Peter Tatchell, militant gay rights activist from the 1980s is reinventing himself as a Green Party Parliamentary Candidate for Oxford East. On commentissimplyabsurd, he writes today about a looming global oxygen shortage. Compared to prehistoric times, the level of...
Switch Off, Tune Out, Give Up
We were tempted by an advert in the Times (London) yesterday: Get your kids to help you switch-off this summer Yes folks, you too could buy your energy from n-power, who will, in return, encourage your kids to spy on you and make sure you don't lapse into climate...
Split Over the Atom
George Monbiot's recent conversion to atomic energy, on the basis that 'I have now reached the point at which I no longer care whether or not the answer is nuclear. Let it happen', continues to generate fallout. The latest is that Arthur Scargill, the man who led the...
Rewriting Slavery
In the August edition of History Today, Jean-Francois Mouhot argues that 'reliance on fossil fuels has made slave owners of us all'. Hmm. Most of us approach slavery with the underlying assumption that our modern civilization is morally far superior to the barbaric...
I Spy Green Spies…
Writing in the New Statesman about the make up of Climate Camp protest, Stephen Armstrong says, According to the private espionage industry itself, roughly one in four of your comrades is on a multinational's payroll. The idea that intelligence operatives are running...
Hypocritic Oaf
There was a lively little exchange on the Today programme this morning between class-warrior Julie Burchill and posh eco-activist George Monbiot. Burchill was there to promote her new book Not In My Name: A Compendium of Modern Hypocrisy, in which she accuses...
We Are Armed Only With Rumour, Hyperbole And Friends In High Places
The Climate Camp protestors have been complaining about the way they have been treated by the police. Again. Caroline Lucas explains, on commentisrubbish, Everyone who enters the site is being searched. Police officers are taking anything away that "could be used for...
Who is Pachauri Calling 'Flat Earthers'?
A hat-tip to Anthony Watts, who points to an interview in the Chicago Tribune with head of the IPCC, Rajendra Pachauri. Q: What do you think about the small but vocal group of doubters still out there? A: There is, even today, a Flat Earth Society that meets every...
Camping It Up
It's Climate Camp time again. Last year, activists numbering 1500 (less than the capacity of some nightclubs) took part in a high-profile protest near Heathrow Airport, the site of a proposed new runway. As the camps occupied themselves recycling their own urine,...
Politics: Aborted
Asking Can This Planet Be Saved?, Paul Krugman in the NYT, contemplates the effect of oil exploration in the USA, and the '5%' possibility of 10°C rise in global temperatures, and comes to the conclusions that the continued moralisation of such questions is the only...