I’ve come back from a few days R&R at a marvellous farm, to hear that the ACT government is tossing $19,000 to an Aspen Island Theatre Company to do the “creative development” of a fun play called Kill The Deniers.
David Finnigan
Don Aitkin wonders if it is a comedy, so I went with an open mind to investigate. After reading his other works, I conclude the writer, David Finnigan, seems to be doing a brave new kind of living satire –– one where he lives the genre full time as he prepares, never breaking out of character in tweets, blogs, or plays. Sheer brilliance! He is self-satirizing the paranoid useful idiot who swallows improbable scientific visions about controlling the weather, and uses hyperbolic crass motherf…… language in a form of scientific self-mockery. Taking things to absurd extremes, he calls himself peaceful while he admires terrorists, invents conspiracy theories, and dreams of bloody revolution.
Truly, this could be a remarkable production that we will laugh at for years to come. In a stroke of innovation, the production is not the play that is in draft — instead it’s the media, the blogs, and his own parody responses. The show is on!
See how this is unfolding. The grant itself is stimulating political discussion:
The ACT Opposition and right-wing commentator Andrew Bolt lined up to condemn the grant, part of the latest round of ArtsACT funding, calling it an “outrage” and demanding the government reconsider its funding. –– Canberra Times
Talking about killing people is OK, says the company with a straight face, because, they say, they don’t mean it in a violent way:
But ArtsACT director David Whitney said the authors had explicitly stated in their application they did not advocate or believe in violence of any kind, including for political reasons.
This is how they describe their peaceful play– so inane, it has to be satire of the Original Totalitarian Wet Dream — which has naked political aims, and mocks the idea of persuading people in a democracy with good communication skills:
According to the description on the play’s website, it is about a group of heavily armed eco-activists who break into a major Australian institution and hold the occupants hostage.
It says in the play their demands are an immediate cessation of all carbon emissions and the immediate transformation of the Australian economy away from any reliance on fossil fuels.
Aspen Island has responded to the critics, saying this is satire (well, of course, I mean, who could take this for real?):
An idea, or scenario, can be treated in many ways. It is premature to judge the way our production – which we hope to follow our creative development – will do this. Our application for funding describes that we will explore the idea through a satirical exploration of the tropes of the hostage-crisis action film genre.
Good-o, says Jo, who is a big fan of satire. The play might be a good way to expose the power hungry bullies and namecalling thugs to the mockery they deserve for pretending to be scientific, and their fake concern for the environment and the poor. Now normally a satirist would use irony to espouse one view in their writing, while they state the opposite in their personal views. But David Finnigan writer, theatre-maker and arts producer, must be permanently on the job. I can find no chink in his writing. Even the straight faced, seemingly non-satirical work is “in character” as the gullible believer, e.g. Finningan “… humankind has become one of the most significant drivers of the planetary systems. “
Good satirists understand their targets. Here is Finnigan-the-writer, pretending to be an artist but secretly playing the role of a paranoid fearmonger, thinking skeptics may be trying to kill him.
We are not advocating for the murder of carbon lobbyists! Frankly at this late stage in the game it looks like you guys are trying to kill us, where us = anyone not wealthy enough to survive in a world of 9+ billion where the capacity of the planet to support the human population has been devastated by anthropogenic climate change and efforts to adapt to face the challenge have been hamstrung by well-heeled political lobbyists. But we’re not suggesting you guys should be killed, not even a little bit, not even at all. Bless! — KillClimateDeniers – Tmblr
It gets better. This below is from Finnigan’s About page, where the man of peace openly admires people who fight to the death for abstract concepts:
“It’s going to be a rough century. How are we going to get through it? We’re going to need a couple of things:
1. Love. Passion. Seriously, lots and lots of love and passion.
2. Guts. The guts to fight and die for a thing that seems far off and away.”
It’s a clever way to mock the so called “climate science” fans who pretend to care about calculations of climate sensitivity, but are running on hot passion rather than numbers. Bravo David F.!
Naturally, being a satirist, he exposes the fakery of his claims of peace, again, right out there on his own “About” page:
“In short, what would it take to actually stop climate change, dead in its tracks?
The answer is: guns. And lots of them.
Armed insurrection. Revolution. Or at the very least, a massive hostage scenario.”
Presumably David-Finnigan-the-self-satirist will toy with Fairfax journalists and green politicians soon and say he was only talking of water-pistols, or metaphors of cleansing, I mean cleaning. Then we can all laugh at them. Of course, he doesn’t mean real hostages either. Which he explains by admiring other satirical actors called “Chechens” who did this amazing play in a theater in Russia:
In 2002, about 50 armed Chechens broke into the Dubrovka Theatre in Russia and took the 850 occupants hostage, demanding an end to the Russian occupation of Chechnya. Their efforts were unsuccessful, ending when the Russian government gassed the building with a toxic substance, killing 200 of their own citizens as well as the terrorists. Nevertheless, their attempt provides a model for what a real challenge to the status quo might look like. They went in with no expectation that they themselves would survive, but they put their own lives (and the lives of nearly a thousand innocent bystanders) on the line to try and put a stop to a war that has been raging for decades.
His use of satire within satire is gifted. Finnigan is really mocking the entire arts world, and government grants system. His self-portrayal of a blind crass activist, talking “science” while living in the delusion of being a sophisticated intelligent player is fooling politician and journalist alike. And he got $19,000 out of them! Way to go David F. He’s been in character for years already; past works include “Oceans boiled into sky.
His sophisticated “artiste” pronouncements include these words in Top 200 polluters:
“… BHP is the 9th largest company in the world by some reckoning and it’s lobbying the Australian right-wing govt to cancel the carbon tax, fuck those guys”
How could anyone mistake Finnigan for a serious writer making serious plays?
Finnigan’s twitter feed.
Via Warwick Hughes, and Don Aitkin
My reaction..
Over the cliff, true believers! This lemming brain will show you the way!
190
Or the reptilian brain.
100
It’s a bloody nuisance most of the time.
50
In 1981, New Age leader Jeremy Rifkin proposed a new level of wealth redistribution in a book entitled, “Entropy: A New World View”. In this book, Rifkin argues that the world is using too many resources to create too many material things. Even though the New Age believes no energy is ever lost, that it is merely converted from one form of energy into another, Rifkin is proposing that when the energy is used the first time, it is weakened so that its subsequent use is less effective than its original use. Rifkin explains his view. “A human being, a skyscraper, an automobile, and a blade of grass all represent energy …transformed from one state to another…the energy they embody doesn’t disappear. It is merely transferred back somewhere else into the environment.”
However, this transferred energy is weakened, Rifkin says, so that it is “no longer capable of conversion into work…Energy can only be transferred to a dissipated state.” Therefore, Rifkin believes the world is currently producing too many material things that originally use too many resources. If the world is not to soon find itself in a position of running out of usable energy, Rifkin proposes that we must change our lifestyle dramatically. We must move into a State run economy that would regulate the production of all material things so the world will not run out of usable energy. This lifestyle is called “Low Entropy”.
This change, says Rifkin, will require a radical “new world view”, and he urges draconian measures to achieve this new thinking.
He says, “The radical change in world view required to make this transition will have to be accomplished overnight.
There will be no time for polite debate, subtle compromise, or monetary equivocation. To succeed will require a zealous determination, a militancy, if you will, of Herculean proportions.” (Ibid, p.186, Emphasis added).
30
Rifkin should be encouraged to lead by example, completely forgoing the conversion of grains, root vegetables, legumes and meat into energy through the outdated human custom of eating them.
Clearly the energy that his metabolism creates is of a lower order.
60
I think many don’t see the religious aspect of all this.
From ( my ) Christian viewpoint, it seems very clear that the NWO is heavily pagan & black-magick occult.
The UN Agenda 21 is nothing more than a radical de-population agenda at work, driven by occult writers like Alice Bailey et al.
Some people arent religious, I get that. However a lot of this make hair on the back of my neck stand up and a bot of reading shows quickly quite a dark heart to it all. Yes many greenies are harmless “useful idiots”, but there seems to be a core of descision makers who have a black heart, who drive all this.
All I can think of is the 10:10 snuff movies as a definitive case in point.
Alea iacta est
140
I disagree – the ecotards have original sin, redemption through atonement and ritual, and a deliverance to a promised future paradise of sinless harmony with the universe, or hellfire (literally! boiling oceans) and damnation if we don’t heed the message.
A surprising number of people I know who are fervent greens, are the children of strict Christian parents, who can no longer bring themselves to believe in God. The green belief system fits nicely into the god shaped hole in their lives.
As a lifelong atheist I don’t have a god shaped hole in my life – for people with my perspective, its all too obvious, if you step back and look at it.
144
Thanks Eric,
I come from a religious family. I have described myself as agnostic for most of my life, partly because I did not want to debate religious issues at home. Also I like some of the religious rituals, probably because I have been brought up with them
Climate change has made me re examine a lot of what I did not believe.
I have firmed up recently. Eco religion is responsible.
30
OTOH I was raised a Catholic and have maintained my Christian beliefs. There are two forces at work, good and evil, God and the Devil. While God is love and truth the devil is often called the great deceiver. As a long time observer and part time participant in the Climate Change saga I have witnessed the deception practiced by the alarmists and the struggle to find the truth by the likes of Anthony Watt, Jo and others.
We know that Antarctic sea ice is expanding but we are told it isn’t.
We know temperatures have been static for 18 years, we are told they are rising.
We know that crops are thriving, we are told they are shrinking.
We Know seas are rising slowly, we are told they are rising quickly.
We know there are fewer droughts, tornadoes and hurricanes, we are told there are more.
We know there are more polar bears, we are told they are in danger.
On and on it goes as the great deception continues but the search for truth is beginning to win through. This is typical good versus evil, God versus the devil and for once I believe I’m on the right side and so are you.
50
Jacta est alea is better.
10
Thanks Aert Driessen
You made me learn something!
20
Also Hat tip to Steve who said it first.
20
If this post is serious about the play being satire then the play is satire.
If the post is satire about the play being satire then the play is serious.
Good satire masquerades as the serious, so telling the difference between serious and satire can be difficult.
Maybe the play is serious satire …
140
No, I think it is satirically serious.
130
The content of the play is unintended self-satire, the authors framework for creating the play is serious.
110
See my posts above.
20
Sorry to do your head in. This is either serious praise for a satirical writer who pretends to be serious but satirizes himself. Or it’s a satirical take on a serious writer so absurd he fools even himself. Only Finnigan knows… ;- )
350
James Joyce would have been proud.
And elated.
80
are you thinking of “Lord, heap miseries upon us yet entwine our arts with laughters low” from “Finnegan’s Wake”.
50
I was thinking in terms of the complete Finnegan’s Wake — it’s structure, plot(s), and language rather than actual quotable content.
It seems rather apt for this Finnegan … could be Finnegan’s Wake’s sequel.
00
I hope that the audience will be able to tell if it is satire or not. It comes down to how the actors deliver their lines. Hopefully the audience will laugh.
But I am worried that they might not even ask themselves that question and take it seriously.
100
… and how people just reading the published script will interpret it.
80
With nil apologies to Rick Price for improving on his song and putting him to shame. 🙂 Where’s your sources, Rick? No hyperlinks in your lyrics, ya long-haired slacker. Whaddya think this is, 1992??
~
Carbon is on my mind
From the time I wake up
‘Til I close my eyes
Carbon’s everywhere I go
Carbon’s all I know.
Though warming’s so far away
It just keeps getting stronger every day
And even now warming’s gone
I’m still holding on.
So tell me where do I start
‘Cause it’s breaking my heart
Don’t wanna let global warming go.
Maybe my warming will come back some day
Only Finnigan knows
And maybe our warmists will find their way
Only Finnigan knows
And all Al can do is hope and pray
‘Cause Finnigan knows.
190
Due to popular demand, here is the second and third verse!
~
Skeptics keep telling me
That if you really love earth
You’ve got to set carbon free.
And if trees return in time
be proud of coal mines.
So tell me where do cows fart?
`Cause methane’s breaking my heart
Pres don’t wanna let cow farts go.
Maybe my carbon will be sequestered one day.
Only Evans knows.
And maybe cow farts will quickly degrade,
Only Evans knows.
And all warmists do is whinny and neigh,
`Cause Evans knows.
Why I live in despair
‘Cause, credulous or dreaming,
greenhouse is hardly there.
And all these time I act so brave
I’m shaking inside.
Why does it hurt me so?
Maybe renewables will pay off some day
Senator Levin knows.
And maybe CO2 can be regulated by EPA
Senator Levin knows.
But all I can do is hope and pray
‘Cause Levin knows.
60
Jo,
We may have one of the good guys, David Finnigan, in the guise of the bad guy (a terrorist) in the guise of a good guy.
Alternatively is he this bad guy, in disguise, pretending to be in the guise of a bad guy in the disguise of a good guy?
That is to say, some people say they can’t tell the good guys, in the guise of the bad guys, from the bad guys in the guise of the good guys, or this guy in disguise as the good guy in the guise of the disguised bad guys pretending to be good, or the deguised bad guys as the good guys in the guise of the ‘good’ bad guys.
Right?
120
Welcome to my world …
… And people wonder why I am odd?
130
There’s always an even bet on someone being odd, I’d back myself on that statement alone.
30
To each their own oddness.
30
Have you taken lessons from Sir Humphrey Appleby ?!
10
More likely Bernard, come to think of it.
10
Jo,
Thank you for clearing that up!
/sarc
30
Brilliant writing Jo, your piece is effective whether the original is satire or serious. One would need to see the costumes and note the manner of presentation to determine if the original is serious. Of course many of the real actors such as Flannery, Karoly, Steffen, Milne, Brandt, Hunt, Turnbull etc are clowns (not forgetting the real clown Clive) who do not realise how foolish their actions and words are to people with some knowledge.
This comment at Warwick Hughes brought a smile
Brian G Valentine
October 3, 2014 at 4:18 am
This play features Tim Flannery wearing a Neandethal-style tiger skin and Christine Milne as herself tearing through Parliament with an assault rifle and ready to get level with anybody who voted to repeal the carbon tax.
30
Wouldn’t be to sure about that. Or actually, I would be quite surprised if he really knew …
20
A riddle wrapped in an enigma, rolled into doublespeak.
70
So funny that everyone laughs until some idiot takes it upon themselves to act on it – then it is always the rights fault.
90
Scatire is more like it
50
Thanks Jo
Can’t wait until it surfaces on ABC TV’s next Utopia series.
BTW, BHP actually favours a carbon tax, according to latest public statements from the company’s go-to climate-change guy last week:
http://www.bhpbilliton.com/home/society/climatechange/Pages/Climate-Change.aspx
http://www.afr.com/p/business/chanticleer/bhp_four_key_scenarios_for_coping_RH5dyfpdqQeVywohBcvmOI
Alice
80
An excellent take-down, Jo. This Finnegan bloke is typical of his kind; you know, the fascist left kind who sneer and humiliate and threaten anyone who dares dissent from their totalitarian world-view. Ultimately, like this fool, they resort to out-and-out death threats. They always do. The amazing thing – the truly amazing thing – is that hardly anyone (and nobody from his side of the political spectrum) thinks voicing those kind of malevolent intentions is in any way unacceptable. ‘Cos it’s art, innit?
The law should come down in absolute force and hold this menace to account. His grant should be immediately withdrawn and he should be investigated by the authorities for incitement to terrorism.
But I guess that’s not how these common purpose liberal progressives work, is it? You can say anything as long as you say it about climate ‘deniers’. And it looks like not only will you get away with it, you will likely get a nice fat grant from the public purse for saying it.
200
This fellow is just the latest exponent in a chain of fools who have lost their moral compass, if indeed they ever possessed one.
The progressive left in Western democracies is clearly imploding, or at least poised to descend into ever dwindling circles of illogic, hypocrisy and self-contradiction.
Exhibit 1. western feminists staunchly defending the wearing of the burka, which has no religious significance and is the most oppressive tool of male domination sadly present in our formerly egalitarian and sectarian society, and directly undermines and contradicts the entire hard won principle of the rightful emancipation of women.
Exhibit 2. atheists defending the most fundamentalist and extreme forms of religious intolerance.
Exhibit 3. environmentalists who staunchly defend wind farms that damage the environment, and kill birdlife and bats while consuming large tracts of land which would once have been pristine native forest or grassland
Exhibit 4. activist scientists who defend forms of “science” that don’t even utilise principles of the scientific method, which eschew objectivity and avoid empiricism.
Exhibit 5. Child protection NGOs (‘Save the Children’- clearly a misnomer) who actively encourage children to self harm, in order to trump up allegations against authorities, in total disregard for any repercussions for their mental health or general welfare.
Exhibit 6. Medical authorities who deem that a potential viral pandemic with a 25-50% mortality rate, and which has been increasing exponentially in the last few months and has now broken beyond the borders of west African countries, takes a lesser priority than futile symbolic attempts at taming the weather.
Exhibit 7. Teachers who promote a lowest common denominator, “self-directed”, “common core” approach to learning that churns out functionally illiterate and innumerate children with no understanding of history or science.
It saddens, and angers me to see the decline of egalitarian principles in the hands of such people, who clearly don’t subject their beliefs to the slightest scrutiny, or else are so inherently corrupt that they cease to care whether the harm they are doing may impact on the futures of their children, or mine.
450
Well said, Winston!
80
Sadly the Australian Medical Association is of the same mind!
130
What the good Dr Leader is really trying to say is that if the 2 billion souls on this planet who exist without electricity are provided with that necessity, he is terribly fearful that it will upset his perfect, comfortably housed, luxury car driving, frequent flying, luxury food eating life.
30
Spot on Winston. It’s depressing isn’t it?
00
Phil,
The reason that others from his ilk don’t speak out is that they secretly agree — the disagreements on the “progressive” side are not philosophical, but practical.
Most of them think that revealing the extreme nature of their true agenda would be a strategic mistake; artists such as Finnigan and the 10:10 video people like to express the agenda.
This is why “progressive” arguments are so full of holes; they don’t really believe in the mild versions of the agendas, which they are constrained to publicly support.
In turn, that is also why it is always a great idea to call them out and ask flat out “Do you agree with the killing of climate deniers?”. They can’t say Yes and they can’t say No, so they either shut up or try to change the subject.
Or call you a Fascist, or something.
70
The 10:10 video is most interesting because the makers of the video genuinely thought it was funny.
30
Ignoble savages. Must be a short play as people that deny the climate changes are as rare as unicorn tentacles.
40
Sounds like the sort of guy who would say with a straight face, “We had to destroy the village to save it!”
Fortunately he doesn’t have a nuke. (Or a virus…)
80
Like 12 monkeys
30
More like William Calley…
30
Hey what’s good for the goose as they say. How about a cloud funded, “Lets kill the Environmentalist,”play. Any Theatre Company out there looking for funding? I think Jo could write a play and we could chip in a bit with with some cloud funding. We could have them standing like trees and we can come alone and cut them down with Chainsaw’s or something. I’m shore we will get a lot of Media attention form Our ABC and Fairfax Media about it won’t we. Just a idea. After all if they can have a play about killing people like you and me, then we should be able to have a play about killing them too shouldn’t we.
50
You could claim it was written by Wilt Whatman.
40
What a wit!
KK
20
You guys are getting way too upset about this play when it hasn’t even been made yet.
Why don’t you all calm down and look at this beautiful and highly relaxing photo of the completely untouched Dutch countryside. ]:-> muhahahahaa
30
Hmm!
Looks to me like a couple of windmills, umm, tiptoeing through the tulips!
Tony.
60
They do grab your attention so well that you could almost not see the boat in the canal.
KK
20
Gotchaaaaz.
I don’t usually troll, but I was inclined to be a bit naughty on that occasion.
Now I feel bad about that.
Perhaps I can make up for it with these beautiful pictures of unspoilt landscapes with rainbows, the mountains of the Spanish peninsula, and Stirling Castle in tranquil Scotland.
Isn’t it great when environmentalists preserve the aesthetic value of the environment?
You know… on those rare occasions that they do?
40
Why are the windmills pointing in every which direction in that Spanish peninsula photo?
20
Nice photo. I want to see the photos of the barge skipper putting it about to a reciprocal course.
00
Jo, why don’t you apply for a grant to do the “creative development” of a fun play called “Love the Warmistas”.
It’s about a group of skeptics who are seeking warmistas to embrace in peace and encourage scientific honesty.
The play will explore the thinking of warmistas through a satirical exploration of the psychology of believers who are always right, until confronted with the reality of the disappearing heat – o woe is me, the warming has stopped. Forgive them for they know not what they do.
“The joy of theatre and any literature or any art is that it can be used as the process for testing ideas and activating another view of discussing a particular matter.”
Wow, a double feature: Kill the Deniers followed by Love the Warmistas.
150
How about a (young, racially balanced, and gender mixed) group of ardent greens go hiking through a pristine forest that has never been explored by man. It starts happily, as they wonder awestruck by the pristine, innocent, sacred beauty all around them. However (15 minutes in) their leader (the only one with a compass) falls down a ravine, breaks his leg and accidentally crushes the compass. Now lost, carrying their now limping leader, they wander in the woods until nightfall.
As darkness falls, and a full moon rises, one by one, they go silently missing. Those who remain become panic stricken, lurching from one wild plan to the next, they can’t make up their minds until all but one has disappeared. The most feisty of the girls is left alone at the end, to face whatever horror is occurring.
She tries to move quietly about, but snaps a dry twig with her foot, behind her something moves and she hears a strange clicking sound. She whirls around, and before her looms a giant carnivorous red gum. From it’s gaping bloody maw the hand of her leader drops at her feet, still holding the crushed remains of the compass.
Horrified she turns and runs for her life, the wooden behemoth lurching through the forest behind her. She stumbles on the grinning remains of one of her friends, she remembers that he is a smoker, she looks around and spots another piece of him still attached to his jeans, and fishes a lighter and a packet of cigarettes out of his hip pocket. The Red Gum Behemoth crashes through the trees, rich resin sloshing from its jaws. She lights the whole pack of cigarettes and with one chance, she throws them into the monsters gaping mouth.
The cigarette pack, a bright flame in the moonlit darkness, bounces from one resin soaked tooth to the next, then the whole beast goes up, roaring with terror & rage, it lurches backwards and runs into the forest creating spot fires and streaming fountains of sparks.
Now horrified by the fire, she runs on, the trees whip past, stray branches scratch her face, until she reaches a bitumen road. Behind her the forest is ablaze. To her great luck a police car, lights blazing, screeches to a halt next to her. She sighs with relief as two cops exit the car.
The first cop asks “What happened miss?”.
She gestures back to the pristine untouched forest. “It was horrible – I had to burn it!”
The second cop reaches for hand cuffs, “Rightttt….”
180
Gold Star award from me ExWarmist,
What a scipt! You obviously still have a feeling for the mentality of our current warmists.
30
Well done, that would make a great “eat carpet” short.
20
He fancies himself as a latter-day Swift — but he isn’t.
50
He’s no Swift because his writing is inept, it has no style.
20
The man aint got no culture.
20
What is it with the AGW alarmists that causes them to hate those who disagree with them? They appear to be almost as bad as IS terrorists. Perhaps they have a lot more in common than we thought.
141
All fundamentalists are the same.
52
Actually I wouldn’t call AGW alarmists fundamentalists. A fundamentalist is one who follows an old orthodox belief system or religion. AGW alarmists are a modern phenomena part of what’s called “modernism”, which has a lot in common with fundamentalism. Both have elements of viscous tendencies and ideals. One thing modernism that fundamentalism haven’t achieved – sick levels in art form. Some if fact almost make me spew.
20
The core and defining characteristics of fundamentalism.
Certainty that they are right.
Unquestioning belief in their creed.
Absolute intolerance of dissent.
A need to eliminate all divergent beliefs.
Joyful use of violence to destroy the “Other”.
Valorisation of Obedience
72
No orthodox belief system or religion required.
31
If you had stopped at the first two I would have been happy.
But honestly, I think you describe something other than a fundamentalist.
20
Tend to agree Greg. Also, the list is a good description of many other non-fundamentalist groups, such as sports groups and political parties. A better description of fundamentalism can be found on Wikipedia and elsewhere:
00
Disagree Greg.
Fundamentalists are convinced beyond any possibility of reason. I have a good background in fundamentalist religious beliefs.
“the people of the book” are by far the worst. And the Islamic State is a the best example to worst aspect!
11
Here’s something that is truly worthy of satire: The British Medical Journal claims that climate change is worse than Ebola. I kid you not!
The editor of the BMJ is of like mind of Perth’s community pet, the wonderful Fiona Stanley. This worthy lady is, too,convinced that climate change is threat to us all. She has a big brand new hospital named after her here in Perth. She is also a board member of “Our” ABC yet, when scientific objectivity is concerned, she is daft as a bat. Now this is something that I reckon is worth satirising.
110
The BMJ should compare the number of people killed by Man Made Global Warming vs the number of people killed by Ebola.
50
Mann made global warming has killed heaps of people, why the 2012 northern winter just in Britain may have killed 25000 people due to the actions of the government there in deliberately pushing up fuel prices in a vain (and I do mean Vain and not Vein) and self-righteous attempts to control the weather. Last summer here, Mann made global warming had induced the previous government to push up power prices by almost a factor of 2 inducing pensioners to leave their aircon off resulting in some deaths and public service warnings from the state governments for Pensioners to seek shelter from the weather by turning on those same – now unaffordable – air-conditioners or seeking refuge in a cool place (Library or Supermarket). Pink Batts anyone?
Global Warming itself might not be killing many, but the outcome of stupid government policies to respond to the mass hysteria certainly is…
30
Who is killing who???
rgbatduke (a Professor in Physics at Duke University) sums it up in a comment in WUWT ( October 2, 2014 at 3:06 pmhttp://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/10/02/a-rare-debate-on-the-settled-science-of-climate-change/#comment-1753115
“……. It is a true dichotomy — for the 20,000 people who die ever day now, for the 2 billion people who live in poverty now for the billions who live without adequate water and sanitation now and are not likely to get it because we are diverting a trillion dollars every four years into solving a problem that we aren’t even close to certain exists.
Furthermore, by increasing energy costs worldwide, we are literally condemning the number who live in poverty and who perish from preventable causes to increase rapidly.
A few people — even some people who used to believe in global warming — are finally getting this. I grew up in India and can never forget the face of real poverty, not poverty like it is in the US or Europe where being poor means that your cell phone hasn’t got a touchscreen. Our choices in the developed world are “safe” — nobody seriously considers living without carbon, at least not very long. The biggest promoters of CO_2 as the Devil are often themselves huge consumers of energy and fuel as they move themselves all over the world to speak, live in big, energy-expensive houses, and so on.
Hypocrisy is rampant, in other words. Who among them would volunteer to live at the energy level of somebody living in Bangladesh for the next thirty years waiting for “Green” energy to finally arrive and liberate him or herself from poverty? Who would condemn their children to drink from fecal-bacteria laden water sources in countries that cannot affort the energy needed to process and distribute inexpensive clean water?
There is clueless, and then there is clueless to a level that is actively dangerous….”. .
230
Absolutely, there is a very malevolent undertone to this global warming stuff. The move to deny the poor the same advantages the west had to liberate itself from squalor. I find it abhorrent to want to kill grannies and babies, and anybody that didn’t happen to be lucky enough to be born in an energy rich nation.
110
If I may offer an explanation – the NWO are very arayan supremacist ( i.e. Nazism in its purest form ).
Their view is that the dark skinned races are to be left to rot. This potentially explains why Africans are used as disposable human guinea pigs for Big Pharma, and why so many die when logically there is no need to.
When you view things through this lens, a lot of things start to make sense.
30
If Finnigan actually admires the Chechen terrorist attack on the Dubrovka Theatre… And sees it as some sort of a model for action, he should be locked up as soon as possible.
100
So this bozo Finnigan believes “metaphorically” at least that it’s OK to kill the “deniers” provided it’s done in a non-violent, soft manner, whatever that means. I’m sure many on the Green/Left would agree with him.
But would Finnigan and his ilk extend their touching softly, softly concern to the population of the third world who would have to bear the brunt of their ideologically blinkered viewpoint? I think not, inevitably they would continue to live their brutal, short lives much as they do now, in energy poverty with little or no electricity, forced to breathe the toxic particulates produced by their unvented dung and wood fires.
It must be liberating to be ideologically pure?
50
Bob – it’s liberating to be a Bozo.
40
1 Oct: Guardian: Oliver Milman: Tony Abbott adviser calls for Bureau of Meteorology ‘warming’ inquiry
Climate change sceptic Maurice Newman wants a government-funded review to ‘dispel suspicions of a warming bias’
Newman, who has no scientific training, is chair of Tony Abbott’s business advisory council…
Newman’s latest foray into climate change issues has added to a sense of despair among staff at the BoM, who feel their work is being undermined and are suffering from a lack of support within government.
A staff member who has been at the BoM for more than a decade said the criticism of the bureau is “offensive” to employees.
“It’s a kick in the guts, to be honest,” said the employee, who declined to be named. “It’s offensive to the professionalism and dedication that people show here day in, day out.
“There’s a real sense of frustration because there’s such a level of skill and expertise involved here. But yet no matter what proof is shown, it won’t make a difference to those hell-bent on attacking what we do.
“There needs to be an acknowledgement of the work that the bureau does. We should all understand that these aren’t just attacks on ideas, they are attacks on people and their integrity.”
Beth Vincent-Pietsch, deputy secretary of the Community and Public Sector Union, said a review of the BoM was unnecessary.
“What’s actually needed is a review of the funding situation because the cutbacks are hurting right now,” she said…
Greg Hunt, the federal environment minister, said he disagreed with Newman’s comments on the BoM.
“I respect his views but I respectfully and clearly disagree,” he told Guardian Australia. “The BoM is a world leading meteorological organisation and the government is investing in a major new supercomputer which the ALP refused to fund.”
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2014/oct/01/tony-abbott-adviser-bureau-meteorology-warming-inquiry
60
What the heck, there’s nothing like a bit of healthy criticism to sharpen up your performance. The mining, oil and gas industries in Australia have been copping criticism from the Greenies and chardonnay socialists for decades now but continually keep growing and adding to the prosperity of our country whilst improving their environmental practices. We are a democracy where there is freedom of expression aren’t we? The BoM can get used to it.
80
Maybe then the BOM should stop publishing data sets with bugger all documentation, obvious issues such as minimum temperatures exceeding maximums or with homogenisations that add almost 2C. Maybe that “Expertise” in the BOM should extend to documenting stuff, like professionals, actually checking output like professionals, and taking criticism seriously like, well, professionals.
I’m a professional with lots of “Expertise” too, but I can tell you I welcome cross checks on MY work, take criticism seriously and bloody document stuff, all so that one day one of my clients doesn’t shaft me with a 10 Million dollar law suit.
BOM, stop whingeing, get professional and start listening.
70
I too think glowbull warming is cow manure but I would like to point out that overnight minimum temps greater that the following days maximum, although rare, is not unknow and I have experienced a few myself in Victoria.
It happens when there is a strong hot northerly wind overnight with a strong cold change in the morning. It all depends on the timing of the cold front.
00
“living satire” ?
More like a living caricature.
20
Finnigan awake!
Pointman
30
Awake as explained here?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kwG2Z1fY-0
10
i prefer irony – and nothing could be more ironical than the “climate warriors” (many of them former Occupy Wall Streeters) marching alongside Tom Steyer in New York recently. i cannot understand why the “progressive” CAGW crowd haven’t GOT Climategate, haven’t GOT the bankers’ plans for CO2 derivatives & the like, & haven’t GOT the Pause/Hiatus or whatever u want to call it. talk about pawns in the game:
1 Oct: WSJ BLog: The Realistic Way to Tax Carbon
JEFFREY BALL: No one energy policy will change the world. So the goal in picking one energy policy is to pick one that’s likely to spur lots of additional moves.
A good place to start is a tax on carbon—but one that’s rational politically, economically and environmentally…
The tax also would start light and include a schedule to intensify over many years. That’s necessary politically, because no carbon tax that stings too much from day one is going to pass…
(Jeffrey Ball, formerly The Wall Street Journal’s environment editor and a longtime energy reporter at the paper, is scholar-in-residence at Stanford University’s Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance)
http://blogs.wsj.com/experts/2014/10/01/the-realisticway-to-tax-carbon/
Nov 2010: Stanford: Stanford creates $7 million interdisciplinary Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance
The center has been made possible by a $7 million gift from Stanford alumni Thomas Steyer (MBA ’83) and his wife, Kat Taylor (JD/MBA ’86). Its executive director will be Dan Reicher …
Reicher was assistant secretary of energy for energy efficiency and renewable energy during the Clinton administration, a member of the Obama transition team, and most recently director of climate change and energy initiatives at Google…
It was also funded by generous support from Steyer and Taylor. Steyer is a Stanford trustee and managing partner of Farallon Capital Management and Taylor is active in a variety of public benefit and philanthropic ventures. Steyer founded Farallon in 1986.
He is also managing director of Hellman & Friedman, a San Francisco-based private equity firm. He previously worked for Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley…
http://news.stanford.edu/news/2010/november/center-energy-policy-113010.html
one could write a CAGW play with the above cast of characters that would be truly hilarious.
70
I wonder what the reaction would be if we deniers (their term, not mine) were to fund a play called, Kill the Warmists.
I would bet they’d not keep an even remotely calm demeanor about it. Would it matter if it was satirical or more serious than that? I doubt it. 🙁
140
In other words, it ain’t funny considering 10-10 and all the other abuse skeptics have endured over more than 20 years.
I understand satire very well, it’s one of the best forms of humor. But considering the source, well…color me skeptical of the motive, too skeptical to find this to be funny.
90
It’s time for honest debate on the merit of the science. In fact well past the time for it.
140
Roy,
You make another sensible comment. But before engaging in debate on the merit of climatology as a science, I would first recommend some background understanding.
Climatology is a very narrow and applied subject, that relies on climate models. Wikipedia gives an outline.
Then you need to ask what is science and is climatology a science. The issues are very similar to those faced by economics in the 1970s when it faced a crisis – only climatology has never developed the depth of economics. For me the best book on philosophy of science and the methodology of economics is Bruce Caldwell‘s Beyond Positivism: Economic Methodology in the Twentieth Century . Caldwell advocated methodological pluralism. It means approaching the subject using different techniques. That can mean a rather “manic” approach (if by a single person), but at the same time means requires getting the sense of proportion of an accountant (pejoratively called “beancounters“). Most of all, it means drawing upon a broad range of different areas and experiences.
This is the polar opposite of the climate consensus, which has a singular and shallow methodology, supporting a single set of extreme conclusions, and ignoring the accumulated wisdom of centuries of thought and understanding.
40
Kevin,
Sorry I didn’t see your reply from 10/7 until now.
All my career (and all my life for that matter) I’ve been down in the trenches concerned with creating something useful, whether it was for in-house use or part of the product we sold and I have an engineer’s outlook all the way. To me, science is what you can show by repeatable experiment to be true. If you can do that you have something you can do useful things with. The rest might as well be voodoo.
It’s interesting that
I’ve seen the Petrified Forrest in our Arizona desert and you easily form a similar thought because there’s not a chance in the world that those tree remains could ever have grown in the climate there now. The thinking among geologists is that they actually were washed down to where they are now from farther north by a major flood event. But no matter how they got there you can only conclude that the climate when those trees were alive was not the same as it is now. But there is no experiment that will show that theory to be true. Observation leads to the theory and it’s interesting but leads to no useful principle you can use to create something.
So the problem I have with climate science is a simple one. It can’t show its hypotheses to be true by any experiment. It cannot show that the foundation principle on which global warming rests is true — that CO2 in the atmosphere can warm the planet (if there is such an experiment, please, anyone, show it to me). And when the foundation falls, everything built on it also falls.
It’s time for honest hard nosed public debate.
10
Kevin, superbly well said and worth repeating several times.
10
speaking of living satire ,this photo from the climate march is great
https://www.flickr.com/photos/flickr/galleries/72157647582735949/
So now we need to shut down the US military? if that ever becomes a popular idea I would imagine POTUS might have to get off his arse and do some explaining about his looney tunes beliefs.
20
Yes, and they all looked like they were having a jolly good time, didn’t they.
Any excuse for a party … and with street parties, somebody else has to pay for, and do, the cleaning up afterwards.
What is not to like?
20
I thought this was satire for a moment
http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2014/oct/03/-sp-wooden-skyscrapers-future-world-plyscrapers
Seriously??? Who would have thunk it?
Nobody mention 1666,, shhhhh!
60
Vancouver and the west coast of Canada are beautiful places and I have spent several delightful months sailing it – the only drawback is it is full of “green” nutjobs. They breed faster than the big brown bears can eat them. 🙂
20
O/T
Evidence for ritual and possible astronomical practices during the Mesolithic period, 9000 years ago, has been uncovered in Poland
The possible astronomical discoveries in the camp in Bolków along with fragments of meteorite appear to further confirm the hypothesis that shamans played an important role within Mesolithic communities, developing an interest in the mysteries of the sky and the marking of time.
Further evidence for Mesolithic star gazing
In 2013 the University of Birmingham (UK) reported on the discovery of a Mesolithic pit alignment and therefore claimed the earliest evidence currently available for ‘time reckoning’.
The pit group appears to mimic the phases of the Moon and is structured to track lunar months.
The researchers stated in their report, “the evidence suggests that hunter-gatherer societies in Scotland had both the need and ability to track time across the year, and also perhaps within the month, and that this occurred at a period nearly five thousand years before the first formal calendars were created in Mesopotamia.”
http://www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/09/2014/mesolithic-sanctuary-reveals-constellation-riddle
40
The ACT government should also fund star bursts that all non believers can pin on their lapel to show who they are. Oh hang on didn’t they do that during that last world war?
60
Damn. I’ve lurked at this site for years, this is the first post to elicit a response from me. And the the response is:
Excellent!
70
Pat”Finally! The only way to stop this nonsense is by changing governments. Next we hope is the USA!
30
The AGW will die eventually, because it probably will be cooling for the next 20 years they can try and try to adjust but at some stage they will have to give up…
30
Maybe, but as it cools off and our energy is rationed due to the Big Lie, it will be too late…
10
The beard is not quite bushy enough
20
“1. Love. Passion. Seriously, lots and lots of love and passion.
2. Guts. The guts to fight and die for a thing that seems far off and away.”
He’d better be careful the writers of The Green Berets don’t come after him for plagiarism. He’s stealing their cheese!
10
Regardless of being satire or not, to me the litmus test is, is it still acceptable when we substitute the target.
For instance
“Kill the Muslims”
“Kill women”
“Kill gays”
“Kill Gillard”
I really cant imagine there not being public outrage if any of these notions were a publicly funded arts topic.
40
“Kill Playwrites”?
60
Nah. Too easy to track as their scent gives them away.
10
This is strange timing, I watched the movie American Hustle again the other night and after laughing about the ‘Science oven’ drama with Jennifer Lawrence’s character I searched ‘Science oven’ for fun and came upon a story that came about due to Paul Brodeur’s name being used in the movie regarding information about the science oven.
I admit not knowing of Paul Brodeur until now but what was interesting was his background on his website here, he seems to have had some hits and misses with ideas and predictions but my attention was drawn to his fictional novel The Stuntman which appears to be as much of a mind job as the subject of this thread with the added Novarian satirical bent of course.
Anyone who has more knowledge of Paul Brodeur feel free to share, oh and I tried not leak any spoilers on American Hustle so just watch it and have a laugh. 🙂
00
Defunding this play isn’t the solution. The funding organisation needs to be wound up. They have clearly demonstrated they cannot be trusted to spend public money wisely.
50
Actually, I think this play has some potential. The plot thus far is:
So far the story is quite plausible as eco-terrorists make demands to immediately shut down all the coal/gas fired power stations.
If I were to complete the story, after a long discussion with the terrorists, I’d have the authorities accede to their demands. The authorities would ring the power stations and tell them to close down immediately.
The ending would be the distressed/confused looks on the faces of the terrorists as they wonder why their mobile (cell) phones, IPhones, Twitter, Facebook etc., don’t work anymore. So they can’t go on Twitter to boast about their success. And to make things worse, their latte’s are just coffee flavoured cold milk.
100
For the eco-activists a ‘true to their cause’ ending would be each of them plants a tree before shooting themselves in the head in the perfect gesture of leading by example in a carbon friendly responsible manner.
This would also cover the social responsibility obligation ironically rejected by deniers but transforms to the law of natural selection in an actual reality of social justice from stupidity in this form.
30
Thanks Maxl,
I nominate you to rewrite the play.
I don’t want the outcome to apply to the rest of us!
00
Yeah, maybe you’re right Peter. I wouldn’t want that outcome either.
Maybe it could have a happy ending.
Maybe the eco-terrorists would huddle together and then come up with new demands.
Like, “Restore the power to the mobile phones, Twitter and Facebook and coffee machines, TVs and radio or we’ll kill the hostages!”
But I think that if all the lighting and sound for the play went off, and stayed off at that point, the impact on the audience would be more profound. None of the cast would come out to take a bow and applause from the audience, just a sudden dead silent, pitch black stage.
I’m sure many of the audience would give a huge sigh of relief when they get home and turned the lights on.
10
A play entitled “Kill the Climate Deniers” could only be presented as a satire without risking legal prohibitions against inciting violence. However, the aim of satire is to discredit something by presenting it in a context which makes obvious its logical absurdity or hypocrisy. The ambiguity of intent in this instance can clearly be anticipated to make the play serve more as a suggestion than as a warning to committed believers in CAGW. It would also seem highly unlikely that the playwright and his sponsors are too stupid to realise this.
Should any such violence eventuate the prime instigators will at least be known in advance.
40
Hi Walter, what next…kill the fishermen?
About four years ago I was putting a policy together of rolling fishing zone moratoriums because I was of the belief that Australia’s fish stocks were in decline.
Rang Bob Carter and he believed the problem did not exist and mentioned you were the go to guy for all things marine. I dropped the policy and interest due to the concentration on the global warming rubbish.
I believe there is supposed to be an independant review into Commonwealth marine zones. I will be following this up with the Minister next week to see where it is at or completed.
Have you any information on the issue as it has completely flown under my radar?
10
Indeed, kill all primary producers. We should all get everything from a store like all good Greens.
I think there is a MPA review planned or underway but do not know its current status. Unfortunately such reviews tend to not be either independent or critical and to simply become an opportunity for the incumbent “experts” to put an official stamp of approval on what they have done. The predictable conclusion is for everyone to move along now, nothing to see here, accompanied by a few virtuous sounding recommendations to be ignored and soon forgotten.
10
Yes, the Review is under way and due to report mid 2015.
It looks like the boards are stacked with fishing interests.
I suspect a reversal as to lock out vast areas to commercial fishing is madness in the extreme. It appears our fishing industry is more than capable of managing the fishery as I know of no area that has been fished out.
One question…if an area was fished out and a fishing moratorium was put in place, what time scale would be a recovery of stocks?
00
Ongoing proof that the Left can only exist by feeding off govt handouts.
30
Oh I – a blogger
I’m bigger than you
and you’re a nazi
the depths that i will go to
my rage is on display
Oh no, I’ve said too much
I’ve said enough
that’s me in the comments
that’s me on the blogsite
voicing my opinion
plying my ctrl-C at you
till you just say screw it.
Oh no, I’ve said too much
I haven’t said enough
I see your furious typing
I bet it hurts to think
I love it when you break down and cry.
Poe’s Law Uber Alles
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe's_law
00
No doubt the activ-/terror-ists would also be demanding helicopters for their getaway after they are granted political asylum in Southern Ebola.
10
Talking about killing people is OK, says the company with a straight face, because, they say, they don’t mean it in a violent way: What they are really saying is it’s OK to kill people through a secret overdose of sleepers, secretly putting rat poison in their wine or ridiculing them publicly until they give up and suicide from depression or the like. This could only emanate from a left wing socialist entity like the ACT and it’s elitist residents responsible for continually electing the Green Labor pollies who obviously think it’s OK to kill people as long as it’s not done violently.
41
Nicely written Jo, but you make a fatal error: You can’t satirise these guys. Their deadly serious is already beyond any possible limit to sanity; it is its own ultimate satire. Good work anyway!
10
now we can add this:
29 Sept: BBC: Is this the end of autumn as we know it?
Catch this year’s autumn leaf spectacle, because it may not be back.
Presented by Stephanie Pappas
As temperatures rise across the globe, these traditions are under threat…
http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20140929-why-is-autumn-changing
to this:
March 2000: Independent: Snowfalls are now just a thing of the past
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/snowfalls-are-now-just-a-thing-of-the-past-724017.html
20
why even bring CAGW sceptics (or NBC’s absurd “climate skeptics”) into this piece? just report the facts:
12 Sept: NBC: Summertime Snow in U.S.? Unusual but It Happens
Climate skeptics might pounce on the September snow as a rebuttal to global warming, but the early snow that hit parts of South Dakota and other states Thursday and Friday, while uncommon, is not unheard of…
“Even though it is on the early side, snow in September is not unusual for many of the locations which saw it,” says NBC News meteorologist Bill Karins. “What was unusual was how widespread it was. Snow was reported in six states over the past three days, including Nebraska.”…
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/weather/summertime-snow-u-s-unusual-it-happens-n202236
4 Oct: Real Aspen: Ski areas crank up snow guns as top U.S. racers turn to Colorado for training
Skiing at Aspen and Snowmass may still be nearly two months away but ski season itself is literally right around the corner as fresh snow fell across the central Colorado Rockies this week and several nearby ski areas started snowmaking operations…
Loveland sent out a press release Thursday saying it had received 7 inches of new snow the last three days and that crews cranked up 17 snowmaking guns overnight Wednesday into Thursday morning…
http://www.realaspen.com/ski-areas-crank-snow-guns-top-u-s-racers-turn-colorado-training/a623
20
3 Oct: Bloomberg/Businessweek: Carbon Has Biggest Drop Since August as Economy Hurting
By Mathew Carr and Ewa Krukowska
European Union carbon permits had their biggest weekly drop in almost two months amid concern weak economies will discourage efforts to reduce a glut of the contracts in the world’s biggest greenhouse-gas market.
Allowances for December fell as much as 3.7 percent today to 5.48 euros ($6.85) a metric ton, the lowest since July 7, on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London. Permits traded at 5.66 euros at 4:47 p.m., taking the weekly drop to 4.6 percent, the largest since Aug. 8…
“The state of the economy isn’t a good signal for an early introduction of the market stability reserve,” Olav Botnen, senior power analyst at Arendal, Norway-based Markedskraft ASA, said today by phone. There’s a chance lawmakers will fail to carry out the plan, “and that’s a bearish signal,” he said…
The December carbon contract may drop to 4.50 euros a ton by its expiry date, according to Botnen at Markedskraft.
“What we really need is a political signal that there will be an accumulated undersupply before 2030,” he said. “That’s the only way this market will rebound.”
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-10-03/eu-carbon-has-biggest-drop-since-may-as-economy-hurts-fix
00
Where is the Party, to celebrate the Hiatus’s coming of age ? 18 Years without Global Warming. Isn’t that better even than a well matured malt ? Hiatus 18 Year Old, Matured in the steadily enrichening atmosphere of Planet Earth.
50
Lol Jo!
Very good.
10
Warmies remind me of “The Croods”. NEVER NOT BE AFRAID! Now get back in the cave and shut the door.
00
Careful Jo—any more absurdist and you’ll be in danger of usurping Sou “Twelve Deniers” Bundanga as the monarch of ironic climate-blogging 😀
10