Summary of #6 - Barry Woods on the insanity of "climate campaigners"

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00:00:00 - 01:00:00

Barry Woods, a climate skeptic, discusses the flaws in the climate change lobby regarding their ideologies and policies. He criticizes the green party's definition of environmental sustainability, the lack of scientific consensus on the climate crisis, and the impact of lobbying efforts by big philanthropic and billionaire foundations on climate policies. Woods also highlights the exaggerated claims made by climate campaigners, the lack of probability and feasibility in their policies, and the need for a proper debate. He questions the validity of renewable energy as the cheapest form of energy, and warns against the detrimental effects of increasing energy bills on businesses.

00:00:00 In this section of the transcript, Barry Woods talks about how he became a climate skeptic, which coincided with the leak of the ClimateGate emails during the run-up to the Copenhagen conference. He explained that he got drawn in after reading the emails and noticing the issues with understanding in the harry_read_me file. He noted that nobody in the media was reporting on it, and there was complete silence on the topic until James Delingpole started talking about it. Woods expressed his disbelief in climate policies and how stupid they were, regardless of whether it's three degrees, six degrees, or everyone's going to die.
00:05:00 In this section, Barry Woods discusses how the green lobby has wrapped up their own ideologies, which includes a notion of abundant energy. The green party has come up with their own definitions of what is environmentally sustainable, leading to confusion over what climate emergency actually means and what action should be taken. Climate scientists do not have a consensus on whether or not the earth is in a climate crisis, as everyone's definition of crisis is different. What’s more, wealthier countries have been able to put in place infrastructure including clean water, electricity and refrigeration, as well as techniques to farm land more sustainably, which means they are less impacted by climate events than poorer countries.
00:10:00 In this section, the speaker discusses how politicians are surrounded by lobbyists who have been funded by big philanthropic and billionaire foundations to save the planet. He explains that these lobbyists are funding organizations and campaigns such as anti-coal, and that they are not scientific and do not care about anything else but net zero. He also believes that the scientists do not believe in the climate crisis as much as the lobbyists, politicians, and billionaires do. Fields such as gas and meat are being hit hard with taxes in efforts to combat the crisis, but these policies are challenged as they are not being scrutinized enough. Furthermore, he touches on the fact that public figures such as Bloomberg, Gates, and Gore, who claim to be advocates of climate change, do not live a lifestyle consistent with their beliefs.
00:15:00 In this section, Barry Woods discusses his experiences talking to activists involved in climate change campaigns including meetings with Extinction Rebellion. He found that many of these individuals were ignorant of the facts and were repeating information without verifying the source. He also highlights some of the exaggerated claims made by climate campaigners, such as the claim that the Earth could only support one billion people if there was four or five or six degrees of warming by 2050, which was not based on fact. Woods argues that much of the climate change lobby is fixated on a particular vision of the future, and are not open to changing their views based on evidence.
00:20:00 In this section, the speaker discusses the European Climate Foundation, which is funded by the Climate Works Foundation. The speaker claims the Climate Works Foundation was given 500 million dollars each from the Hewlett Foundation or Packard Foundation, over the span of ten years. The European Climate Foundation among other places funds Extinction Rebellion, and lobbies for a Climate Assembly. The speaker is concerned about the top-heavy nature of the climate change conversation, where civil servants and think tanks have whole careers out of being ideologues rather than being practical about bills, which are increasing in the present. There is a lack of perspective and a focus on zero risk with extreme measures, which creates all sorts of new problems in the process.
00:25:00 In this section, Barry Woods describes his experiences attending meetings and conferences on climate change. He talks about a meeting he attended in 2012 where self-proclaimed experts discussed climate change, and he mentions how one speaker predicted that the earth would have experienced extinction-level events by 2013. Woods also shares his experiences attending an activist meeting in 2019, where the goal was to build up support for climate change activists to engage in acts of civil disobedience. He explains that such meetings and activists have had an impact on climate policy, with the creation of climate assemblies and the signing into law of net zero targets, but he criticizes the methods used by activists and experts to gain a mandate from the public, which he views as lacking in scientific rigor and independence.
00:30:00 In this section, Barry Woods discusses his experience as an informant revealing how activists were presenting themselves as independent mutual persons for climate change discussions when they were activists themselves. Woods mentions how organizations like the BBC and European Climate Foundation funded health and organizational speaking and blocked those who opposed their views. Further, these activists directly tried to influence politicians by presenting recommendations for climate change and manipulated the public mandate to win in their favour. They try to disengage the public by only presenting experts while pushing the public to the direction they desired. Additionally, Woods mentions how these individuals denied space for climate skeptics and represented themselves as youth representatives without any evidence.
00:35:00 In this section, Barry Woods discusses the ideas being put forward by climate activists and lobbyists. He questions the validity of these policies and suggests that there has been no proper debate on the subject. Woods also mentions how policies are affecting people's everyday lives like an increase in taxes to encourage people to use air heat pumps, reducing meat consumption, and banning petrol cars. He suggests that the activists and lobbyists are getting more aggressive because they think they won years ago. Nevertheless, the policies are affecting people's lives now and therefore, they need to have a proper debate.
00:40:00 In this section, Barry Woods discusses the insanity of climate campaigners and their demanding pledges. He argues that sustainable farming to them means rewilding things, stopping nitrogen and meat production, which is totally unrealistic. Furthermore, many politicians have pledged to insulate everything and spend 340 billion pounds on 19 million homes to upgrade their environmental standards, which is unrealistic and would take decades. Despite the lack of practicality and feasibility of these pledges, politicians are still doubling down on them without knowing how anything works. Woods believes that the focus on net-zero is insane, and the public can't tolerate it for much longer because it may lead to a painful situation next year.
00:45:00 In this section, Barry Woods discusses his experience attending meetings and panel debates concerning low impact energy sources and the lack of attention given to the nuclear power industry. He mentions that there is a group of politicians that have signed up for a net zero group and are promoting the use of renewable energy sources, but he believes that practical solutions to the energy crisis should be implemented. He mentions how Germany's anti-nuclear stance has led to industries and schools shutting down and warns against the detrimental effects of increasing energy bills on businesses. Barry emphasizes that the public does not care much about climate change and that it is just all scare stories that have been circulating for years.
00:50:00 In this section, Barry Woods discusses the shallow understanding of climate campaigners' soundbites. Woods reflects on how renewables are marketed as the cheapest form of energy while in fact they aren't, and how it will become harder to sustain the narrative as more people begin to challenge the claims made by campaigners. He believes that the lack of real debate about how to do net zero or the cost of making it technically possible while there's a strong momentum, could lead to the movement either continuing for a long time or suddenly bursting. Additionally, Woods spent a considerable amount of time pushing back on the language used by campaigners who labeled dissenters as either bleeding-heart climate changers or deniers, and he fought against that type of language by attending debates and engaging with climate scientists.
00:55:00 In this section, Barry Woods discusses the social media network that was created to study climate change and communication. He was fine with his name being associated with a node in the UK section of the political debate. However, he was appalled that psychologists were going after people labeling them as conspiracy theorists and climate deniers. Woods believes that there is more to the issue than binary agreement and disagreement. Regarding Michael Mann's claim that he was attacked by bots on Twitter, Woods has not seen any climate skeptic bot handles. Although he agrees that climate scientists do get attacked by idiots on the internet, he finds it hard to believe that they are targeted for reasons related to climate change.

01:00:00 - 01:20:00

Barry Woods examines the ethics, authenticity, and flawed logic of climate change activists, their use of psychology to change people's behaviors, and their exaggerated claims about climate change. He argues that activists with sociological or psychological backgrounds use manipulative techniques to promote climate propaganda, and the public is becoming more aware of their methods. Woods believes that the debate on policies related to climate change has been insufficient, and there should be more discussions on choices, directions, and trade-offs. Despite the recent bill passed in America, Woods suggests that nuclear power might have been a better option than coal for reducing particulates in the atmosphere.

01:00:00 In this section, Barry Woods discusses the concern of climate psychology and how activists in every field seem to use their influence to promote climate propaganda. Woods expresses his concern regarding the publication process and approvals behind controversial papers and the biased and unethical practices of journals and ethics departments. Woods criticizes the field of psychology for using activists who are at war with certain groups, such as skeptics, in research papers. Furthermore, he is worried about the ethics issues regarding nudge psychology, behavior change, and net-zero legislation.
01:05:00 In this section, the speaker discusses the use of psychology in climate change behavior change with public policy. He mentions the people involved in promoting climate change awareness and states that many of them have backgrounds in psychology and sociology. He questions the reliability of their research and points out that some of these experts have been associated with campaigns that have used manipulative techniques to persuade people to adopt certain behaviors. The speaker argues that politicians should not treat the public in this way and that if they find out about the manipulations, it will reflect badly on the politicians as well.
01:10:00 In this section, Barry Woods discusses the use of iconic images of activists such as the Guardian's photograph of activists painted blue and argues that the public hated it the most. He questions whether the public recognizes the authenticity of activism and whether psychologists working for government departments or government grants are really effective in changing people's behavior. Woods also examines the history of activist movements such as Extinction Rebellion and Rising Up and how they have essentially been repeating the same messages over the years. He points out that while some activists are really motivated and believe in the message, it remains to be seen whether their efforts will be successful in effecting real change.
01:15:00 In this section, Barry Woods discusses the flawed logic of climate campaigners and the exaggeration of the effects of climate change. He argues that even if there were a three-degree temperature increase by 2050, fossil fuels would still be necessary to protect people from the destructive impacts of climate change. Woods and Alex Epstein further argue that fossil fuels have helped make the climate safer and that quality of life has improved over the last 150 years. Woods points out that the number of people killed by CO2-induced climate change is zero, but the media continues to push irrational activist science papers that are not based on sound data.
01:20:00 In this section, Barry Woods discusses the polarization and lack of debate around climate change that has made it difficult to discuss policies rather than the science. He believes that people are now finally starting to realize that policies such as net zero may not work, and there is a growing need for a discussion on choices and policy directions. Woods argues that the climate change debate has been phony and that more people are being called names or shouted down instead of having an actual debate on policies. Despite the recent bill passed in America, which he believes is incredibly crazy for trying to spend money on preventing bad weather, it is unknown whether the government will ban more renewables or fossil fuels. Woods suggests that nuclear power might have been a better option than coal, as it would result in fewer particulates.