Where my climate deniers at?

By
Martyn Bradbury
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33
0

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The problem for climate deniers and those who refuse to accept that we need to radically change our economy to a sustainable one was always that despite their bullshit, ignorance and quack science – the impacts of global warming by human pollution are so extreme, it is only a matter of time before their consequences start raising their ugly head…

Human activity has pushed Earth beyond four of nine ‘planetary boundaries’, scientists warn
At the rate things are going, the Earth in the coming decades could cease to be a “safe operating space” for human beings.

That is the conclusion of a new paper published in the journal Science by 18 researchers trying to gauge the breaking points in the natural world.

The paper contends that we have already crossed four “planetary boundaries”.

…now you can be in denial about global warming all you like, but the science is in. We humans are creating so much pollution it is impacting our biosphere’s ability to sustain us. People don’t want to believe this because it would mean accepting the environmentalists are right, and no one wants to admit that when so much of our economy is based on climate changing gas producing industries like dairy and oil drilling.

Climate deniers have used the same tactics as the Tobacco Industry to create doubt in  the publics mind that somehow the science hasn’t been settled yet. It has. Those on the Right with a vested interest in continuing with the unsustainable practices of the now have used many of their pundit voices in the mainstream media to denounce climate change as little more than a Greenpeace hoax.

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In NZ. Cameron Slater has been one of the loudest climate denial voices while his mate and partner in crime, David Farrar has played the role of minimising the impacts and downplaying the reality of climate change by calling everyone a ‘Climate Alarmist’ if they demand real debate on the issue. The Key Government believes we should make money rather than change the economy and those on the Right who drive around in mammoth gas guzzling cars refuse to ever admit the environmental movement are right.

 

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Well, their years of denial are all coming to an end.

Climate deniers are the creationists at an evolution conference, the sooner we ignore them, show their views the contempt they deserve and start ignoring their voices in the debate, the sooner we can start moving on with solutions.

The disinformation spreaders like Slater, Farrar and the wider Right have used to question the science and muddy the waters has cost us enough time, and they should be damned by history forever for their services towards protecting their polluter mates profit lines over our collective good.

As our denial becomes more and more farcical, the protest response to that should become more and more radical. Scratching large cars with coins, more focused actions at stopping the production of coal and oil, demands for real political solutions to climate change and refusal to allow more water to fund dairy expansion need to start surfacing.

We just can’t allow these delusional people to continue leading on this issue.

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33 COMMENTS

  1. Unfortunately the people most responsible for the damage will all be dead by the time the full impact of what they did happens, so why should they care a continental? I am starting to think that all the scenes from the Judge Dread Comics about the earth of the future may end up quite accurate.

    • You are right on that one “Mike the Lefty”.

      The simple fact of the matter is that practically anyone who makes his or her money out of warming up the planet is not going to vote for a change in the status quo.

      Similarly, most of those who enjoy a lifestyle that is supported by an outmoded economic system that inevitably leads to global climate change aren’t gonna want to change ANYTHING.

      Hence the neoliberalist supporters persist with what they have always done (and vote National) because there’s no way in the world that they are gonna want to give up their privileged lifestyle.

      Not that Labour REALLY offers an alternative on this particular dimension, alas, alas.

    • The older I get the more sceptical I get – I’m old enough to remember being at university in the 70’s when we were taught that oil would run out by 2010, that dust in the atmosphere would cause global cooling (as reported by front page stories in Time magazine) and that the planet couldn’t support more than 5 billion people without frequent major famines – I think its over 7 billion now.

      Given that the sea-level rises and falls by about 100m naturally due to glacial cycles, there seems to be larger forces at work than the number of SUV’s in the world.

      Eg the sea level has risen 120m in the last 20,000 years, well before industrialisation, burning of fossil fuels and fracking, so call me a crazy “climate denier” if you wish, but I’m not convinced these are the causes.

      So please don’t incite people to vandalise cars just yet!

  2. In all honesty, I feel we cannot simply only blame the state of affairs, and the widespread ignorance on Farrar, Slater and Co. Yes, the government has a lot of responsibility for there being a lack of awareness or serious debate here in New Zealand, as they have largely abolished the last bastions of somewhat objective, neutral reporting that was once “normal” on public broadcasting.

    Now all we get is infotainment, lots of commercial advertising, and silly cooking and diy building shows, besides of cheap movies from overseas. The “news” are a laughing stock when compared with many broadcasters in much of Europe. Done up newsreaders reading “news” a bit like children’s good night stories, or so.

    We get stuff all information, even print media are struggling to report on stuff that matters, and at school climate change and so will only be scratched on the surface as part of science or the likes.

    The endless dumbing down, and the happy go lucky, too easy going modern-day New Zealander’s attitude, largely driven by consumerism and a stubborn adherence to petrol headed life styles are to blame.

    We have exciting “news” announcements of petrol dropping in prices, about some economists saying this will be good for the economy overall, and nobody, nobody talks about the climate change phenomenon, largely man-made.

    The heads are stuck so deep in the sand, or up the donkey’s backside, it is not funny, it is shocking. People do not seem to care, that is most, and all they worry about is cheap petrol, more driving, more money to spend on other stuff, also dependent on fossil fuels, and never mind tomorrow, who cares.

    Seashore dwellers complain about their houses now facing higher insurance premiums or not being insured at all, and they want councils to not rate them down, as they all rather continue to live in lala land of the never ending property boom, so all can “gain” by making more capital gains, those who own property.

    I wonder though, how much do farmers love the new droughts here and there, really good for the new dairy boom, I suppose?!

    • Why should the average kiwi care about climate change, how is it affecting them day to day. The summers are hot and that is a positive to most. As I heard Jack Tame comment on the impending drought on the radio today he said something along the lines of – drought, farmers have always faced drought nothing new here..

      We were born with cars, and we’re not going to give them up now. The Government is building us shiny new motorways so we can get from a to b faster. Aslong as they are seen to reduce traffic, that’s all that matters.

      I think it will take some major crisis for us to really re-evaluate how we’re living.

      • Seeing as it looks like the human race is not prepared to accept that there are too many of us by more than double, treble even and do something humane about reducing our numbers (serious birth control), then indeed, nature will take over. And it will be a catastrophe that goes some way to sorting it out – war seems to be the most likely option to me, and before you pull me up, nature has had a hand in designing us in such a way to be warlike with each other, possibly for the reason of controlling our numbers.

      • Saint Nick you are an ostrich really,
        “We were born with cars and not going to give them up now”

        The science is here now to predict catastrophic weather events now are going to occur, so when you are sitting in your car as it is washed our to sea or into a river, “don’t go crying us a river” as you are carried away to your maker and when it is to late to reverse the weather events as their is a point of no return the Global scientists have all warned us so make you decision now.

        Nick you really should travel before you cant, and I suggest Florida for a start, go to Miami and see how the sea has risen so high during the last 10yrs as the climate has heated up 14 of the last 15yrs this century.

        I used to live there in 1993 to 1998 and never saw these washouts where the sea rose to flood coastal properties then but it is happening now so frequently that they are being forced to build gigantic walls to hold the sea back and many are saying this is only a temporary fix as the sea is rising annually at an alarming rate, and then go to Holland and see what awaits us here with dykes and massive sea walls that cost millions and millions to place against inundation.

        These are just two of the countless areas that the global are already affected by.

        If you are young you face a poor future with crippling taxes to pay to survive and if your old you are lucky as in ten years we will be unable to support the life of pensioners.

        This National Government stripped out all former policies and wording in all agency’s planning documents and now has ruined our climate future worse than any other former Government.

        Simply by building roads and closing rail services, and encouraged truck gridlock of our roads which now pollute our cities and runoff from the roads from rain carries the tyre dust and oil deposits into our streams and rivers.

        This embracing of road transport alone has caused our greenhouse gas emissions to escalate out of control inside the 6yrs of their administration of the country.

        Buy a boat and sell any coastal property is my advice chump.

  3. Now the facts re climate change have all but been virtually confirmed and with supported evidence, I wonder if John Key will acknowledge his carbon trading statement from October 2008?

    Now let me see what he is likely to say, if/when questioned about it now …

    *I don’t remember saying that.*
    *Wasn’t me.*
    *But I didn’t say it in my capacity of then leader of the opposition/intended next PM of NZ (at the time).*
    *Not my department.*
    *Nothing to do with me.*

    Blah, blah blah ….

    How much longer are we to be expected to put up with this sort of crap from him, a state leader?

  4. First they denied the planet was getting warmer.

    Next they denied it was caused by humans.

    Now they will try to deny that it will be much of a problem.

    • And – the ultimate denier position when all else fails “warming is good for us” as posited in @Andrew’s link above.

    • Thats not 100% correct mate- first they denied the earth wasn’t flat. And it wasn’t. You seem to have missed that one. Now go research the “Galactic Year” , seasons, and planets being energised from without, not within- and you will have all the answers you need ie) massive corporate (vatican/ child abuse) fraud 🙂

  5. Recently heard the NZ CEO of Petroleum and Gas on Radio NZ saying what a bright future the industry had in NZ – and the interviewer did not have the guts or intelligence to ask the obvious question ” How does that fit with scientifically proven climate change”. Watch the DVD “Hot Air” to see how the NZ political ‘dirty politics’ have avoided dealing with climate change – and the NZ Corporates like Carter Holt have successfully lobbied against this issue – and how some of our Rich List names have profiteered from it at taxpayers expense.

  8. It would be very disappointing if you didn’t get at least one apolitical , factual comment on this thread. So I’m here to say :-

    If it was the hottest in 130 years, who cares?

    It was hotter 7,000 years ago, hotter 120,000 years ago, and hotter for most of the history of life on Earth.

    It doesn’t mean CO2 caused the last hot spell.
    It doesn’t mean warming is bad.
    It doesn’t mean it will continue to warm.
    And it doesn’t mean we understand what drives the climate.

    Oh and yes . . . . most would call me an environmentalist.

  9. If “scratching large cars with coins” is the answer, I suggest you start thinking about asking some very different questions Martyn.

  10. WHAT a load of shit.

    heres the funny thing nutters like you lot who despise and hate the big corporations are making them rich and screwing us all due to the lie that is man made climate change.

    Marty take your meds

  11. Labour as they would took into consideration all the scientific evidence about global warming and we would certainly now have looked like a world leader if we had stuck to the direction they had us going in.
    Mark Burton was recently on TV saying how difficult it was to get the message through to the masses that global warming was real as the media were constantly making it difficult by creating the so called Fart Tax when it was cows belching so until people wake up and see how manipulated they have been then there is not much hope .
    Bottom line is as always it is about greed and money at the end of the day .but may be now the lies that have been told might wake a few people up .

    • Just for a bit of history – it was Richard Prebble and the ACT party that decided to frame the tax as the Fart Tax (just as they did with their so-called “anti-smacking” reform).

  12. To reduce the use of fossil fuels in a meaningful way requires a major reduction in global trade and local production of food and the other requirements of life. TheTransPacific Partnership should be an anathema to anyone who is concerned about the future of our planet

  13. Hi Martyn- I recall seeing you around Campus- so I presume you are/were educated. Perhaps that is the problem. Have you ever looked at “The Galactic Year” ? The sun’s 220,000,000 year journey around the Milky Way. Our orbit is just 365 days mate- and we have 4 seasons. Well guess what- the sun does too! Not brain surgery is it? And one more thing you poor brainwashed “beliebers” seem to miss- the entire earth’s population could be housed in New Zealand, and we would be less densely populated than Manhattan. We could even use Stewart Island Aussie as a garden / farm and have more than enough food. ie) we are NOT overpopulated either. I get very concerned when I see so called ‘young leaders’ spewing this crap about “Global Warming”. Pull your head out mate- and go check what I have just taught you. 🙂

    • WTF…By my rough calculation if all the world’ population was to be relocated to NZ, each person would have 36.7 square metre to stand in, at least this may cut down reproduction rates but we may have trouble feeding them all! Manhattan may have a similar population density but it’s food is shipped in.
      (Someone please check my figures as maths isn’t my strong suite…
      Approximate area of NZ 268,000 square kilometres
      Approximate world population 7,289,000,000
      Divided equals 0.0000357square kilometres or 36.7 square metres.)

  14. “Berkeley Earth Newsletter – January 2015

    Berkeley Earth has constructed an estimate of the global average temperature during 2014, including land and sea. The key findings are:

    The global surface temperature average (land and sea) for 2014 was nominally the warmest since the global instrumental record began in 1850;
    however, within the margin of error, it is tied with 2005 and 2010 and so we can’t be certain it set a new record.

    For the land, 2014 was nominally the 4th warmest year since 1753 (when the land surface temperature record began).

    For the sea, 2014 was the warmest year on record since 1850.

    For the contiguous United States, 2014 ranked nominally as the 38th warmest year on record since 1850.”

    The temp plateau is now 18 years and 3 months and counting.. and the climate models are drifting even further from measured reality.

  15. OK , last word from NASA:-

    “The Nasa climate scientists who claimed 2014 set a new record for global warmth last night admitted they were only 38 per cent sure this was true.

    In a press release on Friday, Nasa’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) claimed its analysis of world temperatures showed ‘2014 was the warmest year on record’.

    The claim made headlines around the world, but yesterday it emerged that GISS’s analysis – based on readings from more than 3,000 measuring stations worldwide – is subject to a margin of error. Nasa admits this means it is far from certain that 2014 set a record at all.”

    • Because 2014 may not be the hottest year – global warming isn’t happening? Is that what you’re trying to imply?

      The Greenhouse Effect was identified over 150 years ago. Greenhouse gases keep us warm – it’s the amount that’s critical. This is seriously old news.

      Like BATTS in the roof space greenhouse gases are in the atmosphere – if you add more you get better heat retention. In the last 150 years we’ve added (near) 50% more BATTS – hence, it’s getting warmer. That’s the fundament of it that can’t be ignored and isn’t going away.

      The climate systems and weather are extremely complex and variations occur – however, we keep adding BATTS (greenhouse gases) and they will have their effects.

      Quibbling about hottest year or not is an irrelevant pissing contest.

  17. Scatching cars! I love it & it takes me back.In the terriced streets I grew up in as a child cars were infrequent but when a posh car parked there we often used to scratch them.We had a strong sense of ‘them’ & ‘us’ even to the point of shoplifting only from posh shops.

  19. I repost this comment here Martyn from my post on Anthony Robbins post “Hottest – year -a -good-thing”?

    http://thestandard.org.nz/2014-hottest-year-a-good-thing/

    We on the East Coast have been fighting for saving the Napier Gisborne railway for 16yrs now, and here is why.

    (Source is from the Government Fuels & Energy study 1999)

    Rail is 5 to 9 times more efficient at moving one tonne one km than road is.

    Rail Greenhouse emissions are only 1 to 5% of road freight.

    Higher Efficiency of rail transport and lower emissions can later be found in a NIWA study by Scientist Gavin Fisher 2003.

    Consider this fact. – Tyres vs Steel Wheels.

    Rail only uses steel wheels.

    Trucks use an average of 18 to 32 tyres per truck.

    These are very large tyres which are made from Oil products and chemical name is Butadiene Styrene, a well recognised cancer causing compound.

    Tyre particulates (Very fine particles less then 100th the size of human hair) between (2 and 20 micrograms) are now found to be carried by the winds travelling globally in amongst the trade winds all across to world now to the ice caps of both hemispheres.

    This carcinogenic black soot from the truck and car tyres is now covering the ice and attracting heat from the sun to speed up the melting of the ice caps.

    Black dust from the tyres is also entering the lungs of humans and causing cancer from the Butadiene Styrene compounds that tyres are made from.

    I could writer a book on why we need to move freight back to rail but unless the Government reverses their wanton destruction of Kiwirail freight services, and wildly just carries on favouring truck transport over low emissions rail transport services, they will have doomed all of us and our world.

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