Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Radicals for austerity

The latest example of zealots wanting to turn back the clock. In this case, Perks discusses the efforts of environmentalists seeking to close one of Britain's largest coal-fired electricity plants. As he points out, in these situations 'the eco-lobby has become the militant arm of the government's own attack on energy consumption'. In the name of "eco-friendly" thinking, protestors have been lobbying for generating capacity to be closed in order to supposedly lower carbon dioxide emissions and thus mitigate the effects of global warming. All this at a time when doubts about the "certainty" of global warming are increasing, estimates of likely future temperature changes have been scaled back significantly and there is growing recognition that any actions taken to minimize greenhouse emissions are at best a futile fop to eco-sensibilities.

The Kyoto Accord may be long gone, but it's residue will linger within political correctness for some time yet.

The bigger question is: once an eco-myth has been disproven scientifically, how long does it take for widespread rejection of the myth to take root within society? To quote one of the moderators from the Climate Audit website, 'people will continue to believe in the ...myth, despite its lack of empirical foundation, because psychologically its difficult to disabuse oneself of a belief once accepted as true'.

In the words of Les Brown: a person convinced against their will, is of the same conviction still.