming being used to introduce yet more laws and more taxes. It’s sad that people like you sit on the sidelines and churn out the usual bull about lunatic conspiracy theorists because all you are doing is repeating the mantra of the mainstream media, which is now owned by a few corporations after deregulation and these corporations are the same that profit from the war. Just as people like you accuse others of willfully ignoring man-made climate change, I accuse people like you of willfully turning a blind eye to the other evils occurring in this world, and the events that took us there.

  11. #11 Gregor
    April 6, 2008

    QUOTE: “I have always found this a bit ironic considering the economic doomsday that they asure us will arise if we dare burn one drop of gasoline less than our slightest whims would require.”

    You are the first person I’ve ever heard suggest that any doomsday, economic or otherwise, will arise if we conserve resources. Your expressed ideas and opinions are chock full of blatant dishonesty. Do you even believe what you say?

    Just goes to show you that even Alex Jones and PRISON PLANET manage to hit one dead on now and again.

  12. #12 Anna
    April 22, 2008

    nice post

  13. #13 KNagel
    April 24, 2008

    I just finished watching “Expedition Alaska” and i believe the scientists are ill informed about some things, Yes the permafrost is melting, and yes its an organic and when it decays it creates methane gas and small doses of Hydrogen Sulfide gas. But the gases they are witnessing bubbling up from the lake floor, happens at almost all wetland marshes on the planet, and has been doing the same thing for 300 million years. All marshes will eventually decay and they will all expel methane gases. Floods 100 million years ago deposited clay and sediment on the wetlands, those wetlands decayed and became the gas fields and oil fields that you see all over the planet. When you dont get a flood, it rises into the atmosphere. Bubbling on the lake… well, its being pressed out by 1 pound per square inch Water column for every foot of water in EVERY LAKE, that pressure compresses the decaying organic layer and the gases rise to the surface.

    It maybe should have scared cavemen, especially if they made a spark around the gases, and maybe it should SCARE kids while swimming near it, because it might be a MONSTER. But it certainly shouldnt scare adults or scientists.