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Sunday, November 29, 2015

Ron Smith: Climate Change and the Imperial Wardrobe


In 1837 Danish writer, Hans Christian Anderson wrote a short tale for children called ‘The Emperor’s new clothes’.  In this a pair of enterprising weavers undertake to provide a magnificent new suit for his majesty, which will have the interesting characteristic of being quite invisible to those of his court who are ignorant, or incompetent, or otherwise, unfit for their position.  

The story is apparently based on a 14th century version of a myth that goes back to classic times.

The climax of the tale comes when an unsophisticated observer of the royal procession (a small boy), who does not know what he is supposed to see, shouts out that the Emperor has no clothes! Of course, the story is now taken to be a metaphor for human gullibility; for hollow pretentiousness and the collective denial of what is clearly the case.  In theme, it has a lot in common with a more or less contemporary account of the apparently irresistible forces of collective self-deception involved in such episodes as the ‘South Sea Company Bubble’ and the, earlier, ‘Dutch tulip mania’.  The book is, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, by Charles Mackay, 1841.  It is a fascinating account of ‘group-think’ and how resistant it is to rational input.    ‘Men go mad in herds’, he says, ‘they only discover their senses, one by one’.

This, of course, is where the present climate change mania comes in.  I do not suppose that one in a hundred of those self-righteous protesters in our streets over the last few days could sustain an argument on the mechanisms of global warming, on the climate history of the planet, or on the metabolism and physical chemistry of carbon dioxide.  That is why those who are using them for their political ends rigorously exclude from any debate, persons who might have a different opinion.

This was most dramatically illustrated in Hamilton, where the University of Waikato, to its eternal shame, promoted a major piece of public propaganda, using its own staff.  These included a professor of law and a professor of Maori Studies but it did not include the one member of staff, whose area of expertise this is.  Of course, he is a critic.  Similarly, the specialist at Auckland has not been called to any of these ‘public discussions’ and neither have other persons who have extensive knowledge in relevant areas but who do not (to a greater or lesser extent) support the global-warming disaster hypothesis.

Mr Anderson does not tell us how the media handled the imperial procession and the naked Emperor but I am betting that the court scribes were particularly fulsome and poetic about the magnificence of the royal wardrobe and were particularly impressed by the enthusiastic support of a very personable young woman in the crowd.  As far as the boy is concerned, I think they would be opining that the boy’s mother should take him home and teach him better manners.

I have complained on previous occasions about how badly served we are by the main-stream media.  This is certainly the case here.  We are about to send a delegation to Paris which will sell the interests of New Zealand people down the river (Seine) on the basis of bogus science.  To some degree, I think our representatives are victims, themselves.  They have been misinformed and manipulated and they have been unable to resist (in public, at least).  It will cost us.  We will fine ourselves for our emissions, whilst China and India continue to increase theirs, at no cost and by a relatively overwhelming amount.  Now how stupid is that?  It is particularly so, since there has been no significant global warming for nearly twenty years.  And, of course, that was what it was all supposed to be about.

Come back, Mr Mackay, we need you.

4 comments:

Brian said...

Climate Change a la Greens....a new version of the Witch and the Wardrobe?
I too watched (fortunately on the TV where I can reduce the volume) the hordes of Protestors, Agitators and political activists taking the opportunity to demonstrate their close affection to our Climate.
Again very little visible placards condemning China or even India for increasing their output of emissions, due no doubt to the overall control of left wing political sentiment.
The horror expressed by these protestors over the lack of action by our present Government was translated a little later on that evening into the ever recurring emotive theme “Those Pacific Islands which will be subjugated to rising sea levels due principally to the West’s output of poisonous gases”. Again it seems without much in the way of technical proof that this will happen!
This Climate journey in New Zealand has been building up since the Greens took up a position that gives them great political traction in that the pollution of the air and ground by the Dairy Industry; and in general by dairy farmers, is an excellent medium to further their cause.
Couple this with the filming of dead or nearly dead bobby calves and the general standard of animal treatment and sadly logic is seems, has vanished before this onslaught by our Nanny Greens. This has resulted in a successful indoctrination of a gullible public on the perils of farming in this country.
One wonders whether their actual knowledge of animals even passes the occasional visit to a Zoo. To treat a dairy cow badly and it withholds it milk...hence less milk, equals less income. Carriers will not pick up sick or dead bobby calves...another loss of income.
As for their emotive cry of taking away calves from their mothers this would result in no local milk, and no milk products for export; no overseas exchange, so more unemployment; and no money for unemployment benefits and Welfare payments (Now that is serious indeed).
The fact that this conference in Paris on Climate Change will, as Dr Smith points out be beside the River “Seine” prompts me to suggest that when these delegates drink their coffee by that waterway, they consider how “Insane” it is, to try to push water uphill.
Brian

Anonymous said...

I must have missed that, who was the dissenting Waikato University voice (asks this former UoW staff member)?

Anonymous said...

Anthropogenic climate change has little or no scientific basis. It is in fact a politically constructed myth to empower the unelected UN One-Worlders, who currently remain dependent on the USA for both the footprint of their New York headquarters and the lion’s share of their funding.

If America jerked the rug, the UN would be goneburger and the UN knows it.

The UN has floated a number of unsuccessful wheezes to become self-funding (e.g. a proposed tax on global air miles, the so-called Tobin Tax on international movements of capital, a tax on the use of the “global commons” to be levied on fishing in international waters).

All have come to naught because widespread member-state buy-in hasn’t been achieved.

“Global Warming” (which following evidence of a cooling trend since 1997 that couldn’t be waved away was renamed “Climate Change” to keep the scam going) is carefully crafted to promote the fiction that, to avoid a looming catastrophe, member states must act together in surrendering control over environmental matters to the UN.

Through the emissions trading scam, the UN intends set up a global welfare state in which “rich” countries are compulsorily soaked for the benefit of so-called “poor” countries, with unelected UN bureaucrats in the middle clipping the ticket.

The UN thus achieves its long-held goal of becoming self-funding, and its One-World agenda of progressively subverting the Nation State out of existence moves a step closer to completion

A.G.R. said...

Notice how the under 40yr old generation are the most emphatic regarding the climate change debate. Reason, they are not old enough to have experienced any more than one weather cycle in their lives. Ask any old-timer ie 70 plus, and with out fail they will mention events that would send the current generation fairing for their miserable lives. [the 10 yr drought in Oz that started in '59 for example ] The timing of this SCAM has been perfect, with the indoctrination of nearly 2 generations through socialist inspired teachers & reliance on internet schooling . Every student of every school should have to watch on youtube < The Global Warming Hoax Explained for Dummies
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