Via Climate Depot comes this entertaining point (August 2015)…
Several environmental groups are planning a major climate rally that will draw hundreds of thousands to the National Mall on Sept. 24, the day Pope Francis speaks to Congress and is expected to address the public afterwards.
…and counterpoint (September 2015):
On Thursday morning — as Pope Francis prepared to make history by addressing Congress — hundreds of activists gathered on the National Mall.
In case you’re wondering: no, there’s no indication otherwise that the crowds even hit the tens of thousands that the Huffington Post so confidently predicted in DC and NYC (it’s surprisingly difficult to find any word of the NYC rally: apparently it barely hit a thousand). I fully expect that, once it comes out just how much of a flop the whole thing is appearing right now, that a lot of hasty revisions upward of total appearance will appear. But that’s the nature of this business, really. Enjoy Big Green’s tacit admission of failure while it lasts, folks.
But there’s still the big, burning question: why aren’t the Greenies getting 200K at their rallies? They’ve got everything they need for it: a sympathetic media, big-name politicians and celebrities and artists stumping for them, catchy memes, plenty of cash for PR and ad campaigns, a bevy of carefully-massaged polls… everything they need for a popular movement, it seems. …Except for people. That’s been the weak spot for the Activist Left, generally. They just can’t get people sitting in the pews.
Come, I will tell you a secret: there is a vast difference between saying that something must be done about a situation, and saying that this must be done. If you stop people on the street and ask them if climate change is a problem, they’ll… well, first they’ll correct you by saying Do you mean global warming? And, after you concede that yes, you mean global warming, they’ll probably go Oh, yeah, I heard that that’s bad for the polar bears and stuff. Congratulations, ye stopping-people-on-the-streets activist: you’ve got another ‘supporter for action on climate change.’ And if you’re smart – which is to say, you’re only in this cause for the money – you stop there, go find the people who will give you money, and use this ‘groundswell of popular support for meaningful change’ to shake some cash loose.
But what if you actually want to stop ‘climate change?’ Well, go back to those people on the street, and ask them whether they want a buck-per-gallon gas tax hike. Or working to shut down more heavy industry in the United States. Or doubling or tripling the subsidies offered to ‘green energy’ companies. Or, indeed, anything else that would be drastic, significant, and above all relevant to people’s daily lives. You will get… hundreds showing up to a climate change rally on the Mall*. Because talk is cheap.
…Which is possibly why it’s so profitable for the aforementioned people who are only in all of this for the money, huh? Generate visible but ultimately meaningless enthusiasm for a cause for pennies, sell that enthusiasm to gullible sorts with more money than sense for dollars, make a tidy profit on the difference. God bless the American Way.
Moe Lane (crosspost)
*Note that I’m being nice, and not pointing out too strongly that the Greenies have learned the obvious trick of getting all the other splinters out there to show up and rah-rah about green energy, before they launch into their tirades about Maoism or whatever.
Both their temperature and crowd predictions off by three orders of magnitude.
Why aren’t people showing up? Because they are too busy worrying about whether to pay for power or food this month… because that is the choice that ‘green’ offers.
They say weather isn’t climate but when the weather starts affecting the biodiversity in your area it isn’t weather anymore. Where I’m at the dandelions have disappeared. Some of the green leafy plants have survived in sheltered areas next to houses but they didn’t bloom. You miss the yellow flowers when they’re gone.
the Koch brothers had anyone in the vicinity arrested. just making sure people will snicker at those eco-crqzies.
Ask anyone who has ever been involved in a volunteer organization – 10 percent do 90 percent. Climate Change is under the same dynamic. If no effort or loss is required you will get plenty of support, its just the support is a mile broad and an inch deep.
Note: This is why you should ignore a Twitter lynch mob. It costs them nothing to shout their outrage in less than 140 characters, and in six days they will be long-off like evil puppies chasing a new squirrel. Probably the third squirrel since you.