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King Canute, Don Quixote and climate change

By Peter McCloy - posted Tuesday, 30 September 2014


The Vietnam protests had a single focus - they were protesting the war in Vietnam.

The freedom march on Washington had a single focus - the rights of a large part of the population.

The march against climate change?

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‘Climate change’allows a multitude of opinions, many of them conflicting, to parade under the one banner. Very attractive to the average politician.

EP’s blog demonstrates this. A group of protestors are pictured, their banners read ‘Don’t frack with our water’. The relationship between fracking and climate change is not explained. Many would say that there is a good chance that natural gas would actually act to reduce carbon ‘pollution’.

This was an obvious feature of the march. It seems that every feel-good cause had its supporters, regardless of the relevance of the cause to the supposed issue.

Perhaps the dominant theme was anti-capitalist, which of course is the theme of EP’s blog. It’s a political issue. We can’t stop climate change unless we change the system.

And so on. Pick a position, google the evidence that supports your opinion, sign a petition, take to the streets, avoid the real issues. Tilt at windmills.

Fact: We cannot stop climate change.

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There seems to be a moderate consensus among ‘climate scientists’ that the outcome is now inevitable, the tipping points have been passed, the climate will change, with all the dire predictions now certain. Even those who think we still have time agree that time is of the essence, and is fast running out.

Under the circumstances changing the system is no answer. Easy to say, difficult and time consuming to implement. By the time we overthrow the system we’ll be in a better position to evaluate the predictions of the climate scientists.

As a climate ‘sceptic’I now find myself in agreement with many who call me a denier - climate change is not the issue, what we do about it is. Ironically, what we should do about it is what we should be doing anyway, regardless of climate change.

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About the Author

Peter McCloy is an author and speaker, now retired, who lives on five acres of rock in an ecologically sensible home in the bush. He is working on a 20,000-year plan to develop his property, and occasionally puts pen to paper, especially when sufficiently aroused by politicians. He is a foundation member of the Climate Sceptics. Politically, Peter is a Lennonist - like John, he believes that everything a politician touches turns to sh*t.

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