Ted Turner on Global Warming – Beware of Cannibals!

That’s a CHUD – a cannibalistic humanoid underground dweller. I’m surprised how few people know what a CHUD is. Well if you don’t start recycling you’ll be meeting these fellows face to face in about 30 years.

That’s according to media baron, Ted Turner. Here’s his take on global warming – taken from an interview on Charlie Rose, by way of the Hugh Hewitt show:

Transcript:

TED TURNER: Not doing it will be catastrophic. We’ll be eight degrees hottest in ten, not ten but 30 or 40 years and basically none of the crops will grow. Most of the people will have died and the rest of us will be cannibals. Civilization will have broken down. The few people left will be living in a failed state — like Somalia or Sudan — and living conditions will be intolerable. The droughts will be so bad there’ll be no more corn grown. Not doing it is suicide. Just like dropping bombs on each other, nuclear weapons is suicide. We’ve got to stop doing the suicidal two things, which are hanging on to our nuclear weapons and after that we’ve got to stabilize the population. When I was born-

Canadian Coast Guard Vessel Rams Dirty Sea-Hippies!

Sweeeeeeet…

Via the Sea Shepherd Society website:

The Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker CCGS Des Groseilliers twice rammed the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship Farley Mowat today.

The Coast Guard had ordered the Farley Mowat to not approach the area where seals are being slaughtered. When the Farley Mowat did not comply, the Coast Guard rammed the vessel near the port aft stern area. After the Farley Mowat stopped in the ice, the Coast Guard rammed the ship a second time in the same area of the ship causing damage to the plates in that area.

The Coast Guard has demonstrated extreme recklessness with this move. The crew of the Farley Mowat were engaged in documenting the slaughter of seals. They were not interfering with the hunt.

“I’m beginning to wonder if anyone on the bridge of the Groseilliers has a license to command a ship,” said Captain Alex Cornelissen. “The incompetence of the Coast Guard has already cost the lives of four sealers this week-end and now they are ramming ships in dangerous ice conditions. This is unbelievable. It’s like the Coast Guard has declared war on seal defenders and the sealers are collateral damage.”

Low blow by the eco-terrorists, but regardless – fantastic! If I didn’t hate sea food, I would totally go out and shoot a seal in the head and deep fry it to celebrate – I’m an Indian, I could get away with it, ancestral something or other.

This calls for a song!

“Go Into the Water” by Dethklok. The chorus is the key:

Go into the water
live there die there
live there die

NB – Before you say it – I am a living contradiction (aka hypocrite). I know, I’m cool with it. I come from a family of fishermen, so I hate these bloody Indian hating sea hippies .

Earth Hour Today

What better metaphor is there – liberals sitting in the dark, feeling smug? This evening at 8pm is Earth Hour. Earth hour was created by the Envirogroup WWF:

Earth Hour is a global lights-out phenomenon that will bring together people from all over the world to show their support for action on climate change.

It’s not about saving energy – it’s about ‘awareness’ – i.e. making decision makers aware that ‘x’ number of their citizens are self-satisfied asses. This is from ubersite Stuff White People Like – it reads quite closely to the press release from the Earth Hour people:

An interesting fact about white people is that they firmly believe that all of the world’s problems can be solved through “awareness.” Meaning the process of making other people aware of problems, and then magically someone else like the government will fix it.

This belief allows them to feel that sweet self-satisfaction without actually having to solve anything or face any difficult challenges…

What makes this even more appealing for white people is that you can raise “awareness” through expensive dinners, parties, marathons, selling t-shirts, fashion shows, concerts, eating at restaurants and bracelets. In other words, white people just have to keep doing stuff they like, EXCEPT now they can feel better about making a difference.

Here in Canada, Toronto will be hosting a free concert by Nelly Furtado:

As an Earth Hour Ambassador and an advocate for the environment, Nelly Furtado will play an unplugged concert at the Earth Hour community event, starting at 7:30 p.m. The organizers are taking steps to make the event as carbon-neutral as possible – including powering the event with green, renewable energy from Bullfrog Power. People from across the GTA are invited to attend.

In Vancouver, you`ll have to content yourself by a trip up to Whistler for a candelight dinner at the Four Seasons`Fifty-Two 80 Bistro. The Four-Seasons hotels around the world are hosting these candlelight dinners to help – of course – with awareness: “Make your bookings now, and save the earth on Saturday.”

So, question, do you honestly believe that even a quarter of the people attending these discount romantic dinners, or these free concerts, support the WWF’s unspecified “action” on climate change? The WWF clams that you do – if you participate in any way, the WWF, the Greens, the Liberals will use you as a battering ram against our government to demand that they take further crypto-marxist action against the economy.

“The event has taken off not just in Toronto, but right across the country in more than 50 cities,” said Mike Russill, President and CEO, WWF-Canada. “This is a clear signal that Canadians want to take steps in their every day lives to help the planet, and they want Canada to be a leader in the global effort on climate change.”

Sure – provided that those steps include “a baby purple artichoke salad with parmesan, truffle and spring onion vinaigrette and a thyme espuma Sonoma lamb rack encrusted with black olive ricotta gnochetti with fava beans and heirloom tomatoes”. That’s some “action” I can get behind.

What I would love to see is for reporters covering these events to ask detailed questions of the attendees. Not just ‘Why are you here?’ , but ‘What do you know about the WWF’s plans?’, or ‘What do you want the government to do?’, or even ‘Do you think a warmer Canada would be a bad thing?’.

As for me, I intend to spend today’s earth hour at a friend’s house for a bbq. I only wish this global warming would hurry up, so we could eat outside on the lawn.

More on Earth hour here: the smug American left view – the “” American right wing view – no Canadian links avail…?

Related: The Green Party is Watching You!

Accepted wisdom

I’m soon to be back working in politics, so I’ve been thinking about issues. The accepted wisdom is typically that: “The environment and health care are likely to set Canada’s political table well into the future”.  That’s according to a recent “poll” by the Canadian Medical Association.

Bull. Green issues are a fad.

Do you remember globalization? Once upon a time it was THE major issue. Books, magazines, lefty protests, all were consumed by it. But it seemed to peak at around the time of the Genoa riots. Since then – it’s been dead to the public.

Look below, this is the Zeitgeist on global warming. The zeitgeist tracks the frequency of Google searches at the top and media coverage at the bottom. Do you see the trend?

That CMA claim from above came from a poll released about a week ago. Look past the headline though and what will you find?

In the poll, 22 per cent of Canadians cited “environment” or “pollution” as the issue that “should receive the greatest attention of Canada’s leaders.” Another six per cent mentioned climate change and one per cent cite the Kyoto agreement. The CMA bundled these answers together.

But 15 per cent of Canadians cited war in Afghanistan, war in the Middle East or some variation on the same theme as their top concern. A further seven per cent said the military was their top issue. And two per cent cited terrorism. Bundle those answers and they total 24 per cent. Given that the poll’s margin of error is 3.2 percentage points, that’s not only in the same ballpark, it’s a tie game.

UPDATE: As if on queue:

From the National Post: While the punditocracy may share the opposition’s belief that the next election will be fought on the environment and the military — and that those issue favour the Conservatives’ challengers — both groups are simply drinking each other’s bath water. Voters will surprise them both.

Go along to get along

I haven’t written anything about adaptation for a while. Adaptation to Global Warming is something of a hobby horse for me. Every political conversation I get into ends with me getting back to this topic.

The National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA*) – a conservative think tank - pegs the price of Kyoto at $165,000,000,000 per year. Considering that Canada’s Kyoto response called for 5 billion dollars in new spending – the 165 billion dollar number seems credible.

So with that number in mind what should we do?

Well first consider the problem. The world is getting warmer and this is likely caused or worsened by human activity. It will continue getting warmer, no matter what we do. Kyoto will only slow the warming. In the meantime, islands across the Pacific will be flooded, storms in south Asia will be more devastating, and crop failures and water shortages everywhere will be more frequent. And Kyoto will do nothing to stop any of these things.

So where do we spend the money? Do we use it to slow global warming, or do we use it to help the poorest victims of it, adapt?

The natural question you should have right now is why not do both? Why is this an either/or situation? Why? Because many of the Kyoto cheerleaders have made it an either/or situation.

Al Gore:

We have to solve it (global warming) and there are some people who urge adaptation instead of prevention, and that formulation must be rejected.

Greenpeace:

When your house is on fire, the first thing you do is put the fire out – not try and get used to the heat.

The claim from their end is that if we focus on adaptation we will ignore mitigation. That didn’t need to be so, but it is, thanks to the political climate they have shaped. Picture if you will the environment minister standing before parliament with a budget that included equal amounts of cash for adaptation and Kyoto-style mitigation. It would be like the clean air fiasco all over again. Opposition politicians would be falling over themselves to be the first to condemn the government for not being serious about climate change, or for lacking urgency, or for betraying Kyoto – or for any of the myriad of slurs heaped on the government for taking action on any environmental issue other than implementing the Kyoto protocol. As long as there are more green voters than science graduates, then it will pay to be an extremist and to make mitigation and adaptation an either/or thing. But doesn’t all of this also mean that if we focus on mitigation we will ignore adaptation?

In which case, if we can only have one or the other, which is better for people? Mitigation without adaptation, or adaptation without mitigation?

I would say the better one is that which keeps more people alive in the here and now – and that would be adaptation. For a more lucid explanation of this take a listen to an old interview – it’s Greenpeace founder Patrick Moore on the Penn Jillette show.

Listen below or download it here (right click and ’save link/target as’)

Environmental Eschatology

This image describes what happens after humans become extinct. It’s David Suzuki’s wet dream*:

Click image to enlarge.

[*Gross image. Sorry.]

New Westminster Trip – Flood Tourism

I took a trip out to New Westminster this afternoon to check out the flooding. There wasn’t much just a bit of greenery on the Surrey side of the Fraser river. For those not familiar with the area, this picture on the left is downtown New Westminster. It’s a run down city of about 50,000 on the south eastern edge of Vancouver.

By run-down I mean really run down. Coming and going from New Westminster skytrain station, I saw 4 people being arrested, a group of skinheads and a group of punks.

That town is messed up.

The picture on the left is of a painting on a side street next to New Westminster station. This is a soup kitchen at the Salvation Army.

Notice the sandbags and razor wire in the tiny alley between the soup kitchen and the skytrain station. Those sandbags aren’t for flooding, they’re always there. It’s to keep people from boosting the Sally Ann’s tinned beans.

Getting to the flooding then. I went down to New Westminster

Quay. It looks like they’ve decided to abandon the boardwalk. The sand bags and plastic-wrapped concrete barriers are set at the edge of the boardwalk as you can see in this pic.

It’s hard to get through at some points but the water’s still about a meter down – but it was low tide. I don’t think it’s going to be that bad. From the skytrain on the way back I saw that a lot of the pathways in Sapperton were already flooded – but no one lives there so who cares? Back at Westminster Quay, the river boat casino was jumping, the public market was busy and a six-pack of Nastro Azzuro beer was under $15.00 at the private beer store.

I’ll take a peek back tomorrow after work – that’s when the waters will crest.

A rising tide

Sandbags on the Fraser River

Much to my surprise, and relief, it looks like we won’t get the worst of the flooding. My mother and brother live on the Katzie Indian Reserve in the north-eastern suburbs of Vancouver. They’ve got 2 big rivers and a half dozen small strems surrounding them.

The reserve is split into 3 parts, 2 on either side of the river, and one on Barnston Island. Their part is on the north shore of the Fraser River and is about a metre below sea level. Like much of Greater Vancouver, the reserve cowers behind 6 metre-tall sea walls or dikes.

The unlucly number for the reserve is 7. 7 metres above sea-level means it will be completely destroyed and the fishing fleet (much of which is in people’s yards for annual repairs) will likely go with it.

Right now it’s pushing 6 and has begun falling for the evening [the Fraser at that point is effected by tides] . It will crest on Monday when the northern flood waters hit the city. The expected level is 6.5 metres, meaning that much of Mission will be flooded together with most of the nearby agricultural land, and the reserve on Barnston island. But fortunately the main village will be fine.

My brother and his pregnant girlfriend have got a place to go to on higher ground and my mom is going to take over my apartment for a few days, while the basements there are pumped and dried out.

The Grand Chief, Phil Fontaine, will be visiting our home reserve – the Kwantlen – to blame the white man for something or other. This won’t save it from flooding but will defintely make the soon-to-be homeless refugees feel much more ‘pride’ or righteousness or whatever. So ’skookum’ that.

The GVRD has the current flood details here.

Now we get a breather before fire season starts. I wouldn’t jump to blaming Global Warming for this – it’s flooding this year because of a cold winter and a lot of extra snow.

Adpatation – Adaptation – Adaptation

Southern Greenland

I can’t say that word enough – I wish politicians would start saying it too. Adaptation to Global Warming, not denying it, not futilely fighting it, not posing for heart-felt pictures next to it, and not arguing about who or what caused it – but adapting to it. The seas will rise with Kyoto or without it, the plan isn’t aimed at stopping global warming in the short term, but in the long term – a hundred years out. What about the next 40 years? Think of what all this Kyoto money could do to help a country like Bangladesh cope with rising seas. Global warming is good for a lot of us – Canada included – maybe instead of fighting with the earth, we should take the spoils offered to us by her, and use them to help those that will face greater challenges? The people of Greenland have the right idea:

“It’s good for me,” said Ernst Lund, a lanky young man who is one of 51 farmers raising sheep on the southern tip of Greenland. His animals scramble over the cold granite hills of a dramatic fjord, his farm isolated from the nearest town by a long boat ride threading past drifting mounds of ice, followed by a jolting truck trip along seven miles of gravel road.

“I can keep the sheep out two weeks longer to feed in hills in the autumn. And I can grow more hay. The sheep get fatter,” he said.

World’s worst person dies

Rachel Carson is dead.  If only there were a hell…

From American Thinker:

This attitude of Carson’s was imported into environmentalism whole, becoming the standard for dealing with environmental matters of all kinds.

DDT became target number one for the new environmental movement (one organization, the World Wildlife Fund, was founded with no other goal than its elimination). It was an uphill battle for several years, since serious scientific analysis of Carson’s claims overthrew virtually all of them. DDT did not cause cancer. It had no health effects whatsoever on humans, mammals, or any other higher animals. The sole deletorious effect involved the eggs of raptors, where ambiguous evidence of shell-thinning was discovered.

The EPA’s head, William D. Ruckelshaus, was a committed environmentalist and a member of several environmental organizations, with widespread connections throughout the movement. On June 14, 1972, Ruckelshaus rescinded the registration for DDT, effectively banning the compound. (Many sources, such as this site, claim that there never was any such ban, a contention easily answered by this EPA release.) Ruckelshaus later worked for the World Wildlife Federation, a fact that may or may not be relevant.

Despite clear evidence as to the effects, international aid groups such as the World Health Organization and USAid ceased supporting DDT operations. By the mid-80s, malaria had reached and surpassed previous levels. Up to 500 million people were suffering attacks each year. Two to three million of them died as a result. Up to nine-tenths of the dead were children under five.

So it continued for a quarter of a century. The tide began to turn when South Africa was persuaded in 1995 to abandon DDT in favor of the more expensive pyrethroid. Within three years, resistant mosquitoes appeared. By 2000, malaria cases had shot up by more than 1200%, to 62,000. The government resumed DDT spraying, and within months the disease rate dropped by four-fifths.