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Don’t Play Guilt Card, Environmentalists Told
Times of London
Green campaigners and politicians must stop making people feel guilty if they want to change attitudes to action on climate change, Britain’s Science and Innovation Minister said Wednesday.
Pessimistic messages about the personal sacrifices required to cut carbon emissions could alienate those whose support was essential to tackling the issue, Lord Drayson told The Times.
The austere rhetoric of environmentalists who lectured people for excessive driving or flying had convinced many that reducing the size of their carbon footprint was too much like hard work, he said. The prospect of a lower quality of life was unattractive.
“Less emphasis on telling people they have to stop doing many of the things they like — an almost puritanical argument that, for climate change to be addressed, growth has to stop and our quality of life has to decline. I don’t accept that. More importantly, it won’t work.”
Lord Drayson, speaking at The Times Cheltenham Science Festival , wants scientists, environmentalists and politicians to explain that many aspects of a greener lifestyle involve just small changes, come with few costs and might even save money.
Improvements to energy efficiency, such as home insulation, could help to lower carbon emissions — and reduce heating and electricity costs, he said. People were also very willing to take practical environmental steps, such as recycling garbage, when they had the facilities to do so.
• Click here to read the rest of this story in the Times of London.
June 5th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
I regret to advise you that many of these learned individuals are trying to look and sound important and are going forth with statements that have become popular. This is not remotely based on facts or scientific method but a political model to getting people to follow you. It worked well for Lenin and Hitler. You make a bold claim like “the sky is falling” or “mankind is going to destroy the Earth with global warming.” Then you surround youself with fanatical followers. Once that is done you close meaningful discussion, “The issue of Global Warming is settled. – Al Gore.” Then you belittle any and everyone that questions any aspect of the data or conclusions and make them look like fools. Then you ‘MUST’ begin to indoctinate the young, while they are impressionable, public schools do this very well. The media and enviromental activists have made this simple indeed. It impossible for meteorology graduate students to question the conclusions or data without commiting academic or career suicide. A friend of ours has told horror stories about the indoctrination given at a large University in the Southwest and how they humiliate anyone that questions or disagrees with their position. Global Warming is a polical power grab, not science.
June 10th, 2009 at 9:00 am
This site shows the high correlation of climate to solar activity. Start here if you want to understand.
http://www.tmgnow.com/repository/solar/lassen1.html
June 10th, 2009 at 11:43 am
Translation:
Green is a political movement and has no basis in fact. To attract more people into your political movement, you can’t make it too hard to be a believer.
June 11th, 2009 at 4:10 pm
Ahhh, yes. Another new tactic. Don’t tell people the truth so that they will accept the proposals of climate alarmists. Then, once the laws have been enacted, they will be forced to lower their standard of living or be labeled as criminal. The end always justifies the means for these people. Call it global warming, then, when it ceases to warm, call it climate change. Whatever it takes, whatever lies you have to offer up, just get it done.
June 12th, 2009 at 11:01 am
They aren’t making us feel guilty. We reject their arguments.
June 12th, 2009 at 2:47 pm
about time. behave like the religious zealots most environmental loones dispise.
June 14th, 2009 at 2:03 pm
They have already shown that carbon emissions do not cause the temperature to rise. That actually temperature causes carbon emissions to rise. It is just like the case of DDT. A bunch environmental nuts falsified the reports on it to get it removed because they did not like it. It has been admitted that the test were rigged. But all the Mumbo Jumbo that has been thrown out there is now quoted as fact. How many people have died because the environmental nuts won’t allow it to be used to kill mosquitoes and get rid of malaria. The Bible plainly says that when man starts to think he is god, that the end is near. Probably because we will manufacture our own death through DNA manipulation.
June 14th, 2009 at 8:16 pm
One can point out instead how eco-friendly changes can have side-benefits. I’ve found reusable canvas bags vastly superior to plastic or paper bags for carrying groceries–I can carry more groceries per bag, and I don’t have to worry about the bags ripping. Even if I had no interest in “saving the Earth,” bringing canvas bags when grocery shopping still has its advantages. I drive a hybrid version of the Lexus RX, and I’ve driven a non-hybrid loaner RX. Although the gas milage difference was modest and the emissions improvement with the hybrid is an invisible difference, the ride is smoother due to its transmission technology, and I found the hybrid’s brakes, with their regenerative battery charging, to be more responsive. At the extreme end, Tesla motors is at work right now on a sedan just a little pricier than the RX, but with an all-electric power plant. I relish the day I can drive to work, plug the car in, and drive home with a “full tank,” with the convenience of never having to stop for gas.
June 15th, 2009 at 1:44 am
The world’s biggest problem is not CO2 emissions. It’s overpopulation. Overpopulation has a far more deleterious effect on the earth in so many ways:
- destruction of habitat
- generation of waste
- stress on food and water supplies
- and, of course, emission of CO2 (among other greenhouse gases)
In addition, overpopulation leads to regional conflicts and humanitarian crises as well.
If governments spent as much effort on curbing population growth as on cutting CO2 emissions, maybe we’d get somewhere with climate change.