Disney and Man-Made Global Warming.

Earth Hour with
Lady and the Tramp.

The Disney-fication of Nature

by Anthony Cox

Disney has a lot to answer for; he invented adorable Bambi and a thousand other equally cute animals, 

all of whom had endearing human characteristics, a process called anthropomorphisation.

Disney also made countless animal documentaries which featured animals acting like humans, being cute and as we see in Disney’s many successors, especially Attenborough, being noble, majestic, glorious etc.

What has flowed from this, not only through Hollywood and movies in general but also Western society, is a powerful notion that Nature is good, beneficial, generous and caring; and that humans bring shame and disaster on themselves when they contradict and despoil nature.

AGW is the ‘natural’ extension of this; ideologically, AGW has a lot in common with the Eden myth; nature and humanity were in balance until the ‘forbidden’ energy from fossils came along and now Nature is punishing humanity through climate catastrophe.

At base, therefore, AGW is a religion, certainly a belief, which is why it will persist long after the corrupt and bad science which supports it, is shown to be bad, as it already has been.

Beliefs can conquer common sense; certainly the believers in Nature being better will continue to extol renewable energy which cannot work. Miskelly and Quirk’s paper shows this perfectly. This paper deals specifically with wind but the principles are applicable to solar as well. All electricity sources have an installed capacity [IC] which is what the installation would produce if operating 24/7, a capacity factor [CF], which is the actual electricity produced by the installation as a % of the IC and averaged over a period, usually at least 3 months but often annually. The 3^rd measure is the key and is called the reliability point [RP]. The RP is the probability that the CF will occur at any one time, expressed as a confidence level in % terms.

Looking at Table 1 we can see the 3 kinds of power output; if we use Cullerin range we can see that the IC is 30MW and their CF is 34% or 10.2 MW. That 10MW is the actual power produced as an average over a period, usually at least a 1/4. What the RP shows is the probability at any one moment of that CF occurring; for Cullerin it is 3%; so what that shows is that at any moment the odds of the Cullerin installation producing power is 34/100 X 3/100 = 0.0102 or negligible.

This is why renewables do not work; they are unreliable. If you replace reliable fossil, nuclear, hydro with renewable you end up with far less power and whatever power you have is too dear; and people die.

They die because that is what Nature is like; it is like having no electricity. This is why Earth Hour is not a symbol of how wonderful Nature is but how cruel life is when Nature is not restrained by electricity. The night-sky of Earth shows this starkly in the comparison between North Korea and the rest of the globe.

It is always Earth Hour in North Korea; North Korea has taken over the mantle of the agrarian revolution from Pol Pot’s ‘paradise’. Both of these places were deliberate show-cases of where people would live simple natural egalitarian lives; they are both as close to being Hell on Earth as you could get.

And this is why the resemblance of AGW and all it attendant ideology and symbols to the Eden Myth is so ironic. AGW is not about a paradise lost as in the Eden myth; it is about creating the opposite of a paradise; the return to the misery that being dependent on Nature would bring.

The evolution of humankind has been away from Natural constraints. Those constraints did not deliver a better way of life as is romanticised by the AGW believers and the Nature worshippers. A natural life is usually short, miserable and full of exigencies.

This is what has happened today with AGW and the reverence given to Nature. The reality of Nature has been replaced with an aesthetic of Nature. This goes beyond a rose-coloured perception of Nature; instead it is fundamentally confused about the fact that no matter what sophistic context you place on the meaning of Nature you can never get away from the fact that an aesthetic of Nature can only be realised from the disconnected reality of a civilised vantage point which has kept nature at arm’s length.

Humans who live according to the survival dictates of Nature have no time for generating an aesthetic about it beyond pagan invocations. For the primitive, Nature would be designated out of fear rather than decadence.

We see this fear in the supporters of AGW; for many the World is literally going to end; they are not helped when the leading scientific minds of AGW predict such violent doom and gloom, even to the extent that Earth will end up like Venus, The Venus Syndrone; a physical impossibility.

One can only speculate what motivates believers of AGW; we have seen its leading advocates make fools of themselves, lie and exaggerate [see comment 246 for an extensive list; a perusal of the tranches of emails from the University of East Anglia also shows the efforts to subvert the truth by AGW scientists], commit possible criminal offences and be ‘cleared’ in problematic enquiries, be arrested repeatedly and demonstrate levels of misanthropy which are startling, if for no other reason than their focus on children.

People have suggested that AGW belief and consequent reverence for Nature has produced a Noble Cause Corruption by its advocates. But there is an immense downside to this variation of “whatever it takes”. AGW belief has cost $billions, diverted and arguably corrupted scientific process and wasted time in developing real new energy sources. It’s harm has been incalculable.

AGW has also bolstered the misdirected worship of Nature and cast a pall over human endeavor and achievement. The elevation of Nature has resulted in a perception that humans are a blight, a disease and that Nature would be better off without us.

The fact that children are being taught such self-loathing and pessimism cannot be good for them. Nature is not a thing or a God, it is a set of processes; the environment humans live in does not nurture us. Science has told us that. Survival of the Fittest is a maxim of science. Everything humanity has achieved has been hard-won by keeping Nature at bay and surviving the tests Nature throws at us.

To that end Nature and it’s processes should be respected and as moral beings humanity should cherish other life forms; to worship the processes of Nature however, reverses this. And to reverse the advances made away from the stringencies of Nature will make no difference to Natural process but will make the world of difference to humanity.

Energy Hour, Hour of Self Deluson or Energy Roulette Week.

In the Dark on Earth Hour?

Earth Hour:  Did you miss it? It used to be like dousing a battery of search-lights but now it is more like snuffing out a flickering candle.

Wikipedia describes Earth Hour:

Earth Hour is a worldwide event organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and held towards the end of March annually, encouraging households and businesses to turn off their non-essential lights for one hour to raise awareness about the need to take action on climate change.

As climate change is natural and has been happening since time began, how will one hour less of NON-ESSENTIAL turned-off lights change anything.

A Few thoughts from around the world.

Tom Harris of the International Climate Science Coalition:

Ottawa, Canada, March 21, 2013: “Earth Hour is a poignant symbol of how climate activists have hijacked the environmental movement,” said Tom Harris, executive director of the Ottawa, Canada-based International Climate Science Coalition (ICSC). “Most people do not realize that, when they turn out their lights for sixty minutes on March 23, they are not supporting science-based environmental protection. Participants in Earth Hour are unwittingly helping prop up one of the most threatening scientific hoaxes in history—the idea that carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from human activities are known to be causing dangerous global warming and other problematic climate change.”

Read whole media release at: http://tinyurl.com/btjv9lf 

Canadian Investigative Journalist Donna Laframboise writes of the Hour of Self Delusion:

As it says on the IKEA Canada website:
Turning off our lights for one hour may not solve our climate crisis, but it raises awareness and demand for the large scale change that will. [bold added]
The notion that flicking off a few lights will do anything to raise awareness is surely highly questionable. The media has, after all, been beating the global warming drum for the past 25 years.
Activist scientist James Hansen’s famous testimony – during a heatwave, in a room in which the windows had been theatrically opened to offset the air conditioning – took place in 1988. A quarter of a bloody century ago.

Meanwhile from Down-under Viv Forbes of the Carbon Sense Coalition calls it Carbon Fools Day and thinks we need a week  of counter-action.

Energy Roulette Week

(The antithesis of Earth Hour)

A Reality Game for those Concerned about the Future for their Families

Media Statement by Viv Forbes

Chairman, The Carbon Sense Coalition.

The Chairman of Carbon Sense, Mr Viv Forbes, is supporting an alternative proposal that “Earth Hour” be replaced by “Energy Roulette Week”.

Quote:

The Earth Hour people turn off a few lights on a balmy night for a romantic hour in candle-light (incidentally generating twice as much CO2 as light bulbs for the same amount of light.) This is unrealistic green tokenism.

The tokenism of Earth Hour is further illustrated by holding it on the autumn equinox, a day half-way between the temperature extremes of mid-summer and mid-winter. This is the day least likely to be uncomfortable for the beautiful people who give up their electric lights, TV and air-conditioners for just one hour, while they have a pleasant hour sipping champagne (and releasing its carbon dioxide) on candle-lit balconies.

 “Energy Roulette Week” is a reality game designed to illustrate what the future holds if green governments continue to undermine 24/7 power (generated by coal, gas, hydro or nuclear), by increasing our dependence on fickle winds, the peek-a-boo-sun or smart-meter rationing.

“Energy Roulette Week” will give all players a real insight into what life without reliable electricity would be like. The lack of power can be due to insufficient generating capacity or merely the inability to pay the power bill. The result is the same.

Everyone will be encouraged to play this game. It is only a game, but because of its realism, most players will chicken out after the first “black day”.

To maximise the learning potential of the game, “Energy Roulette Week” is best started on the summer solstice (21^st December) or the winter solstice (21^st June). Or if you are too weak for a real test, join the greens on a balmy equinox.

To prepare for the game, take a well shuffled pack of cards and deal out 7 cards, face down, and place them in seven separate identical envelopes.

These are the rules for playing:

On the start day at 5:00 pm select one envelope and take out the card.

If it is a red card, just continue living as normal.

If it contains a black card (soon renamed by the kids as a “black-out card”), go out to your power box and turn off all power and continue living your life to the best of your ability.  At 8:00 am next morning turn your power back on.

If the card is the Joker, leave the power off until 12 noon the next day.

At 5:00 pm that evening take out another card, and continue this process until all seven envelopes have been opened.

Because black-outs are usually unexpected, the rules do not permit premature preparation of the evening meal, early showering or taping favourite TV shows. And because those trying to cripple carbon energy oppose the production of carbon dioxide, the rules also prohibit the use of kerosene, bottled gas, candles, petrol generators or motor cars.

Hopefully you won’t get seven black cards!

If you had a real-life “black-card” day, it would be due to local load shedding, or widespread problems with the generation network.

If you have real-life load-shedding, so does everybody else in the neighbourhood; so the rules prohibit slipping next door for a cuppa on your black-day!

And if in real life it was due to insufficient generating capacity across the whole city, the blackout would probably last for days, not hours, and your experience would be magnified 100 fold. (So no visits to shops, no food, no refrigeration, no petrol pumps or traffic lights, no public transport, schools or hospitals, no security, no TV, no recharging iPods and iPhones! Even worse would be to live at the bottom of a hill and there is no power to pump the sewerage away, it may come gushing up out of your toilet.)

You may appeal: “But I can’t play – I have a family member on a life-support device.” All the more reason for you to play, to ensure you always have a charged battery back-up to keep your loved one alive. If not, they could end up dead in the real energy roulette being imposed on us.

Of course this will never be a popular game because it is not pleasant being without reliable electricity.

But there are thousands of people who are already playing the game in real life, every day. They can no longer afford the cost of both green power and food so they turn the power off; or the power companies turn it off for them; or the wind drops or a cloud covers the sun, and green energy fails; or its rapid fluctuations cause a collapse in the electricity grid. For them it’s not just a few hours of inconvenience - it’s Perpetual Power Purgatory.

If this is what you want for your children and grand-children that’s OK. If you don’t, start waving placards that say “Stop the War on Carbon - 24/7 reliable, economical power forever”.

Viv Forbes, BScApp, FAusIMM

Rosewood    Qld   Australia

forbes@carbon-sense.com