With the Copenhagen climate change conference now only five days away, I thought I might offer some guidance to attendees on some things that are less than useful to say. It will be essential to foster an atmosphere of constructive cooperation in Copenhagen, so let’s save some pain now by following some simple guidelines and avoiding saying certain things. OK?
1. Climate change sceptics are to be called ‘deniers’. You know. Like holocaust deniers.
Deny everything, Baldrick.
The precautionary principle does not give you license to pummel sceptics into the ground with the sheer weight of your indignant rage.
Assume that most people at Copenhagen understand the basics of climate change, but be prepared to continue debating the issues and educating those who doubt, or more likely do not understand, the science. Don’t fall into the trap of being accused of intellectual arrogance or dogmatism, when that is what you’re trying to tackle in the first place.
Which leads us to the next thing…
2. All opinions are equally valid.
Gaia is hurting.
No. They’re not.
Ignorant, prejudiced, ill-considered bilge will issue forth from thousands of orifices at Copenhagen, and it will not all be from climate change ‘deniers’ or loony right-wingers. Some utter bilge is uttered with such ferocious, righteous anger as to take the breath away, and none more so than from some climate change protestors, activists, and other individuals whose grip on reality is just as tenuous as your average Melanie Phillips.
You may crochet your own underpants and not eat food that casts a shadow, but if you believe labrador tea is a better treatment for tuberculosis than antibiotics, we have a problem.
3. Nick Griffin is at Copenhagen representing the EU.
Immigrants, coming here and blah blah etc...
No, he’s not.
He’s a deluded idiot, and he was only elected to the EU Parliament through a combination of voter apathy and disenfranchisement. He recently appeared on Question Time in the United Kingdom and was laughed at, solidly, for around an hour. His views on climate change are as bonkers as his views on what constitutes an indigenous British person.
Mind you – we in the UK allowed him to become elected, so we probably deserve the embarrassment of being represented by him.
4. Carbon. Carbon. Carbon, carbon, carbon, carbon.
Carbon and on and on
How about we try talking about biodiversity? What about social justice? Ever heard of habitat fragmentation?
Every single discussion about the environment doesn’t have to centre around carbon, carbon offsetting, carbon trading, carbon footprints. Yes. Of course. Carbon is important. But look at that word.
Carbon.
Aren’t you just a little bit bored of seeing it, and worried by the growth of the ‘carbon economy’ as a panacea for all ills?
5. The whole climate change panic is a Marxist conspiracy to drag us back to the dark ages.
Children of the Quorn
Really? Really? Asking people to consider skipping meat one day a week does not a mung bean eating agrarian utopia make. Get over yourself.
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Good stuff. One thing that gets up my nose if the use of the word 'Carbon' on its own. I have a sneaky feeling it's really quite useful and that we can't have too much of it as such. In some combinations it gets to be a problem, such as CO2 and when helping to form certain life forms pictured on this blog.
Posted by Tim Passingham | 01. Dec, 2009, 9:13 pmAgreed, Tim. It's the overuse, the flogging to death of the word 'carbon' that bothers me, what has become a buzzword that has the potential to stifle debate of some other issues.
Posted by Nathan Nelson | 02. Dec, 2009, 9:27 am