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Samizdata quote of the day

Why has this [Earth Hour] not expanded into a day when toilets go unflushed?

– Samizdata commenter RRS

24 comments to Samizdata quote of the day

  • That’s what I’d like to know!

  • persiflage

    Because, for most first-world citizens, unflushed toilets are a noisome nuisance, whereas unlighted lamps are not.

  • Michael Jennings (London)

    Given that it’s all about Global Warming, perhaps we should turn the heating off, too.

  • The other interesting thing about “Earth Hour” is how so much of the world’s press/media so quickly fell in behind the greenie propaganda on this (because they want to be duped by the greenie agenda), along with the Governing Classes (who like the possibility of force the greenie agenda gives them). This started in one city just six years ago, if I’m not mistaken.

    The media may or may not have a party political bias, but it certainly has a cultural bias, and the promoting of “Earth Hour” is one of the more glaring examples of it.

  • mike

    “Why has this [Earth Hour] not expanded into a day when toilets go unflushed?”

    Perhaps because the eco-fascists are afraid of their own reflection?

  • Other Mike

    Oh, good lord, don’t give them any ideas. They’re dumb enough to do it. When I was in college, a group of students tried to promote that very thing. They got people to stop flushing until the toilets clogged so badly that the restrooms had to be closed for a week. When they reopened, there were signs asking everyone to flush and explaining why it was a problem not to.

    Yes, college students had to be told to flush the toilets.

  • Laird

    Good essay indeed, Stonyground. “Earth Hour celebrates ignorance,
    poverty and backwardness.”
    That about says it all.

  • Julie near Chicago

    I thought the saying goes, “It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.” I thought there was an implicit assumption that the more Light, whether figuratively or realistically speaking, the better.

    Guess I was wrong.

    Off to read Dr. McKitrick’s piece. :>)))

    …Pause…

    Very good! :>)

  • RAB

    Ted S,

    If the world’s Media was really so keen on this pathetic jesture as being more than just a pathetic jesture, then our radio’s and tv screens should have gone blank for an hour, yes? Did anyone notice this happening? No.

  • Stonyground

    @Ted S
    That is indeed a very good point. It ties in well with McKitrick’s point that the Earth Hour people should try living without electricity for a month. This would bring home to them the reality of the hardship that we would all have to endure if the ecoloons got their way.

  • J.M. Heinrichs

    Would you consider “The Year Of No Toilet Paper”, ie, 2007?
    http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/22/garden/22impact.html?pagewanted=all

    Cheers

  • I work in shipping/freight, and the toilet paper (bathroom roll in the U.K.?) argument has long been a favorite debate point of mine.

    “If my planet-warming, nature-defiling, exhaust-producing industry were to allow you pampered parasites to run out of toilet paper for three days, you would immediately reverse sides and unite to permanently stuff Al Gore’s mouth with copies of ‘Earth In The Balance’ for all eternity.”

    etc etc etc….

    I believe that the Statists don’t mind doing without light, mostly because they don’t read very much. But the Statists have paid inordinate attention to Nanny State warnings against germs, bacteria, unapproved food and water, and invisible monsters. Threatening their supply of ass-wipes shuts ’em up every time.

  • Richard Thomas

    If it’s yellow, let it mellow. If it’s brown, send it down.

  • RAB

    J.M. Heinrichs,

    Thanks for the link. I have just read the article. Are that family out to lunch or what? Er… actually no, as going out to lunch seems to be a mortal sin in their book.

    Talking of which, I have yet to discern what they actually use for toilet paper though. Could it be pages from Mr Beavan’s remaindered books I wonder?

    When I first visited Turkey I was on the John doing the business like… There was toilet paper (well you have to accommodate your paying ignorant Infidel guests don’t you?) but when I looked down there was this little tap thing attached. I wonder what this does (reverting to my former five year old try anything once self. Well I soon found out. A jet of water shot straight up my arse. Muslim countries, it seems, are not the innovative slouches we take them for,just being mere copycats of western designs, oh no! They have managed to incorporate the Thomas Crapper and the Bidet into a single unit. Better than a Moonshot really. It’s actually quite efficient and does save paper as you only need a bit to dry and it doesn’t matter if your finger goes through it.;-)

  • One of the interesting things about the state of human knowledge and its application to society is that we now know that everything is rather complicated and interlinked.

    To help sort out what to do, we have various mechanisms including cost-benefit analysis, decision theory, etc. This involves finding a single measure of cost and its inverse: benefit. With this wonderful single measure of value, we are able to trade apples and pears and come to the best compromise decision on what to do in most circumstances.

    There is, of course, no doubt as to what that single measure of benefit is; we all know it – and trade (off) according to it every day. An hour of 10 big CFLs is about tuppence ha’penny. My suggestion: offer a pound right now for the benefit the eco-loons depart your sight (and hearing) for 40 years.

    As to gestures of the hour, planet Earth has already experienced some 26,280,000,000,000 of them: but less than 1,314,000 since the introduction of mains electricity. On this basis, even if there is a slight ache, I’d recommend no more than a couple of paracetamol and see if things are better in the morning (that will be, proportionately, about 35 million years).

    Oh, and Ross McKitrick’s essay is a wonderful reminder of getting things into a proper perspective.

    Best regards

  • TMI, RAB. Way TMI, my friend.

  • Kevin B

    I see that our new Environment Secretary has got the greenies on his back not just for advocating badger culls,but for this piece of heresy:

    “It is vital that we find ways to reverse the tendency in recent years to charge customers ever more for water while supplying them with less.

    “We desperately need to build more reservoirs to store all that water which keeps falling out of the sky — contrary to the long-fashionable belief that, thanks to global warming, we can expect nothing in the future but endless droughts.”

    Imagine! Instead of lying back and letting Mother Nature alternatly drown us or dehydrate us this Paterson chap wants to interfere by building reservoirs and “managing streams and rivers”. The nerve!

  • Thank-you Stonyground, that was very good.

    There is a TV show starting this week about electricity failing. I know little else about it but I hope it demonstrates just what hell that would be: http://www.locatetv.com/tv/revolution/7737763

  • jerry

    RAB,
    Um, on the off chance that we ever meet, face to face, so to speak –
    are you right or left handed ??
    I will not sell this information, it’s just for my own peace of mind – cough cough !!

  • Plamus

    Rob Fisher, I have watched the first season – it ran in the US last fall. It’s an awesome idea, but it aired on NBC – that should be a huge red flag. Still recommended viewing, but prepare to have to stomach a fair bit of “people with guns = bad” and “people who mean good = good, even if they eff up spectacularly” memes.

  • Nick (nice-guy) Gray

    Next up, save water- by taking the piss out of a greenie!

  • RAB

    I’m ambidexterous Jerry. Perhaps we should just nod. 😉

    Ok a tad too scatalogical a comment maybe, but those Turkish toilets do work very well, and of course one does wash one’s hands thoroughly afterwards.