I have been trying for the last few days to discover a coherent logic towards my feelings on man’s relationship with his environment. This is proving not to be simple.
The process started when I heard on World Service radio a gentleman from the International Panel on Climate Change discussing their latest report. As you know, I tend to accept the established opinion on climate change, and rather take the view that if all our industrial activity were not affecting the atmosphere, that would be strange.
But what struck me was that the gentleman said that a pause in warming for the last fifteen years was not significant, as fifteen years was a blip in processes that last over millennia.
Well, that would certainly be very true if you are considering natural climate change. But we are not – we are considering man-made climate change. In terms of the period in which the scale of man’s industrial activity has been having a significant impact on the environment, surely fifteen years is a pretty important percentage of that period? Especially as you might naturally imagine the process to be cumulative – fifteen years at the start when nothing much happened would be more explicable.
Having tucked away that doubt, I started to try to think deeper. Man is, of course, himself a part of nature. Anything man does on this planet is natural to this planet. I do not take the view man should not change his environment – otherwise I should not be sitting in a house. The question is rather, are we inadvertently making changes to the environment to our own long term detriment?
That rejection of what you might call the Gaia principle – that the environmental status quo is an end in itself – has ramifications. It is hard to conceptualise our relationship with gases or soil, but easier in terms of animals. I am not a vegetarian – I am quite happy that we farm and eat cattle, for example – and you might argue that the cattle are pretty successful themselves, symbiotic survivors of a kind. Do I think other species have a value in themselves? Is there any harm in killing off a species of insect, other than the fact that biodiversity may be reduced in ways that remove potential future advantages to man, or there may be knock on consequences we know not of that damage man somehow? I am not quite sure, but in general I seem in practice to take the view that exploitation of other species and substantial distortion of prior ecological balance to suit men’s needs is fine, so presumably the odd extinction is fine too, unless it damages man long term.
I strongly disapprove of hurting animals for sport, and want to see them have the best quality of life possible, preferably wild. But I like to eat and wear them. I am not quite sure why it is OK to wear animal skin on our feet or carry it as a bag, but not to wear “fur”. What is the difference, other than that leather has had the hair systematically rubbed off as part of the process of making it? A trivial issue, but one that obviously relates to the deeper questions.
Yes I draw a distinction between animals which are intelligent and those which are not. I would not eat whale or dolphin. But this does not seem entirely logical – animal intelligence and sensibility is evidently a continuum. Many animals mourn, for example. The BBC World Service radio (my main contact with the outside world at present – I have just today found my very, very weak internet connection just about works if I try it at 5am) informed me a couple of days ago that orang-utans have the ability to think forward and tell others where they will be the next day. Why cattle and fish are daft enough to eat is hard to justify.
I quite appreciate the disbenefits to man of radically changing his environment, even if it could be done without long term risk to his existence – the loss of beauty, of connection to seasons and forms of behaviour with which we evolved. But I regard those as important only as losses to man, not because nature is important intrinsically. In short, if I thought higher seas, no polar bears and no glaciers would not hurt man particularly, I don’t suppose I would have much to say against it. I fear the potential repercussions are too dangerous to man. At base, I don’t actually care about a polar bear.
“Glenn Greenwald”
http://paulcraigroberts.org/2013/10/04/glenn-greenwald-destroys-bbc-prestitute/
Jonathan Cook is on a roll. Here he is today on journalists and their standards. He got out of the Guardian and is now self employed.
‘Why you shouldn’t trust journalists 6 October 2013
It’s easy to forget that journalists are more – or maybe less – than their public face: their writing, reporting and columns. Behind these figures of gravitas and moral authority hide flawed, vulnerable human beings, who worry about covering the monthly school bill or paying off their large mortgages.
I say this as an introduction to the case of Mehdi Hasan, the leftwing political editor of the Huffington Post in the UK. Hasan stands accused of hypocrisy over his trenchant criticisms of the rightwing British tabloid the Daily Mail. He and many others have attacked the Mail for its ugly campaign to discredit the current leader of the Labour Party, Ed Miliband, over his father’s politics. Ralph Miliband was a well-known Marxist academic.
/…
http://www.jonathan-cook.net/blog/2013-10-06/why-you-shouldnt-trust-journalists/
~~
I was listening to Carolyn McCall, one time CEO of the Guardian Media Group and now CEO of Easijet, on Desert Island Discs this morning.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/desert-island-discs/castaway/3b9958b8
Rather pleased with herself and has always landed on her feet it would seem. Kirsty Young the presenter was doing the fawning ‘However did you manage to do the job and have three children in succession?’ ‘I had a good team behind me’ came the reply. I bet.
Greed, chutzpah or hypocrisy? All three?
‘GMG boss McCall sweetens exit with 32% pay increase
10 June 2010
Outgoing GMG chief executive Carolyn McCall boosted her annual pay through base salary and bonus by 32% last year, from £498,000 to £658,000, despite the company posting record losses of £171m for its financial year to March 2010.
The payment, which includes a performance related bonus of £143k, comes during a year when the guardian implemented a strategic review that led to the redundancy of more than 100 staff and made public an “all staff” pay freeze for the financial year from 2009 to 2010 covered by today’s financial statement.
According to GMG results released today, the increase was not related to financial performance but “personal objectives” as judged by an independent remuneration committee.’
http://www.mediaweek.co.uk/article/1009265/gmg-boss-mccall-sweetens-exit-32-pay-increase
@Resident dissident “I have clearly defined what I and most dictionaries define as anti-semitic. You can redefine the term as meanining a pink hippotamus or whatever you wish”
…That’s strange – all the ones I’ve looked at make it perfectly clear that Semitic describes this near eastern and middle eastern region and includes speakers of many languages including Arabic, Hebrew and many others. The trusty old Oxford dictionary will confirm this for you too. Still, if you’d rather insist it has the meaning you’d rather it has then that’s your choice of course. Pink ‘hippotamus’ could be one, white elephant could be another perhaps. What use truth after all? peace is war and war is peace and all that
I wasn’t aware that I frequented anti-Semitic websites by the way – does it make your narrative easier for you if I did? I will google antineareastern+middleeasternregion.com now and try to find pointless hateful feelings towards a massively varied amount of different peoples speaking many different languages and covering a large geographic region of the world. This might be a problem seeing as I quite like Israelis, Palestinians, Syrians, Jordanians, Yemenis, Ethiopians, Maltese, Iraqis, Iranians and Lebanese
@Thesaurus – Thanks for pointing that out about Malcolm Rifkind. Oxymoronic is very in context with Resident Dissident’s incorrect take on his selective crusade.
ps- acting like a snotty prefect won’t make teacher like you more you know..
The author of this piece, Matthew Vickery, is spot on.
The Unsung Heroes in the Israeli Occupation of Palestine
by Matthew Vickery / October 6th, 2013
Only last month a military strike on Syria looked likely; today it appears that diplomacy has stalled any strike and opened up a potential space for dialogue. It was a moment that changed, if only slightly, the dynamics of the war in Syria.
A little over 200km from Damascus lies a city that is crying out for a similar change in political dynamics, yet Jerusalem currently hosting direct peace talks between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators, will not see any change in conversational space. Twenty years since the Oslo accords were signed, a fair and viable peace agreement appears to have dissipated. Indeed as the current peace talks are progressing the Israeli government is continuing to put forward plans for further settlement construction.
The unfortunate truth is that there are no negotiators on the Palestinian side, they are merely empty shells placed to sell a façade to onlookers, while the Israeli side plods along with its settlement project, continued occupation, and discriminatory policies towards Palestinians.
/..
http://dissidentvoice.org/2013/10/the-unsung-heroes-in-the-israeli-occupation-of-palestine/
Dreolin
I appreciate that you do not want to engage in ping pong – but you are missing my point which is that I have no problem with journalists holding governments to account (and that is what Greenwald and the Guardian are doing) but that doesn’t mean that they should not themselves be challenged and held to account by other journalists. I don’t think Kirsty Wark just agreeing with Greenwald and not raising the concerns raised by the Establisment would be at all enlightening or healthy – journalists are there to challenge all viewpoints not just those of the Establishment. One hand clapping is never to be encouraged.
Chris Jones
Could you please share the trusty old Oxford English Dictionary of anti-semitism with us all at your convenience – juts top demonstrate that you are not making it all up. Once you have done so I think we can both leave this matter to rest.
I suggest that you look at the A’s first as that is the first letter of Anti-semitic.
According to this guy theres’ 100% chance ISON going down.
http://astronomia.udea.edu.co/cometspage/
A 3p claim from Foxy. What a mean trougher.
Liam Fox expenses farce: Tory claims 3p for car journey of just 100 yards
5 Oct 2013 19:57
The Sunday People can reveal the penny-pinching MP who earns £66,000 a year has put in 16 miserly claims under £1 in the last financial year
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/liam-fox-claims-3p-expenses-2342861
Ben,
Yes I’d seen that. We’ll soon see if he is right. Hubble is supposed to be taking new pics soon.
There’s currently a CME heading for ISON – maybe it will just fall apart when that hits if Ferrin is correct.
Sure it wasn’t the £800k paycheck* rather than the ‘loyalty’? Pompous git.
Jeremy Paxman considered quitting Newsnight after Savile scandal
Presenter says BBC2 programme’s reputation was damaged by bad decisions, but ‘loyalty commanded that I stayed’
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/oct/04/jeremy-paxman-newsnight-savile-scandal?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487
*’Paxman, the best paid current affairs presenter, earned about £1m for his work on Newsnight and University Challenge, but a new deal signed at the end of 2010 and whose effect was felt during the last financial year, saw his income trimmed to about £800,000, firmly taking him out of the top bracket.’
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2012/jul/13/bbc-pay-cuts-million-pound-stars
Wark.
‘Media industry estimates have in the past put Wark’s earnings from the BBC at £800,000 a year, but she insists they’re far lower than that. She won’t give me a precise figure, but says her income from all sources – and she does a good deal of non-BBC work – is “south of £500,000”.’
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2010/jan/18/stephen-moss-kirsty-wark
She was a fellow director with her husband until 2006 of a company called Wark Clements Ltd.
http://www.scotsman.com/news/scotland/top-stories/tv-s-wark-paid-herself-163-200-000-as-firm-made-loss-of-163-1m-1-714908
http://companycheck.co.uk/company/SC150878/WARK-CLEMENTS–COMPANY-LIMITED/financial-accounts
She is a director of Black Pepper Media Ltd. with her husband.
http://companycheck.co.uk/company/SC217659/BLACK-PEPPER-MEDIA-LIMITED/directors-shareholders
Gaia and all that – here’s something to warm the cockles and raise the spirits on the most wonderful autumn day: blackberries and apples free from the hedgerows stewed gently and served with lashings of real custard and a dollop of Cornish (or Devon at a pinch) clotted cream.
Food of the gods. (I’ll get me coat)
This happened in July 2012 but we are told about it over a year later – a power outage lasting 90 minutes.
Devonport Dockyard loss of power ‘had nuclear implications’
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-24421402#
‘The incident, in July 2012, was regarded as code-B on the sliding scale of “severity” – code A being the most severe.
John Large, an engineer and independent nuclear analyst, said: “The loss of power was a catastrophic event, which is what happened before the Fukushima meltdown.”
According to the improvement notice the dockyard, which is operated by Babcock Marine, has until 31 March 2014 to meet its own operating rules and instructions.
No-one from the operating firm has been available for comment.’
Note that there were 50 other ‘events’ recorded in 2012.
Mary
6 Oct, 2013 – 6:58 pm
“A 3p claim from Foxy. What a mean trougher.”
Trust her not just to find the pennies in the haystack, but to bring her petty offerings here. Compared to Paxman that’s what her ‘reporting’ is worth.
And heavy reporting from the MSM by Mary tonight. Tomorrow she’ll be knocking the shit out of them!
“The unfortunate truth is that there are no negotiators on the Palestinian side, they are merely empty shells placed to sell a façade to onlookers, while the Israeli side plods along with its settlement project, continued occupation, and discriminatory policies towards Palestinians.”
Mary perhaps you would like to elaborate why the best the Palestinian side can come up with is ’empty shells’ ? Maybe we can despatch a team incorporating you, Dross and Fedup/Passerby to get off your butts and go and negotiate. Although i daresay Fedup/Passerby will be an empty condom sitting at the table, in addition to being an empty shell.
Let’s throw in my chamar friend, Captain Komode for good measure.
So the White Widow is no more. What happened there?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-24412315
She’s an elusive existential threat one minute, the next…nothing. Was she even there, at the Westgate Mall? Maybe not. Perhaps I also imagined the accidental Israeli security teams that were handily on the scene. All gone now. Sleep tight.
What a bizarre story. For a second there it looked as if the job of Evil Mastermind was going to be filled by a woman. It’s about time AQ embraced a more enlightened employment policy.
Go for it guys. Be the change.
Rose, you obviously have good taste. And i only have a home-made lemon-almond tart with Waitrose’s single bream. Remind me of Bertrand Russell writing/complaining that he had contracted double-pneumonia but had only one nurse! 🙂
But do you think today was autumn or Indian summer. Btw, not many, including our Captain Komode of The Chamar Regiment, know that the phrase has nothing to do with India. An Amerikanism (just to please Mary), derived from the Red Indians.
Villager – no villager round yer has ever eard of lemon tart with bream. Don’t sound good. Is it a furrin thing?
@ Villager:
Negotiations consists in talking, do they not? Therefore, your proposal that Komodo should be a negotiator for the Palestinians is NOT a good idea given that he comes out with expressions like “my babu friend” and “he writes like a Raj-era Hindu railway clerk”. And hasn’t even had the grace to apologise for them after being pulled up….
Chloe Smith Con Norwich North has resigned from her Cabinet Office post, ahead of a reshuffle.
Surprised Cameron hung on so long.
Chloe Smith’s Newsnight humiliation is No 10’s fault, say senior Tories
Inexperienced minister struggled to answer basic questions about George Osborne’s deferral of fuel duty rise
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2012/jun/27/chloe-smith-newsnight-humiliation-tories
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bddWaHuxTzc
[Jon/Mod: Deleted item from Habbabkuk, sock-puppetting as Thesaurus, and focussing again on Mary]
Rose I am all for your apples and blackberries. What a gorgeous colour they make. Nature’s bounty but as I have said before I hardly ever see anyone gathering blackberries these days but they pay £1 for half a pound of cultivated ones in a plastic container.
Hilarious typo you picked up there btw. 🙂
Yes, Thesaurus and thank you and Anon for highlighting and your support. An outright racist remark left to ride without a SINGLE observation from the El Murrayistas, leave alone Jon/Mod. To think that I was accused of ‘ageism’ when i once referred to Mary as ‘old’. One has got to laugh this off. 🙂
Its different strokes for for different folks here i’m afraid.
“Hilarious typo you picked up there btw.”
Anything to make a sourpuss laugh! 🙂
“Chloe Smith Con Norwich North has resigned from her Cabinet Office post, ahead of a reshuffle.”
Incomplete post Mary — no salary or PAYE data. Thought it was pay-day? 🙂
“Nature’s bounty but as I have said before I hardly ever see anyone gathering blackberries these days but they pay £1 for half a pound of cultivated ones in a plastic container.”
Hard to see when you have your feet under the table in front of your old PC all day. Anyway glad to see that the blackberries would fit in your shopping list of 30 items for 20 pounds…just about out. Would you rather them to be wrapped in the Daily Mirror? 😉
It , instead of out. Just to give Mary another laugh and raise her spirits, despondent about the ’empty shells’.
Who’s running the show?
Not the government, it seems –
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/oct/06/cabinet-gchq-surveillance-spying-huhne
The upper echelons of the intelligence services?
How?
Possibly by blackmail –
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6m1XbWOfVk
A demonstration of how far the Zionists will go to silence support for Palestine.
From Sonia Karkar, Australians for Palestine.
Dear Supporters,
In June this year, just after we notified everyone of the Israeli propaganda
ANZAC stamps issued by Australia Post, my personal email client was
corrupted to the extent that most of the emails in our AFP list were changed
to replace people’s names with the word “Shaheed”. To this day, I have no
idea how that was even possible. But we have moved on and are continuing
the good fight.
It has been a painstakingly slow process going through a few thousand emails
to try and correct this against the hard copies, made all the more difficult
because of many personal commitments in my own life this year. This is why
you have not been receiving any articles or updates since June and why many
people have been writing and asking if they have dropped off our email
lists.
I think I have now restored most of the emails, but would really appreciate
your help in verifying that your emails are indeed correct. It would also
be really helpful if you could indicate your country of residence, and in
Australia, your state. In this way, we can ensure that event and campaign
notices can be directed to those who are in a position to attend or be
involved.
/..
In solidarity,
Sonja Karkar
Editor and co-convener
Australians for Palestine
Melbourne- Australia