EnviroSpin Watch

Article and quote of the week.....

Occasionally (thank goodness), one has no need to blog and one can just sit back, drink coffee, smile beatifically, and listen to Brendel or Rostropovich playing Schubert. Today is such a day, because that great ol' bruiser, Mark Steyn, writing in The Daily Telegraph, has said it all in a piece which ruthlessly exposes the whole farago of nonsense that is 'global warming' and the Kyoto Protocol.

Thus, brew your favourite cuppa, sit yourself down, relax, read, and enjoy (having, of course, put on the Schubert): 'What planet are the eco-cultists on?' (The Daily Telegraph, December 6):

"...The story originated in Nature, the hitherto distinguished scientific periodical whose environmental coverage increasingly resembles that celebrated Sunday Sport scoop about the London double-decker bus found frozen in the deepest ice of the Antarctic. That, of course, is absurd - in reality, as the trained scientists at Nature would be the first to point out, the Clapham omnibus would be lucky to make it as far as Tulse Hill before being embedded in a glacier..."

"...It's a practical and results-oriented approach, which is why the eco-cultists will never be marching through globally warmed, snow-choked streets on its behalf. It lacks the requisite component of civilisational self-loathing."

"Wake up and smell the CO₂, guys. Sayonara, Kyoto. Hello, coalition of the emitting..." (read the full article)

Actually, there is one cloud on the horizon; I increasingly fear for science. Journals like Nature, and organisations like the Royal Society, are playing with political fire; there will be tears before this is over. Their imprudence could damage everyone.

And, in this context, just absorb EnviroSpin's choice for the most penetrating 'Quote of the Week':

"By far, most of the world's ice is held in Antarctica and the evidence there is, by and large, that the amount of ice there is growing. Many scientists know this, but the mantra of 'global warming happening due to humanity's flagrant release of greenhouse gases' is now an established political correctness. Many of them realise there are significant areas of doubt but if they voice that doubt they run the risk of losing research funds. When scientists are afraid to express doubts we are all in trouble, human-made global warming or not." (David Whitehouse, BBC Focus, December 2005: hat tip to Benny Peiser for the quotation. Unfortunately, the current issue of BBC Focus is not online).

Brilliant!

Philip, "Now, let's see, what Schubert to play? Ah! Yes! The Streichquintett, D. 956." At that long, first note, the cacophony deliciously fades away and a Platonic Narnia unfolds through new clouds of harmony. Peace. "Thank you Mark Steyn." Allegro ma non troppo all round.