EnviroSpin Watch

Lord May: "a serial alarmist".....

The House of Lords is a paragon of how to dress tough words in velvet speech. Here is a classic statement from Lord Lawson of Blaby on Robert McCredie ('Bob') May, Baron May of Oxford, OM, AC, FRS, President of the Royal Society, taken from yesterday's House of Lords Debate on Climate Change [Right: the House of Lords Chamber: image for non-commercial use only (from Wikipedia)]:

"The noble Lord, Lord May, speaks with great passion and, indeed, with great charm - it is a potent combination. However, it has to be said in the kindest possible way that he is a serial alarmist. When some 30-odd years ago the Club of Rome produced its report on the limits to growth - many of your Lordships will recall it - which stated that there would be such a shortage of resources that growth would more or less grind to a halt within a reasonably short space of time, this fallacious forecast, which received a great deal of media attention at the time, was warmly endorsed by the noble Lord, Lord May, as he now is. He said that he thought growth would come to an end even sooner as a result of the second law of thermodynamics. Now he is sending out a new alarm which is the exact opposite; that is, he refers to the alleged rise in carbon dioxide emissions, and therefore global warming, as a result of very rapid continuing growth for a long time to come. So he has backed both horses in the race."

I also greatly enjoyed this from Lord Waldegrave of North Hill:

"I am one of those who, like my noble friend Lord Lawson, reacts adversely to scare stories, and also, to some extent, to an overwhelming consensus of all sensible people. I am therefore doubly suspicious of an overwhelming consensus trying to scare me.... So I start from a point of view that when a dissident voice comes along and sticks pins in the consensus, I am predisposed to favour the dissident; in this case, that global warming is all the fault of the Americans, or more particularly George W Bush. I therefore start with the view that Mr Matt Ridley and Mr Bjørn Lomberg sound like the scientists for me; and that the more they are berated by the powers that be, the more I remember how the dissidents on BSE and AIDS were berated by the powers that be. If you doubt that they are berated, go on to the Internet, or read Andrew Simms in the Guardian; the language is not that of science but of the commination service from the Book of Common Prayer."

The last sentence is particularly apposite: "... the language is not that of science but of the commination service from the Book of Common Prayer." Absolutely. Indeed, the more one reads the hyperbole of the 'global warming' faithful, the more one has to recognise that we are dealing with a religious sect, not critical science. Lord May should take care: this is dangerous ground for the Royal Society.

And so it's:

"Bow, bow, ye lower middle classes!
Bow, bow, ye tradesmen, bow, ye masses,
Blow the trumpets, bang the brasses,
Tantantara, Tzing boom!
Bow, bow, ye lower middle classes!
Bow, bow, ye tradesmen, bow, ye masses,
Blow the trumpets, bang the brasses."

"We are peers of highest station,
Paragons of legislation,
Pillars of the British nation."
[From: Iolanthe: 'Loudly let the trumpet bray']

Philip, lording it over his morning cuppa. A peerless coffee. "Peri good, P."