Never, Ever Trust Greenpeace

Follow The Money 

It is usually this time on the year when Greenpeace hucksters send a ship off to the South or North Pole to "prove" that global warming is real.  But this year apparently not.  This implies that the bosses of the outfit have other fish to fry this year.  And so they do.  This year, the scam is plastic pollution of our world's oceans.

But, once again, its all a hoax.  James Delingpole explains this latest con from the faux environmentalists:

Greenpeace’s Ocean Plastic Pollution Scare – the Biggest Lie of 2018

James Delingpole
Breitbart News

The biggest environmental scare story of 2018 was plastic pollution in the oceans. (It was also, as we shall see – spoiler alert – the year’s biggest lie…)

From BBC’s Blue Planet II to a special issue of National Geographic to a crusading campaign by the Daily Mail to CNN, the story was rarely out of the media. Celebrities from Chris Hemsworth to Cara Delevinge leapt on to the virtue signalling bandwagon. So did politicians such as UK Secretary of the State for the Environment Michael Gove and the European Parliament and US Congress, all announcing new legislation to deal with this alleged scourge.

Suddenly, plastic drinking straws became public enemy number one. No enlightened member of the chatterati could sip a cocktail ever again without pangs of guilt. Nor could they even clean their ears without a shiver of horror at the thought that today’s waxy cotton bud might be tomorrow’s obstruction in the nostril of a baby sea turtle.

The scare even generated its own word of the year – ‘single-use’, which refers to plastic items (picnic cutlery, straws, ear buds, etc) designed by the heartless capitalist system to be used just once.

But the plastic pollution scare was and is a massive con trick. It’s a fabricated crisis, heavily promoted by environmental charities – most especially by Greenpeace – which depend on scare narratives to fill their coffers.

Peak Oil, Where Art Thou?

Saintly Prophet Drowns in Texas Oil Lake

Russel Norman, head of Greenpeace NZ, came down off the mountain about fifteen years ago and proclaimed that the world would hit "peak oil" by around 2010.  A shiver ran through the Force.  Thereafter, said the Prophet,  a long, slow, painful industrial decline would descend upon the world.  Therefore, said Russel (who was co-leader of the Greens at the time) it was essential that the world start developing "green energy" before it was all too late.  Blah, blah, blah.

Russel has since moved on to become the leader of Greenpeace in New Zealand.  Doubtless he is ruefully reflecting on his reckless prophecy.  He finds the world awash with oil.  Not only that, the United States is on the verge of becoming the world's largest producer, and it has scarcely got started.

Russel's prophetic powers are now thoroughly tarnished.  However, we do not doubt Russel "Peak-Oil-By-2010" Norman will go down in history as New Zealand's most astute economic forecaster and all-round-best druid.  We are like that Down Under.

Texas to Pass Iraq and Iran as World's No. 3 Oil Powerhouse
by Matt Egan

@MattEganCNN
Shale exec: US will surpass Russia in oil production

Don't mess with Texas. It's a global oil superpower.

An Honest Man

Why I Am a Climate Change Skeptic

Patrick Moore

March 20, 2015

Dr. Patrick Moore is the co-founder, chair, and chief scientist of Greenspirit Strategies.

[Editor’s Note: Patrick Moore, Ph.D., has been a leader in international environmentalism for more than 40 years. He cofounded Greenpeace and currently serves as chair of Allow Golden Rice. Moore received the 2014 Speaks Truth to Power Award at the Ninth International Conference on Climate Change, July 8, in Las Vegas.]

I am skeptical humans are the main cause of climate change and that it will be catastrophic in the near future. There is no scientific proof of this hypothesis, yet we are told “the debate is over” and “the science is settled.”

My skepticism begins with the believers’ certainty they can predict the global climate with a computer model. The entire basis for the doomsday climate change scenario is the hypothesis increased atmospheric carbon dioxide due to fossil fuel emissions will heat the Earth to unlivable temperatures.  In fact, the Earth has been warming very gradually for 300 years, since the Little Ice Age ended, long before heavy use of fossil fuels.

Prior to the Little Ice Age, during the Medieval Warm Period, Vikings colonized Greenland and Newfoundland, when it was warmer there than today. And during Roman times, it was warmer, long before fossil fuels revolutionized civilization.  The idea it would be catastrophic if carbon dioxide were to increase and average global temperature were to rise a few degrees is preposterous.

By its constitution, the IPCC has a hopeless conflict of interest. Its mandate is to consider only the human causes of global warming, not the many natural causes changing the climate for billions of years.

Recently, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) announced for the umpteenth time we are doomed unless we reduce carbon-dioxide emissions to zero. Effectively this means either reducing the population to zero, or going back 10,000 years before humans began clearing forests for agriculture. This proposed cure is far worse than adapting to a warmer world, if it actually comes about.

Rules for the Plebs

Living Well Above the Herd

There are few things more likely to stir up cynicism and disgust than "leaders" who moralistically lecture everyone about their duties and responsibilities, whilst they themselves live irresponsibly (by their own declared rules).  Hypocrisy always has a nasty smell. 

We are all familiar with "celebrities" who hector the world about poverty, global warming, and a host of other fashionable causes, only to live ostentatious lifestyles which loudly proclaim they believe themselves to be above their particular set of moralistic rules for the rest of humanity.  We are familiar with the carbon footprint of one Al Gore--dedicated warrior against global warming--whose extravagant lifestyle and business dealings put the lie to his pontificating.  Gore is a "do as I say, not as I do" kind of chap. 

The Greens in general are notorious for this kind of dissembling.  Greenpeace has hit the news recently over just such hypocrisy.

Greenpeace Chutzpah

Self-Righteous Hooligans

At last.  Maybe.  Julie Bishop, Australia's foreign minister, has indicated that the Australian government may require Greenpeace to pay the costs to the Australian government of one of their staffers getting arrested in Russian waters.  It amounts to around $35,000.  We hope the New Zealand government is paying attention. 

It is normal for diplomatic resources to swing in to support citizens in trouble overseas.  But ought they--when the reckless actions of citizens gets them into trouble.  If citizens travelling overseas ignore travel advisory warnings, break the local laws, commit crimes--should the tax payer foot the bill?  Maybe.  It's arguable, but not a slam-dunk one.  Far less justifiable is when a citizen deliberately plans to go overseas and break the law.  To our mind any costs incurred by the taxpayers must be reimbursed. 

One of the "activists" Greenpeace put forward to help climb up on to a Russian arctic drilling platform was Tasmanian, Colin Russell.  Upon returning home after a relatively short stint in the Russian penal system, he had the gall to complain that the Aussie government had not done enough to support him.

Throwing Down the Gauntlet

Luddite Zealots

Here comes yet another confrontation between the law-abiding and Greenpeace.  West of Taranaki a Greenpeace flotilla is attempting to stop a deep-sea drilling rig commencing exploratory drilling for oil.  As things stand, Greenpeace is currently (and proudly) breaking the law.  This from the NZ Herald:

The scene is set for a skirmish off the North Island's west coast this morning as protest vessels hold fast to Anadarko oil drilling ship the Noble Bob Douglas. Anadarko had intended to begin drilling 185km off the coast of Raglan on Thursday or Friday but has been shadowed by a flotilla of six protest vessels. One, the Vega, remains within the 500m exclusion zone. Among those on board the 11.5m ketch are Greenpeace NZ chief executive Bunny McDiarmid and former Green Party co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons.

This confrontation is a bit more interesting this time around, however.

Letter From NZ (About Those Greenpeace "Activists")

Arctic activists knew the risks

Sean Plunket
Stuff, 
11/10/2013


I've never been held in a jail cell but it is, I imagine, not a very pleasant experience. I also imagine Russia would be one of the worst places to find yourself incarcerated, along with North Korea, Myanmar, El Salvador and China.

Certainly the 30 Greenpeace activists from 18 different nations currently held at the pleasure of Vladimir Putin's government are finding the going pretty rugged. Among their various complaints is the fact that it is cold, there are some nasty people in jail with them and the guards do not speak English. Well what did they expect – Sky [TV] and a sauna?

Testing Ideologies

Ain't No Fig Tree

The terms "ideology" and "ideological" are  used as an insult these days, more often than not.  To accuse your opponent of being ideological implies that they are out of touch with reality, closed minded, impractical, dangerous, even absolutist.  The term, "idealist" less so.  In common parlance, an idealist is someone close to sainthood--a person who puts their ideals and beliefs ahead of themselves and who is willing to sacrifice themselves for the sake of a higher, nobler cause.  Usually, however, their devotion it is said that their devotion has put them out of touch with reality.  Which is to say they are slightly mad. 

Whether being ideological or an idealist is good or bad depends upon the ideology in question.  Stalin and Hitler and Mao were ideological.  They could even be said to be idealists, in the sense that they were controlled by a set of ideas bigger than themselves, to which they were committed and devoted servants.  So was Mother Theresa.  But in the case of the former, the ideology was evil; consequently the idealists devoted to it were given over to evil.  Not so with the celebrated Christian in Calcutta. 

Whether we like it or not, or are aware of it or not, every human being is controlled by ideologies of one shape or form.

"Peaceful" Activism--a Greenpeace Artform

Not Playing By the Rules

We confess being guilty of the odd smile or two when news broke that Greenpeace has tilted its lance at Russia.  This is not to say, of course, that the Russian record when it comes to preservation of the environment is stellar.  Far from it.  But Greenpeace has a higher calling than ordinary human beings.  It is more than willing to disregard the law when it comes to its own particular, peculiar version of  rabid environmentalism.  When the "fragile" arctic environment was deemed to be at risk from Russian offshore drilling, Greenpeace engaged in its trademark "peaceful" protest which involved assailing and climbing up on the rig.  The Russian coastguard steamed in and arrested the lot, seizing its boat.

Now Greenpeace has been getting away with this sort of thing for years in the West.