GWPF Annual Lecture 2011 - Josh 124

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Comments

[Cumbrian Lad]

Interesting. Full text here:

http://www.thegwpf.org/images/stories/gwpf-reports/pell-2011_annual_gwpf_lecture.pdf

At the end he has this to say:

"Sometimes the very learned and clever can be brilliantly foolish, especially
when seized by an apparently good cause. My request is for common sense
and more, not less; what the medievals, following Aristotle, called prudence,
one of the four cardinal virtues: the “recta ratio agibilium” or right reason
in doing things. We might call this a cost-benefit analysis, where costs and
benefits are defined financially and morally or humanly and their level of
probability is carefully estimated. Are there any long term benefits from
the schemes to combat global warming, apart from extra tax revenues for
governments and income for those devising and implementing the schemes?
Will the burdens be shared generally, or fall mainly on the shoulders of the
battlers, the poor?"

[John Shade]

If I close my eyes, and dream a little, I can see the day when the awful truth about climate variation becomes widely grasped in establishments of many kinds. I can see Josh being commissioned to do a kind of Bayeux tapestry around the walls of some hall in the Science Museum to illustrate the sorry saga and be enjoyed by thousands each week in search of enlightenment and amusement at the same time. School parties will be agog, and chuckle away even while taking their own snapshots to illustrate class projects on the Great Madness.

But, snapping out of it, I come back to present enjoyment of another fine cartoon - one which has encouraged me to read the Archbishop's lecture, available here: http://www.thegwpf.org/images/stories/gwpf-reports/pell-2011_annual_gwpf_lecture.pdf

[James P]

"when it came to a Climate Change authority, David Attenborough was more appealing than George Pell"

But that doesn't make him right. I wonder what would happen if DA had a change of heart on the subject - would that persuade the BBC, or would they just pension him off? I think I know the answer...

[James P]

Brilliant cartoons, BTW, Josh. 40 for the price of one!

[Josh]

John, fingers crossed.

James, exactly! DA might be an appealing appeal to authority but the Cardinal could trump that if he so chose ;-)

[TheBigYinJames]

He would be sent to join Johnny Ball on the naughty step.

[Chuckles]

John S, I'm not sure about a Bayeux tapestry. A 'Rakes Progress' or 'Descent of Man' seems both more likely and apposite.

[Pharos]

David Attenborough is a charming gentleman, an outstanding natural history presenter, backed up by brilliant camera crews. I suspect his views are heartfelt, and that is the fatal weakness, and not his alone by any means. The blindspot of the converted: to duplicitous advocacy mischief.

[Michael O]

If, like me, you had trouble with Cumbrian Lad's link, you might like to try this one.
http://www.sydney.catholic.org.au/people/archbishop/addresses/2011/20111026_1463.shtml

[PMT]

For whom the Pell ? Tol?

[Orson]

"when it came to a Climate Change authority, David Attenborough was more appealing than George Pell"

I may not know this Great much anymore. But my impression of him on AGW is CAGW. In other words gloom and doom. If accurate, isn't calling this "more appealing" than Pell's appeal to common sense all you need to know about the source?

"RECANT YE SINNERS!" Pu-lease!!

[Pete H]

Just finished watching David Attenborough in his latest. Arctic, Greenland, Antarctic etc. I only heard him say, "In this warming world" once and it was not a statement I disagreed with. (I think the location he was in was under -40!)

Mind you it did seem bloody cold, for a man of his age, to stagger around in and it did seem, in all 3 places, to be very cold, with miles deep of that white stuff! Excellent camera work and production from the BBC, as usual. Shame they have other people so deep into the meme keeping an eye on where their pension money is invested.

[Maurizio Morabito]

Apparently Sir D is going to end the series saying he's seen incontrovertible proof of changes and those are bad and humans are definitely partly/mostly to blame because of CO2 emissions.

As for Pell, I think I was the one behind the answer that became the Cardinals Tea Party cartoon 8-) . Plenty of theological questions, he didn't fall for the worried, and hopefully appreciated my post-lecture reference to Matthew 6:25-34.

A panicking Christian is an oxymoron most of the time.

ps I'll post my live microblogging on Omniclimate sometimes tonight or at the weekend, even if I missed 30 minutes due to a person under a train at Embankment. For the time being, it's all at @mmorabito67 on Twitter.

[Russell Seitz]

To summarize :

http://tinypic.com/r/14uxqm9/5.html