The “greens” and climate change

It may be hard to believe, but less than a decade ago the “greens” were an avowedly leftwing party (and described as such by Gormley himself at national convention). Every effort was made by the volunteer
(and elected) national council to reflect as much of Irish society as possible in a wide range of policies; most of us who served thereon have very warm memories of our colleagues there. A warning signal was that the current bunch of elected reps showed up perhaps once each over a five-year period; Gormley's contempt for policy is best attested by the fact he lived less than a mile away from the hotel where meetings took place, and only showed up once – ironically for an incinerator discussion

There is much controversy about climate change, largely because the “hockey stick” model – let's be patriotic(!) and call it the “hurley” - is a palpable fake to anyone who knows even the most minor aspects of time series prediction. Any attempt to come to conclusions as broad of Al Gore does would need massively more evidence, and the hurley was done without any reference to the wide community of statisticians. That is not to say that climate change is not occurring, and indeed it may be partly anthropogenic. However, it is its political and financial uses which are more significant

Wrt gore, it could be argued that Gore got the Nobel and his currently lucrative career for staying quiet like a good little boy while Bush stole the 2000 election. Gormley had similar problems. He wanted to be a minister, but hated the idea of an independent set of policies acting as constraints, particularly as he is by no means a real green of any sort. So farewell integrity, truth, respect for the law – let alone the policies we used pass on national council about the Arts, waste, GMOS, and so on. Gormley first tried a policy coup – all policies could be summarily changed by the elected reps, utterly in defiance of the will of the members. When this was turned down, he looked into the void – and liked what he saw

FF were never going to allow him interfere with their sacred scams, many of which he had exposed in the Dail – the music biz/IMRO, DCU, banking and so on – let alone shell, Tara, etc. Why not just tear up all the policies and find a new utterly controversial and apparently urgent issue for stupid kids to get excited about? Therein lies the true genius of climate change as a political tool; it is rather like transubstantiation and life after death in that non-one can possibly disprove it, no-one really need do anything except shout down all who oppose it, and it gives a free pass to finished narcissists like Gormley and his colleagues as they destroy 25 years' hard work by activists committed to the sanctity not just of the physical environment, but forms of human life that inform our time on earth with purpose and meaning.