Well, why not? I mean, you only have to look at his smug, smiley face in the post below to know that he was the school swot despite being as thick as John Prescott, than which, etc, etc. If I had been at his school, he would have been the one whose packed lunch I would have nicked for no other reason than the obvious fact that he was a tosser. Of course, being the school bully does require some mates, er, just in case the victim hits back, but happily on this occasion I do have a pair of them.
First, there is the pugnacious Rod Liddle in 'The Speccie' who clobbers all those 'cataclysmics' like Monbiot. Given that little Georgie indulges himself in some psycho-babble, 'my mate Rod' gives a little of it back:
If somehow it could be proved tomorrow that climate change was a huge con, these people [true believers like little Georgie] wouldn’t be relieved — they’d feel robbed of something intrinsic to themselves.
He speculates on where this 'cataclysmic tendency' comes from:
[N]ormal, apparently sane people seem to wish for catastrophe too: they are determined that calamity will befall us all, and are furious when they are gainsaid.
He continues:
[Y]ou hear it every time a ‘climate-change’ evangelist opens his or her mouth — and I wonder if ecological disaster is an upmarket version of the 2012 scenario [some loonies believe the world will end in that year!] a catastrophe the chattering class of every Western country have eagerly bought into, a politically correct Armageddon which requires us to be endlessly self-flagellating (and even that, we are lectured, will not avert the crisis, nor even much lessen its impact).
My other mate in this disgraceful bullying incident is Don Boudreaux from the always excellent 'Cafe Hayek'. He sent (yet another) letter to the WaPo provoked this time by some moaning Minnie (perhaps little George's American cousin?) who had written in a state of panic weeping over the inevitable end of the world because of over-population. 'My mate Don' gave him a smack:
For example, the earth’s population today is seven times larger than it was in 1800, and yet most people today live lives that are far more sanitary, healthy, long, and rich in experiences than were those of all but the most privileged potentates and pooh-bahs before the industrial age.
Then he gives him a kick:
Each hectare of land now feeds more mouths and clothes more bodies than ever before. Water and air in capitalist countries are cleaner than they were a century ago, or even just 50 years ago – and still getting cleaner. Available supplies of oil and most other raw materials show no signs of being depleted, despite the fact that today we use absolutely larger quantities of these materials.
He describes this assault on little George's 'cousin' as "Simonizing", this being a reference to the late Julian Simon. Back in 1980, Simon offered a bet to that great doomsdayer, Paul Ehrlich, who had written a book telling us all that it was only a matter of time, very short time, before the world ended because over-population would consume all natural resources. Simon invited Ehrlich to choose any five commodity metals and then bet him that the prices would fall rather than rise due to scarcity as you would expect them to do under Ehrlich's prophesy. Ten years later, Ehrlich sent Simon a cheque for $576.07.
Simon died in 1998 but Ehrlich, the inventer (and writer) of The Population Bomb is still with us and still parading up and down with his banner warning us that "The End of the World is Nigh". One of his great friends and supporters is John Holdren who is - hang on to your hat - now the White House adviser to President Obama on Science and Technology. You couldn't make it up - but I bet he could!
Comments