Happy 2019! Yet another year where the Watermelons (green on the outside, Red on the inside) will ramp up their belief in government using force on Other People to comply with the beliefs of the Cult of Climastrology
Time for politicians to make ‘stark choices’ over climate change
Politicians must persuade consumers to make dramatic lifestyle changes if devastating climate change and mass extinctions are to be averted, according to the shadow Treasury minister, Clive Lewis.
From cutting back on red meat to taking fewer flights, the MP for Norwich South said the public must face up to “real, stark choices†in the years ahead.
“If you want your children and grandchildren to avoid food shortages, to avoid power shortages, to avoid biological degradation, biodiversity loss – if you actually want a planet that’s inhabitable – then we need to make some choices together, now: and some of them are about quite dramatic changes to how we live,†Lewis said in an interview with the Guardian.
What they want to do is to attempt to scare the crap out of voters in a manner that causes them to give up their money and liberty, their choice. But, they never talk about giving up their own money, choice, and liberty.
“I think there’s a crunch point now coming for politics. You often hear there’s no leadership in politics – and this isn’t a leadership pitch, I promise you – but when you talk about leadership, there’s leadership in different forms,†he said.
On red meat, for example, Lewis said: “I’m not going to sit here and say, yeah, let’s ban red meat … but you can show leadership by asking, well actually, is it right that we publicly subsidise an industry that is contributing so much to greenhouse gas emissions, and often is a very unsustainable practice?â€
He said the government’s role should be to “encourage people and show leadership as to how we’re going to shift people’s eating habits on to a more sustainable footingâ€.
On air travel, he said Labour was starting to work up options, including a tax “escalatorâ€, which would have the biggest impact on frequent fliers, who tend to be the wealthiest.
And that is where the force starts coming into play, as they abandon any semblance of “persuasion.” Persuasion hasn’t worked all that well over the past 30 years of spreading awareness, even as they have moved into attempts to scare people with stories of future doom.
He said he believed countering the human threats to the environment would have to mean junking “the obsession with flat-screen TVs and consumptionâ€.
“On their deathbed, do people think: ‘I wish I’d spent more time with my Ferrari’? Or do they say: ‘I wish I’d spent more time watching my kids grow up, I wish I’d spent more time country walking’?
“It’s about the things that matter in life, and how we have an economy that better reflects that,†he said.
While we could all certainly spend less time with the TVs and phones and more with friends and family, this is none of government’s business. The Watermelons do not care. And you can bet that many elected politicians around the world think the same as Clive Lewis.
