The Daily Bayonet

Fighting Climate Change Fatigue

I mentioned this item in my weekly round-up, but I think it deserves more attention, so here is a complete post for you.

In July, The Guardian will host a conference on the topic 'Fighting Climate Change Fatigue: How to keep stakeholders engaged'.  The web site quotes:
    "With increasing political and public awareness about climate change, the debate has moved on. The public are willing to make changes, but mixed messages have led to confusion and fatigue"

This is notable for several reasons, so let's examine them.

1.  Why is there Climate Change Fatigue at all?
    Simple answer - too much hysteria over too little actual evidence.  Everything gets blamed on 'global warming' and people are tired of being made to feel guilty about what they eat, wear, drive and live in.  If the global crisis were real, we'd have more than a slide show movie supported by a failed politician and his acolytes. 

2.  "The debate has moved on"
    There was a debate?  I thought that Al Gore and David Suzuki told us the debate was over.  Not that there ever was one, because if there were, they'd be exposed as frauds.  So now we have a tacit acknowledgment from the Guardian that, in fact, the debate they didn't want has moved on.  And by moved on, they mean that they have lost control of the agenda because people asked questions about the science and found the answers wanting.

3.  "Increasing political and public awareness"
    This is warmist code for what they would term 'the wrong sort of awareness'.  By declaring that warming was an indisputable fact and by trying to bully and intimidate dissent, the hoaxers actually harmed their cause.  They refused to acknowledge any interpretation that didn't fit the new religion of warming and therefore were not in the debate at all, leaving people to go to their web browsers and look for information themselves.  And, the Internet is the best place to find a balance of views because alarmists cannot control the message.  What do they most often find?  That it might be getting warmer, but it's got nothing to do with CO2 or man-made efforts.  It's the climate, it changes all the time, live with it.

Let's be honest about one thing.  The warming alarmists are demonstrably incompetent.  If warming is real then they have done the world's worst job of getting people to really support the cause.  I've stated before that the public in general will put up with low-cost or fuzzy fixes that make them 'feel good about the environment'.  But, when you start talking about carbon taxes and rising gas prices and food riots, people stop and think about what they are being sold. 

For the alarmists this is disaster, and that is why many of them will gather to find a way to keep people drinking the kool-aid.  That the conference is happening at all is a huge admission of failure for the alarmists and a major step forward for climate change skeptics.   

The tide is turning, Al 'Canute' Gore cannot do a thing to stop it.

Global Warming Hoax Weekly Round-Up

From the ever increasing hits, it seems that my Friday round up of global hoaxing stories is getting to be popular.  I'm glad you enjoy them.  Also, the comments have been moonbat free for almost a month now, maybe they were killed by global warming.  Who knows.

Here are stories from the past seven days that caught my eye, read and enjoy.

Starting with a laugh with the BBC headline writers: Great Tits cope well with warming.

If you're new to all this skepticism, check out our fellow traveller at Skeptics Global warming for his two-part post on a The Global Warming Hoax: A Skeptical Beginners Guide Part One and Part Two.

Investors Business Daily takes a look at some of the alarmists scary predictions that, well, didn't happen.

An open letter to environmentalists by John Coleman, founder of the Weather Channel in the US.

Jennifer Marohasy notes that climate models tend to exaggerate Antarctic temperatures.

Encouraging signs for skeptics: The Guardian is hosting a conference dealing with 'Fighting Climate Change Fatigue' and SGW wonders if Al Gore's hoax is in peril.  Also, Brits start to reject the costs of Kyoto as they become apparent, backing up my theory that the slowing economy will do irreparable harm to the hoax.

Other signs that the warmists are ducking the real issues are Greenpeace's over the top reaction to some dead ducks in Alberta and a mainstream UK paper calling out hypocritical celebrities who 'support' warming theory.

The Daily Telegraph notices that if you want to find out real facts about the global warming 'crisis' you need the interwebs, not the press.  Eckernet relishes the current reality bites scenario for hoaxers.  American Thinker ponders a cool fast one, while the Chicago Flame looks at snowballs in hell.

Also noticing reality is the government of New Zealand, now deciding that perhaps the crisis can wait until the economy gets better.  You have to ask just how urgent is a crisis that can be so easily sidelined by a government that is particularly activist on the hoax.

In the category 'Global Warming Causes Everything', this week we get to add shark attacks and the impending doom watch for koala bears.  Embarrassingly for greens however is the news that cleaner air might kill off the Amazon (forest, not bookseller).  Also in the category of green scientists not agreeing with each other is the 'lets bury the carbon' crowd.

Time to pick on the warmer in chief, Al Gore.  Or, Al Ghoul according to the NRO.   In case you hadn't heard, Gore has a new book coming out, called 'The Assault on Reason'.  In an Orwellian flip of the truth the preview tells us:
    "Gore argues that the marketplace of reasoned debate our country was founded on is being        endangered by a variety of allied forces: the use of fear and the misuse of faith, the distractions of our entertainment culture, and the concentrations of power in the national media and the executive branch."
So it's the skeptics using fear?  Try looking in the mirror, Al.

To wrap up this weeks round-up, here are some stories about the continuing food crisis affecting Somalia, Italy, the UK and the world's poor in general.  It's time to stop driving around with food in our tanks and get it back into the food chain.

Enjoy your weekend.

Carbon Taxes & Politics

Stephane Dion has announced his plans to save the world.

I am very critical of Dion, I think he's a weak leader and has neglected his duty as leader of the Opposition to tend to party interests.  But, to give credit where it's due, he at least has proposed a carbon taxing plan that is true to the required methods of limiting carbon output.  If you believe that its necessary to limit such emissions, which I don't.

The problem for Dion is that his plan is political suicide.  As Dan Gardner wrote a week ago in the Ottawa Citizen, it's easy to tell a pandering politician from a committed green one by their stance on gas prices.  Hillary Clinton is the poster girl for this shameless pandering.  Dion wants to increase the price of gas with carbon taxes, and give some cash back in the form of tax cuts.

The Liberals cannot win an election with this carbon tax plan in their platform, and pretty soon they'll figure that out. 

Canada's population isn't convinced yet that global warming is anything to overly worry about, and if it is that there is much they can do about it.  It's fine to change the odd light bulb, turn the lights out for an hour a year and stop farting outside, but when the actions come at a real financial cost - well that's a different story.

Dion's plan will ensure two things; that the Liberals will lose the next election and that Dion loses his job.  I'm OK with both of these outcomes, and if it ends up with a Liberal leader that is willing to fulfill their duty as Leader of the Opposition so that Parliament works properly, so much the better.  I might be a Conservative supporter, but I am no fan of unrestrained power from any party; it never ends well for the country when their is a drastic imbalance.

Carbon taxes are a wrong-headed solution to a non-existent problem; I'm hopeful political reality will be successful in killing off this ridiculous policy and we can get back to some important issues.

Dough! Doh!

Public relations black eye for Tim Hortons today as they hit the national news for firing a 3-year employee for giving a Timbit to a baby.

Yeah, you read that right, a Timbit.  16 cents or so.  The employee said she'd seen it happen before, even giving Timbits to dogs.

Quote from the 'District Manager':
"The Timbits given to pets, Ms. Mitchell added, are usually "day-old and recycled."

What the hell is a recycled Timbit?

I worked in retail for a number of years, and it's usually a good idea to be nice to regular customers and give them something once in a while.  I imagine that today won't be a good one for the three (count 'em!) managers that fired the 'criminal' employee when Head Office gets on the phone.

This happened right here in London.  I usually drink at least one Tim Hortons coffee a day.  Today I'm off to Starbucks. Maybe tomorrow too.  Maybe I've been meaning to wean off the coffee crack anyway.

UPDATE: Surprise, Tim Hortons has issued a press release blaming 'an over zealous manager' for the firing and has re-hired the employee at another location.  I'm pretty sure that a promising career just dissolved, but that's management Darwinism for you.  At least Tim's reacted fast and did the right thing. 

Inexperienced Political Staffer: Pick Me, Pick ME!

A person carbon-based life form once identified as an inexperienced political staffer by Justice Gomery has decided that Mark Steyn should debate him.  About what?  Kinsella has no dog in any of the fights involving Steyn.

The larger question is why would a globally syndicated columnist and successful author want a conversation with an ex-clerk?  Certainly not to give any attention to a person so desperate for it. 

I believe that Mark knows better than to turn up to a battle of wits in which his opponent is unarmed, so the LyingJackal will have to play with himself in Ottawa.

TVO Debate - Round Two?

The host of the Steyn/Sock Puppet bunfight, Steve Paikin, has blogged about the show here.

The most interesting part is excerpted below:
"the rancor that started the evening was gone by the end of it. We're now trying to see whether we can bring all four participants back some time towards the end of the month, in hopes of having a somewhat calmer discussion about the actual arguments in Steyn's book"

I have a feeling that it'll never happen.  Once Big Elmo sees the generally negative reaction to the sock puppets debut performance I imagine he'll want to avoid further mockery.  We'll see.

If it does happen, it'll definitely go to 11.

The Slaughter of the Sock Puppets

The Steve Paikin hosted TVO show just ended and they are picking up the bloody remains of three poor sock puppets from TVO's studio floor. 

Mark was given the first 15 minutes, and used a few minutes to devastatingly 'invite' the cowering puppets into a proper debate.  Faced with the live TV challenge, the Elmo 3 accepted as long as they could get 15 minutes 'rebuttal' first, which they got.

Let's just say that we can summarize the sock puppets argument as follows:
"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

The most vile moment was when Khurrum Awan jumped the shark and directly compared Orianna Fallaci to Ernst Zundel.  Paikin asked for a clarification from Awan to check he actually meant to make that comparison, and he did!  He'll be regretting that in the morning.  It'll be interesting to see if the sock puppets new best friend Kinsella will support or condemn that dreadful comparison.

Mark's best moment, when accused of hiding behind prominent Muslims he quotes (yeah, I know) "If I'm hiding then I'm hiding behind facts, I'm hiding behind statistics, I'm hiding behind truth and accuracy."

Must see TV, right here, should be up soon.  Wednesday morning, still no TVO video, so here's a link to the You Tube versions.

UPDATE:  Mark Steyn's self-analysis of his appearance is here.

UPDATE #2: I posted a comment on the Kinsella blog, but it never appeared.  Hmmm.  Still waiting to hear if he will condemn the odious Fallaci = Zundel comparison by the Awan puppet.

UPDATE #3 (Also a short new post): Steve Paikin has posted his own thoughts on last night's fireworks.  The highlight is that there may be another meeting of the combatants at the end of the month.

Better Buy More Compact Fluorescent Bulbs

Unless Chilean volcanoes can afford carbon offsets, I think that the 'efforts' of every nut job Canadian green over the past few years just got wiped out:

Britain: Doomed Redux

Poor Britain and Brits.  All this bad news from one day in the papers:

All those billions of pounds on making the UK a Big Brother wet dream has reduced crime by not very much at all.  The same no-good statistics apply to the massive DNA bank.  But, have no fear for the glorious authorities have found a fool-proof method of reducing crime.  By not counting it (I'm not making this up). 

No word on whether a new division of the Police will be formed to monitor the light green fingered crime wave.  I guess that may depend on if there's any cash left after this copper's personal spending spree.

Meanwhile, a local council is pursuing a desperate criminal and will not cease until they have managed to stop his horrifying crime rampage.  The foul crook in this case is charged with... flying a pirate flag for his daughter's birthday.  A picture is below, for those with weak sensibilities I recommend skipping it.

(Source: Captain Jack  Sparrow The Daily Mail)

Meanwhile, the People's Republic of Britain may soon be littered with 'Alcohol Disorder Zones' and a man that made some of the worst electronics ever made has decided that Britain is 'broken'.  Believe me when I tell you that the man behind Amstrad knows about broken.

I was going to write my family and invite them to come to Canada where it's not so bad.  But then I discovered my letter may never arrive... so nevermind.

Britannia, where art thou?

Steyn on TVO's Agenda Tonight

Mark Steyn will be appearing on Steve Paikin's Agenda show on TVO at 8pm tonight.

Paikin has been close to the issue of HRC's and free speech, already having interviewed Ezra and MP Keith Martin.

Look for video here after the show.

Popcorn at the ready!

UPDATE:  The Sock Puppets have run away!  If they ever enjoyed any credibility with their 'we only want debate' whining, they just lost it.  It just goes to show what good things can happen when ignorant bullies meet people willing to stand up to them.  Elmo must be proud of his legal eagle jihadis.  Hopefully the three remaining cowards will now find a damp rock to crawl under for a good long time.

Islam Vs. Gays, Part Deux

Following last week's puzzler for lefties, here's another one.

Go on lefties, pick a side. I double-dog dare you.

The Italian (Nut) Job

Rome has new mayor, and he's a lot nuttier than London's new boy, 'BoJo'.

Gianni Alemanno has decided to blacklist Hollywood stars and ban them from the Rome film festival.  Because they are from evil but successful Hollywood and Italian cinema is crap.  Apparently Gianni sees a correlation. 

Oh, and his supporters call him Ducé.  Not scary at all. 

Good luck, Rome.