Climate Crazy? Andrew Griffiths’ “Ecocide” Threat

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- August 10, 2023

“UKers have been hearing doom for a half century. Citizens want affordable, reliable energy. Many if not most know that UK sacrifice will not have any affect on climate for decades given the global coal, gas, and oil boom. Adaptation yes, but don’t exaggerate.”

It began with a “Wake Up Rishi Sunak” post from Andrew Griffiths, director of Policy & Partnerships at PlanetMark, a climate activist organization that continually complains that the UK government never does enough to mitigate greenhouse gases. Never mind that the UK accounts for about one percent of such global emissions; its oil and gas industry is mostly shut down; businesses can’t afford climate-policy-inflated bills, and consumers are falling into energy poverty…. And the plants like CO2!

“When government actually tell the general public what the climate crisis will mean for the UK, they demand government action,” Andrew begins.

The findings of this government report are not surprising, nor is the fact that the current government would choose to release their report on this quietly and without fanfare because it would make them accountable and not support their effort to start a culture war for political gain.

I responded:

Is the report exaggerated? Alarmism in, alarmism out? Malthus in, Malthus out?

UKers have been hearing doom for a half century. Citizens want affordable, reliable energy. Many if not most know that UK sacrifice will not have any affect on climate for decades given the global coal, gas, and oil boom. Adaptation yes, but don’t exaggerate.

One Steven Lord replied:

Hmmm….your credentials are invalid round here, buddy: Institute for Energy Research (IER) & American Energy Alliance (AEA) Koch Industries Climate Denial Front Group … The Institute for Energy Research was founded by Charles Koch and CEO Robert Bradley, a former Enron executive, in Texas under its former name, the Institute for Humane Studies of Texas….

I replied:

Ad hominem all you have? Do you understand what classical liberalism is? BTW, I founded IER with my father, not other person. Fact.

Pro-consumer, pro-taxpayer, pro-freedom, and yes, pro-environment (energy density wins) is a sound basis to counter climate policy, which is failing despite all the (wasteful) effort. Freedom over Big Brother…

Griffiths chimed in: “what Steven said. Are your views exaggerated? Oil money in, denial out?: My reply: “Classical liberalism, my friend. Why the repeated tries to discredit rather than stick on the issues?”

Griffiths reply:

Call it what you want. What you are doing is immoral and will one day be seen by future generations (and even current ones) as blood money.

We will live to see the day that those within the oil industry who have been secretively funding campaigns to sow false seeds of doubt will be held accountable for their actions. I hope that you wake up to the damage that you are doing long before that happens.

My reply:

Nice to finally get that out of you… But just incredible if you really believe it.

What if a critic calls what you are doing–using Government to substitute inferior for superior energies, costing consumers coming and going–as immoral.

Your program is based on coercion–classical liberalism is based on consenting adults voluntarily exchanging value for value. Sorry, but people who disagree with you on your premises and on the results of interventionism are not evil or immoral.

May the best energies win with government neutral–and may the countryside be saved from industrial wind turbines that operate at one-third of capacity. And crony, rent-seeking capitalists. That’s real economics and environmentalism.

Then Andrew takes it up a notch!

The only crony here is you. Accountability is key and the international legal system in countries around the world are putting in place criminal charges for ecocide alongside genocide. This is where accountability will be found for oil and gas companies.

I responded:

Just more ad hominem at the beginning of your evasive reply, and then madness about “criminal charges for ecocide alongside genocide.” Is this a threat?

Ecocide?

Andrew Griffiths disappeared at this point. But what is ‘ecocide’? As defined at the alarmists Inside Climate News:

At the close of World War II, when Soviet and Allied forces liberated the Nazi concentration camps at Auschwitz and Dachau…. a new word—genocide—was needed to describe it…. Another crime of similar magnitude is now at large in the world…. That crime is called ecocide.

And that is getting crazy, folks.