Batshit Crazy Eco-Luddites

We cannot let a tiny number of eco-extremists impose their will on society.

In CS Lewis’s book, The Screwtape Letters, the main character, Screwtape, says that human nature is marked by a love of both change and permanence. The rhythm of the seasons, he feels, meets both needs – every year change, every year the same change. As we enter autumn, it’s time for the traditional changes to begin. Leaves are turning red and orange, conkers are raining down on the unsuspecting skulls of incautious walkers and, of course, Extinction Rebellion (XR) activists are making everyone’s lives miserable while acting out their messiah complex.

Extinction Rebellion supporters infiltrated the House of Commons chamber to superglue themselves to the speaker’s chair.

A photograph posted on Twitter by the climate activists shows three campaigners clasping hands in front of the seat.

Two others hold up signs reading “citizens assembly now” and “let the people decide”.

The anti-energy left has weaponized consumer protection laws in the U.S. to punish oil and gas companies

The anti-energy left has weaponized consumer protection laws in the United States to punish oil and gas companies simply for carrying out their core business. If their lawfare succeeds, there will be serious repercussions for the energy security of North America and the West.

A once-respected journal has announced that it will be subordinating science to ideology.

Although the modern prestige bestowed upon science is laudable, it is not without peril. For as the ideological value of science increases, so too does the threat to its objectivity. Slogans and hashtags can quickly politicize science, and scientists can be tempted to subordinate the pursuit of the truth to moral or political ends as they become aware of their own prodigious social importance. Inconvenient data can be suppressed or hidden and inconvenient research can be quashed. This is especially true when one political tribe or faction enjoys disproportionate influence in academia—its members can disfigure science (often unconsciously) to support their own ideological preferences. This is how science becomes more like propaganda than empiricism, and academia becomes more like a partisan media organization than an impartial institution.

Radical environmentalists fight against the very technologies that would cut carbon emissions

n 2018, a radical new environmental group emerged in the United Kingdom. The loose-knit organization called itself Extinction Rebellion, or “XR,” and aimed to raise awareness of climate change through disruptive protests. XR activists staged dramatic “die-ins” and shut down London bridges and metro stations. The group’s leaders warned that climate change could “kill six billion people this century” and called for Britain to halt the use of fossil fuels virtually overnight. Like the Occupy Wall Street movement that inspired it, XR disdains detailed policy prescriptions. But its members generally scorn our modern, energy-intensive lifestyles, while also rejecting nuclear power and other high-tech approaches to reducing emissions. To save the planet, many believe, capitalism itself needs to be overthrown.

Climate activists in southern France have filled golf course holes with cement to protest against the exemption of golf greens from water bans amid the country’s severe drought.

The group targeted sites near the city of Toulouse, calling golf the “leisure industry of the most privileged”.

The exemption of golf greens has sparked controversy as 100 French villages are short of drinking water.

Shifting to EVs is not enough. The deeper problem is our car dependence

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made a bold claim: Canada “isn’t just going to be a global player in EVs, … we get to be global leaders.” Over the past year, the federal government has been announcing a series of deals with auto companies and suppliers aimed at growing the domestic electric vehicle industry.

With gas prices soaring above $2 a litre for the first time in May and Atlantic Canada’s record temperatures serving as yet another reminder that the world is rapidly warming, it’s clear that we desperately need to rethink our transport system. But is the government placing too much focus on electric vehicles instead of encouraging more people to ditch their cars altogether?

This is the moment an Italian security guard tears protestors’ hands off a priceless Botticelli painting at a Florence art gallery – in stark contrast to guards at London’s National Gallery, who simply watched on when eco-zealots did the same.

The out-of-patience security official stormed over to the young pair and pulled their superglued hands from the Renaissance masterpiece shortly after they began their short-lived protest in the Uffizi Gallery on Friday morning.

It struck a jarring contrast to the inaction shown by British guards at the Trafalgar Square gallery this month, where Just Stop Oil zealots were allowed to cover over John Constable’s The Hay Wain with their own version.

Climate activists glued themselves to Sandro Botticelli's masterpiece, 'Spring,' in Florence, Italy to protest the use of fossil fuels. pic.twitter.com/91Wlwkdxn4

— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) July 23, 2022