Monday
Say what you will about the environmentalist and Guardian columnist Mr George Monbiot - not, apparently, the prototypical moonbat but merely a moonbat - he does have integrity. I have no doubt his recent conversion to a belief in the benefits of nuclear power cost him many friends in the green movement.
This article will not win them back. In it Mr Monbiot and Justin McCurry write that
The Green party's former science and technology spokesman is promoting anti-radiation pills to people in Japan affected by the Fukushima nuclear disaster, that leading scientists have condemned as "useless".Dr Christopher Busby, a visiting professor at the University of Ulster, is championing a series of expensive products and services which, he claims, will protect people in Japan from the effects of radiation. Among them are mineral supplements on sale for ￥5,800 (£48) a bottle, urine tests for radioactive contaminants for ￥98,000 (£808) and food tests for ￥108,000 (£891).
and
Launching the products and tests, Busby warns in his video of a public health catastrophe in Japan caused by the Fukushima explosions, and claims that radioactive caesium will destroy the heart muscles of Japanese children.Regarding that claim, Monbiot and McCurry write:He also alleges that the Japanese government is trucking radioactive material from the Fukushima site all over Japan, in order to "increase the cancer rate in the whole of Japan so that there will be no control group" of children unaffected by the disaster, in order to help the Japanese government prevent potential lawsuits from people whose health may have been affected by the radiation. The pills, he claims, will stop radioactive contaminants attaching themselves to the DNA of Japanese children.
Gerry Thomas, professor of molecular pathology at the department of surgery and cancer at Imperial College, London, describes his statements about heart disease caused by caesium as "ludicrous". She says that radioactive elements do not bind to DNA. "This shows how little he understands about basic radiobiology." Of the products and services being offered, she says, "none of these are useful at all. Dr Busby should be ashamed of himself."
UPDATE: George Monbiot has also put up a blog post on Christopher Busby in the Guardian Environment section. There is fierce debate in the comments between pro-and anti-nuclear Guardianistas. Meanwhile the Green Party have made no statement on all this that I can see.
Ah, the joys of the English language! I was wondering why anyone would flog oil, but flog also means to try to sell in a hard manner, not just to hit with a whip or cat-of-nine-tails. Just think, when the Romans were flogging Jesus, they were just trying to convince him of the benefits of Roman citizenship! What was all the fuss about?
Posted by 'Nuke' Gray at November 22, 2011 03:57 AM
From one fraud to another. Are we supposed to be surprised or shocked when a weasel kills a chicken?
A weasel does what weasels do.
Posted by veryretired at November 22, 2011 05:15 AM
Note that the Green Party's disavowal may be more to do with its distaste for commerce than rejection of the Busby view that radioactive materials are vastly more dangerous than established nuclear medicine says. They liked the snake-oil until he started selling it.
Posted by guy herbert at November 22, 2011 07:38 AM
Posted by 'Nuke' Gray at November 22, 2011 03:57 AM
The Romans spoke English?
Posted by Dusty at November 22, 2011 02:23 PM
The Romans were English*. Everybody else** in the ancient world was American. You would know this if you had paid proper attention to epic movies.
Shame on me. I've derailed my own thread.
*Upper middle class English.
**e.g. American Gauls, Picts, Greeks, Hebrews/Israelites/Jews & Egyptians. And American Ancient Britons, naturally.
Posted by Natalie Solent at November 22, 2011 02:40 PM
Guy Herbert, good point. Busby's current status within the Green party seems unclear - and I suspect that they would prefer to leave it so.
In their defence, though, the fact that he is now making money out of the fears of the people of Fukushima is, for the vast majority who do not have either the time or the knowledge to delve the scientific arguments, the tipping point at which they stop believing him. And it is quite a sensible choice of tipping point.
Posted by Natalie Solent at November 22, 2011 02:47 PM
Just to clarify my last - I am certainly not anti-commerce in general, and I think inventing and selling medicines for profit can be an exceptionally honourable way to make a living, or indeed a fortune, by benefiting mankind. However a pro-commerce stance should make one more sensitive to commercial ethics, not less. Selling quack remedies to frightened people is unethical.
Posted by Natalie Solent at November 22, 2011 02:53 PM
"the Green Party's disavowal may be more to do with its distaste for commerce"
The attitude of all faithful communists was established by the KGB in the 1960s. All Western Parties are to combat American and allied Nuclear science with all methods including the spread of disinformation about nuclear materials.
Posted by Walter Sobchak at November 22, 2011 09:52 PM
Even if they didn't speeka da inglish, their words probably had lots of similar contortions and double meanings. If we wanted a sensible language we would all now be Esperantistoyn.
Posted by 'Nuke' Gray at November 22, 2011 11:38 PM
