Climate Change as a religion?
the fear of climate change is like a religion in this vital sense, that it is veiled in mystery
We’ve lost our fear of hellfire, but put climate change in its place
I used to have a mother-in-law called Gaia, so any book called The Revenge of Gaia is likely to cause a flutter of panic in my breast; and by the time I had finished the new best-seller by green prophet James Lovelock, I am afraid I was in a state of brow-drenched hysteria.
The good news is that the Gaia in question is not my ex-mother-in-law. The bad news is that she represents a chthonic deity even more capable of vengeance upon errant mankind. Gaia is the Earth herself; she is Mother Nature; she taps her foot in ever-growing impatience at the antics of our species; and, according to Professor Lovelock, she is about to exact the most terrifying punishment for our excesses. She is about to get carboniferous on our ass.
Lovelock has been studying climate change since the 1960s. He has been described by the New Scientist as one of the great thinkers of our age, and he was made a Companion of Honour in 2003. He knows his onions, and, indeed, how much moisture they require.
He has been around the world looking at the rising tidelines, sniffing the smoke from the burning rainforest, listening to the roar of the ice-melt from the glaciers, and he has come to the conclusion that the climate change lobby has got it hopelessly wrong.
We delude ourselves, says Lovelock, if we think that the global temperature is going to rise in small increments over the next century. We are like the blindfolded crew of a boat approaching Niagara Falls, and there will come a moment when the temperature will rise with all the equivalent vertical horror. Some time in the next hundred years, he says, it is suddenly going to get hotter and hotter and hotter.
“Billions will die,” says Lovelock, who tells us that he is not normally a gloomy type. Human civilisation will be reduced to a “broken rabble ruled by brutal warlords”, and the plague-ridden remainder of the species will flee the cracked and broken earth to the Arctic, the last temperate spot, where a few breeding couples will survive.
It is going to be a “hell of a climate”, he says, with Europe 8C warmer than it is today; and the real killer, says Lovelock, is that there is not a damn thing we can do about it. We are already pumping out so much carbon dioxide, with no prospect of abatement from the growing economies of China and India, that our fate is sealed.
We in Britain produce only two per cent of the world’s carbon output and, even if we closed down British industry overnight; even if we abolished the winter fuel allowance and ordered the pensioners to wear more sweaters; even if we forested the entire country with windfarms, it would make not a bean of difference.
It would be like trying to cool a volcano with an ice cube. The Kyoto protocol; the climate change levy; the windows and doors regulation – they are all as pointless as telling a patient with terminal lung cancer that he should give up smoking.
And when the Great Heat has destroyed our industry, and wrecked civilisation, it will get worse, says Lovelock. Because then we will lose the aerosol of dust and smog that has kept out some of the sun’s rays; and it will get hotter still.
There is nothing for it, he says, but to forget the piffling Kyoto-led regulation, and build nuclear power plants, so as not to be dependent on Russian gas, and send bodies of fit young men and women to East Anglia, there to build levees against the coming inundations. An international solution is now beyond our reach, he says, and we must look to Britain first.
Phew-ee. Is Lovelock right? I haven’t the faintest; but as I listen to his Mad Max-style vision of the coming century, I find my mind bubbling with blasphemous thoughts.
Wasn’t it pretty hot in the 10th century? Didn’t the Romans have vineyards in Northumberland? And is it really so exceptionally hot in modern Europe? According to yesterday’s paper, Lisbon has just had its first heavy snowfall for 52 years. What’s that about?
I feel I cannot possibly disagree with Lovelock, or with the overwhelming body of scientists who attest to the reality of climate change. I am sure that they are, in some sense, right; and it feels instinctively true that we are a nasty, over-polluting species; and there is something horrifying, when you look at those pictures of the world at night, to see the phosphorescent sprawl of humanity.
But the more one listens to sacerdotal figures such as Lovelock, and the more one studies public reactions to his prophecies, the clearer it is that we are not just dealing with science (though science is a large part of it); this is partly a religious phenomenon.
Humanity has largely lost its fear of hellfire, and yet we still hunger for a structure, a point, an eschatology, a moral counterbalance to our growing prosperity. All that is brilliantly supplied by climate change. Like all the best religions, fear of climate change satisfies our need for guilt, and self-disgust, and that eternal human sense that technological progress must be punished by the gods.
And the fear of climate change is like a religion in this vital sense, that it is veiled in mystery, and you can never tell whether your acts of propitiation or atonement have been in any way successful. One sect says we must build more windfarms, and these high priests will be displeased with what Lovelock has to say. Another priestly caste curses the Government’s obsession with nuclear power – a programme Lovelock has had the courage to support.
Some scientific hierophants now tell us that trees – trees, the good guys – are the source of too much methane, and are contributing to global warming. Huh? We in the poor muddled laity scratch our heads and pray. Who is right? Who is wrong?
If Lovelock is only half-right, then we must have an immediate programme to pastoralise the global economy and reduce emissions. The paradox is that, if he is completely right, there is not a lot we can do, and we might as well enjoy our beautiful planet while we can.
Or is he completely wrong? To say that would be an offence not just against science, but against a growing world religion.
100 Comments
Climate Guy -
I read your post with interest. I hope you’re right. And I don’t care who you’re employed by, if you can muster some evidence against climate change being a fact. Then we can all relax and go back to arguing about religion.
I’d very much like to read some of this evidence. Can you suggest where I can find it?
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Climate Guy has a point or two. People generally work for oil companies for the daily crust. Even the most noble of us may find it difficult from time to time to resist pressure if the alternative is the loss of the aforesaid DC. Similarly folk in the well meaning NGOs have a vested interest in keeping the money coming in. I’ve seen this in education at various levels where initiatives that are past their sell by date or just frankly loony are kept going by those who rely on them for a job ticket. It is not oil or tobacco or motor cars that might make you less honourable than you might believe you are. It is the old necessity to keep the sprogs in shoes and so on. I’ve pulled the odd stroke of which I am not very proud.
We have another problem though. Climate science is still in its infancy and yet what we already have seems worse than rocket science because of the huge uncertainties involved. Put on top of that the learning curve required to even understand what is in the literature and I suspect that many of us are going to fall back onto finding a suitable guru. Unfortunately with the best will in the world the optimists will be influenced by their comfort zone (good expression – like it lots) and the pessimists by their discomfort zone. If we consider it from a game theory point of view with the pessimists view being incredibly more bad than the optimists view is good, and allowing each a 50% probability I guess it’s time to put more pullovers on and walk to work.
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Never mind the pictures; can somebody wrap those damn links? My monitor isn’t 40 inches wide!
One has to doubt the scientific sophistication of these studies, as their posted does not even possess rudimentary HTML skills. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
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Oh. My. God.
This is getting out of hand.
Canadian Muslims outraged, write angry letter. Rest of Canada shocked situation has escalated this far
Snip:
In his sermon during regular prayers yesterday in Calgary, the cleric urged local believers to flood Danish authorities with calls and e-mails demanding a retraction and an apology.
They’ve broken out the keyboards!
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Webmaster / Melissa / Mr Blair (you can fix anything)
Please do something about this page. It’s almost unreadable! (Your problem is that you have two header pictures of Boris side by side which are stretching the margins way beyond the limits of the average computer screen. I’ll show you the errant source code if you like)
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No, the extra picture is a response to the superwide links in the post above. If the links are edited to make them wrap or re-named Like This you’ll only have one picture.
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It is claimed that this site does not claim to be exhaustive.
As things stand it is approaching the exhausting stage. Most annoying to read without difficulty . Sorry to be a wet blanket.
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I emailed. But then, I’d be surprised if anyone is in the office standing by to make changes. Isn’t it Sunday and all good Tories are in church or at Grandma’s house for dinner?
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Raincoaster: That might well be the case in normal circles, but Melissa is not a mere mortal. I’m sure she’ll come up trumps ere long.
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Long links issue fixed!
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Thanks Wibbler, old chap !
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Raincoaster and Mac
So glad the issue was fixed – Wibbler came to the rescue in good time!
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Wibbling 24/7; leading by example, eh?
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Melissa said: Raincoaster and Mac. So glad the issue was fixed – Wibbler came to the rescue in good time!
Don’t I get a mention, then?
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PaulD, I’m the token socialist here, so like a good socialist I’ll share my name-check with you. Consider it split 50/50, although if the others start whining I’ll expect you to share it around.
Getting back to the original topic, I’m not sure if this is good news or bad news, but over on Vanity Fair I noticed an ad for Olivia Newton-John’s new resort: Gaia.
It’s fair to say I have reservations.
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Paul ID
>Webmaster / Melissa / Mr Blair (you can fix anything)
Please do something about this page.
You were of course the VERY FIRST – could send you a Boris book by way of apology for oversight if you wish…
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Gosh, I’m surrounded by all these generous people.
Raincoaster: Very kind of you but a 50/50 split would dilute Mac’s share of the credit, which isn’t very socialist.
Melissa: Very kind of you too. Not being a socialist, I accept! How is this deed to be done?
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PaulD: I readily relinquish my share, as it were: ars longa , vita brevis. Prior tempore, prior jure.
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Of course I was only referring to my share of the name-check; not being imperialistic in the slightest (except when it comes to Alaska) I would not dream of expropriating someone else’s credit.
I see, however, that Mac has one-upped me and given away ALL his credit, where I was only offering half of mine. I guess that means he’s a communist?
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Yikes, Mac – that’s stretching the O-level Latin rather too far.
Online translator gives it as: artis longa , life short. Prius transitory , prius jure.
I got the “life short” bit. Art is long? Jury saying a short prayer?
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From Legal Definitions:
He who has the precedency in time has the advantage in right, is the maxim of the law; not that time, considered barely in itself, can make any such difference, but because the whole power over a thing being secured to one person, this bars all others from obtaining a title to it afterwards.
…
Among common creditors, he who has the oldest lien has the preference; it being a maxim both of law and equity, qui prior est tempore, potior est jure.
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Exactly as I thought. Well that’s all clear then!
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An off the cuff translation , as I meant it would be : In the general run of things ‘life is too short , art lasts beyond that’. And of course , ‘who comes first , gets the best bits’: perhaps better said as ‘ first come , first served’.
I am a dyed in the wool Tory, but a fair one ,( I hope)
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Does that mean you’re not a natural Tory?
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Even a natural blond needs a touch up tint now and then ; or so I’m told.
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Wasn’t it Marilyn Monroe who said that those who choose to become Tory are more Tory than those born that way? So I suppose that those who are both born and chosen Tories are just that much Torier.
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Mark Gamon wrote about PRT (personal rapid transport)
Sadly, it’s not just lazy politicians (local and national) who might turn out to be resistant. It’s also the great and glorious British public. The tricky part for a lot of us might be the fact that you have to get yourself from your house to the PRT Stop. Yuck. Cold? Rain? Walking? Much easier to just hop into my over-heated stress-inducing obesity-building three-quarters empty pollutemobile instead. Besides, I wouldn’t want to disappoint the car manufacturers’ shareholders, now would I?
I’m not so sure, Mark. In congested London, which would you prefer?
a) bus
b) tube
c) car
d) taxi
e) a private pod that whisked you to your destination at 30+mph non-stop for £1 – while also using a fraction of the energy of traditional methods and in near silence?
That is what PRT promises, and with determination on all sides it could happen.
I don’t buy the idea that we should all stay at home wearing an extra pullover and eating potatoes as a “cure” for the looming energy/environment crisis.
Technology can be used to improve on what we already have but use wastefully. Wind, tide and nuclear energy, ‘fourth wave’ transport systems and greater use of modern communications to reduce travel would together bring a huge cut in our fossil fuel demands and their dirty emissions.
Urban light transport is a start; who knows where it could develop from there? And by light transport I don’t mean the Docklands Light Railway, which is still heavy engineering by another name. Nor do I mean trams, whose track layout is highly restricted and whose hundreds of passengers have to stop each time one person wants to get off.
A big company I know has one computer with a dial-up modem between 40 people. If anything needs to be said involving more than a few words, a small army of suits must dive into their Mondeos at 6.30 the next morning and struggle around the M25 for yet another pointless meeeting. This ‘culture’ has to be discouraged.
Apart from a lack of vision by the gutless politicians of our age, their tail wags the engineering dog. Having followed the PRT story, I find it deeply worrying that any ground-breaking project like this is forced to place yesterday’s local policies and the appeasement of minority and disabled groups above the primary purpose of getting people from A to B as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Did Brunel start with a brief to make his bridges “comply with an integrated transport policy”, wheelchair-friendly and acceptable to non-English speakers? No he did not. This might sound terribly heartless but it isn’t. The simple fact is, as soon as you put secondary considerations first, the grand plan is strangled by issues that can be dealt with later.
One of the few good things the Fat Controller has done in his wretched reign as DPM is bring in higher insulation standards for new houses and encourage off-site construction – all good energy-saving stuff. The he spoils it all with more ludicrous regulations, including a ban on wiring your own garden shed.
Quite enough for one day!
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PaulD
You’ve nearly sold me a pod – now tell me what it is and how it works. I’m intrigued!
The story about the modem is to the point. I really wonder if the perceived need to be at so many meetings in person is just modern vanity though. I send my apologies in for loads of meetings now and get on with some work in my shed. The organisation doesn’t seem to have suffered. In fact e-mail or discussion boards allows people to develop ideas more carefully, interleaved with other work. No pressure to finish a meeting because it’s nearly lunchtime, or worse still, continue it! Less alpha posturing (male or female).
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The current debate on global warming is like a religion. First the Earth is made into an entity with a purpose that can take revenge on humanity, which is plainly ridiculous. The earth is a complex system but it does not have feelings of revenge!Next any view that is against the global warming orthodoxy is considered irrational, irreponsible and funded by the oil companies. The term ‘preventing climate change’ is moronic, as the climate will change with or without human intervention, as billions of years of earth history has shown. The last religious element is that we have to be punished to atone for our sins. This means cutting down on air and car travel, sustainable development and the completely bonkers idea of replacing our reliable energy sources with alternative energy. Finally the global warming religion supports a powerful priesthood in the shape of the UN, EU, IPCC and environmental groups. Do you think it is wise for David Cameron to buy into this nonsense?
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Tanveer, you were winning me over when – clang: “the completely bonkers idea of replacing our reliable energy sources with alternative energy”.
I’m afraid your case falls to bits right there. Reliable sources? They may be at the moment, but check this out http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/
OK it may be another panic reaction, urban myth, call it what you will, but the reality is that oil-based fuels WILL run low to the point where they are no longer economically viable. We are already feeling the pinch – look at the current price of petrol or, even more staggering, the cost of central heating oil.
Watch any science fiction film. Do you see them pouring unleaded four-star into their travel craft (or, dare I say, their Personal Rapid Transport systems)? No, the stuff has run out and technology has provided alternatives.
Jack, here’s that PRT link again if you’re interested http://www.atsltd.co.uk/
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the climate will change with or without human intervention, as billions of years of earth history has shown.
Well, exactly. It’s been some 20,000 or 50,000 years since the end of the last ice age, after which sea levels rose (from memory) some 150 metres, thanks to all the melt water. What caused that? Early human wood burn cooking? Really? What caused the last interglacial, and the one before that?
I’ve not seen an explanation for these glaciations, or the brief interglacial periods in between. I suspect that nobody really has any idea what triggered them. But there would seem to be a law of science that the less anybody knows about anything, the deeper their convictions, and the louder their assertions. And that with absolute ignorance comes absolute dogmatism.
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Beautifully put, idlex.
Jack – I hope you haven’t attempted electrically wiring your office (shed). JP will have you banged up quick as his own right hook.
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I’m not so sure these pods are doable. Wasn’t the Segway supposed to solve these problems too? Turned out nobody wanted to look like a cross between George Jetson and the Impressive Clergyman from Princess Bride, all while being stuck out in the weather anyway. And they rely on electricity, which does, after all, have to come from somewhere. Coal? Hydro power?
It’s the centralized sources of electricity that will make the biggest change in the coming century, particularly as vehicles switch over to batteries. You’re right, oil is running out rapidly enough that the search for alternatives is one of the most competitive fields of science.
I think there are many possible solutions to mass transit, but most of them do involve the masses, not individual transports. The real impetus for things like the pod is the shrinking sense of individual autonomy and the growing sense of alienation in the cities. If you could rely on the other people on the tube not to fall asleep and drool on your shoulder, or not to squash you, that “Ugh, not the commute” reaction wouldn’t exist. There are buses in this town I take and buses I don’t, and the clientele is what makes that decision for me. The solution to mass transit lies, I suggest, primarily in instilling some sense of public order, which is social engineering at a very high level indeed.
I do like the jeepneys they have in Manila; these are converted jeep/vans that go up and down the major streets. You wave to flag one down, hop on, negotiate a fare and away you go. Bang on the roof when it’s time for your stop. Because they hold up to 20 people at a time, and drive all day, their fuel efficiency is huge (the stop-and-start action is the gas-sucker). And because there’s always a driver who owns the jeepney and is responsible for keeping it running, he doesn’t tolerate any nonsense, so order is kept. It was by far the most pleasant transportation I have experienced outside of the Vancouver Skytrain. Actually, given some of the Skytrain-rider’s behaviour, I should probably give that a re-think.
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Privacy is certainly one attraction of PRT, but the avantages go way beyond that. All conventional forms of public transport require scores or even hundreds of people to stop whenever one wants to get on or off. This makes it much slower, the only cure being to position the stops further apart which, in turn, increases the distance one has to walk to one’s destination, so making the system even less appealing. It is also highly wasteful of fuel; a low-friction carriage cruising on the level at 30mph uses little energy.
Now you’ve got me going, there are few sights more irritating than the rural buses in our area. Every time I get stuck behind one, belching out diesel smoke as it grinds along at 18mph with a snake of traffic behind, I can’t help noticing that they are always empty. Correction – I did see a passenger on one a few months ago.
Why do local councils continue to subsidise these monsters? There must be a better way.
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PaulD – don’t get me wrong. I entirely approve of the pods.
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Chaps
There was a report this morning that Sweden is going for a non-oil economy in 15 years. I’ve checked the date and its not 1/4 (4/1 for our US colleagues) so is this possible?
Mark
As far as energy production is concerned isn’t the point that we want such processes to not produce CO2 or at least to trap the CO2 produced. (I used to think that global warming was thought to be due to the wasted heat from all our artificial energy production and use but I don’t think that counts does it?).
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PaulD:
Buses are essential to anyone living in a rural area who has no car (like most of the rapidly increasing population of rural poor).
I understand your point that an ENORMOUS bus is wasted on many rural routes (and wont really fit down most country roads), which is why many companies run a slighter larger form of minibus on these routes.
Not knowing where in the UK you are, I can’t speak for your local companies. Here in South Oxon your words are false (and, should you live round here, i urge you to be more observant – I have yet to see a completely empty bus!).
Not all of us are rich enough to be able to afford private transport.
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Of course, Psimon. There has to be some kind of service for the “rural poor”. All I’m saying is that full-size buses are wholly inappropriate when demand is low, as it is on this route in north Essex.
Glad to hear things are better on South Oxon. Perhaps these minibuses are used more because they are more flexible, QED.
Just imagine, though, if you had a PRT system running through your village with a private pod virtually on demand. And imagine how many Jag-driving commuters would abandon their cars for a cheaper and faster alternative. Almost all, I guess.
Mark: Computer models designed by Bristol University (a partner in the “Ultra” PRT scheme) show that, with a well planned city system, waiting time would be zero for the great majority of travellers.
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Well put, Boris.
There certainly is more than a passing resemblance between the current brand of global-warming enviromentalism and religion. Which is surprising – as saving the planet surely offers no direct benefit to oneself, save a smug feeling of self-righteousness, but only to the future population of the world. It’s deferred happiness gone a step too far!
Really I think there are far more pressing immediate issues – after all, in the long run, as Keynes said in a different context, “we’re all dead”.
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Extend your word power with Boris Johnson
Wordlist 1
Followers of Boris Johnson MP, of which I am one only in the sense that I read his blog, are either extremely literate or in possession of a hefty dictionary. His rants are a carnival of words and as the vivid and beautiful march by, so do …
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Did I , or did I not , read this very week , that the feared global warming we are discussing , is , even as we speak, in fact at its very zenith, and by 2012, it shall be reversed?
This “factual report”, based on supposedly scientifically proven periodical solar radiation arrhythmia, extracted from some Continental climatologists studies, stated that a mini ice age would in fact have begun by that date .
I don’t normally suffer from delusions : I read my Daily Rubbish, along with millions of others, and I find that I am torn between two disparate branches of an incomplete and argumentative science. To fry or to freeze , that is the question.
HELP!
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Geek-pie said:
>Is this the same Boris Johnson who in 1998 was allegedly overhead talking to fellow public-schoolboy Darius Guppy about beating up a journalist?
Welcome, geek-pie. Your style of penetrating, analytical debate is just what’s needed on this site.
Tell us: Did they actually beat him up?
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I noticed in yesterday’s Independent the obituary of Professor Sir Nicholas Shackleton, professor of Quaternary Palaeoclimatology at Cambridge, who identified ice-age cycles. Some extracts:
…In 1947, [nobel laureate] Harold Urey had published calculations which predicted that the heavy isotope of oxygen (18-O) would be fractionated from its light isotope (16-O) as a function of temperature. He suggested that this would provide a method to estimate temperatures in the geological past…
Among his team was Cesar Emiliani, who, because of his background in micropalaeontology, went on to apply the techniques developed to tiny micro-fossils… Emiliani is often thought of as the founder of palaeoceanography…
Shackleton made oxygen isotope measurements on shells of fossil foraminifera…and saw a fatal flaw in Emiliani’s work…
Another very important application was to place within a known timescale the fluctuating oxygen isotope signals that Emiliani and Shackleton had defined, by generating a long core record that extended to a reversal of the Earth’s magnetic field seen in sediment cores and known to be 780,000 years ago.
This set the stage for the most important application of the oxygen isotope method: the reconstruction of the history of global ice volume through the ice ages. Milutin Milankovitch in the 1920s had hypothesised that ice ages were caused by changes in distribution of solar radiation at the Earth’s surface in turn driven by changes in movement in the Earth’s orbit…
The result was the famous 1976 paper in Science (“Variations in the Earth’s orbit: pacemaker of the ice ages”) where they showed that the three periodicities with which the Earth’s orbit changes (100,000, 40,000, and 21,000 years) were all present just as predicted.
This clear recognition of orbital control is now revolutionising the whole of stratigraphy…
All very interesting, but I noted that Shackleton had discovered some mistake in his predecessors work, and that this is a new science, barely 30 years old, and still having revolutionary effects. How much faith ought we to have in these new sciences, particularly when their founders have already been shown to have made mistakes? Not very much, I suggest.
True, it is Science, but it’s a developing science, and very likely one that is strapped for research cash. I mean, who is really all that interested in ice ages? Nobody much – until you predict that the next ice age is imminent any day. I bet that guarantees research grants. The same is true of Lovelock. Another new science, and another new (but opposite) imminent doom-laden scenario.
Do we freeze or do we fry? I don’t know. Instead I suspect that we’re caught in a protection racket turf war between freeze science and fry science.
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And it looks like, at the moment, fry science has the upper hand. Today’s Independent (by which I mean yesterday’s) has Global warming: the ‘tipping point’ on its front page, and a page full of graphs on page 2, towards the end of which the following caveat appears:
Some scientists have been reluctant to talk about the overall global warming effect of all the greenhouse gases taken together, because there is another consideration – the fact that the ‘aerosol’, or band of dust in the atmosphere from industrial pollution, actually reduces the warming.
As Professor Shine stresses, there is enormous uncertainty about the degree to which this is happening, so making calculations of the overall warming effect problematic.
Lovely name that, for one of the fry scientists: Professor Shine.
And it could well be that Melissa, jetting off to some Alpine ski resort, may have helped to put just enough extra aerosol into the atmosphere to defer our imminent frite.
I knew we could count on Melissa.
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Perhaps she’s gone to study the ultraviolet differential at altitude? We shall have to ask her about her sunburn when she comes back.
OT: Carl Sagan actually theorized that the best way to deal with global warming was to instigate an artificial (and peaceful) nuclear winter. Don’t tell me that man wasn’t a drinker!
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No. But he smoked pot.
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Now there’s a turn up for the book, An acolyte of Nicotiana tabacum calling the ‘pot’ black.
Many moons ago, so many that I don’t care to count, there was an American semi-comical band known as Red Ingle and the Natural 7, which made a certain song immensely famous.
Hillbilly was their style,a little like some of Spike Jones stuff: however if they were new today, they would probably be grouped under the title ‘Way out Left’ . The song was “Cigareets and Whusky and Wild Wild Women”, and one has to be a certain age to remember it, unless one is an anorak: which makes me…… ?
BTW could it possibly be that my sighting, on the 9th Inst.in my Daily Rubbish, about the possibility of a reversal in Global warming predated the one in the Inde. of the 11th Inst.? If so : naughty lax Inde.reporter! Shine on Harvest moon. If anyone should have the slightest interest, I could post the words to the Ciggie aria! LMK
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Now there’s a turn up for the book, An acolyte of Nicotiana tabacum calling the ‘pot’ black.
Did I say I had anything against pot?
I was simply pointing out that Carl Sagan was a well-known devotee of that particular herb, and not well-known as a devotee of the bottle.
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And I haven’t seen an Indie article on a coming ice age -just an obituary of one of the ice age scientists (Shackleton).
No, the Indie is big on global warming. And indeed big on anything that will give its readers a heart attack on first sight. The day after the Shackleton obituary, they ran another front page global warming doom shock story. Not a peep about Shackleton and co in it, of course.
I’m not sure why I buy the rag. But I’ve been through every single broadsheet over the years (Times, Guardian, Telegraph, Independent) and have ended up thinking exactly he same about them all.
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>> However you look at things, fundamentally we are only >> temporary tenants of Earth. We as a race need to move >> out of our safe Petri dish environment and explore the >> suburbs of the galaxy to find a new place to live.
We are all gypsies now…
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