I admit it from the off - I've never liked Sting. I find his
voice grating and his music annoys me. So if Sting and Mrs Sting
go on CNN and lecture the general public about how we are killing
the planet and our only saviour is some form of vastly empowered
big government, it's going to get my goat.
In an interview with CNN's Don Lemon on Sunday, the rock star
dubbed Earth Day celebrations in Washington a "Green Tea
Party", while simultaneously calling for "big government"
to save the planet:
"Well, you can see the enthusiasm out there." Sting
commented. "And people are here to really tell big government
that we want big government to make big decisions about the
most important problems we face. And also to pressure our corporations
to behave properly, as consumers, but we're here to -- we're
asking for big government, basically."
"You want big government?" a somewhat baffled Lemon
asked.
"Of course we do." Sting replied. "This is
a huge problem, and only the government can solve it. You know,
the man on the street can do a little bit, but big governments
need to make decisions. We need to stop clear-cutting forests.
We need to protect the forests. That's the simplest way of cutting
greenhouse gases."
Then Trudie Styler, eager not to be known as "the little
wifey", dropped a bombshell - there's going to be no life
on Earth in 50 or so years, unless we create and empower this
big government to save us:
"We have to really lean on our governments to do something.
Because I think that we're going to maybe not in my lifetime,
but towards the end of our children's, we're going to reach
a tipping point, that we will no longer be able to support life
on this planet earth. I believe in that defiantly and passionately
and strongly."
Sting finished off the interview by singing his song "One
World Is Enough" - presumably one world, run by one big
government, with one big global accord; every breath you take
- they'll be taxing you (awful pun intended), while Al Gore
and Maurice Strong rake in billions via the international carbon
trading scam.
Watch the video:
"A climate skeptic is someone who jumps out of the 20th
floor of a hotel, and for 19 floors he says to everybody 'hey
it's fine' nothing's wrong".
Nice analogy Sting, but what does that mean? I would say that
a real climate change skeptic is someone who looks at the the
available facts and the science from a neutral starting point
and comes to his or her own conclusions, rather than blindly
accepting whatever he, or she, is told by big government, wealthy
elites and the cherry picked scientists they have gathered into
their camp.
What is more, I would wage a bet that 99.9% of climate skeptics
are greener than Mr Sting in any case. I fly once every two
years (if that), I recycle anything recyclable, I do not own
a car and I live in a modest energy efficient two bedroom flat.
That doesn't mean I believe we're all doomed unless we de-industrialize
the planet, keep the third world mired in poverty and cough
up carbon taxes to a global regulatory body.
Who does Sting think he is? The leader of the green Police?
(again, couldn't resist).
You may think it bizarre after that rant, but I do believe
Sting and Styler's hearts are in the right places. Deforestation
is a real environmental problem that can and should be conquered
legitimately, without surrendering the power to govern ourselves
and lining the pockets of the wealthy few.
However, throwing in alarmist claims regarding CO2 driven global
climate change is irresponsible, screams of bandwagon jumping,
and comes across as totally hypocritical.
The last thing we need is armies of emotionally charged middle
aged dadrockers baying for more big government because their
leader, Sting, has them believing it's how you stay down with
the in crowd.
Surely that's a more frightening scenario than global warming
could ever top.
I admit it from the off - I've never liked Sting. I find his
voice grating and his music annoys me. So if Sting and Mrs Sting
go on CNN and lecture the general public about how we are killing
the planet and our only saviour is some form of vastly empowered
big government, it's going to get my goat.
