Philip Pullman: Kill humans and ration heating

[Raphael]

I'm beginning to think that Mr. Pullman is on something rather illegal.

Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01...artime_misery/

The Register

Demanding strict state-controlled energy rationing, Pullman says in a new book [Do good Lives have to Cost the Earth?]:

"This is a crisis as big as war and you couldn't trade your ration book in the wartime. You were allowed three ounces of butter a week, or whatever, and that was it. And this is what it should be like with carbon. None of this carbon trading. We should have a fixed limit and if you use it all up in October, then tough, you shiver for the rest of the year."
...
"My childhood was formed during the austerity years after the war. So I still feel influenced by that. Curious, isn't it, how we were much healthier as a nation after the war when the rationing was on?"

Ah, yes. Those glory days when tuberculosis and syphilis were rampant, penicillin was rare, very few males over the age of 30 still had their own teeth, and life expectancy was ten years shorter than it is today!

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[SteveF]

"If the polar bears leapt from the pages of my fiction into reality and saw what was happening," reckons Pullman, "they'd eat us. Eat as many of us as quickly as they possibly could. And good luck to them

This is whats known as being British. I wouldn't take it too seriously.

[Raphael]

This is whats known as being British. I wouldn't take it too seriously.

Looks like the blokes at the register thought he was on something (they're also British).

contextually, he is saying that because we're killing off the polar bears, that they should eat us.

Telegraph (quoting from the book)

Now, they're all going to be extinct if there's no ice left, unless they put them all in zoos or round them up and put a fence round them and throw them a seal or two from time to time. But that's no life.

If the polar bears leapt from the pages of my fiction into reality and saw what was happening, they'd eat us. Eat as many of us as quickly as they possibly could. And good luck to them.

© source where applicable

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/mai...pullman119.xml

[SteveF]

Looks like the blokes at the register thought he was on something (they're also British).

Yeah. It's called being sensationalist.

contextually, he is saying that because we're killing off the polar bears, that they should eat us.

He's being sardonic, dry, etc to make his point (which is very British - hooray!). He isn't being serious. He isn't literally wishing the bears look in killing us.

[Ryokan]

This is whats known as being British. I wouldn't take it too seriously.

What makes you guys so grouchy? You drink so much you'd think you'd be cheerful sometimes. Instead its all black humor and bar fights. And the occasional soccer riot, excuse me.

[SteveF]

What makes you guys so grouchy? You drink so much you'd think you'd be cheerful sometimes. Instead its all black humor and bar fights. And the occasional soccer riot, excuse me.

You can't beat a good riot.

[Raphael]

You can't beat a good riot.

Hooligans.

Yeah, I get it was sardonic humour. His real suggestion is the carbon rationing.

However, as with most greenies, he fails to understand that people won't stand for what he's proposing. (Sorry, I had someone from Greenpeace trying to convince me to join up yesterday)

I mean if you tell someone that they've used up all their carbon for the year (and they're still in autumn) they're going to be pretty upset, and if you tell an entire country/continent/world that, the resulting chaos will make the average soccer riot look like a kids party.

[SteveF]

However, as with most greenies, he fails to understand that people won't stand for what he's proposing. (Sorry, I had someone from Greenpeace trying to convince me to join up yesterday)

I mean if you tell someone that they've used up all their carbon for the year (and they're still in autumn) they're going to be pretty upset, and if you tell an entire country/continent/world that, the resulting chaos will make the average soccer riot look like a kids party.

Oh, I entirely agree. I think AGW is real and pretty serious (though not as serious as some make out). I also think that there isn't a cat in hell's chance that anyone will bother doing anything about it (particularly if the solution involves telling people they have to turn into tie-dye wearing hippies), so mitigation is an urgent necessity.

[Nicholas]

I'm guessing that this is another one of those "modest proposals".

[Johnny MacManky]

It's okay Steve, I'm here. :club: Are the big boys beating on ya?

[Teallaura]

What makes you guys so grouchy? ...

You'd be grouchy, too, if you lived in a place that was cold, rainy, foggy or some combination of the above all the time. Seriously, have you ever read any stories about England where someone wasn't freezing, soaking wet or trying not to be one or the other?

[Teallaura]

Looks like the blokes at the register thought he was on something (they're also British).

contextually, he is saying that because we're killing off the polar bears, that they should eat us.

...

That'll work in England - y'all don't have any guns to speak of. Over here we'd be buying bigger freezers and developing new recipes for polar bear stew.

[Johnny MacManky]

You'd be grouchy, too, if you lived in a place that was cold, rainy, foggy or some combination of the above all the time. Seriously, have you ever read any stories about England where someone wasn't freezing, soaking wet or trying not to be one or the other?

Now, lemme think... Last night on PalTalk... someone was sitting up in the middle of the night, no heating on, bare toes, T-shirt & nice & warm :flag: and someone else went to bed wearing 40 layers and was still freezing... :coldcat:










































...guess that explains why you're so grouchy!

[Teallaura]

Nope - one electric blanket solved the whole problem.

New ceramic heater I bought this morning fixed the rest.

[SteveF]

It hasn't rained here in hours