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« Two worlds collide | Main | Would Brexit allow us to escape the clutches of the green blob? »
Monday
Feb222016

Climate physician, heal thyself!

A reader sent me this breakdown of a climate scientist's carbon footprint. We should not even consider listening to them until they have dealt with their own excesses.

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Reader Comments (65)

Business Class vs Economy..... if you were comparing a plane fitted only with lovely spacious business class folding beds with one which obliged all passengers to fly with their knees squashed against the seat in front, maybe, but we're not. The same plane carries both classes of passengers and, although one flies in considerably more comfort, the plane's CO2 total emissions must be shared equally between them. If a passenger decided he didn't like his business class bed and walked to the back of the plane to take up a spare squashed knees seat, that wouldn't alter the amount of CO2 emitted by his journey.

Feb 23, 2016 at 10:41 AM | Unregistered CommenterPhil D

I've flown first-class twice, and I'd say the extra space was more like at least 6 times that of economy class.

Other highlights: a choice of champagnes upon settling in, real silver-plated cutlery, outstanding menu, option of ordering cooked snacks at other times (or even cooking your own if you fancied doing so), and peaceful through the night. Delightful, unhurried service completes the picture. That is the way to travel - flying once again became a treat and a pleasure.

Feb 23, 2016 at 2:37 PM | Registered CommenterJohn Shade

Phil D

if you rented the jumbo and flew it yourself to the us (to an airfield ,plausibly), then I guess your carbon footprint is that of the whole plane, not just one of the idle seats in coach??

From this notion , i could carefully lead you to the fact that 1st class consumes more CO2, but I wont, otherwise Kindergarten has nothing of numeracy anymore to teach you.

Feb 23, 2016 at 3:29 PM | Unregistered CommenterVenusCold

stewgreen-

"Em click the end link of the article linking to his in "progress book"
Opens with a pic of their 2 primary school age children (thus giving a perpetual CO2 footprint)"

Very nice.

So by having two children, he's already helped immolate FutureEarth with 18,882 tonnes of peer-reviewed-in-2009 carbon poison. That is about 1,000 years of his planet-destroying 19 tonnes/annum carbon skidmark back in 2010.

Comparatively, his pie chart CO2 reductions of around 900 tonnes (18 tonnes/yr x 50 more yrs = 900 tonnes) are a round-off error in his personal carbon legacy.

Feb 23, 2016 at 3:46 PM | Unregistered Commenterchris y

Aila

Please can you explain why everyone you agree with is a genius, while everyone you disagree with is a heathen.

Or is my hunch correct - you are a sceptic really, and your posts are an ironic take on the lunacy of the average alarmist?

Feb 23, 2016 at 8:21 PM | Unregistered CommenterMark Hodgson

"Business Class vs Economy...
Feb 23, 2016 at 10:41 AM | Unregistered CommenterPhil D

Of course! And because of that plane equally divisible by number of passengers, each should pay exactly the same price...?

As in the rest of the world, there are real costs per sq. foot and cubic meter;
then there is the distant vague perception of costs as applied in the climate world...

Feb 23, 2016 at 8:57 PM | Unregistered CommenterATheoK

I don't agree with genius, dear Mark, I submit to it and accept your surrender on its behalf.

Feb 23, 2016 at 11:04 PM | Unregistered CommenterAila

@Aila, Feb 22, 2016 at 10:44 PM

It is clear none of you climate heathens are understanding a single thing Dr. Peter Kalmus has written.

The article opens with "I try to avoid burning fossil fuels, because it’s clear that doing so causes real harm to humans and to nonhumans, today and far into the future."

This is the moment when that humble human being declares his utter genius, when he elevates himself to a state of pure enlightenment far beyond what any one of you climate heathens will ever be able to comprehend.

In other words, there is exactly zero chance you will be able to process a single word this intellectual giant has to say for his essential assumptions are otherworldly.

Je suis Kalmus.

@Mark Hodgson, Feb 23, 2016 at 8:21 PM

Aila

Please can you explain why everyone you agree with is a genius, while everyone you disagree with is a heathen.

Or is my hunch correct - you are a sceptic really, and your posts are an ironic take on the lunacy of the average alarmist?

Mark,

My thoughts too, his comical post seemed like a paradoy of the insane "facts" the Green blob emit.

However, he has now confirmed it his true belief. My flabber is gasted.

Aila and Green blob's new slogan: "Save the planet, kill all humans"

My new slogan "Save the humans, green blob stop breathing and emitting your dangerous CO2"


Aila: An Idiotic Lunatic Air-head

Feb 24, 2016 at 12:03 AM | Registered CommenterPcar

I keep thinking you are talking to someone else because I misspelled my own handle. Darn!

Dr. Peter Kalmus is saving 4.36 frogs per nanosecond of flight time not flown. What are you climate heathens doing to save the frogs? That's what I thought.

I contend Kalmus should be likened to Mahatma Gandhi. At least.

Feb 24, 2016 at 2:58 AM | Unregistered CommenterAyla

Aila & Ayla please pool yourselves back together.

In order to save frogs, they should be crossed with octopuses. Then, the French will only need to kill a quarter of the number, to produce the same amount of food. Is that heathen enough?

Feb 24, 2016 at 3:43 AM | Unregistered Commentergolf charlie

The math is wonky. I'll need to check with the Skeptical Science cadre of virtuosi.

This has to be said now, though. If word of this proposal of genetic engineering should reach Greenpeace, it's all over for you even if enriching the mutant creature with vitamin A is off the table.

Feb 24, 2016 at 3:59 AM | Unregistered CommenterAyla

I guess it is true that irony is hard to detect over the internet.

Feb 24, 2016 at 4:20 AM | Unregistered CommenterBloke in Central Illinois

"Come fly with me, let's fly, let's fly away
If you can use some exotic booze
There's a bar in far Bombay
Come fly with me, let's fly, let's fly away".
Already been to Mumbai, so I thought I might go to Bali for my holidays.
But I don't feel guilty, because I am greening the Earth.

Feb 24, 2016 at 5:09 AM | Unregistered CommenterJohn of Cloverdale, WA

"Hour for hour, there’s no better way to warm the planet than to fly in a plane. If you fly coach from Los Angeles to Paris and back, you’ve just emitted 3 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere, 10 times what an average Kenyan emits in an entire year. Flying first class doubles these numbers." (Peter Kalmus, Yes magazine)

Well, those lazy, old Kenyans, right on the Equator, aren't the ones who are going to get an ice-shelf where the Pennines used to be, come the next Ice Age, are they? What, in fact, is wrong with warming the planet, by any means possible, in the later stages of an interglacial?

On the plus side, those of us who live several thousand miles from Peter Kalmus don't need to worry that he's the one walking off with our luggage at Gatwick.

Feb 24, 2016 at 7:26 AM | Unregistered CommenterOwen Morgan

Re :Business Class oversimplifying
- Whe a 1,000 people move from flying business class on Swiss Air down to economy it is no clear that there is a CO2 saving 1000X lots of CO2
- It may well be that that whole route ends up being taken by Ryan Air and since they go for quantity not quality the lower prices might attract double the number of passengers so CO2 ends going up.

...It may end up also that normal people end up flying more jst cos they know it annoys the dramagreens.

Feb 24, 2016 at 2:02 PM | Registered Commenterstewgreen

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