Chronic climate anxiety. A Potsdam research associate writes how she copes with the psychological despair and distress she suffers because of her perceived approaching climate catastrophe.
Distressed Potsdam IASS research associate Irene Müller. Image cropped from: IASS.
Over at the blog site of the Potsdam Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS), research associate Irene Müller writes in an essay titled “How climate scientists feel”:
A catastrophe is rolling our way. A catastrophe that mankind could prevent, and we aren’t succeeding in changing our selfish lifestyles which are partly responsible for this catastrophe.”
Potsdam: hotbed of hotheads
Readers first should note that over the past decades, Potsdam-Germany has become a hot-bed for climate hot-heads, ultra-alarmist institutes and hysteria concerning the future of the planet.
The East German city is also home to the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), which until just recently was headed by Prof. Hans-Joachim Schellnhuber. It also is the workplace for climate alarmism hothead Prof. Stefan Rahmstorf.
All climate scientists working in Potsdam are convinced that climate change is mostly man-made and will soon be lethal. They also believe the vivid visions of a planetary collapse that their models routinely produce. In Potsdam there are neither skeptic scientists, nor lukewarmers – there are only the white-hot alarmist ones.
Their task: produce dramatic and alarmist future climate scenarios.
Aim: German energy purity
And to help implement the long-shot rescue from the claimed coming climate Armageddon, the German government has set up the Potsdam Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies, mentioned above. It will assist in ushering Prof. Schellnhuber’s masterplan for the “Great Transformation” of society – worldwide.
The aim of The Great Transformation is to end mankind’s “fossil-fuel metabolism” and to transition it to one of energy purity.
Convinced planet rapidly going to hell
In her IASS blog essay, Ms. Müller writes: “We’ve known for many years that man-made emissions cause climate change. Moreover the number of jet flights is increasing steadily.” Even worse: “In addition to air traffic, also the consumption of goods, automobile traffic and emissions” are rising as well.
All the capitalistic profligacy, she says, means “there will be more storms, and they will be more violent, and that they are coming sooner.” As evidence of this she cites a single tornado that was spotted last May in Germany. Sadly, this is the education level one needs in order to attain a masters degree in Germany.
Ms. Müller earned her masters degree in Sustainability, Society and the Environment from CAU Kiel, Germany, and holds a bachelor in Social Sciences from the Humboldt University Berlin.
Müller then writes there is going to be more heavy rains, flooding, destroyed homes, poor harvests, refugees, droughts, political conflicts, species extinctions, pollution, poisons, pesticides and herbicides and lost ecosystems. She’s convinced the planet is about to collapse.
Coping through meditation, deep breathing
Ms. Müller blames modern society, mainly consumerism and the unending quest for profit, for all the perceived destruction:
This development, narrow-mindedness makes me sad. And angry. Dissatisfied. Crazy! Unhappy!
How does the Potsdam researcher deal with her despair? She writes she tries to distract herself through her work, free time activities, and by practicing deep breathing.
And I’m learning meditation in order to cope with my stress and the conflicts I face. Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in.”
Vegetarian diet, no flying, mends her clothes
Müller comments that she expends much effort to protect the climate: “I don’t fly. I eat vegetarian, I mend my clothes, buy fair.” She also does her utmost “to live ‘correctly’, and as climate and environmentally friendly as possible, but it is sometimes pretty darn difficult.”
Later in her essay Müller admits her post is “not purely scientific” and that it describes her “reaction to the perceived scientific facts and observed realities.”
Taxes and restrictions as a solution
The Potsdam researcher proposes high taxes on jet fuel, a vast network of high-speed bicycle paths, doing away with the privilege of company cars and limiting advertising (so that people will be less inclined to buy things).
She says that privileged people living at the expense of the less privileged makes her “angry”.
Vision: Norway as “a green battery for Europe”
For her master’s thesis, according to Müller’s profile, she investigated “narratives in the Norwegian debate around ‘Norway as a green battery’ for Europe”.
Hysterical rantings “part of the problem”
Müller’s hyperventilated ranting was too much for Spiegel science journalist Axel Bojanowski. From the standpoint of climate change and what to do about it, the Spiegel journalist commented about her rant at Twitter here: “Here such essays are part of the problem.”
Master-antimaster
In honesty, Ms. Müller is not really to blame for her distress and despair because she is merely the product of a seriously broken higher education system. Her master’s degree is in fact an anti-master. In her essay she is only regurgitating the Gospel and Dogma put out by the self-anointed Prophets of Potsdam, who run the place and forbid dissent of any kind.
She’s an unfortunate, unwitting prisoner of a cult-like complex, and it’s really sad to see young talent end up like this.
Ms. Müller and the IASS really could consider translating the German text into English, so that the whole world could get a good laugh from it, yet at the same time pause for a moment to reflect where this self-inflicted, echo-chamber-induced hysteria risks taking us. No, it won’t be a green paradise. Quite to the contrary.
Her post is “not purely scientific”.
Wrong
Her post is purely unscientific.
Unfortunately she is too thick to realise.
If I were her I’d just stick to the deep breathing- that’s probably at the limit of her intelligence.
No, deep breathing would produce too much carbon dioxide through exhalation.
“. . . cult-like complex.”
Why “-like”? It is a cult.
She needs help. Non-cult relatives should intervene.
~~~
At the end you have switched the spelling of her name from Müller to Miller.
I feel sorry for the poor girl. She is clearly not scientifically literate and has been propagandized to hell by rent-seekers without morality. She deserves pity rather than derision.
Agreed. A mind is a terrible thing to waste.
Steve, “Rent-seekers” indeed. Do I scent a fellow-reader of economist Michael Hudson? And do you think that piling on more layers of corrective science will make the rent-seekers give up their designs on land-use?
https://www.corbettreport.com/un-agenda-21-exposed-with-rosa-koir.
Seen many cases like her in Germany and elsewhere. I feel sorry for her. All of these potential great minds are being corrupted and robbed of their creative potential. Contributers here are correct to point to issues with the education system in many of these countries. The degeneracy of culture in many of these places may also be part of the issue.
“there will be more storms, and they will be more violent, and that they are coming sooner.”
NOAA has stated that hurricane numbers and strength have not been impacted to date from CO2. There is over a 100 years of data. When are these storm suppose to happen?
Some people are so gullible, which is why the greens have so many followers.
http://bluecatsblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/before-you-take-al-gores-climate-change.html
Another sign in of massive “cultural despair” among intellectual elites that’s eroding the West as a viable region of the world, handing the momentum of growth and development to the Russo-Sino alliance, that now includes Iran, India and Pakistan.
Posa, I’m sorry to tell you that the plan for global governance calls for lowering standards of living in the West and raising those of some of the developing countries, on the theory that more equal but not too affluent countries can be more easily joined in one regime.
The means by which this is being brought about is the UN’s Agenda 21, which calls for a central authority to regulate land-use, and all its resources, eventually banning private property. In the US: https://www.corbettreport.com/un-agenda-21-exposed-with-rosa-koir.
China is to be regional head of all of Asia, and is entirely on board with Agenda 21. If you search “China Agenda 21” quite a lot comes up– you see, the Chinese oligarchs are happily calling their plans by this name. Already they are moving huge numbers of peasants out of rural areas and into the “empty cities” specially built for them.
Also in china, reported occasionally even in the mainstream press, there is a practice of assigning or denying rewards depending on ideas espoused, even on social media. The practice reportedly extends to people who associate with one who has espoused the wrong ideas or criticized the govt. Rewards are things like better jobs, schooling, etc.
I know the media & State Dept would have us believe that the US & China are at odds. But bear in mind that this is the same media that lies to us about AGW. Actually the economic rise of China began with a meeting in a US boardroom of the heads of the 6 oligarchic families who run China and a few US megacorps & bankers. It was Western money, technology transfer, and the exporting of our jobs that is responsible for the beginning of the upsurge of China’s economy.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-07-12/new-world-order-takeover-very-real-and-will-begin-germany-and-china
“Norway as “a green battery for Europe””
roflmao !
Norway gets a substantial amount of it export income from OIL. !!
Maybe I start believing in this supposed coming “catastrophe” when the threats actually start materializing and scientists can show conclusive proof that it’s not because of natural activity.
It’s a religion. A very profitable religion. Not only you get a lot of money but also good feelings, which seems to be super important in todays “feel-good” world.
Why do I get the feeling that if she had lived 100 years ago she would have supported eugenics as the “only hope to save human race”. And if she would have lived in 1930s she would have been deeply worried about the Jewish grand conspiracy.
Al Gore has a lot to answer for after producing what I rate as the greatest load of bull dust ever. viz. An Inconvenient truth. I feel a bit of empathy for the Greenies but I call them ‘well meaning but grossly misinformed fanatics.’
Sydney is far cleaner than it was in the 60’s. There was a lot of smog. Bondi Beach had raw sewage flowing into it for years. Where I grew up, Cooks River was nothing more than a repository for rubbish.
Everything is so much cleaner and we could probably do better with recycling.
If someone wants to put solar panels on their roof, I am Ok with that but do not ask me to subsidise it through taxes.
In conclusion I say” some days it gets hot and some days it gets cold…it is called weather”. Get over it!
Yep, Sydney now has some of the cleanest beaches in the world. Newcastle is pretty good. too. 🙂
http://www.portstephensholidayrentals.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Merewether-16092015-101325.jpg
AG55 aka spike55
This is what happens when pine needles are used in place of tampons.
“Ms. Müller earned her masters degree in Sustainability, Society and the Environment from CAU Kiel, Germany, and holds a bachelor in Social Sciences from the Humboldt University Berlin.”
Poor indoctrinated sot. I suppose she doesn’t know that science is about the pieces that don’t fit: You have a theory and you go looking for contradictory evidence.
No, I think it’s worse than that; she’s using her emotions as incontrovertable evidence.
“she’s using her emotions as incontrovertable evidence.”
As is often the case with religions
AG55 aka spike55
I’m sure you 2 will be very happy together.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=A0dw2UKRYSA
By “you 2” I meant Spike55, as would probably have bee obvious had I replied to this…
https://notrickszone.com/2018/06/26/a-research-associate-despairs-over-bleak-visions-from-the-prophets-of-potsdam-a-catastrophe-is-rolling-our-way/comment-page-1/#comment-1266883
…as I intended (and thought I was).
OT.
Due to circumstances out of my control, and which I cannot discuss on the forum, I find it necessary to change my moniker.
Henceforth, I am “spike55”
I will put an aka on the bottom of posts for about a week
Cheers
AndyG55
As soon as you put ” I cannot discuss” makes you really want to know. Why couldn’t you have just said I am changing my name, darn it, very time I see spike55 I will left wailing why?
Its complicated.
Have discussed it with Pierre, understands and accepts the reason 😉
I wonder if it had anything to do w the disappearance of the troll.
No, absolutely NOTHING to do with anyone on any forum.
That’s all I can tell you.
She has been become a useful puppet of the political manipulators. The political classes the world over learned an important lesson from the cold war; when the populous is fearful then they are easily controlled!
I do not believe that she will understand that she, like so many, have been deceived by those who wish to rule her (and them) but they have been.
Never has so many been deceived, by so few, for so much.
For extra national power — for the new world order of a global government — an illegitimate, unelected, command government that will reach into every aspect of people lives. And all achieved by making CO2 the fake villain of life improving industrialization. Industrialization that has brought so many out from the darkness of short brutal lives, and into the modern luxury of long, healthier lives of relative plenty.
A generation has been wasted, from their cradle, through a demented education, and on to more tomorrows they will be lied to, and they will believe in the lie.
In essence I feel sorry for her, and people like her, for unskeptically believing in the big lie. The lie that CO2 could, by the IPCC’s imaginary mechanism, pervert nature, endangering, or even wreaking doom to life on the planet.
As this planet changes to a cooler climate she, like all the others, will learn how much of her efforts have been for nought but to furthered a falsehood by which duplicitous (and/or stupid) politicians, along with their wealthy and powerful friends will profit.
She will learn how much of her future, and the next generation’s future, is now bound-up in pay for mad schemes that produce so very little, and only line the pockets of those elites. A lifetime paying-off the accrued debts that these schemes have foisted on this and the next generation, to enrich this generation’s powerfully avaricious.
Yes, tomOmason. And I also feel sorry for her, because she is an early victim of their efforts. I don’t think they’ll succeed in controlling the world or destroying it, but it won’t be for the lack of trying. Already there are many like her who have fallen victim to their machinations. Even though they won’t bring their evil plans to fruition, they will still poison many in their doomed to fail effort.
Thanks Yonason,
Maybe Irene Müller will come to also understand the inter-generational hostility is incited by advocates of the big lie. Young and old can work and learn together. Many cAGW advocates attempt to play the ‘them and us’ between old and the young, just as Stalin, Mao Zedong, the GDR’s Stasi, Pol Pot and others successfully did in the past.
We should celebrate that some deceived ones are finally seeing through the CO2 fiction to the reality.
Yonason, you say “I don’t think they’ll succeed in controlling the world or destroying it, but it won’t be for the lack of trying.”
I believe I understand why you say that: I have been aware of this plan for 30 years and was unconcerned for many of them. After all, how could such a thing possibly be achieved?
It seems an impossibility that they should actually succeed in controlling the world until you know the exact means employed and how far they have already come.
Surely if one knows the scientific bankruptcy of AGW, one must conclude that otherwise-competent science reporters must be controlled on the AGW matter. The interlocking directorships of all megacorps, including the media is simply factual.
The concentration of production of all sorts is breathtaking. Here’s a short piece on it; there is more detail on the Swiss Study of transnationals avail on the web. https://www.newscientist.com/…/mg21228354-500-revealed-the-capitalist-network-
Media-control is the control of most information. Joe Public is lied to about AGW and told nil about Agenda 21.
Add to that almost unlimited resources, control of govt financing, and it’s no wonder they have succeeded in the control and/or corruption of many politicians and heads of state world-wide.
And their control of the global monetary system and near-monopoly on investment capital gives them effective control of most development and the ability to cut themselves in for a good share.
@Penelope
With your belief in the global conspiracy of the rich you follow the very same path that you criticize the Gobal Warming Believers to march on.
Think for a minute and look back in capitalism’s history. The narrative of a conspiracy between very few rich people to earn more than the remaining millions is nothing else than a description of the very heart of capitalism, just without conspiracy. The fact that the relationship between rich and poor may have worsened in recent decades is due to brainless government regulation by telling the people they need a safe private insurance for their retirement and at the same time defining that the only safe investment strategy to reach it would be buying government bonds. Thus the poorest not only missed the biggest gains in share markets but also will lose their savings when governments will go bankrupt in a not too distant future.
The same is valid for central banks. They have by far not the means that media & public is imagining. Even if they try to convince the public that they are controlling the system with interest rates the question remains to be answered why real interest rates rise and fall before or without a central banks action. Go to a bank, apply for a credit and follow the flow of the money. You will see it has nothing to do with the central bank. The bank creates your debt out of thin air. The interest rate is according to your personal risk rating and the credit demand in the market. That’s basically it.
The QE (bond buying by ECB) is something different. This has the sole function of government support to avoid their bankrupty. That is a kind of open conspiracy between ECB and governments nobody is really talking about. But that can’t go on forever. As soon as it will stop, you will see a dramatic rise in interest rates and a more or less immediate bankrupty of some european governments.
Is Lumpi deliberately confusing free-market capitalism and crony capitalism? It’s the latter that is the problem, because of the unhealthy relationship between select industries and their government at the expense of other industries, especially the competition. It is no conspiracy theory to realize that that is a major problem with socialist governance. And it’s no conspiracy theory to say that that is the goal of globalization.
Government controlled “capitalism” is socialist/communist/fascist “capitalism.” When big business and government are in bed with each other, bad things happen – ALWAYS!
http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/economy-budget/326611-dont-confuse-the-free-market-with-crony-capitalism?amp
The “brainless government regulation” Lumpi refers to is not a bug, but a feature, not of free-market capitalism, but of all socialist governance and the crony capitalism it fosters.
While Lumpi is superficially correct that the banks alone can’t pull off world domination, he’s “wrong” in his deflecting from the fact that like-minded banks and businesses, in partnership with rogue governments, CAN – but only if there enough of them. The reason why the globalists are in such an uproar is that by electing Trump, America has thrown a monkey wrench into their plans.
And, it is not conspiracy theory to say that the UN is not the friend of free people everywhere, nor that the UN actively seeks to establish a global socialist order. That should be obvious to anyone paying attention to even only a few of their many schemes, in which Hillary and other treasonous Americans would have been all too willing to be complicit in…
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yKCVXR6sV0g
Thank G_d Trump won!!!
Yonason, I didn‘t know/realize that I wrote what you criticized and I I partly agree with yor criticism. Anyways, for me capitalism is not a belief or a political orientation, it is a systematic and pragmatic reflection of mankind‘s struggle for survival. The further you regulate it the more socialistic it will get. Here I better stop, because it will get political and it is off topic.
I just wanted to point out that there are so many conspiracy theories out there and everybody should hear a big alarm bell in his head ringing when a politician blames a catastrophe to an organization opposite to his own political aims. The socialistic fairytale about global control in the hands of a few, very bad capitalists is exactly that. The sole purpose of that narrative is to strengthen political powers of governments and/or global organizations like UN.
@Lumpi
Agreed.
I thought I was picking up on some of that, but wanted to be more specific.
Thanks for clarifying.
The economics of globalism is, IMO, a much bigger monster than the AGW scam which is only a feature of it (a key one, though). Good idea to break it off here, before I get too far out of my depth.
A BIT OT
WOO HOO
That calls for a drink,…
…and a serenade.
Good Night, Irene.
OK, that’s NOT fair. Before I posted it, I proofed it here….
http://htmledit.squarefree.com/
…and all the links worked. Why the first one doesn’t now I don’t know.
I DID ALL I COULD!
Here it is…
Woo Hoo
https://junkscience.com/2018/06/winning-california-climate-lawsuit-against-big-oil-dismissed/
When I get into extreme despair about the climate I wait until the rain stops and go play 18 holes and all of a sudden I feel better
Well, she appears to be brainwashed and neurotic, which is indeed sad, but at least she has the merit, unlike many, of not being a hypocrite.
Another Potsdam AGW promoter is former WWF and Greenpeace activist Malte Meinshausen. He is currently spreading the message in Australia as Potsdam have joned with Melbourne University to form yet another Institute. Rahmstorf is also involved.
Oz journalist Tony Thomas looked at it here in 2015:
https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2015/04/german-greenshirts-parachute-parkville/
“Two groups that like to out-vie each other on climate catastrophism have linked arms to give the Australian public and taxpayers a double dose of the scares. Melbourne University and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) have formed a Melbourne-based joint graduate body called the Australian-German College of Climate & Energy Transitions.
The Potsdam guru who’s now director of the Australian-German College is Dr Malte Mainshausen. He’s kindly researching things like “Australia’s fair contribution towards a global [CO2] mitigation effort” and has been snapped up by Melbourne University’s loopy and peer-review-challenged Sustainable Society Institute (MSSI) for its executive committee.
As an individual, Malte Meinshausen had a track record with Greenpeace. One eco-activist tract in 2009 said Meinshausen and his co-worker, Bill Hare, had “long been key members of the Greenpeace International climate team.” Meinshausen’s name was often on Greenpeace press releases in 2001-03. Meinshausen’s and Hare’s research papers and a graph for Greenpeace wound up being cited in the 2007 IPCC report”
I am not discussing global warming with my friends unless they have read the book: Kulturgeschichte des Klimas – Von der Eiszeit bis zur globalen Erwärmung von Wolfgang Behringer. This is a real eyeopener for any Alarmista and would be a big help for Frau Müller. After reading that book, she will lose all her worries about todays weather. If not, nothing helps!
Freddie Stoller,
Indeed an excellent book, also known in English as “A Cultural History of Climate”. by Wolfgang Behringer Translated by Patrick Camiller. IMO it successfully puts the whole climate debate into a historical perspective of the human condition.
There are some interesting reviews of it at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9298711-kulturgeschichte-des-klimas#
One of the fields where Wolfgang Behringer seems to be a specialist in, is the history of witches and witchhunts. He has also written some books on it.
I think the two fields, climate religion & witch hunts, are closely belonging together, although Behringer is not constructing that bridge, of course.
In Pierre’s selection of video links there’s this one you might enjoy…
“Baliunas on weather cooking”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcAy4sOcS5M
By golly, I think she agrees with you, as do I.
Thanks for the link. Liked it. All the green fear mongering and smear campaigns against skepticism and political incorrect business (oil, car, nuclear, chemistry, especially if it deals with genetics) have every ingredient of a witch hunt, but still far too few people recognize it. I really don’t get it. Hard to believe in human intelligence sometimes.
Who funds these fruitcakes?
The founding bakery of these fruitcakes is federal and state government. They obviously need some scientific creme on their political control cake. They don’t care at all, if consumers or creme makers suffer because of their artificial nightmare and the brainless actions against it. Hey, it’s just a cake!
Lumpi, I thank you for your answer as a corrective of my espousing a conspiracy for global control by the very rich. Whether the very rich are acquiring global politico-economic control is, of course, independent of whether we like the socialist solution advocated by some– but not me.
In fact, the end product of Agenda 21 is being called “communitarianism”, which is communism with a layer of saccharin-laced syrup. And Agenda 21 is control of land-use and everything on it, and is demonstrably subsidized by the very rich, with AGW and Sustainable Living as the public relations for it. Search Environmental Funding to see the megacorps funding this. Or, here’s a Senate report on funding by billionaires at just one point in time http://leftexposed.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/2014-Senate-Billionaire-Club-Report.pdf
Socialism necessarily delivers more power over us to the govt (and hence to the very rich by their choice of the candidate thru campaign contributions & good press). And so is not an alternative to the present system, but only an alternate path for the same end.
” The further you regulate it [capitalism] the more socialistic it will get. ” Not so. A considerable effort has been made to propagandize us that TINA (there is no alternative) to the fascistic union of govt and megacorps that we have. Michael Hudson is the preeminent living economist in favor of Classical Economics including de-financialization, which has been erased from memory by the “neoclassical”, which merely contradicts it.
I have his books, but it’s perfectly possible to understand his thought by listening to the many online video interviews. I particularly recommend this extremely broad, far-reaching one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mH8FWrbzxEs&list=PL6tmctP7Pshr5eQ5K_FAxFLdoFGokXLJ2
If it seems unbelievable to you that a few thousand men should consciously seek to control the world, I remind you that history shows us so very few times & places in which men have been free. Did the psychological type of the ruler suddenly die out? Or has his project become easier because of technology? And, because of his mastery of the financial system and his control of information, he has it so much easier than Rome with her legionnaires.
I wish that I had the time to answer everything in your posts, but c’est la vie. Thanks for a considered answer.
Thanks for the explanation, Penelope. Now I see, where you’re coming from. I can agree with some parts, especially when it comes to the actions of this billionaire’s club. Still, I see it differently.
First of all the green movement nearly is as old as mankind. The ancient greek philosophers already developed fears of sustainability when they saw their big cities rising and trees falling for it. Later on after the discovery of the new world and during the romantic epoch the glorification of the noble wild developped. Finally in modern times the back to the nature was a superstitious response to industrialization.
Every such wave of conservation has developed an even stronger superstition than the wave before it. The story always is about the finite world destroyed by infinite growth. Mankind always fails to imagine a nonconstant future. Thus, the story goes on to tell us there won’t be enough for everybody. In order to ensure my outcome I have to control the growth of the rest of the world.
This misanthropic view has deepened ever since. And for the first time in history it has gained world wide traction during the last century and especially since the sixties. (Note that even NS followed it and based their eugenic program on it, but not only them, eugenics was also popular in the US and within the liberal class for other but similar reasons). The direct consequence was e.g. the global sterilization program among native Americans and in 3rd world countries like India, where millions of women were sterilized. Another one was the rising of green politics which successfully used the misanthropic superstition to warn from artificial dangers in order to reach political power for eliminating the non existent dangers. This is where we are right now. AGW, particulate matter, Nitrous Oxides, “Waldstreben”, Ozone and many other deadly threats arose from it and were successfully campaigned. Some have/had a true but small scientific nucleus, most did not have even that (e.g. Particulate, NOx.
Now the question is, what is the goal and what is a tool to reach the goal. In my eyes capitalism, NGOs and media are just tools for those misanthropes. They follow their ideology to reduce world population in order to have more ressources for themselves and their descendants. (Look at Youtube for George Carlin who had an extraordinary take on the environmentalists.) The most effective way to reduce population is to fight energy and food supply and to control birth rates.
Looking at the relationship between NGOs and some billionaires you will find more or less the very same goals openly communicated. It is no secret that the Environmental Defense Found and the US Government were heavily involved in the above mentioned sterilization programme. The Hewlitt Foundation (in my eyes the financial head of the green snake) has population control and AGW as its first goals. Together with Packard & Oak & Tides (latter not sure) they build up as Climate Works with its most important subsidiary, the European Climate Foundation (ECF). This entity supports nearly every green NGO in the west and they are actively influencing european politics. With a billion they meanwhile put into this scam they reached a public and political awareness that is astonishing. Of course they are bringing together business & politics to promote their ideas. But at the end they are not so much profiting from it financially. This is a mainly ideological rallye.
This is why I do not buy the narrative capitalism, or a part of it, would be to blame for our problems. Nor do I believe that this green movement has enough financial power to control the economic world. But where I strongly agree is that they are seeking political power for a kind of socialitsic Utopia. Socialistic, because marxism has jumped on that misanthropic train in order to not drown in meaninglessness after communism finally failed in the nineties and the green elevator to popularity seemd to be their last opportunity for a comeback. This is why nowadays you will always hear the combination of social justice and environmental policy whereas both have nothing to do with each other.
Since malthusian misanthropy and socialism allied the popularity of the mixed ideology exploded, especially after the 2008 crisis, and the narrative of the bad capitalism was endlessly promoted until nearly everybody in the world believed that there was this or that bad capitalist grabbing our money, destroying our world etc.
This is where we are right now, in my eyes. The history and the success of that extreme ideology really is amazing and unbelievable. Although they are destroying everything humanity stands for, they are celebrated as the noble saviors of the world.
Haven’t read your whole post yet, but it starts out clearly and ends clearly, so tomorrow when I’m more awake I’ll have to read the rest of it. But so far I can’t disagree with anything I’ve read.
Lumpi,
Thanks for the continuing dialog. You seem to be making the point that it’s the greenies or at least their Nature-to-the-exclusion-of-man philosophy that is causing all the political and economic power to flow to the super-rich bankers who control the directorships of the mega-corps including media, and to their agenda– sometimes thru their controlled UN.
I doubt very much that the Grecian Old Oligarch was a tree hugger. Oligarchs, whether in ancient secret societies or controlling the modern global financial system, care about Power. Their own. The world envisioned by extreme greenies is without appeal to all the rest of humanity. For that reason, they are helpless to implement their project absent the financial and media help of the Oligarchs.
Greenies are merely one of the masks worn by the oligarchs, so that we blame the greens and those duped by oligarchic propaganda, rather than the oligarchs behind the mask. See Rosa Koire’s book “Behind the Green Mask.”
Lumpi, you say “It is no secret that the Environmental Defense Found and the US Government were heavily involved in the above mentioned sterilization programme. ” Yes, yes, the US & UN have been caught 7 times sterilizing people, and if you want something hair-raising about sterilization https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/thailand/population-control .
But the Environmental Defense Fund you cite doesn’t demonstrate the strength of environmentalism, but of the oligarchs behind it: Its largest contributor is the Walton Foundation whose 2012 assets were $1.999 Billion. No wonder EDF’s assets at the same time were $208,751,208. Source: http://leftexposed.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/2014-Senate-Billionaire-Club-Report.pdf Nor do they merely donate; the report shows how they direct the spending & on which projects.
It is not free enterprise capitalism which is the culprit, but it’s misuse, its running free w no regulation at all. The current system is that people must be regulated, but corporations including banks must be free. If you want to look at an alternative, see the Michael Hudson interviews online, starting w the link I gave in the above comment.
Penelope, please forget for a moment any ideas of inequality and look at it from a more distant perspective. Then you will see there is no evidence for your claims. But let me start with your definition of Megacorps.
Those Megacorps, you want to have regulated, are in fact foundations, which receive(d) their money from very wealthy people who mostly earned their wealth by founding and leading a very successful company in the past. So the problem mostly is not with the company but with the foundation. You simply mix up Megacorps and foundations. A big difference! The first would have to do with capitalism, the second is political lobbying for an idea or (but not necessarily) for money. A simple example: How should have Hewlett Packard profited from the political actions of the Hewlett & Packard foundations? There is no commercial link. The first is a company that was sold after the founding family lost its interest, the latter are foundations which used the money from the succesful era of the founder for very strange social & political activities.
Let’s look at the numbers. The Walton Foundation you mention has assets of $2 Billion (not $2000 billion), so what? That’s nothing. Huge companies spend that amount within a week for theier business and do that continuously, every week. If you add all the assets of those foundations it’s still nothing compared to the economy. But those foundations are very successful in using that limited money to influence politics. This is where I agree. But they know they really have small chances when it comes to financial power as soon as the economy would invest in lobbying politics the same aggressive way they are doing it. This is why they smear whole branches and spread fairytales of their influence on politics, which is existing, but by far to a lesser extent than propagated.
So why would you want to regulate economy when actually a few foundations are the real problem?
Another contradiction: You mention the influence of some green megacorps (which are in fact foundations) on policy and at the same time you put them together in a box with banks and international trade treaties where there are completely different objectives and means. How should that work? Those treaties are for the whole economy and they would partly be necessary to protect business investments from rogue government decisions. Would you invest all that you have in an area where laws that affect your business can change any moment?
Banker bashing has become a public sport since 2008. Of course, it was not ok, what they did and probably far too many got away with it. But again, that is the dark side that capitalism is always showing and will always show, no matter how strongly you try to regulate it. Besides of that betrayal, most of the money on wall street was made by pure investment. Of course, these guys work with tricks but they are acting mostly on a legal basis and with high risks. That’s how it goes: high risk = much money and the other way round. I do not have a problem with that.
Look back in history. The very cradle of our culture & modern capitalism lies in Sumeria around the ancient city of Ur (which developed the basis for the later famous Hammurabi’s code). There, until some 4400 years ago society & economy was controlled by religious leaders. The priests suppressed the people and they were financed by a few very rich people (merchants & merchant bankers). The usual interest rate back then was 30%-50%. They made unbelievably much money on the back of the people who ended up as their live long slaves in case of their default or in case of a woman, if her husband died with unpaid debt. That was an extreme example of a situation that needs regulation. And this regulation came – as mostly – by force!
The later king Urukagina started a revolution, took over power and made some very impressing reforms. He took away power from the priests, he limited interest rates and he seemed to be more intelligent than we are nowadays in Europe because he linked earning with risk. So he decided that after a certain time of slavery the insolvent debitor was free of debt and the creditor had no rights on the debitor anymore. The same freedom was given to the widows. They did not lose their lifes to merchants, but could live independently.
Now compare that to modern times. Where (in the west) is the big obvious crime that needs to be regulated? Yes, some people lost money due to bankers who designed debt packages they knew it wouldn’t work. They received their rating by a corrupted rating process which still isn’t reformed although governments around the world had all means to do so (if it was, government debts would have to be rated differently and they were immediately bankrupt). Other wrong doings like manipulation of parts of the market were identified and regulated. So regulation is somehow working and especially european banks are more and more struggling to survive with interest rates down and huge debt risks on the balance sheet. Interestingly, this is the opposite situation to the historic sumerian situation. 🙂
What does all that mean? One has to take care oneself, where to put money in. Socialism wants to make us believe that this responsibility is unacceptable and that there needs to be more regulation of all business. In addition there should be free government money for everybody without doing a job. As soon as you have that situation the capital will flee elsewhere where it is less regulated and less tax endangered, leaving the regulated and taxed region dry up.
No matter how far you regulate, there will always be holes & dangers. It is up to everybody to identify them. You don’t care, you lose, you care you likely don’t. And if you lose although caring, you will have means to accuse and get your money back. That is a huge difference compared to former times where you had no alternative, took all the risks and had no means to fight for your right. On the other hand, the former sumerian merchant banker had no risk, all rights and earned a lot of money. As mentioned above today it is more or less the other way round. With historically low interest rates the bank lives with a high risk and doesn’t earn much on it. Whereas the private debitor can get insolvent and does not need to pay back everything of his debt in case of a default. Of course, he will not be in a very good situaton, but far away from slavery.
The same principle is valid for industry. The more you regulate it and the more you tax it the more you will force it out of a country. Especially Europe is so overregulated and overtaxed that companies will think twice to invest there. As soon as skilled work and legal basis is offered elsewhere industry will be gone. One obvious destination will be China as soon as they are developing a sustainable legal operating system without government arbitrariness and after they resolved their debt problem, maybe in 5-10 years.
So at the end, I don’t get it, where we need to regulate the economy and what that has to do with the billionaire foundations that try to implant a strange socialist, green and misanthropic ideology in our politics.
It is the other way round. The socialists who entered the misanthropic green train, are demanding the regulation of the economy. It is part of the whole scam and by no means is it directed against the NGOs, the profiting renewable energy companies and their financial sources which all together are the real problem. As you said, a very few have too much of influence on politics. But that is not due to unregulated capitalism but due to billions of tons of propaganda and an undemocratic alliance between political extremists and politics that we happily admit.
So Norway that has extensive oil industry is the “green battery”?
Well i have not problem in considering that oil can be the most green energy industry but does she?
More evidence that they are right about AGW leading to a man-made unnatural disaster, just not right about who the guilty parties are. HINT – It’s them.
SOLAR POWER: AN ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTER
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2017/04/solar-power-an-environmental-disaster.php
Puerto Rico, a case in point.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/photos-show-renewable-energy-took-a-beating-in-puerto-rico
No wonder they’re having issues getting their power back on!