Links tagged “mkey”

"The mass shutdowns we now experience – likely necessary in a pandemic – could provide a model for imposing harsh actions to curb carbon emissions that activists consider as great or greater threats than the virus itself."... 

"Unless carefully controlled and monitored, the response to the current pandemic could end up leaving us with a system more akin to China’s authoritarian order, dominated by a narrow class of Mandarins and billionaires."...

"Already some environmentalists view the policies used to battle the virus, and the unprecedented course of actions, as a “test run” for what they believe will be necessary to save humanity. As in the Middle Ages, theology will play a central role in pushing an autocratic “solution.” In their oddly pious way, some environmentalists view the pandemic, like climate change, as a kind of “comeuppance” for the evil impact of humans on Earth."...

" Throughout history, crises – like the Covid-19 pandemic – have been ideal opportunities for expanding centralized control of life, ostensibly for our own good. We are already seeing the potential rise of a new police state and in some countries, such as France, a rising incidence of informers, conspiracy theories, and even vigilantism."...

" A scientifically-based crisis offers an ideal terroir for the promotion of oligarchy."

Washington Post's Fareed Zakaria: "As the coronavirus crisis continues: Estimates of its lethality keep going down."

Key excerpts: "Predictions for hospitalization rates have also proved to be substantial overestimating." ...

"We have shut down the economy based on models, understandably worried about worst-case scenarios."

"Ioannidis pointed out that there have been three instances where we have tested an entire population — the Diamond Princess cruise ship, the Italian town of Vo Euganeo, and San Miguel County, Colo. In all these places, the numbers of infections (many with no symptoms) — when adjusted for the U.S. population as a whole — suggest a fatality rate that is actually similar to that of the seasonal flu." ...

"The University of Washington model — which has been cited by the White House — predicted on March 26 that, assuming social distancing stays in place until June 1, U.S. deaths over the next four months would most likely be about 81,000. By April 8, it had made more than five revisions, to get to the current number: 60,415. That’s on par with the number of people estimated to have died of the flu in the 2019-2020 season." ...

Stanford’s John Ioannidis, an epidemiologist who specializes in analyzing data, and one of the most cited scientists in the field, believes we have massively overestimated the fatality of covid-19. “When you have a model involving exponential growth, if you make a small mistake in the base numbers, you end up with a final number that could be off 10-fold, 30-fold, even 50-fold,” he told me. ...

Data from Iceland and Denmark, which have done the best random sampling, also point in the same direction, Ioannidis said. “If I were to make an informed estimate based on the limited testing data we have, I would say that covid-19 will result in fewer than 40,000 deaths this season in the USA,” Ioannidis told me.

"Degrowth" involves a purposeful contraction of the economy

Some climate-focused economists see the COVID-19 pandemic as an unwitting experiment for a radical strategy to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. The concept is called "degrowth." It involves a planned slowdown of economic sectors that emit large amounts of global carbon dioxide. Those sectors would scale down until the broader economy meets "sustainable emissions levels," advancing long-term health and environmental goals.

Natasha Chassagne of the University of Tasmania: There are "opportunities we can take away from the coronavirus emergency." ...

"'Degrowth' involves a purposeful contraction of high-emitting sectors while growing other sectors that produce low or zero emissions." 

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Flashback: Sierra Club Touts Economic ‘De-Growth’: ‘We have to de-grow our economy’ to ‘temper climate disruption, and foster a stable, equitable world economy’ – ‘WORK LESS TO LIVE MORE’

Flashback: Warmist Prof. Alice Bows-Larkin calls for ‘planned recessions’ to fight ‘global warming’: ‘Economic growth needs to be exchanged’ for ‘planned austerity’ – ‘Whole system change’

Flashback: STUDY in Nature: Global wealth redistribution, economic ‘degrowth’ needed to fight ‘global warming’

Flashback: ‘A planned economic recession’: Global warming prof. Kevin Anderson – who has ‘cut back on showering’ to save planet – asserts economic ‘de-growth’ is needed to fight climate change

Now is the time for global leaders to create one world government to tackle the twin medical and economic crises caused by the Chinese coronavirus pandemic, former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown urged on Thursday. ...

“This is not something that can be dealt with in one country,” he said. “There has to be a coordinated global response.” ...

Gordon Brown has urged world leaders to create a temporary form of global government to tackle the twin medical and economic crises caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Destruction of wildlife and the climate crisis is hurting humanity, with Covid-19 a ‘clear warning shot’, say experts ...

Nature is sending us a message with the coronavirus pandemic and the ongoing climate crisis, according to the UN’s environment chief, Inger Andersen.

Andersen said humanity was placing too many pressures on the natural world with damaging consequences, and warned that failing to take care of the planet meant not taking care of ourselves. Leading scientists also said the Covid-19 outbreak was a “clear warning shot”, given that far more deadly diseases existed in wildlife, and that today’s civilisation was “playing with fire”. They said it was almost always human behaviour that caused diseases to spill over into humans.

To prevent further outbreaks, the experts said, both global heating and the destruction of the natural world for farming, mining and housing have to end, as both drive wildlife into contact with people.