Northern Ireland's environment minister announced Monday he has banned the local broadcast of British government ads on climate change and denounced their energy-saving message as "insidious propaganda."
Sammy Wilson has repeatedly raised eyebrows since winning the environment post in Northern Ireland's power-sharing government last year. The hard-line Protestant, a leading light in the Democratic Unionist Party, argues that global weather patterns are naturally cooling, not warming — and humanity should invest in coping with God-driven climate change, not trying to slow down a man-made problem.
His latest fight is against the central government in London, which funds an "Act on CO2" campaign encouraging the public to reduce their use of electricity and fossil fuels. Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom, but the Catholic-Protestant coalition in Belfast has autonomy in many areas.
Wilson said the Act on CO2 ads were "giving people the impression that by turning off the standby light on their TV, they could save the world from melting glaciers and being submerged in 40 feet of water."
He said the ads, which have been running on British television stations including in Northern Ireland over the past year, represented "an insidious propaganda campaign" peddling "patent nonsense."
[...]
David Ford, leader of a joint Catholic-Protestant party called Alliance, said Wilson's views were "profoundly unrepresentative" of Northern Ireland opinion. He expressed surprise that Wilson had not mentioned the exceptional past week of snowfall.
did the british government ads have a creepy, asian man sneaking through neighbourhoods to encourage children to turn on their parents? no, sorry...those were from nova scotia
such a naked emperor . . . .
Isn't it obvious that the Orangemen want the world to become hotter?
There's a good smackdown of Michael Mann's latest "work" at the FP...
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fpcomment/archive/2009/02/07/mann-s-conclusions-not-to-be-believed.aspx
The thing that bugs me about the whole "global warming" and "climate change" garbage is confusing the issue with using less resources wastefully.
Sadly, I do agree with the message that if you have an near empty fridge in the basement, you're better off without it, and that it makes sense to turn out lights in empty rooms.
I don't overconsume.
But I don't mix that up with thinking that anthropogenic global warming is a big worry for me.
Just look at the Vaux family photographs from the Illecilliwaet Glacier.
http://www.cmiae.org/Resources/glaciers-lichens.php
Things happen. Then the world adjusts. And then things happen again.
Yeah, there's a big difference in a person deciding they want to save money by reducing your energy consumption, and a government agency making it illegal for you to buy anything but CFC light bulbs.
Erik....99% of people will save money and energy on their own.They don't need big brother(well OK,except for the leftards).Want to save the world??? Plant a greenie!
Global warming causes zits
http://pressmediawire.com/article.cfm?articleID=4626
why would you speak out against energy conservation, regardless of the spin being put on it?
Justthinkin - I agree - if other people want to be wasteful, not much I can do. I lead my own life, and don't want anybody interfering with it.
I view those people who waste unnecessarily in the same light as those who open the car door and dump their ashtray contents on the street at red lights.
Smear smear smear - that is their only "defense".
Whether nude with babe on beach or Suzuki's kids your parents are bad or Media's guilt tripping or oil shill or WK's only tactic he has or Mann's personal insults or Gore's earth abuse shaming - it is the only thing that "works' for them when trying to defend their fraud. The truth sure doesn't.
Why speak out against energy conservation, regardless of the spin? Conservation policies - either at the individual, corporate or government level - must be based upon facts: how much money will I save? How much less electricity/fewer resources are being used? What alternatives are available?
Facts, not dogma. The modern-day Greenie "save the world from CO2" dogma is NOT based on fact, and the proposed "solutions" - always in terms of "do with less" (and NOT "do it better") or "we know better than you" nanny state-ism - are almost invariably incorrect.
The greatest danger facing the environment today is NOT "Big Oil"; it's "Big Green" and the patent innumeracy and superstitions that support it.
"The hard-line Protestant"!
That's the most damnable charge from the AGW Church.
Sammy is an heretic; a dissenter.
Sammy blows the Gaia indulgences fraud to smithereens.
Sammy is today's John Huss*.
*John Huss | Christian History
John Huss born. 1415. John Huss dies. 1431. [...] ... for Huss preached key Reformation themes (like hostility to indulgences)...
www.christianitytoday.com/ch/131christians/martyrs/huss.html
Because, why? and FredR, energy conservation as the Greens speak about it is not about avoiding waste, it's about rationing. Please don't confuse conservation with energy efficiency. Conservation is about doing without. And such proposals only seem to work because they invariably ignore all the side effects of doing without.
" .. ignore all the side effects of doing without."
Patrick Moore, Tim Ball, Bjorn Lomborg have been saying just that for a decade now. But the media flocks to the flakes.
another study that reveals the idiocy of the crisis mongering put up by Hansen et al.
You can believe the models or the actual data, but not both.
http://tinyurl.com/ap5vrz
"Thus, according to the GISS model predictions, there should be approximately 5.88 * 10**22 Joules more heat in the upper 700 meters of the global ocean at the end of 2008 than were present at the beginning of 2003.
For the observations to come into agreement with the GISS model prediction by the end of 2012, for example, there would have to be an accumulation 9.8 * 10** 22 Joules of heat over just the next four years. This requires a heating rate over the next 4 years into the upper 700 meters of the ocean of 2.45 * 10**22 Joules per year, which corresponds to a radiative imbalance of ~1.50 Watts per square meter.
This rate of heating would have to be about 2 1/2 times higher than the 0.60 Watts per meter squared that Jim Hansen reported for the period 1993 to 2003.
While the time period for this descrepancy with the GISS model is relatively short, the question should be asked as to the number of years required to reject this model as having global warming predictive skill, if this large difference between the observations and the GISS model persists.'
But Dear Leader gets to crank up the heat and live in sauna conditions in the White House, so why can't the rest of us live as we choose as well?
Just heard the guy on BBC. He was brilliant. Paraphrasing a bit, but the interviewer asked why he was "going against the best and brightest minds in the scientific community". He then mentioned that back in the 70's, the best and brightest minds in the Royal Society were terrified of a new mini-ice age, and wanted to spray all the glaciers black. He interviewed very well!
Erik: I switch off lights and chuck out old fridges (I would if I found any) because I'm not Al Gore and I can't afford not to.
I don't litter because littering is gross.
maz2: If John Huss only made it to 16 then he was probably just some dumb kid with a lot of silly opinions and brain-rot from video games. I would disregard anything he had to say.
The Northern Irish are a weird bunch but I like the sound of this Wilson guy - nude French beach photos and sanity!
When I was a teenager, my father tried to convince me about energy conservation (from leaving lights on overnight). He worked for an energy utility, and it was no problem to work out the energy/cost savings from turning it off. We did the calculation, and found that we would save all of 2 cents per light left on overnight. He didn't make a big deal about it after that (although as a rule, we practice energy conservation - although every time some government commercial comes on telling me to conserve, I deliberately do something to waste energy).
And all the best people are into bikes.
I was in N. Ireland last September. The locals there were complaining that their berries were ripening later with every passing year.
Along with cooler and rainier summers, jams and preserves can't be enjoyed until later in the season.
Global warmists should check the dates on their gooseberry preserves.
the local teachers in Calgary are working on terrifying elementary kids with stories of potential floods here due to global warming. here at over 1000meters in the low spots.
need a quick little iceage like in the 1300s and a major crop failure to reset the collective government mindset on this.
or a year without summer 1816
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_Without_a_Summer
it aint Obama, here is the next one.
http://www.avo.alaska.edu/image.php?id=15524
not far from Wasilla
missed my prediction of Feb 8 , will have to wait for March 11
http://www.avo.alaska.edu/rsam/rsam.php?volcname=Redoubt
Black Mamba - I cycle to work quite a bit (Calgary). A city poll of commuting cyclists revealed that very few were motivated by "saving the environment" - and most just wanted some exercise and to avoid the frustrations of traffic (like me).
Erik: I meant motorbikes. I was trying to suck up to Kate. The other kind are okay too but at the gym or in the countryside; maverick British journalist Julie Burchill recently referred to city cyclists as "road lice", and I can't disagree (if I hit one, I'd be in trouble! That's not fair).
After what Shane said at 1:41, though, I'm leaving all my lights on forever.
Erik: Don't think I'm calling you a louse, though. I'm sure you're one of the good ones :).
ShaneO....I have been out for just over 2 hrs.When I came back home,the only things running,besides the fridge,was my 3 cats.Yet my next door neighbour,who has been gone since 3:30 AM for work,still has his outdoorlight,living room light,and bedroom light on.I was taught,you aren't using it,shut the damn thing off!!!
We don't have to go back to mud huts as the Goracles/greenies would have you believe to save energy,we just need to use it better.
Black Mamba - no problem - sadly I think many cyclists are stupid - they use their bikes inappropriately on busy streets.
Cyclists can plan out many routes that parallel busy streets, so it's easy to stay out of the hair of drivers. But people, as always, tend not to think!
Yeah, people are idiots.
14 liters of grease , yes 14 liters, spill into the iiver and CBCpravda reports it as a disaster. and the Ft chip complainers are on the bandwagon saying it took 12 hours to report it. if it ever makes it that far , it would take months to show up. they are on the otherside of the lake.
same as the spill in chalk river, it was 4 liters of heavy water with some tritium. and again in PPM. I mean WTF. WTF?
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/north/story/2009/02/05/edm-suncor-athabasca.html?ref=rss&loomia_si=t0:a16:g12:r2:c0.165799:b21841375
Mission for 2009: Do not let anyone get away with calling their Cause Du Jour anything but "Global Warming". There's a massive attempt to suddenly start calling it "Climate Change". Remind your friends & family members who have been preaching this nonsense for a few years now that they MUST continue referring to it as Global Warming ... no matter how cold it gets each winter!
Read today that Syncrude is being charged for killing ducks. My defense would be cite the lack of charges at any windfarm in the country, and in Alberta in particular.
Personally, my pet peeve is the insane abuse of electrical power every night, lighting up totally empty lanes, parking lots, and other facilities.
Look at slides #10 through 14...
http://rapidshare.com/files/43558304/BLUE_BEAUTY.pps
As for indoor incandescent lighting, for 6 months of the year (at least)your lighting is also contributing to your heating load. ie 100 watts is 100 watts, whether it makes reading the paper easier or not.
Sorry about the link, no idea why it's 404> Try this one ...
http://www.slideshare.net/rahul/photos-of-earth-by-sunita-williams
"Read today that Syncrude is being charged for killing ducks. My defense would be cite the lack of charges at any windfarm in the country, and in Alberta in particular.
Posted by: Kevin Lafayette at February 9, 2009 5:04 PM "
My defense,and Syncrude's,is.....PRODUCE THE 400 F&**ING DEAD DUCKS!!! You can't,because they do not exist!!! And contrary to the few eco-freaks screaming about this,dead ducks DON"T SINK!!!
This is nothing more than a cynical,political ploy to try to appease a special interest group.
You can bet your last buck Syncrude ain't gonna play dead duck on this one.
The Onion has already demonstrated the benefits arising from a previous event:
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/massive_oil_spill_results_in
In any case, how many birds and bats are killed by wind turbines?
Actually, incandescent lights contribute to household heating most of the year. Anytime (at night) that the furnace would kick in even a little, it's not really lost heat. Probably there's several weeks during the summer where the furnace never kicks in, but in all other cases, the heat from the bulb is being released during the coldest part of the day.
I'm pretty sure it's a little more expensive now to run the bulb, maybe 5 cents a night ;-)
So Ft Chipewyan is worried about the environment? I've been there twice in the last 3 weeks. They don't seem too worried about the massive diesel powered generating plant Atco Power is building via your tax dollars at Third Lake generating station. Why do they need a more electrical power? Some industry or commerce going in there? Not that I could see. But they will have a nice big shiny brand new ARENA! 10 months of the year you can skate down the street, but I guess for those remaining 2 months, well what the hell's the point of having all those shiny new pickups & SUV's if you can't drive 'em to the ARENA! BTW I paid $1.57 for a litre of diesel that my taxes already paid for. They are currently trucking in something like 1.7 million litres for the electrical generating plant for the year.
Do love the money quote you pointed out Kate:
"He expressed surprise that Wilson had not mentioned the exceptional past week of snowfall."
The cognitive dissonance displayed so openly, it's comical and yet...it's like the honking big elephant in the room that no one acknowledges.
My new hero, right up three with Michael Crichton (RIP) and Vaclav Klaus.