Climate change denying Trolls are still at it despite the scientific consensus

Each morning I read the online version of The Guardian (UK equivalent of the Washington Post and France's Le Monde)) and The Times,  to get a balanced view of the world.

Photo: Patrick Hendry, Unsplash

Today's Times ran a  report by the United Nations on global greenhouse gas emissions and how they have reached a record high. Our global annual output of greenhouse gases is 53.5 bn tonnes and is set to be 59 bn tonnes by 2030. The "Paris Agreement" was for 40bn tonnes by 2030 to limit global warming  to 2C and avoid catastrophic climate change.

At the end of the piece there was an unbroken run of 12 comments all denying the report's findings,  claiming that climate change is a myth or attacking the integrity of the journalist who wrote it. This is classic climate change denial strategy as begun by ExxonMobil in the early 70s and modelled on the tobacco industry attempts to keep us smoking; despite lung cancer.

The primary tactic of environmental scepticism is........ "deny the evidence and deny the environmental problem"....... Then the deniers manufacture uncertainty by calling on us not to rush to judgement by claiming that more facts are needed.

Have a look at today's Times article then read the comments below it and judge for yourself, does it look like  organised scepticism of Troll factories supported by individual  contrarians who may be afraid,  angry or just scientifically illiterate.

UNDP Global Outlook Report 2019

I can't give you a link to the Times article because there is a paywall around their website, you'll have to buy a copy I'm afraid.

For an appraisal of the history and denial strategy of contrarians have a look at this link....

How the fossil fuel industry blocks climate change action.

The comments in the Times are true to form

• It's not true, it's a myth
• The evidence is widely disputed
• This is a conspiracy
• The journalist lacks integrity he / she is just recycling PR material

It has to be mostly paid for Trolls writing this , who else would spend their day churning out the same old stuff?  Their output falls into three categories:

It's not just "big oil" coal mining is still expanding

Lying
Generally you can find "outright denial" or conscious denial in the face of the facts or events, this is lying (See; D. Trump).

Bullshit
Instead of outright denial, the denier can choose to interpret the facts of climate change  in order to distract. For example the accumulation of Co2 in the atmosphere is due to rising temperatures. not vice versa. 

Deceit
Deniers can accept the facts of climate change then proceed to present them as something else altogether by minimising or dismissing the need to act when the facts say that we should. Most of us are guilty.

For example, I take the train on European journeys instead of flying and kid myself that I am doing my bit.  The emergence of Extinction Rebellion has made more of us think about our response to climate change, self-deceit is becoming increasingly untenable in the face of a moral imperative.   

Travels with a donkey......La Route Stevenson

Sunrise over the Morven Peninsula 15/11/19

It's the 14th November and already this month I have filled the water butt with a hosepipe for the livestock  three times.  It's been unusually  dry for three weeks,  at a time when we are normally deluged., the sun is shining in a cloudless sky and it's 4 degrees outside.

Thoughts turn to summer 2020, France and a walking holiday but this time with a difference.....I want to take donkey.
A long walk in the Pyrenees without a donkey

Robert Louis Stevenson is  perhaps most famous for his novels Treasure Island and Kidnapped. He may be less well known as a pioneer travel and outdoor writer. "Travels with a donkey in the Cevennes", written in 1879 was one of his first outdoor books, an account of his 120 mile walk with the donkey Modestine from Le Puy to St. Jean du Gard through the Cevennes.

Modestine was his essential pack animal because he didn't travel light his heavy extra large sleeping

RLS

bag was made of sheepskins, he took wine, brandy, a leg of mutton and a revolver he really needed a donkey. We don't really need one, we travel light and unarmed, overnight baggage can go by courier van to the next stopover. I just like the idea of an asinine companion.

RLS cursed Modestine roundly every day and  he goaded her with a stick; she was too slow and stubborn, he didn't realise that she was on heat for at least part of the time. In 2020 a hired donkey should, I hope be more amenable as long as the donkey driver follows some basic rules. Don't overload her, don't creep up on her from behind especially when she is eating corn, don't try to stroke her face her shoulder or neck are are preferable.

At the end of their trek in St. Jean du Gard RLS was sad to see her go when he sold her and described her thus....

She was patient, elegant in form, the colour of an ideal mouse, and inimitably small.

Her faults were those of her age and sex; her virtues were her own.

My walking companion an experienced horsewoman is more practical than me and thinks that a donkey may be more trouble than it's worth. I'll have to work on this.

"The Route Stevenson" the GR 7 follows Stevenson's route closely and the original book, only 176 pages in the copy that I have , could be used as a guide but my map reading is never brilliant so I've bought the french Topo Guide, it's detailed and the maps are excellent...... we'll take both!

 While planning I also have to bear in mind that I am now a "crumbly" (over 75 years) and I think we should do one half in the early summer and if we do the second half... in the autumn. The stages will be shorter than those of the GR7, the accommodation comfortable and the baggage goes by van.  This is as a result of my biting off more than I could chew on the GR10 in 2018.

The best Gites d'Etapes are fine but mountain huts are out and in some places hotels and inns will be used. It has taken me a rather long time to realise that  it's worth paying for a good bed with en-suite bathroom. Food is normally excellent everywhere except in mountain huts.
A summer in the Pyrenees

Alpine hut etiquette