Profoundly Dangerous

SUNDAY, JANUARY 31, 2010

Profoundly Dangerous

Another warning from history

According to Climate Commissar Miliband:

"There are a whole variety of people who are sceptical, but who they are is less important than what they are saying, and what they are saying is profoundly dangerous. Every thing we know about life is that we should obey the precautionary principle; to take what the sceptics say seriously would be a profound risk."

It is the cry of commissars since the dawn of time - do what I say or risk destruction. It is the same profoundly dangerous arrogance that throughout history has unleashed on mankind famines, purges, wars, and even genocide.

Why can't this preposterous little man simply admit he may be mistaken? Surely the evidence is now crystal clear that the so-called settled science of climate change is nothing of the sort. The exaggerations and outright lies are becoming obvious to all. As is the fact that much of what we've been told about global warming has come from a deeply conflicted industry whose financial prospects depend entirely on scaring us all to death.

What we need more than anything is a grown-up discussion about all this. It's simply not good enough for the Commissars to demonise us sceptics as maniacal flat-earthers. And for Miliband to dismiss the excellent and expert Prof Stott as having his "head in the sand" (as he did today on the World This Weekend), is frankly ludicrous (and see Stott's latest post here).

As for the precautionary principle, if that was the no-brainer he claims, we'd all still be living in caves. Progress has always depended on people being prepared to take risks.

Sure, we could slash our carbon emissions by the 80% he has ordained, but - quite apart from the fact that our emissions comprise less than 2% of the world total so would make virtually no difference to global anything - the cost to our living standards would be catastrophic. As we blogged here, the TPA estimates that that existing "green" taxes and energy regulationsalready cost the average British family nearly £1,000 pa.

Stalin's forced collectivization of agriculture provides a chilling example of where Miliband-style government leads. Despite intense opposition from bourgeois elements (aka the people who actually had to do the work) Stalin and the commissars were absolutely confident that collectivization would hugely expand food supply for the workers. Two years into the programme he boasted that they had "over fulfilled the five-year plan of collectivization by more than 100 per cent", and spoke of comrades being"dizzy with success". They had science and technology on their side, and they were right.

Unfortunately for the Soviet people, Stalin and the Commissars turned out to be wrong. The abolition of private farms led to a collapse in food production, and millions died from starvation. Even Stalin himself later admitted to 10 million deaths, and others put the number closer to 20 million.

That's what happens when commissars decide they're right and doubt is a treasonable act.

PS The rather scratchy vid above is from Russia's state funded English language TV news station, RT, and it's obviously got an axe. But the interesting thing is that RT's axe is to deny the 30s Ukranian famine was an instrument of premeditated genocide, as the Ukranians themselves apparently believe. What nobody denies is that collectivization was a commissar-made disaster of historic proportions.