Les French Greens and Eco-Tyranny

Have you ever heard of the vert pastèque? This exquisite phrase is used to describe politicians in the green movement l'Europe Ecologie-Les Verts (EELV) who are green on the outside but socialist red in the middle. According to one commenter on a Reuters article I found on Yahoo News, they are not real ecologists but reserve socialists. This is supported by the fact that they gained 2.9% of the overall votes in the last legislative elections but were bolstered by the PS votes to obtain 17 députés.

Compare this to the FN who obtained 17.9% of the overall votes in the first round of the presidential elections (EELV 2.3%) and 13.6% in the first round of the legislative elections (EELV 5.5%) but who only have 2 députés. Whatever the rights or wrongs of the FN even an idiot can tell that the views of huge swathes of the population are not being represented, while the views of  "des bobos (bourgeois bohemian)
parisiens qui s'empiffrant (stuff themselves) de petits fours dans les salons feutrés parisiens nous refont le monde sans la moindre connaissance réel de ce dernier" are vastly over-represented.

Now that the EELV are in the Government, guess what they've been talking about. Ecology? No, legalisation of cannabis, gay marriage, 32 hour week and making illegal immigrants legal. They have not even been given the Ministry of the Environment which would be, you'd think, automatically handed to them. They have been fighting and arguing about who they are and what their policies are rather than understanding what their voters want from them. Seems the only link they have currently to ecology is in their name. As Pascal Durand probable next sécretaire national of the EELV himself explained:
"Le paradoxe, c'est qu'on existe à l'Assemblée, au Sénat et au gouvernement, mais plus dans la société. Nos succès institutionnels ne sont pas accompagnés, bien au contraire, d'une dynamique citoyenne. Notre image est devenue détestable."
(The paradox is that we exist in the Assembly, Senate and the government, but not any more in society. Our institutional success are not accompanied by the grassroots success,on the contrary. Our image has become detestable.)
 
Kind of the opposite of the FN if you like, but hey, that's 'democracy' for you. Well, the flawed French version of it anyway.

During the elections the EELVs did witter on about green policies, but amongst themselves they just can't agree on whether they should be focusing on climate change, the environment, supporting (costly) green energy, the extinction of species, low energy bulbs, polar bears, eliminating (cheap) nuclear energy, opposing (cheap gas) fracking and so on. As a result, no one knows what they stand for either, and they are accused of being authoritarian and detested by the public.

If they'd like some help on global warming, I can point them to this graph which shows that they no longer need to worry.

This graph shows global temperatures since AD0. If there was global warming you'd see a marked 'hockey stick' effect on the left with a rise in the red line. No red line rise equals no increase in temperatures equals no global warming. Sorry. Next.

Biodiversity: the G+20 activists are making a big deal out of the extinction of species mainly because everyone has lost interest in climate change and they need to rebrand it as biodiversity. Lots of panic, lots of hype, lots of false information. Comme d'hab quoi. Lots of data extrapolation too. Unfortunately, there's no scientific basis for the claims that so many species are at risk:

"Of 191 bird and mammal species recorded as having gone extinct since 1500, 95% were on islands, where humans and human-introduced predators and diseases wrought the destruction, notes ecology researcher Dr. Craig Loehle. On continents, only six birds and three mammals were driven to extinction, and no bird or mammal species in recorded history is known to have gone extinct due to climate change."
Sorry. Next.

So what's the real agenda of eco warriors? It's the embodiment of Plato's Republic. Ha, bet you don't believe me. Well read on and hold on to your hats!
"...the Civil Society Reflection Group on Global Development Perspectives released a new report to the United Nations Rio+20 Earth Summit on Sustainable Development. The executive summary of No Future Without Justice begins with the heading, “The World Is in Need of Fundamental Change.”...
...The objective, they state, is to build economies that drastically limit carbon emissions, energy consumption, primary resource extraction, waste generation, and air and water pollution. Society must also stop the asserted and computer-modeled loss of species and ruination of ecosystems...
...All this naturally will require mandatory changes in consumption patterns and lifestyles (at least for the common folk), and the recognition that work (unlike capital) is not a production factor. Indeed, says the Group, work is not even a commodity. Moreover, only “decent” work qualifies under the sustainability paradigm... 
...In short, “sustainable development” is a system that requires a redefinition of business activity, away from the pursuit of personal profit – and of government activity, away from the pursuit of individual happiness and justice – and toward the pursuit of societal good, as defined by activists and the UN...
...Under Plato’s thesis, an educated, elite, but benevolent and mythical, ruling class acts on the belief that its self-appointed philosopher kings have all the right answers, and do not require the Consent of the Governed. The rest of humanity must fall into lockstep or face the consequences; however the results will be exemplary..."

Scary, no?

Would you trust these people with your vote? If you still had one, that is...

Carbon Footprinting

I've given up on brain power. I am too vividly transported back to deadly days at school staring at a maths book with some ghastly problem along the lines of "two cars are travelling; one at 16mph, the other at 25mph; one leaves 9 minutes early, how many miles will they have travelled in 28minutes". Frankly, I don't care. My mind clouds over before I've got to the end of the problem and it's a super-human effort to push back the clouds to give it my full attention. Some things never change.

So, I tried out my carbon footprint instead. It's an issue that is pre-occupying us more and more, and rightly so. I am worried that my boys will grow up into a world that is bereft of much that we take for granted now. I have no faith that politicians and big business will act in time to develop alternative power sources, or that enough oil will be preserved for vital production of medical and other items that can only made from plastic.

My own step, tiny though it is, for mankind and the future of the planet is to try not to waste resources. The result from the BP site is that my carbon footprint is 2 tonnes of CO2 per year, compared to a French average of 8.9 tonnes. The American average is a horrendous 20 tonnes, but they do overdo the air conditioning somewhat. Turn it off, guys. You won't die, honest! You may die if you don't, however.

My level is achieved by:

• not using my car much - about 12000km per year (I live 5 minutes from my work)
• not having a gas-guzzler (diesel Peugeot 406)
• turning off appliances and not leaving them on stand-by
• using energy-efficient appliances (washing machine etc)
• using energy-efficient light bulbs
• recycling at least 30% of household waste
• not flying much (once a year, and one train trip to the UK per year)
• no air con. Shutters are there for a purpose.
  

I am pretty proud of this, as my efforts do seem to be theoretically working. We have barely put the heating on this winter, thanks to the balmy weather, and wearing a pullover to keep out the chill. The whole household needs to participate, however, to save the planet.

RoadsofStone has been writing articles on global warming, as I'm sure have many others. I don't have time to research the subject enough not to sound like a prat, so I'll leave it to the guys who know what they're saying.

However, I do regret one thing: I live in rented accommodation and so cannot make changes such as installing solar energy, or a more efficient heating system.

What is your carbon footprint level?