Decades ago, The Older Brother opined that when the loony lefties want to violate someone\u2019s constitutional rights, they just claim it\u2019s to save the children. Then if you oppose the loony lefties, they claim you don\u2019t care about children.<\/p>\n
Apparently that strategy was limited in its usefulness, because eventually the loony lefties replaced \u201cit\u2019s to save the children!\u201d with \u201cit\u2019s to save the planet!\u201d That\u2019s why Dr. Patrick Moore, a co-founder of Greenpeace, eventually quit the organization. He saw environmentalism being hijacked (as he put it) by the political and social causes of the left.\u00a0 Science took a back seat to politics.\u00a0 As Dr. Moore put it in an essay he wrote back in March<\/a>:<\/p>\n There is a powerful convergence of interests among key elites that support the climate \u201cnarrative.\u201d Environmentalists spread fear and raise donations; politicians appear to be saving the Earth from doom; the media has a field day with sensation and conflict; science institutions raise billions in grants, create whole new departments, and stoke a feeding frenzy of scary scenarios; business wants to look green, and get huge public subsidies for projects that would otherwise be economic losers, such as wind farms and solar arrays. Fourth, the Left sees climate change as a perfect means to redistribute wealth from industrial countries to the developing world and the UN bureaucracy.<\/span><\/p>\n You\u2019ve got to hand it to the loons; they know a useful weapon when they see it. I mean, heck, it\u2019s one thing not to care about children, but who wants to be accused of not caring about THE ENTIRE PLANET?!<\/p>\n Want to achieve your lifelong goal of transferring wealth from rich countries to poor countries? No problem. Just claim the rich countries are damaging the poor countries by warming the planet, then demand compensation. The U.N. will happily back you on the idea. Want to use the power of government to discourage people from eating meat? Again, no problem. Just claim that the meat-eaters are causing global warmi\u2014er, climate change<\/em>.<\/p>\n If you\u2019ve read any of my posts about The Anointed, you\u2019ve likely already spotted the pattern. But as a refresher, here\u2019s how The Anointed go about their business (as described by Thomas Sowell in his terrific book The Vision of the Anointed<\/em>):<\/p>\n So with that in mind, let\u2019s take a peek at an article on the BBC News site titled Can eating less meat help reduce climate change?<\/a><\/p>\n As the Paris Conference of the Parties (COP21) draws near, the international spotlight is more focused on climate change than at any time since the Copenhagen talks of 2009.<\/span><\/p>\n But amid all the talk of decarbonising energy and transport systems, one crucial area remains in the shadows. The livestock sector produces about 15% of global greenhouse gases, roughly equivalent to all the exhaust emissions of every car, train, ship and aircraft on the planet.<\/span><\/p>\n Wait a second \u2026 that would mean every car, train, ship and aircraft on the planet combined produce just 15% of greenhouses gases, right? And yet you people expect me to believe if you force me to buy fluorescent bulbs for my house, we\u2019ll stop global warmi\u2014 er, climate change<\/em>?<\/p>\n Who is eating all this meat?<\/span><\/p>\n Bad people, no doubt.<\/p>\n The US has one of the highest levels of meat consumption in the world at about 250g per person per day, almost four times the amount deemed healthy by experts.<\/span><\/p>\n That would explain why Native Americans who lived primarily on buffalo meat were always dropping dead of heart disease and cancer.<\/p>\n At the other end of the scale, Indians average less than 10g of meat per day.<\/span><\/p>\n They also have one of the highest rates of heart disease in the world. Somebody should inform those health experts of yours.<\/p>\n Left unchecked, shifting diets, coupled with a growing population, would see global consumption increase by more than 75% by 2050. What is being done about it? Very little.<\/span><\/p>\n Mean consumption is unchecked?!\u00a0<\/em> You mean nobody is applying force to stop it?!\u00a0 Oh, nooooooo! Please, tell me somebody in government is going to do something!!<\/em><\/p>\n Why not? Governments fear a backlash from voters over interference in such a personal choice as diet.<\/span><\/p>\n Naww, they shouldn\u2019t fear a backlash if they try to take away our meat. Armed revolution, maybe, but not a simple backlash.\u00a0 But what would be really cool is if governments left this whole thing “unchecked”\u00a0not out of fear, but because they decided it’s none of their business how much meat we eat.<\/p>\n And because public awareness of the link between diet and climate change is so low, there is very little pressure on governments to do anything about it.<\/span><\/p>\n Boy, I just don\u2019t know what\u2019s wrong with the voters these days. You\u2019d think they\u2019d stop worrying about high unemployment, runaway government debts, runaway college costs, insurance premiums being doubled because of the “Affordable” Care Act, terrorism, etc., etc., and put that whole meat-causes-global-warmi-er-climate-change<\/em> issue at the top of their \u201cgovernment needs to do something!!\u201d list.<\/p>\n Are there any grounds for optimism? Yes.<\/span><\/p>\n You mean governments are going to finally admit they\u2019re generally incompetent and stop mucking around in our lives?<\/p>\n Even though COP21 is highlighting the need for climate action and, though a deal seems likely, the pledges made in advance of the summit would put us on a path to warming of about 3C by the end of the century, leaving much work to be done if we are to get to 2C.<\/span><\/p>\n Riiiiiiiight. Because those models that predict worldwide temperatures decades into the future have turned out to be so darned accurate.<\/p>\n But reining in excessive meat consumption could close the gap by as much as a quarter and will represent an attractive strategy for governments in need of credible and affordable solutions.<\/span><\/p>\n I\u2019m sorry, but for a second there, I thought you put the words credible<\/em> and affordable<\/em> in the same sentence with governments<\/em> \u2013 you know, like the government that gave us the Food Pyramid and the \u201cAffordable\u201d Care Act.\u00a0 Surely I was mistaken.<\/p>\n But reining in excessive meat consumption could close the gap by as much as a quarter and will represent an attractive strategy for governments in need of credible and affordable solutions.<\/span><\/p>\n Head. Bang. On. Desk.<\/strong><\/p>\n Governments should seize this opportunity.<\/span><\/p>\n If seizing the opportunity means seizing more taxpayer money, you\u2019ll have no problem selling them on the idea.<\/p>\n The first priority is to increase public awareness – both to allow people to make informed choices about what they eat and to build support for further action.<\/span><\/p>\n Ah, I see.\u00a0 So you’re not advocating for the use of force.\u00a0 You\u2019re all about allowing us to make our own choices. Well, no problem, then.<\/p>\n But it is clear that information campaigns alone will not suffice. <\/span><\/p>\n Uh … meaning?<\/p>\n Governments should use the full range of policy levers available to them.<\/span><\/p>\n Doncha just love the Orwellian rhetoric of the loony left? We need information campaigns so people can make informed choices \u2013 and then we need to force them to make the decisions we know are best.<\/em><\/p>\n Changing the food served in public organisations – to offer a greater share of vegetarian and vegan options – would provide a boost to sustainable suppliers and issue a powerful signal to the millions of people who eat in public offices, schools, the armed forces, hospitals and prisons.<\/span><\/p>\n And when the \u201cpowerful signal\u201d doesn\u2019t do the trick \u2026<\/p>\n Price reform will also be needed to reflect environmental costs and incentivise behaviour change at the scale needed.<\/span><\/p>\n In other words: @#$% FREE CHOICE! WE NEED TO TAX THE @#$% OUT OF MEAT SO PEOPLE WILL EAT LESS OF IT.<\/p>\n Will the public accept government intervention in our food choices? Focus groups carried out by Chatham House in four countries suggested that as long as the public could see a strong rationale for change, they would come to accept government intervention on diets.<\/span><\/p>\n Great. Fabulous. Awesome. Individual rights? Naww, who the heck needs those? Ya see, if we can convince most people that taxing the @#$% out of meat is a good idea, then it\u2019s okay \u2026 even if it means people who don\u2019t want to eat less meat have to cut back because they can\u2019t afford it anymore. Remember, folks, when The Anointed impose their will on you, it\u2019s for your own good \u2013 and the good of the planet, of course.<\/p>\n What’s more, the public appears to expect that governments will take action in the public good.<\/span><\/p>\n Excuse me while I go laugh my ass off at that one \u2026.<\/p>\n HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!!<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2026 Okay, I\u2019m back.<\/p>\n With a strong enough signal from governments and the media about why we need to change our eating habits, the public is likely to come to accept initially unpopular policies.<\/span><\/p>\n Riiiiiiight. Once The Anointed in government and The Anointed in the media convince enough people that eating meat is bad, they\u2019ll want<\/em> you to use force to make them eat less of it. I mean, it\u2019s not as if they\u2019d just make that informed decision for themselves.<\/p>\n Now if you\u2019ll excuse me, I\u2019m going to make an informed decision and choose to eat a burger for dinner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Decades ago, The Older Brother opined that when the loony lefties want to violate someone\u2019s constitutional rights, they just claim it\u2019s to save the children. Then if you oppose the… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government-foolishness","category-the-anointed"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fathead-movie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fathead-movie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fathead-movie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fathead-movie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fathead-movie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8472"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.fathead-movie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8472\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8478,"href":"https:\/\/www.fathead-movie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8472\/revisions\/8478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fathead-movie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fathead-movie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fathead-movie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n