My head hurts and it isn’t even Grokster Ian that wrote this. At least with his writing, it’s cogent and thoughtful – the headaches come from that he forces you to think orthogonal / sideways from your normal thought patterns. However, this post from Treehugger is none of this.
Individual Actions Can Reduce Emissions Up to 70%, Says IPCC Report
Yes, personal actions and changes do matter after all. It’s the 1.5-degree lifestyle.
The 1.5-degree [Celsius] “lifestyle” is one in which chief Eco-Socialist Lloyd is actually practicing and wrote a book about his attempt to live. What it comes down to is deciding to live poorly. No, not in actions and decisions but in a disciplined way of living without things, by personally deciding to reduce one’s living standards to lower their carbon emissions.
You know, like most of us that believe in religion, learning and understanding sacred writings (in my case, the Bible), and attuning one’s life to a moral standard. These folks have adapted that to their environmentalism in that the greatest sin of all is living a lavish lifestyle and not caring how much energy (aka, “carbon”) they use. After all, Lloyd’s best-known phrase here at GraniteGrok is “Eat the Rich” as it completely sums up his adapted Class warfare, not against the rich per se, between those that have voluntarily chosen the equivalent of a vow-of-poverty monk concerning energy usage and Uber-carbon offsets High Priest (owning several large homes, SUVs, boats, flies in private jets, et al) Al Gore.
Except people like Gore, DiCaprio, and all the rest that make the pilgrimages to each new UN COP meeting to screw America for the sake of GAIA (aka, our planet Goddess who is getting really mad at us all) never seem to get yelled at. Just us Westerners even as 7 out of the 10 worst polluting rivers in the world start in Asia and empty into the ocean via China; go figure.
Anyways, a small slice on which I took a bit of umbrage at what Lloyd start with:
…The report also was, for me, a bit of a vindication. Last year I wrote a book, “Living the 1.5 Degree Lifestyle,” with the subtitle, “Why individual climate action matters more than ever.” It looked at the demand side—at what individuals can do to reduce their carbon emissions. So does the IPCC report, particularly in chapter 5. It starts with a bang, claiming that “the potential of demand-side strategies across all sectors is 40-70% by 2050.”
All sectors – translation: all aspects of your life. Now, the percentages are rather large and we’re only 28 years away from 2050 – that’s a large goal. Are you willing to make your standard of living that low just to be in compliance with their religious dogma? Yeah, not me. But one thing stood out for a change – INDIVIDUAL action. “Can” means voluntary -and I’m fine with that. It’s the point I’ve been making for years – if you folks can do that, persuade one person at a time to live as you do, GREAT! But they won’t – they grow weary that most of us ignore them.
But here’s where it starts to go off the rails:
Also in the first paragraph, the authors state that “to enhance well-being, people demand services and not primary energy and physical resources per se.” This is an insight we have tried to discuss for years on Treehugger—the old “you want a hole, not a drill.” You want to get from A to B, not a car. You want to not freeze in your home, not a furnace.
Julia Steinberger, environmental economist and a contributing author to the IPCC report, tells Westervelt for Drilled News: “All we need is services; that’s what there is demand for. We don’t need the energy use itself. So let’s think about how we deliver those services in a more efficient way.”
Any time I see “WE” in the hands of the Eco-Socialists, I see 1) Collectivism (as if I’d really want to be part of them) is assumed, and 2) it isn’t about “we”, it’s about the Collective telling us how to live our lives (Government’s “gentle hand” will direct us – after all, it ONLY has our best interest at heart, right? WAIT – Government has a heart????).
Maybe THEY want only services (everyone else delivering “stuff” to them) but nobody that I know wants to live a “service-based” lifestyle. Oh, I have no problem with having my septic tank pumped and trees taken down. I have no problem hiring people to do things (like putting in Allen block walls) that I know I can’t do now and I don’t want to spend all that time learning how to do so. Yes, I want my paintbrushes and such to be MINE – and not have to rent services from someone else to get that done (well, except for those high and awkward spots I can’t get to).
Sorry, a free person owns stuff. Sorry, but read this again and let me remind you…
…that Happiness at that time was merely a substitute for Property. The Right to Private Property is the mark of a free society. When that Right is removed, by one means or another, you are no longer free.
But the stupid part was “We don’t need the energy use itself. So let’s think about how we deliver those services in a more efficient way“. Isn’t energy (carbon based) the WHOLE point of what they want to do? Forcing us all into using only renewables (and deftly doing the smoke and mirrors to remove hydro as an RE)?
And now, they don’t want us to thing about that? Just plain wrong, wrong, wrong. So I said:
Sorry, both of these premises are wrong. Both take control from citizens and give it to faceless others. Like what China is doing in Shanghai right now – the Chinese city folk want food and receive medical care.
Their government is denying them both. Go ahead and present those premises to them and see what the answers are.
And yes, I would want the drill so I can make holes where ever (on my land) and on MY timing. Self-reliance instead of dependency.
Now add this from America Outloud for the DavosSpeak (aka, the World Economic Forum where all the Elites gather in Davos, Switzerland and decide how they wish to see Society operate):
“You Will Own Nothing and Be Happy,” said Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum. As Anthony P. Mueller, a professor of economics, warns, “The main thrust of the forum is global control. Free markets and individual choice do not stand as the top values, but state interventionism and collectivism. Individual liberty and private property are to disappear from this planet by 2030.”
If you own nothing and have to rent everything, are you really free? I say no as you have no way to build equity (wealth, the financial version of the word and not the Critical Race Theory bastardization definition). But now, I see Treehugger is taking it’s eco-socialism to another level.
I’ll have even MORE fun!