Comments on: Copenhagen: opening thoughts

By: R2D2

R2D2 — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 00:48:26 +0000

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Minutes_Hate

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuxfw1DCzEI

By: Rob Taylor

Rob Taylor — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 05:35:27 +0000

Who writes your material, Steve? Why don’t they have a spelling checker?

By: Carol Stewart

Carol Stewart — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 23:44:47 +0000

The NZ curriculum disagrees with you, Steve.
http://efs.tki.org.nz/Curriculum-Resources-and-Tools/Resources-and-Tools-Archive/Environmental-Education-and-the-New-Zealand
Or are they part of your giant conspiracy too?

By: Steve Wrathall

Steve Wrathall — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 23:40:01 +0000

Excellent suggestion Carol. However there is no such thing as “environmental education”. I presume you mean teaching about the natural world, it’s processes, uncertainties and its interactions with us and trade-offs. Start with teaching children a healthy scepticism of claims that rely overly on emotionalism, and whose proponents won’t divulge their data, intimidate journals who won’t agree with them, and cut out data that doesn’t support their agenda. Instead we have an education sustem saturated in environmental “indoctrination” that presents the most fevered catastrophism as recieved fact.

By: Carol Stewart

Carol Stewart — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 23:25:41 +0000

I think there’s more to be gained from giving children a really good grounding in environmental education than in trying to reason with R2 and Steve. Plus which, it’s a lot more fun …

By: R2D2

R2D2 — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 23:19:35 +0000

I think its for the ‘daily 2 minutes of hate’

By: Gareth

Gareth — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 23:07:51 +0000

It was from the "cultural" part of the opening ceremony, described rather well by the Economist's correspondent:

But on the bright side, the mayor tells the delegates, the water in Copenhagenâ€™s harbour is clean enough to swim in. Good to know. I might need a chilly dip to wake myself up at some point.

Frankly, Carol, R2 and SW are not the target audience, and never will be...

By: Carol Stewart

Carol Stewart — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 22:42:15 +0000

My problem with the video is that it’s not clear who it’s aimed at.
Those of us who already grasp climate change pretty well don’t need these Roland Emmerichy scenarios to persuade us any further.
The intractable types like R2 and Steve will be alienated even further by it – just witness R2′s reaction.
The vital group are those who are unsure, and in my view a bit more science and less emotion would have worked better here.

By: R2D2

R2D2 — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 22:38:58 +0000

“Tuvalu will need to stay above sea level if the rise in AGW is not stabilised”

Really??Maybe they could move to an island that isn’t on a subduction zone. Clearly another AGW believer who never double checks an AGW ridiculous claim.

http://www.goodcleantech.com/NASA%20Sea%20Level%20Rise.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Plates_tect2_en.svg

By: R2D2

R2D2 — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 22:26:50 +0000

Yes, lets base global policy on the night mares our children have, that will result in sound, rational, thought out policy.

Has it occurred to you that the nightmares children have are a result of children being the most susceptible to propaganda of the day? And nothing to do with the reality of the moment (of course some of the adult population also fall for the lies). Most people experience the world more than 5km away purely through a TV or Computer screen. So the fact they are worried does not make the problem reality.

I can imagine the children in Soviet Russia had nightmares about about capitalists stealing their labour while their parents worried about going to the Gulag.

Us in the rational world are worried about creating a global slush fund for corrupt third world governments in the name of preventing ‘climate change’ (that has been happening since the dawn of time). And also taxing fertiliser and animal protein at a time over a billion people still wake up hungry.