It's surely no coincidence that environmentalism as a political movement only really hit its stride just as communism was collapsing under the weight of its own contradictions. The workers couldn't bring down capitalism, the thinking seemed to be, but maybe the whales and polar bears could.

In fact, listening to climate-change campaigners rant about the evils of industrial development, you can't help suspecting that, even if technological solutions were to be found which allowed consumerism and production to continue at the same rate with no adverse effect on the climate, the global warmers would be disappointed rather than relieved, because the real enemy is not CO2 emissions, but capitalism itself. The agenda is one of moralistic reform of imperfect human nature rather than a disinterested concern for the ecosystem of the planet.

More

Hope& Change = Red > Green Show.

> "What's more, the book's themes continue to resonate today, when murderous ideologies still compete for legitimacy and "enlightened" understanding by the Western intelligentsia."

Submission = Islam = Red-Green dhimmis.

"or—much more mysteriously—to submit to it."
...-

"The Siren Call Of Tyranny

The hard-left former groupies of totalitarianism keep searching for new murderous ideologies to defend.

'Last Exit to Utopia" was first published in France nearly a decade ago. It concerns itself primarily with the failure of much of the French left to come to grips with the collapse of communism and the exposure of its innumerable crimes. The events and debates under its review date mainly to the 1990s, and its author died in 2006.

Yet the book, at last available in English in this fine translation, ought to command close attention because it was written by Jean-François Revel, who—unlike such bien-pensant idols as Jean-Paul Sartre (an admirer of Stalin) and Michel Foucault (a cheerleader of the Ayatollah Khomeini)—deserves to be ranked as the pre-eminent French political philosopher of the second half of the 20th century. What's more, the book's themes continue to resonate today, when murderous ideologies still compete for legitimacy and "enlightened" understanding by the Western intelligentsia.

Revel's great subject was totalitarianism, not just its practice but also its intellectual methods, deceits and disturbing psychological attractions. In books such as "The Totalitarian Temptation" (1976) and "How Democracies Perish" (1983), he dissected the mind-set of Western intellectuals who, living in democracies, found much to admire in gulag countries like the Soviet Union and Cuba and much to detest in free ones—the U.S. most of all.

Why was that? "The totalitarian phenomenon," Revel observed years ago, "is not to be understood without making an allowance for the thesis that some important part of every society consists of people who actively want tyranny: either to exercise it themselves or—much more mysteriously—to submit to it."

It was a temptation that proved to be remarkably resilient." (more)

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704240504574585881108040134.html

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704240504574585881108040134.html

Excerpts filtered by pc filter.

Burden of Proof. It's pushback time .

On the bright side, we got to see destructive prostesters in the "Copenhagen choo-choo"

Elizabeth May quoting Chavez:

http://greenparty.ca/blogs/7/2009-12-16/hugo-chavez-venezuela

Greenpeace . . . what goes around, comes around.

Karma sucks for these greenies.

http://tinyurl.com/ydopswn

According to the green cops we are supposed to reduce pollution by buying our tomatoes locally but are supposed to buy all our other junk from China.
They argue that buying produce locally will reduce the pollution from transportation.
But in the same breath they want us to sign the proposed Copenhagen treaty that will result in industry here being shut down and the production moved to the much dirtier factories in China.
Chinese industry already pollutes more than ours, they will not be bound to reduce pollution by the new treaty but we will be.
So our industry will be even less competitive with the much dirtier industry in China.
So more production will move there.

Why is pollution from transporting tomatoes bad but pollution from transporting our raw materials to China and the finished products back here good?

How will shutting down a clean steel mill here and shipping the iron ore and scrap steel to a much dirtier mill in China, then shipping the finished steel or Dodge fenders back here be good for the environment?

Trust the UN to massively overbook a conference hall.

I predict that the intensity of the rioting at Hopenhagen will be inversely proportional to the prospects for an actual agreement.

I can't imagine what the organizers of this cluster**** thought was going to happen. We all know how difficult it is to get one, two or three countries to agree on things like trade deals, and how long the process takes. Did they really expect that getting 192 countries to agree on something that is more complex and far-reaching than any trade deal would be a walk in the park? That's leaving aside the important point that what they're trying to agree on is sheer insanity anyway.

This scam is turning into the side show of the year.

This post is great, slam dunk on Greenpeace, and Lizzy sniveling, can't get any better than that.

The Telegraph article is a good read. I'm going to add The Telegraph to my list of newspapers I read everyday. I now have 3. I used to have over 20. Yet somehow I don't feel less informed.

I used to feel I had to watch the news on television just to stay informed but now I'll check my local news for about 2 minutes to catch up murders, raids, traffic etc. Then flip to Coren and see who he's got on.

Latest draft (pdf) , of this abomination . Lotsa blanks left to fill in for seven pages .

"Did they really expect that getting 192 countries to agree on something..."

That's exactly what they expected. The scary part is I think they actually came pretty close to succeeding.

Same with the Tiger Woods story. The MSM is now crying over the drop in viewership (i.e. revenue) because he has pulled out of golf.

For years the MSM over-hyped Woods, as if he was a golfer that was put on earth by God himself. They followed his every move, and when he lost a game the headline didn't say "So-and-so won" it said "Tiger Woods lost". The poor sod that actually won the game would be lucky if he was mentioned as a footnote in the story.

And despite all the high-paid "journalists" that followed his every move, not *one* of them figured out that he was satisfying his adult needs in very creative ways. They were scooped by none other than the bottom-feeding tabloid reporters.

It's just another example of why the MSM is done, finished, cooked like turkey dinner.

Good riddance to them all. They are a major apparatus of the left and all its sick ideas, and I cannot wait for their demise.

Another great article on the farce from Pajamas Media: http://pajamasmedia.com/rogerlsimon/2009/12/16/cope-notes-1-the-snows-of-kilimincrazy/

You also have to wonder why the organizers chose December. Why not June or July? A little heat wave might have been good PR, but a cold wave????

This may sound like a silly question, but...
Can someone please explain to me why the environmental activists are violently protesting at the Copenhagen conference?? Aren't they on the same team? Am I missing something here???

Green on the outside, Red on the inside.

It's obvious what they really want - the destruction of the First World economies and a return to politics that Stalin would approve of.

My son's high school friends discovered ClimateGate and are all over it.

MSM Editors take a brief respite from getting your swine flu shots and pause to take note: the kids have discovered first hand for themselves the veracity of your 'authority'. MSM, you've lost the kids. You're toast.

Well, we now have the phenomenon of "climate hooligans" or perhaps they are "weather anarchists" -- fascinating to watch this mass delusion unfolding, the pied piper could do with a Jenny Craig gift for the holidays though.

Bring on the blizzards.

Regarding why are they protesting ... there are probably several reasons. Perhaps most important, they act like spoiled children who want to have their way immediately and when it doesn't occur, they basically throw a temper tantrum.

The Euro-twit press is calling the oilsands the ecological disaster of all time. They report the site is the size of England, and has been stripped bare. In fact, the sands are about the size of England, and the mine, however, is 1/3 the size of London, and produces less CO2.
They will not publish or report anything that corrects these distortions.

David Suzuki at his best: "Canada's economy could handle significant emissions cuts, with most damage confined to Alberta and Saskatchewan." Since Alberta is the only province still actually contributing to transfer payments, does he actually believe the economic destruction would be "confined" to Alberta? He's old enough to remember the disastrous effect the NEP had on the entire Canadian Economy, just because Trudeau and LaLonde wanted to plunder Alberta's prosperity. What an idiot.

''BBC video showed truncheon-bearing Danish police shoving the crowd backward as protesters gasped and covered their faces to avoid breathing tear gas.''

Big deal, did they get smacked with a shoe?
Now that would be serious.

Kate,

check out this BBC video of an interview (...yes the BBC, who'd a thunk it) with a computer programmer,

he's gone over the released code, and its garbage (also up at my site now):

http://www.eyeblast.tv/public/checker.aspx?v=GdaGkUIrDk

Rocky:

What Suzuki, Quebec and Ontario are attempting to do is shift the burden of responsibility on the producer instead of the consumer.

Last time that happened, we got the National Energy Plan, which was a plan to have cheap oil for central Canada at the expense of ‘only Alberta.'

Even though they had a commie regime at the time, our friends in Saskatchewan should also fight this attempt to punish the producer and all producing nations, so that we can transfer our wealth to a bunch of African dictators.

Last nights Global newscast praising the so called green effort by China was without doubt the worst case of media distortion I have seen this week, far worse than Al Gore's polar melting.
It doesn't take much effort to google the 10 worst polluted cities to see how well china is doing.
I wonder if Maurice Strong wrote the story for them?
Shame on Global Television!

"The Emperor's New Clothes" could not be a more accurate allegory for this situation if it were written today, having seen the insanity first-hand. The ONLY thing in that story that doesn't match reality is the fact that once the child announces the truth, the rest of the public quickly begins to acknowledge the truth before their eyes.

Now, the poll data in this post indicate that Canadian people are starting to come to their senses, which is encouraging, but "Emperor Harper" and his minions are continuing to prance around naked.

We can ridicule the fools all we like, but we still don't seem to have the power necessary to make them get dressed! The only real weapon -- political threats -- has been neutered by the lack of a sensible alternative. I'm losing hope.

Would anyone like to purchase a classified ad?

Barbara Yaffe, to her credit, is finally realizing what climate-alarmism is all about.

In the past, I was sometimes asked why I am so concerned about Kyoto.

Well, thanks to Kate bottle genie McMillan and others, the whole world now knows why.

"....even if technological solutions were to be found which allowed consumerism and production to continue at the same rate with no adverse effect on the climate, the global warmers would be disappointed rather than relieved...".

It already happened! Forty years ago I thought it was odd that you could tell what people generally thought about nuclear power by their "political" leanings. That was the vanguard of the anti-industrial revolution - shutting down all planned and partially constructed nuclear power plants (in the US). AGW hysterics and their blatant push for world domination are the latest iteration of that grand political narrative.

I joined the world of blogging after Rathergate. Then, as now, I was startled and fascinated by the dichotomy between the facts that had become plainly available on the net for me to read, analyse, opine on,

and how the media reported the facts, and the opinions they formed from the very same facts.

Back then I speculated that the media could go one of two ways. They could harness the incredible power of the internet, the insight and resourcefulness of bloggers, who collectively are like having millions of "experts" in their respective fields, look into issues, while the media can use its resources that no single blogger has.

Or they could "double down" fight the tide, or at least ignore it, while becoming even more ideological, even more agenda driven and less straight news based.

In the end it appeared to be the latter. Bias is inherently insidieous. It takes great effort and resources to fight one's natural tendencies and incliniations (as most journos are naturally left leaning).

Climategate could very well be the nail in the coffin. To bad for all of us. It would have been a great partnership.

Is tear gas a GHG ?

Hopenchangen is descending into Durban-like chaos, another hate the productive economies fest. All courtesy of the UN.

When history is written, our generation will be excoriated for the Y2K myth and extreme gullibility for believing that a beneficial gas that promotes plant growth was targetted by people calling themselves greens that believed in mother earth fairy tales.

But these are dangerous times, we are led for the most part by people who don't understand elementary science or economics. Ironically our only respite from the marxists may be the Chinese communists. This comment gives me hope that at least they see through leadership such as obama, kerry, brown, sarkozy the "we must do something within 50 days crowd"........ a representative of China, who said moving forward too quickly was tantamount to "obstructionism" .
...... You can't just put forth some text from the sky," the representative said. Consider, the communists actually want reasoned debate before setting about destroying the productive global economy. While our Marxists insist on blundering ahead.

"....even if technological solutions were to be found which allowed consumerism and production to continue at the same rate with no adverse effect on the climate, the global warmers would be disappointed rather than relieved...".

This Canadian saw it first hand twenty years ago.

[ Whereas previously the leaders of the environmental movement found themselves on the outside railing at the gates of power, they were now invited to the table in boardrooms and caucuses around the world. For environmentalists, accustomed to the politics of confrontation, this new era of acceptance posed a challenge as great as any campaign to save the planet.]

IOW, the radicals only want to wreck. And the media likes to show windows breaking.

Here's a thought:

If 'Big Oil' is behind the 'Denier Movement', with the unlimited funding that that implies, then why aren't we seeing a bunch of staged protests in Copenhagen bringing attention to Climategate, bad science, bad (cap and trade) policies etc.?

What a perfect opportunity that would be. What a perfect venue to bring attention to the hypocrisy!

Kinda goes to show that there is no Big Oil conspiracy going on - unlike the MSM/Left Wing EnviroTerrorist organizations making fools of themselves over there.

"BBC video showed truncheon-bearing Danish police shoving the crowd backward as protesters gasped and covered their faces to avoid breathing tear gas."

A radio report on these demonstrations this very morning included a sound bite of crisp, clear female Danish voice declaring in English on a bullhorn:

"In the name of the Queen and the law, this demonstration is dismissed!"

It made my day!

God bless Queen Margrethe!

" ...we are led for the most part by people who don't understand elementary science or economics."

Yup. Just look around any book store. 90% fiction. Thanks to the "Arts" community.

"It is entirely possible that, at this juncture, the Conservative government is closer to the mood of the populace than are the environmentalists."

When even determinedly Liberal papers like the Vancouver Sun,and their equally Liberal columnists, start to have doubts, it can only bode well for the truth.

It's about time someone placed the "burden of proof" on the AGW crowd,they've been getting a free pass for years. "Global Warming" belongs in the long ,long list of con games that have been perpetrated the last century or so; global cooling, crop circles,communism, conspiracy theory du jour,the 100 mpg carburetor, the car that runs on water,etc.etc.

Real scientists have always said."show me the science" and the AGW guys were like bratty little kids,"no,I don't have to show you! You have to take MY word for it! There is consensus!"

And the MSM fell for it like a ton of yokels at a county fair in 1888. Buy the snake oil,boys, it's only a dollar.

sylvanguy says "The Euro-twit press is calling the oilsands the ecological disaster of all time. They report the site is the size of England, and has been stripped bare. In fact, the sands are about the size of England, and the mine, however, is 1/3 the size of London, and produces less CO2.
They will not publish or report anything that corrects these distortions."

Yeah....and they have completely and conveniently forgotten (if they ever knew) that the coal fires in China put out TWICE as much CO2 annually as the entire production of Canada. And the oilsands are "the ecological disaster of all time"? These people are certifiably nuts.

And how about that Darvaza gas crater in Turkmenistan?

And how about this?

The World Bank estimates that over 100 billion cubic metres of natural gas are flared or vented annually, an amount worth approximately 30.6 billion dollars, equivalent to the combined annual gas consumption of Germany and France, twice the annual gas consumption of Africa, three quarters of Russian gas exports, or enough to supply the entire world with gas for 20 days. This flaring is highly concentrated: 10 countries account for 75% of emissions, and twenty for 90%.[5] The largest flaring operations occur in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. The leading contributors to gas flaring are (in declining order): NIGERIA, RUSSIA, IRAN, ALGERIA, MEXICO, VENEZUELA, INDONESIA AND THE U.S. (don't see Canada in that list) In spite of a ruling by the Federal High Court of Nigeria (that forbade flaring) in 2005, 43% of the of the gas retrieval was still being flared in 2006.

"He was immediately rebuked by a representative of China, a member of the G-77 bloc, who said moving forward too quickly was tantamount to "obstructionism" and a bullying attempt by the West.

"I think the matter isn't ‘procedure, procedure, procedure.’... You can't just put forth some text from the sky," the representative said."

I just love that last line,"You can't just put forth some text from the sky".

Like Al Gore's been doing from day one.

Copenhagen Grifters Plan $3,000 Con.
Lord Christopher Monckton is reported to have obtained a working copy of the draft agreement. He warns that the secretive draft version of the Copenhagen climate change treaty represents a global government power grab on an “unimaginable scale,” and mandates the creation of 700 new bureaucracies as well as a colossal raft of new taxes including 2 per cent levies on GDP and a 2 per cent tax on every international financial transaction.
The draft agreement also reportedly contains a provision for a “uniform global levy of $2 dollars per ton of CO2 for all fossil fuel emissions,” as well as an additional tax on every commercial plane journey, except ones that go in or out of poorer countries.
Of course, in addition to these various taxes, the draft agreement, reportedly pushed by President Obama, the UK and Denmark, would require auctioning of allowances to emit carbon dioxide – a cap and tax scheme. Failing to purchase permits would be met with financial penalties or outright prohibitions against such emissions.
The 2 per cent tax on GDP alone would cost Canada some $26 billion. The $2 a tonne tax would add up to $500 million per year.
http://www.taxpayer.com/node/11025

Kevin Gaudet was on Rutherford this morning at 9:00 AM.

"They were scooped by none other than the bottom-feeding tabloid reporters."

Ah yes, the MSM sometime ago decided to move out of the "news" business into the "celebrity news". Unfortunately, what they found there they didn't like, competition! The type of competition that will bust their a$$ for the story. The type of competition that will bust their a$$ for the customer. It’s been my observation that nobody in the media works as hard as the reporters that cover celebrities, they’re synonymous for their relentless tactics.

The MSM were not up to the task of competing for legitimate news stories with the internet; it seems they thought the low-hanging fruit would suffice. What they didn't anticipate was experienced competition, with a stronger work ethic and a superior work force.

They thought they would steamroll the competition! Why? Who knows, perhaps it is entitlement thinking.

The bottom line is, the only salvation for the MSM that I can see, is to raise the standards for journalists coming out of University. Until the Universities can graduate journalists with superior skills to those of amateur blogers and celebrity media types they will never produce a superior product, and they will never gain market share.

The blubb and wail this morning made me as angry as
I have been in quite a while, about Canada's "loss
of reputation". Direct echo of eurotrash.
I said to my wife, "we should have
left those ******** ******** ********** to the
Nazis. Hitler understood those **** ***** very well.
And why are our troops saving their miserable *****
in Afghanistan? And isn't it time we occupied Hann
Island and put some serious guns on it, and send the
next **** **** **** Danish destroyer that came near
to the bottom?"

My wife said, "Calm down". She doesn't like it
when I use profanity and obscenity.
"The language suits the subject", I replied.

Great article by David Warren http://www.proudtobecanadian.ca/blog/index/writergroup/the_man-made_global_warming_set_scare_tacticians/

Monckton names names on Climategate

This was from December 7, but I haven't seen it referenced here. LM speaking in Berlin, naming names and pulling no punches. Its around 30 minutes but well worth your time.

http://www.cfact.org/a/1652/Monckton-names-names-on-Climategate

Not surprised.
It's quite obvious, actually. Leftists believe that overpopulation will be the death of us all and now they are using false data to back their claims. Let's not forget cap and trade and carbon taxes which are great economic hindrances.
Why are we letting these yahoos send us back into the Stone Age?

It's *always* been all about the funding and power.

It's no big surprise that Greenpeace thugs, many of whom make a good living and have access to the corridors of power because of their cause, are part and parcel of the global warming scam.

Much thanks to Kate and other members of this blog for doing the necessary research to expose these shysters.

"The leading contributors to gas flaring are (in declining order): NIGERIA, RUSSIA, IRAN, ALGERIA, MEXICO, VENEZUELA, INDONESIA AND THE U.S. (don't see Canada in that list) In spite of a ruling by the Federal High Court of Nigeria (that forbade flaring) in 2005, 43% of the of the gas retrieval was still being flared in 2006."

Posted by: John Luft at December 16, 2009 1:08 PM

You don't see Canada on that list, because the ERCB in Alberta passed regulations banning it, about 15 years ago. Before then, there were flares lighting up the sky, all over Alberta.

NovaGas built a huge gathering system to collect all that gas that used to be flared off. It became the responsibility of producers to put the gas into the system. It wasn't a cheap fix, but it was the right thing to do.

The gas that's being flared comes from 'bubbles' in the oil, and is not economically feasible to produce. It's a bit like killing an animal, and only keeping the most expensive cuts. As long as there are lots of animals, the hunter isn't losing much.

Someone posted on the CBC blog that Adler was interviewing Lord Moncton today.

Kate, and others, here is Monckton trying to reason with brainwashed youth:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqIYMWIWYt8

PS - The last minute of the Monckton video is priceless.

sda gets results. A big 'shout out' for Kate and posters/commentators!

Heh...I was one of the 'lucky' ones polled by Compas. I felt sorry for the poor schmuck doing the surveys, man, was he getting an earful!!!
He didn't know much about "climate change" BEFORE he started the project...;)

Stan: "Why is pollution from transporting tomatoes bad but pollution from transporting our raw materials to China and the finished products back here good?"

Because Mo Strong and a bunch of his Librano buddies are waiting in China with giant pillow cases to stuff with yuan if this scam is carried off.

Kyoto and Copenhagen have nothing to do with lowering pollution levels and everything to do with increasing certain people's bank accounts.

It may sound crazy. In the end the Climate agitators don't really care about the weather. The end game is the De-population of the Human race to be run by these Eco-fascists.
They will count even your nose hairs.
Let alone have children unless its them.
Monetary redistribution of wealth is just plan B for these Religious nuts.
The Climate elitists or Socialists had hoped to bring this about incrementally. By using phony science. Now the Victim hood of the third world is being invoked. Trust me, in the end they want most of mankind dead. Thats what they see as the problem all along.
JMO

I understand that the Danish government purchased a water cannon in preparation of its need during the conference.

I attribute the fact that it has not been used instead of tear gas, in that it's so cold in Copenhagen.
(All together now shout: "HOW COLD IS IT?")
Is's so cold in Copenhagen, that the water cannon was shooting ice cubes, and they didn't want to bruise the egos of the AGW advocates.

Guess Who's Coming To Dinner, Er...Copenhagen:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/politics/penny-wong-jeered-hugo-chavez-cheered/story-e6frgczf-1225811179614

Then President Chavez brought the house down.

When he said the process in Copenhagen was “not democratic, it is not inclusive, but isn’t that the reality of our world, the world is really and imperial dictatorship…down with imperial dictatorships” he got a rousing round of applause.

When he said there was a “silent and terrible ghost in the room” and that ghost was called capitalism, the applause was deafening.

But then he wound up to his grand conclusion – 20 minutes after his 5 minute speaking time was supposed to have ended and after quoting everyone from Karl Marx to Jesus Christ - “our revolution seeks to help all people…socialism, the other ghost that is probably wandering around this room, that’s the way to save the planet, capitalism is the road to hell....let’s fight against capitalism and make it obey us.” He won a standing ovation.

And more lunacy from Hopenchangen, check out Kelly McParland's article:

"The climate change conference from Hell"

http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2009/12/16/the-climate-change-conference-from-hell.aspx

Beautiful.....

how many more days of this climate conference at Hopenchangen to we have to endure.

the Obamessiah hasnt even arrived.

"how many more days of this climate conference at Hopenchangen to we have to endure?"

We are just about up to the "lords a leaping."

"No cat has ever emancipated itself more completely from the bag"

LOL

I keep writing my local newspaper's editor and urging him to break with the herd and lead the way. Sending him links to Steve McIntryre and this one from the Telegraph. Not much chance of it but I'd rather the newspaper improve than actually disappear. Turkey's voting for Christmas. As I told the editor, thank God for the obits, eh?