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STOP THESE MURDERERS

According to 50 Facts That Should Change the World , by BBC journalist Jessica Williams:

Global warming kills 150,000 every year.

What a terrible thing to have on your conscience. Environmentalists must be distraught:

A survey of travel habits has revealed that the most environmentally conscious people are also the biggest polluters.

“Green" consumers have some of the biggest carbon footprints because they are still hooked on flying abroad or driving their cars while their adherence to the green cause is mostly limited to small gestures.

Identified as “eco-adopters”, they are most likely to be members of an environmental organisation, buy green products such as detergents, recycle and have a keen interest in green issues.

But the survey of 25,000 people, by the market research company Target Group Index, found that eco-adopters are seven per cent more likely than the general population to take flights, and four per cent more likely to own a car. The survey found similar trends in France and the United States.

One eco-adopter identified by the report: British conservative leader David Cameron, who combines green speechifying with flights in private helicopters and planes.

(Via Ross)

UPDATE. Still in the UK, funmaster Sir David King turns against nature bunnies:

The Government’s former chief scientific adviser has accused green activists of putting the fight against climate change at risk by wanting to take society back to the 17th century.

Sir David King, who is credited with convincing Tony Blair of the urgency of global warming, told the Guardian newspaper that tackling the problem without using technological solutions - including nuclear power - was hopeless.

He said: “There is a suspicion, and I have that suspicion myself, that a large number of people who label themselves ‘green’ are actually keen to take us back to the 18th or even the 17th century.”

Posted by Tim B. on 01/14/2008 at 10:54 AM
  1. I always find it amusing that, in my (admittedly shrinking) circle of lefty friends, my own “carbon footprint” is a fraction of theirs, thanks to the fact that I can’t drive, our family doesn’t own a car, we recycle assiduously (thanks to my wife, who was raised in a province where they separate their banana peels from tomato skins as incompatible organic refuse), travel mostly by transit, and can’t afford to travel much. We had a contest here a while back - some state TV host challenging us to get our “carbon footprint” down to one tonne; hell, I’d have to open a Great Leap Forward-style backyard pig iron smelter to get UP to one tonne. And yet I’m the earth-raping climate change denier, and they’re the ones with two cars, one of which is often as big as my first apartment.

    Don’t get me started ...

    Posted by rick mcginnis on 2008 01 14 at 11:04 AM • permalink

  2. Appropriately, 50 Facts That Should Change the World is published by The Disinformation Company:

    The Disinformation Company is a multimedia company that specializes in presenting information of a controversial, subversive, extreme, or just plain unusual nature. The company publishes a number of books and DVDs, as well as a web site (disinfo.com) about conspiracies, subculture, politics, and other topics the traditional media don’t often cover.

    In the spirit of disinformation, Wiki accidentally (or intentionally) links 50 Facts That Should Change the World to an American innocent jazz pianist.

    Posted by C.L. on 2008 01 14 at 11:15 AM • permalink

  3. No surprise, really, that this sort of thing is being embraced by the morbid nihilists who bought (or said they were going to - as soon as they paid off their student loan/parents/ex-roommates) John Wayne Gacy art, and flaunted their subscription to RE/Search magazine back in the ‘80s as proof of their gnarly/rad cred. Middle-class misfit kids addicted to shock and pointless acts of fully-accessorized rebellion as part of their need to bolster their sense of being “special.”

    Posted by rick mcginnis on 2008 01 14 at 11:34 AM • permalink

  4. “I don’t want to suggest you never visit Starbucks: from time to time I go there too. It’s an almost inevitable force in modern life. But when you do go there, make sure you go for the fair trade coffee.”

    An almost inevitable force in modern life, is it really?  The nearest I ever get to Starbucks is when I go to my local supermarket, and I never stop for the fair trade coffee or any other overpriced thing they sell.

    And I’ve pretty much stopped giving credence to anything written by a BBC journalist.

    Posted by RebeccaH on 2008 01 14 at 11:54 AM • permalink

  5. Don’t worry, Rick, I’m sure Ontario Premier Dalton McGinty,* will help your Green yuppie friends reduce their car-borne carbon footprint soon just like the Democrats are helping in the U.S. with the new CAFE emission standards.

    *For our foreign readers’ edification.

    Posted by andycanuck on 2008 01 14 at 12:21 PM • permalink

  6. Global warming kills 150,000 every year.

    If Jessica could name a single one, I’d be completely amazed.

    Posted by murph on 2008 01 14 at 12:26 PM • permalink

  7. Global warming kills 150,000 every year.

    Erm, anyone seen Mr. Soros and The Lancet lately?

    Posted by Apostic on 2008 01 14 at 01:27 PM • permalink

  8. Now you’re just trying to make me cry, andycanuck. Keep it up and I’ll have you called up in front of a Human Rights Commission tribunal.

    Posted by rick mcginnis on 2008 01 14 at 02:44 PM • permalink

  9. eco-adopters are seven per cent more likely than the general population to take flights...

    Naturally.  Greenness is an indulgence that can be afforded only by the comfortably-off middle classes.

    If you’re social class D the environment is that last of your concerns.

    Kills 150,000 people a year? It’s not a problem. We can sleep easily.

    Posted by walterplinge on 2008 01 14 at 04:26 PM • permalink

  10. 17th Century, Yay! Sailing ships, hunting wild boar on horseback, banqueting and wenching. Where do I sign?

    Posted by blogstrop on 2008 01 14 at 05:16 PM • permalink

  11. 17th century, my butt...more like taking us back to the 10th century.

    Posted by dub kitty on 2008 01 14 at 05:29 PM • permalink

  12. more like taking us back to the 10th century.

    So, convergence with the radical Muslim agenda--it’s a liberal two-fer-one.

    Posted by andycanuck on 2008 01 14 at 06:08 PM • permalink

  13. “Green” consumers have some of the biggest carbon footprints because they are still hooked on flying abroad or driving their cars while their adherence to the green cause is mostly limited to small gestures.

    Absolutely true, from Al Gore to the crusading doctor’s wife who thinks little Hugh and Sarah should see Paris and London before they start pre-school.

    Posted by Contrail on 2008 01 14 at 06:29 PM • permalink

  14. Just reading a recent bio of Sir Hubert Wilkins the very great Australian pioneer polar explorer - “The Last Explorer”.
    The author Simon Nasht writes how Wilkins was also a pioneer of global weather prediction [true] and seeing a surprising retreat of sea ice one year in the Antarctic, wondered whether it might affect weather elsewhwere [a fair assumption].
    But Nasht continues:
    “The ice melt that summer year was followed by an extensive drought in the USA.  Decades before the world became aware of ozone holes and global warming, Wilkins was recognising the links between Antarctic conditions and climate change. 
    Absolute bunkum - but I recommend the book anyway.  Wilkins is a huge world figure and genius, hardly recognised in his home of Australia because he succeeded in the US and Europe.

    Posted by Barrie on 2008 01 14 at 06:32 PM • permalink

  15. a large number of people who label themselves ‘green’ are actually keen to take us back to the 18th or even the 17th century
    More like the 7th century.

    Which is why leftie/greenies get along so well with constantly excuse the islamonutz.  They have so much in common.  :-(

    Posted by Barbara Skolaut on 2008 01 14 at 08:15 PM • permalink

  16. Global warming kills 150,000 every year.

    Gee, you think I would have met one by now.  I mean, my family’s been involved with three terrorist events which seems an unreasonable proportion out of a population of six billion, so the odds should be right…

    Posted by richard mcenroe on 2008 01 14 at 09:40 PM • permalink

  17. Any real American knows Dunkin Donuts coffee is better than Starbucks…

    Posted by richard mcenroe on 2008 01 14 at 09:43 PM • permalink

  18. Three words for you, Jessica:

    Climate.  Of.  Fear.

    Posted by Achillea on 2008 01 14 at 09:59 PM • permalink

  19. "Global warming kills 150,000 every year."

    In fairness, this might be true.  For instance, the ‘Gore effect’ kills me every time I read about it.

    Posted by blogagog on 2008 01 14 at 10:15 PM • permalink

  20. Morphing the 2 quotes:

    “people who label themselves ‘green’ are actually keen to take YOU back to the 18th or even the 17th century”

    Posted by allan on 2008 01 15 at 12:44 AM • permalink

  21. #20

    When you’re right, you’re right.

    “Allan Akhbar”

    Posted by Toiling Mass on 2008 01 15 at 04:41 AM • permalink

  22. We need more people like Sir David King--smart enough to realize that a) global warming is a real possibility and b) quasi-religious homage and sacrifice to Gaia are not the solution.

    Posted by Nathan on 2008 01 15 at 12:37 PM • permalink

  23. Yes, definitely the wenching - and the whoring too, right?

    Posted by JEM on 2008 01 15 at 05:22 PM • permalink

  24. 50 Facts That Should Change the World

    Why isn’t the word facts in quotation marks?

    Posted by Penguin on 2008 01 15 at 09:06 PM • permalink

  25. #14 Barrie

    Hear hear! Sir Hubert Wilkins should be a household name in Australia.

    Posted by Penguin on 2008 01 15 at 09:07 PM • permalink

  26. So what’s Sir David’s problem now?  He didn’t manage to get laid at a Renaissance Faire over the weekend, or what?  Now he’s going to complain that the buxom wenches all go for the armored guys on horseback.

    Posted by Steve Skubinna on 2008 01 16 at 04:01 AM • permalink

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