Did you turn off all your lights last night for “Earth Hour?”
If not, Gawker’s Adam Weinstein wants you arrested. In the spirit of Cardinal Bellarmine, he even invokes Italian courts as precedent.
Oh, he makes exceptions for “[Idiots,] …too stupid to do anything other than choke the earth’s atmosphere a little more with …[their] Mr. Pibb burps and …[their] F-150’s gassy exhaust.” No, he won’t arrest those fools. At least not at first, but their crimes are the only ones he specifies.
I, for one, am happy I do not drink Mr. Pibb, and I’m putting off any purchase of an F-150.
Weinstein proposes arrest and punishment (inquisition goes unmentioned) only for “the body of purulent pundits, paid sponsors, and corporate grifters who exploit the smallest uncertainty at the edges of a settled science.” I suppose he will decide who those miscreants are by carefully identifying the most minuscule uncertainties in a science rife with uncertainty (just ask the IPCC). He doesn’t mention any particular uncertainties, so we are left to wonder what might get us arrested. Maybe he will propose setting up a federal shibboleth panel to adjudicate.
He leaves unexplained why he exempts ‘idiots’ from his demand that “Those malcontents must be punished and stopped.” Ignorance of the law is typically no excuse.
He doesn’t mention Chinese coal power plants. Surely, all involved there should be arrested.
Maybe he’s just temporarily waiving the ‘individual incarcerate’ until the new regime is up and running, and can persecute a few good examples. Perhaps he wants to be sure there’s an exception to punishing thought crimes and free speech of which he can avail himself when the next IPCC report admits the climate change models are garbage, and the previously predicted extinctions are neither happening, nor likely to.
If true to his prejudices, Mr. Weinstein will have celebrated “Earth Hour” last night. Perhaps he lit a candle, a part of the ritual for many.
If so, he negated his intent to reduce CO2 emissions. Worse, when the ceremony ended, he contributed to the ensuing power surge: Another good way to produce more CO2 than would have been the case without the obeisance to the Church of Environmentalism.
Like carbon credits, observing “Earth Hour” is a means of obtaining a “feel good” indulgence from the Church. As Cardinal Bellarmine instructed Galileo, Mr. Weinstein says we cannot “hold or defend” views contrary to those of the Church.