Via: AMG

Weekly Standard:

A few years ago the Swiss added to their national constitution a provision requiring “account to be taken of the dignity of creation when handling animals, plants and other organisms.” No one knew exactly what it meant, so they asked the Swiss Federal Ethics Committee on Non-Human Biotechnology to figure it out. The resulting report, “The Dignity of Living Beings with Regard to Plants,” is enough to short circuit the brain.

A “clear majority” of the panel adopted what it called a “biocentric” moral view, meaning that “living organisms should be considered morally for their own sake because they are alive.” Thus, the panel determined that we cannot claim “absolute ownership” over plants and, moreover, that “individual plants have an inherent worth.” This means that “we may not use them just as we please, even if the plant community is not in danger, or if our actions do not endanger the species, or if we are not acting arbitrarily.”

The committee offered this illustration: A farmer mows his field (apparently an acceptable action, perhaps because the hay is intended to feed the farmer’s herd—the report doesn’t say). But then, while walking home, he casually “decapitates” some wildflowers with his scythe. The panel decries this act as immoral, though its members can’t agree why. The report states, opaquely:

At this point it remains unclear whether this action is condemned because it expresses a particular moral stance of the farmer toward other organisms or because something bad is being done to the flowers themselves.

What is clear, however, is that Switzerland’s enshrining of “plant dignity” is a symptom of a cultural disease that has infected Western civilization, causing us to lose the ability to think critically and distinguish serious from frivolous ethical concerns. It also reflects the triumph of a radical anthropomorphism that views elements of the natural world as morally equivalent to people

I tracked down the report, and here it is, in all its pomo stupidity, if you can stand it. (PDF file):

The hierarchical position can be criticised for being unclear about why the membership of a species, or the complexity of abilities, should be morally relevant. This objection is usually countered by saying that the complexity of an organisms telos correlates with its ability to perceive harm. Further, we should take into account that our understanding is multiply situated, i.e. it remains tied to the abilities given to us and achieved by us culturally: the human perspective cannot be overcome. This does not rule out our ascribing moral status to other living organisms.

the blog québécois

U.K. voters resoundingly rejected the Labour Party in local elections last week. It was no capricious shift, but a citizen revolt against trendy carbon and nanny-state taxes that empower only bad government. For Labour, it was the worst election in 40 years. Every tax and intrusion imposed by Labour in recent years was justified as being for voters’ “own good.” Ending global warming, reducing carbon footprints, lowering carbon emissions and raising public funding of renewable energy – all were excuses used to hit the voters’ pocketbook with more taxes. Yet none of these taxes improved the quality of life.

—Investor’s Business Daily, 2 May 2008

I have just watched the excellent Alex Singleton on the London News, speaking on behalf of the Adam Smith Institute in a head to head on the subject of Fair Trade. It seems that London Boroughs are being encouraged to promote FairTrade™ products to their residents. As Alex pointed out, there are some problems with the FairTrade™ model that mean it may do more harm than good. For example, farmers are encouraged to form co-operatives and so individual owner occupation of farms is discouraged.

While I fully accept the economic and moral argument that free trade is superior to “Fair trade” and Alex did well to avoid being painted as some sort of nasty Tory, I can’t help thinking that there may be a better way to play this than simply attacking “Fair Trade”.

True, they are wrong, misguided and damaging in aspects of their implementation. However, I think we free-marketeers should start any debate on this subject by welcoming the fact that both we and the FairTrade movement share a passion for the unequalled potential of international trade to lift poor people out of poverty and improve living standards all round. Adam Smith wrote of the “invisible hand” raising the general welfare of people but perhaps now his message is so well spread that the hand is no longer invisible. We know that doing business does good – the thing that is exciting about this is that now some people are trying to do good by doing business.

OK, so these people don’t have a high regard for the scruples of regular businessmen but there are a hell of a lot of far worse things they could be doing than promoting trade with the Third World – opposing trade, for one. The point we should be making is that the Fair Trade supporters have their hearts in the right place but the way the movement works needs fixing.

In going beyond good honest trade with poor farmers, the FairTrade(m) movement is using their purchasing power as rich Westerners to pursue their own agendas. It is a sort of cultural imperialism. Western lefties might think poor farmers need to be guided down the route of collective farming and using the extra money they get from FairTrade™ for building “schoolsnhospitalz.” The farmers might have other priorities and who are we to say otherwise.

It is free trade and not the fair Trade movement that really respects the dignity and autonomy of the poor of the world.

Seems that you are not too bright??.. There are certain reasons that some people need a larger vehicle!!.. We have a 2.5 Litre Subaru.. a very safe and reliable vehicle.. it was registered in 2001.. but has only 60,000 miles on the clock!! So my big car does considerably LESS Mileage than many small vehicles.. My Wife is disabled and unable to get in or out of a small car.. Her wheelchair will not fit into the boot of a small car.. and it is nice to know that if some inattentive or drunken idiot ploughs into us that we may stand a better chance of survival than we would in a smaller car… You called me “A BASTARD” and put me in a box just like everyone else who drives a larger car?? That was rather thoughtless, selfish and stupid of you!! So now you are also in a box… I doubt your parents were married at your birth… Both mine and my disabled Wife’s Parents were married when we were born and that I can prove.. Please have the Guts and decency to retract your comments and be man enough to apologise.. I note form your website that you are an ex PUNK??? That I think says it all.. Obviously NOT too bright… Another Box???

John :O)

p.s. If you should find the time to do some intelligent research you will discover that the “Global Warming” Scam is simply an excuse to increase taxation.. The climate changes are actually a natural cycle brought about by sunspot activity.. It has happened in the past and will continue to happen in the future.. and schoolboy science will tell you that deforestation (To grow Biofuel crops??) is one of the main reasons along with burning of our rainforests (The lungs of the world)... as they are cut down is one of the major causes of CO2 increases.. Just in case you were not aware.. Trees breath in CO2 and breath out Oxygen!!...

Can this bloke be any more wrong about me or the attitude of this blog towards Global Warming? Damned by his own words methinks. Its nice when people get something you said so wrong and make a complete arse out of themselves.

NB: this is the comment that warranted such a torrent of abuse directed towards me. Serves these bastards right for not thinking through the environmental impacts of their transport choices before now!!

Now those of you who know me know that the “bastards” in question are the ones who supported all the enviromental idiocy coming from people like Red Ken and Zak Goldsmith only to be upset when the government uses “public support” to justify raising taxes on everyone including them. You just know that there were people thinking taxes on car would not affect them just the ” super rich.” You would the Envirofascist catagory on this blog might just hint at its tone towards the enviro-loon contingent.

Time now for another deconstruction of Newsweek’s alarmist-in-Chief, Sharon Begley. Yes folks, this time she’s equated airport delays with the dire consequences of climate change. Begley is again worried about those of us who don’t care about global warming and she has a theory…

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Not of our cars, as he claims, but out of London full stop. Now some people think that his anti-car/lorry crusade is noble. I disagree but that is not the point of this piece. Red Ken and his envirofascist allies are driving people out of the city. People are going into London less unless they absolutely need to. To put it in perspective a day pass has gone up to 7. So for two people to take public transport into London it costs them almost 15 and that is not taking into account i they have to get to train station via a bus.

So just the transportation into London is going to cost you $30. It not surprising that we no longer “just pop” into London anywhere instead planning our days to be the most efficient possible. And I know we are not the only ones who find themselves heading into central London less because of the idiotic and expensive transport.

If it were really about getting people onto public transport and it was less about Ken & his ilk’s anti-capitalist leanings it would be far cheaper to travel in. As far as I can tell Ken seems to want to reduce the centre of London into Detroit in the 90s with no one there but those on the dole or the really rich who don’t care about the cost. Then again Brown is trying to drive out the rich as well.

In short Red Ken is killing one of the greatest cities in the world bit by bit. The LEZ is merely the next step in his plan.

The ASI reports on the foolish idea from Marks & Spencer to charge customers 5p per plastic bag they use. No doubt the think this envirofascist ruze is a great way to attract new customers. M&S have been having less than stunning results of late. Methinks they might want to look at their rude staff and the fact that they block mobiles in their stores. M&S used to be a great British institution now its a pathetic excuse for a store. Rubbish quality, rude staff and this type of idiocy is now par for the course.

If they won’t use them against morons like the Greenpeace terrorists activists who are currently hijacking a plane by standing on it at Heathrow. Surely its “get off the plane or you will be shot?” Greenpeace is making a complete arse of Heathrow security.

And we have wonder about Commons security. The enviroloons have climbed up on Parliament this time.

What does “green” really mean? To this member of the environmental right, Maine’s green agenda is as economically potable as Jim Jones’ kool-aid.

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I have to say I agree with both Iain Dale and Guido (complete with cool graphic) about the whole Northern Rock debacle. The nationalisation of the bank is a further sign of Labour’s slide back to the 70s. When you add it to the daft non-dom laws that are to be introduced this government seems to have revived the playbook from the bad ole’ days of Labour. As a wag put it to me recently; I wonder if Labour would make so much fuss over a bank called Suffolk Banking?

An wobbly looking economy and the government wasting money bailing a bank out. What a foolish thing to do.

ConservativeHome has a good round-up of the Old Labour economics coming undone.

Will it surprise any of you, our clever readers, that London’s congestion charge has been a costly failure? I wonder if those that were so harsh on those of who thought it was a daft useless idea back before it was implemented?

David Suzuki has called for political leaders to be thrown in jail for ignoring the science behind climate change. “What I would challenge you to do is to put a lot of effort into trying to see whether there’s a legal way of throwing our so-called leaders into jail because what they’re doing is a criminal act,” said Dr. Suzuki.

Envirofascism in all its glory.

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Tim Blair, who seems to recovering nicely from his bout of cancer, has a nice picture of banged up Prius’. Now this blog has written several times how much it enjoy seeing broken down Prius’.

There is a reason for this prejudice. I have found in driving in Maine that Prius owners have adopted that “I am helping the planet so I can drive like an idiot” mentality. I even watched a Prius owner swipe a parking space from an ole lady while I was in Maine.

Even have come up with a few bumperstickers.

Not only are they not cute when they are big; they lie about things as well. Instead of decreasing in numbers they are doing their bit and expanding their population. No doubt their prey is well aware.

Yes, you read those words correctly. I am actually praising something this government is doing here in the UK. What could they possibly be doing right you ask? Well it seems they have realised that it might be a good idea to invest in nuclear power. They are to announce the building of new nuclear power stations. No doubt the envirofascists are going to apopletic but nuclear is a good solution to dependence on foreign oil.

Let’s see how Cameron & Co react. Will Zac be muzzled on this one?

The period 1980-98 was one of rapid warming – a temperature increase of about 0.5 degrees C (CO2 rose from 340ppm to 370ppm). But since then the global temperature has been flat (whilst the CO2 has relentlessly risen from 370ppm to 380ppm).

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Continuing the quote:

This means that the global temperature today is about 0.3 deg less than it would have been had the rapid increase continued.

Some enviro-loon has taken those of us who play massively multiplayer online games to task for being beastly to the planet. Massively questions whether if one wants to be good to the planet if playing games or having a computer is a good idea? Is there no place these envirofascists won’t stick their green noses in to make a nuisance of themselves?

I frankly could give a damn how much enviromental impact my playing a game allegedly has. I just wish these annoying enviro-fascists would take after other doomsday cults and sod off to the boonies somewhere to wait for armageddon.

As you may or may not already be aware, members of the Watcher’s Council hold a vote every week on what they consider to be the most link-worthy pieces of writing around… per the Watcher’s instructions, I am submitting one of my own posts for consideration in the upcoming nominations process.

Here is the most recent winning council post, here is the most recent winning non-council post, here is the list of results for the latest vote, and here is the initial posting of all the nominees that were voted on.

To borrow an idea from Glenn Beck’s radio and television conversations about this issue, what would we think if Haliburton owned a conglomerate of large, well known entertainment and news outlets and overtly advertised and broadcast an entire week of shows relating to threats to our national security and promoting our military? Would anyone notice the connection between the media outlets and Haliburton? Does anyone doubt the wailing and moaning that would result from every liberal in the world, including our own Commiegressional “leaders”?

Who owns NBC? And CNBC, MSNBC, NBC News, NBC Sports, SciFi Channel, Sundance Channel, Bravo, USA Network, Telemundo and Universal Studios and its related theme parks? Who stands to profit from weaving “environmental themes into every program? General Electric!

Hello? Anyone out there in “journalism land”?

The Telegraph:

But then a growing number of academics began to raise doubts about Mann and his graph. This culminated in 2003 with a devastating study by two Canadians showing how Mann had not only ignored most of the evidence before him but had used an algorithm that would produce a hockey stick graph whatever evidence was fed into the computer. When this was removed, the graph re-emerged just as it had looked before, showing the Middle Ages as hotter than today.

It is hard to recall any scientific thesis ever being so comprehensively discredited as the “hockey stick”. Yet the global warming juggernaut rolled on regardless, now led by the European Union. In 2004, thanks to a highly dubious deal between the EU and Putin’s Russia, stage four of the story began when the Kyoto treaty was finally ratified.

An interesting (and skeptical) look at the politics of global warming.

the blog québécois

In the light of recent revelations that a Prius is less enviromentally friendly in its construction than a Hummer I came up with this bumperstickers for Prius owners. Feel free to add more.

Prius: Drive your enviro ignorance!

Prius: Being so smug never cost more carbon!

Having a Prius means I can drive like shit.

Smugness means driving something ugly & slow.

the blog québécois

The former US Vice-President has already taken over from Michael Moore as the most sanctimonious lardbutt Yank on the planet. Can you imagine what he’ll be like now that the Norwegian Nobel committee has given him the prize?

Really nothing more needs to be said; go read Damian Thompson whole piece.

If you want a good skewering of the other “lardbutt” then check out my review of Shooting Michael Moore

Both are lieing demogogues who would say anything however idiotic and untrue to get ahead with their fans.

Wonko has a great bullet point teardown of Gore’s movie.

No not the ABBA tribute band; the other famous Bjorn. Lomberg is back with a new book that will annoy the envirofascists even more. There is a good interview on the Times Online with the man. Irony, of course, is that its in Art & Entertainment instead of the Science section. I guess the Times weren’t that brave with the interview.

I think I know where your melting is coming from, and it ain’t from global warming.

Hundreds of naked people formed a “living sculpture” on Switzerland’s Aletsch glacier Saturday, hoping to raise awareness about climate change.

The photo shoot by Spencer Tunick, the New York artist famous for his pictures of nude gatherings in public settings worldwide, was designed to draw attention to the effects of global warming on Switzerland’s shrinking glaciers.

“The melting of the glaciers is an indisputable sign of global climate change,” said the environmental group Greenpeace, which co-organized the event.

Dumbass. Or hundreds of them.

the blog québécois

Over at Heathrow the smelly wet blanket fun-ruiner hippys are gathering to protest Air Travel. The idiots are planning “direct action” sometime during thier week long sojurn there. There are some rumours about bomb threats and other sorts of disruptions. The funny thing is that these morons actually think this protest and behaviour will help their cause.

It’s also amusing to watch how angry they get when a reporter asks them about their own carbon footprint and how far they had come for the hippy protest-in.

I never mind the rain, after all I live in the UK, and desperately hope it pisses down for the next week straight right in that spot full of morons.

The DT has alas give paper space to one of these dolts.

I happened upon this by accident the other day. It was written in 2003 but I think it applies equally now:

1. The discoverer pitches the claim directly to the media. The integrity of science rests on the willingness of scientists to expose new ideas and findings to the scrutiny of other scientists. Thus, scientists expect their colleagues to reveal new findings to them initially. An attempt to bypass peer review by taking a new result directly to the media, and thence to the public, suggests that the work is unlikely to stand up to close examination by other scientists.

He wasn’t speaking about climate change but these are all salient points when considering it.

the blog québécois

David Baddiel expressed scepticism about climate change on BBC’s coverage of the Save the Planet concert. He refered to himself as a “climate change denier” and then questioned the fact man could have warmed up the oceans as it takes “millions of years”. His couchmate seemed to get rather irked by even this suggestion.

A page 3 girl was just on Sky talking about climate change. She had a basic grasp of it and was concerned because “the weather changes all the time.”

She was on plugging her tips for saving the planet.

When asked if it should be compulsory by the host: “yeah I think we should get the the government involved and it should be compulsory.”

The IQ of a fence post and still able to grasp the envirofascist message. So young, so pretty and yet so authoritarian.

Would it surprise anyone to know that Camoron wants to meet her?

The actress in the house had this writer in stiches as she mimicked the idiot.

The latest criticism comes from those Arctic Monkeys, with drummer
Matt Helders telling reporters: “Since the stage lighting alone would be enough to power 10 houses, it’s all very hypocritical. And also consider the long haul flights and the carbon footprint to get rock bands to the concerts”. Actually, Helders doesn’t seem all that convinced at all with musicians getting too opinionated about anything.

He continues: “Someone asked us to give a quote about what was happening in Sheffield [the floods, I assume] and it’s like ‘who cares what we think about what’s happening?’ There’s more important people who can have an opinion. Why does it make us have an opinion because we’re in a band?”

Found via CMU. Nice to see someone talking sense in a trendy UK band.

Update: It won’t surprise all of you to hear that the BBC is airing the concert in the UK. Not like they have a bias one way or other. Michael Henderson has a few words to say about the hypocrisyfest. The Muse frontman has come up with a pithy phrase for it.

‘private jets for climate change’

Quite.

Update: Hit & Run have some fun with Live Earth as well.

Sydney Morning Herald:

An agriculture professor at the University of Melbourne, Snow Barlow, said the paper showed humans were taking up too much of an important natural resource.

“Here we are, just one species on the earth, and we’re grabbing a quarter of the renewable resources—we’re probably being a bit greedy.”

So quit hoggin’ the ‘shine, lardass.

the blog québécois