Lovelock Recants

[marchesarosa]

From Bishop Hill

James Lovelock has written a letter of objection regarding a windfarm development in Devon (see link below for the whole thing). This bit strikes me as important.

I am an environmentalist and founder member ofthe Greens but I bow my head in shame at the thought that our original good intentions should have been so misunderstood and misapplied. We never intended a fundamentalist Green movement that rejected all energy sources other than renewable, nor did we expect the Greens to cast aside our priceless ecological heritage because of their failure to understand that the needs of the Earth are not separable from human needs. We need take care that the spinning windmills do not become like the statues on Easter Island, monuments of a failed civilisation.

As Phillip Bratby (to whom a big tip of the hat is due) puts it, there are strong shades of Patrick Moore's regrets over the monster he created in Greenpeace. One might add that another parallel would be Mark Lynas's regrets over his anti-GMO activism.

I've said it before, but the damage done by environmentalists to the environment is beyond estimation.

Lovelock letter
bishophill.squarespace.com/storage/James%20Lovelock%20Letter.pdf

Discussion here
bishophill.squarespace.com/blog/2013/1/25/lovelock-recants.html

[marchesarosa]

John in Cheshire comments

It appears to be a trait common to all socialists that they test everything to destruction. And once destroyed, express regret; but of course not regret for what they intended, only for the outcome.

Martin A adds

James Lovelock reminds me of the story of the sorcerer's apprentice.

You need to be careful what you wish for - because, if you are unfortunate, you might actually get it.

[aubrey]

It's a common trait of conservatives not to test anything, but to rely on good old common sense instead - It stands to reason.... Well, no: it's more complicated than that: it always is.

But you'd imagine that we're living in a green socialist paradise, the way that some people kick off about it.

My mother has a wind farm near her - nearish, anyway. I think it's on the moor beside Penistone - around that area (I never had my wish of being photographed standing beside a Penistone road sign, but let that lie). The thing is, the turbines look grand. There is a cafe almost underneath them, and a small garden centre. It's a good place. Very quiet.

[marchesarosa]

"It's a common trait of conservatives not to test anything"

if you had the slightest intimation of the extent of the academic research that is going on re climate round the world you would realise how irrelevant your harping on political partisanship is, aubrey.

You should get out of your comfort zone a bit more and test the little grey cells occasionally.

[aubrey]

Is it research or cherry-picking?

[marchesarosa]

You tell US, aubrey, and provide some examples of fake "rightwing" climate research to demonstrate your point instead of parroting evidenceless claims and denigrating people who disagree with you and can produce good reasons why.

Just tell us why/how can Russell Vose sitting in his office in 2012 adjust downwards the temperature of the 1920s? Smart people need YOUR answer.



Ask the board psychologist. She probably knows a thing or two about making the "findings" fit the hypothesis.

[aubrey]

I'm not going to do that, and you know it. I don't understand it, I'm not interested in it - all that. But you can't tell me that right wing anti AGW groups are completely disinterested, and just want to find the truth, can you? You know that they are funded by people like the Koch brothers, who make a lot of money from energy, and who give a lot to right wing causes in general. They're not trying to discover the truth; they're just propagandising.

[visitor]

From the same letter that Marchesarosa selectively quotes in the opening post:

"It is true that we need a better way of producing energy and there is little doubt among scientists, and I speak as one of them, that the burning of fossil fuels is by far the most dangerous source of energy. By using it to power industry, our homes and transport, we are changing the composition of the air in a way that will have profoundly adverse effects on the Earth's ecology and on ourselves."

Is selectively quoting a person to try to show that they hold differing views to those that they actually clearly do hold the act of an unbiased, fair, non-political commentator?

www.bishop-hill.net/storage/James%20Lovelock%20Letter.pdf

[jean]

How strange that the marchesa has not yet replied to that last post of visitor's.

[aviatrix]

Jan 27, 2013 16:08:39 GMT marchesarosa said:

Smart people need YOUR answer.

Who on earth are they?

[marchesarosa]

The smart folk know who we are. If you need to ask you are obviously not one of them, "Avi".

As for Lovelock, only the mentally rigid believe total consistency in ones viewpoints is either desirable or necessary. "Logic" can take people to some very strange places.

The fact that Lovelock, the founder of Greenpeace Patrick Moore, as well as Bjorn Lomborg, to name but three internationally know activists have disowned the Greens as a political movement is good enough for me.

[marchesarosa]

Even aubrey, who professes no interest in the details of climate science, (don't be so shy, aubrey - the science of climate is not abstruse at all!) can understand this graph showing the nature of the adjustments Hansen et al made to the GISS database of global man temperature.

Before 1970 the adjustments were nearly all negative and after all were positive. The effect of that is to steepen the trend line. Why would any reputable scientist do that? Simple answer - they wouldn't.




Here is a picture of James Hansen being arrested. Pity it was not for his data fiddling. If he were in the business world and not in pseudo climat-ology he would probably be in jail by now.

[aubrey]

I'm downloading too many things for it to work.

Meanwhile, another recanter*:

Nicholas Stern: 'I got it wrong on climate change

*Well, sort of.

[aviatrix]

Jan 29, 2013 10:36:13 GMT marchesarosa said:

The smart folk know who we are.

You meant yourself!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!