The boys and girls in the BBC biodiversity political movement are in full scale production. Here’s Mark Kinver telling us that cemeteries are perfection in promoting biodiversity, even in nasty industrial places like Manchester (moral let’s kill more people?). I can’t quite see the news angle, but what does news matter if you are on a crusade? If that doesn’t drive the message home, try David Shukman, who has been sent to Kenya again to tell us that without tree-worship, Kenyans and Africans are doomed. Again, the news line is pretty deeply buried here, but that’s never stopped Mr Shukman from his prophet-of-doom lecturing. Or what about this? Here four, nice, unbiased observers like the population control freak Jonathan Porritt and Richard Black’s chum zooologist Jonathan Baillie (a guest speaker recently at the BBC College of Journalism) are given their own platform to pontificate that biodiversity is like Daz (! – of course it is). Or try this, another gem from the prolific propagandist Mark Kinver. Salmon are losing in Spain their unique genetic characteristics because of nasty climate change. If that doesn’t persuade you, we can go to Richard Black himself, who has a pearl of a quote from to buttress his campaigning, from a UN aparatchik in Japan who warns us that we inherited a world full of gold from nature, but we are cutting it down. And last, but not least, don’t forget Martin Patience. He tells us from China that China’s environment and biodiversity have paid an enormous price for economic growth.
In all this astonishing torrent of biodiversity madness there’s – as usual – not a breath of a mention of any other perspective. Such as this. All that matters to the BBC is the relentless greenie rush to tell that us that man is selfish, that nasty capitalism is to blame, and that we must all become eco-freak tree huggers.
No question about it. Biodiversity is all over the Guardian, as well.
To be fair there is some sort of UN conference going on somewhere so I suppose the word has gone out through the usual channels.
Nothing wrong with biodivesity…but why is it I am getting this sinking feeling that somehow, soon, someone will be picking my pocket while telling me what I must and must not do in my personal life?
I would not actually mind if this new subject had come along once we had finally buried man-made global warming but we have not. Although now gradually being abandoned by the media, the huge zombie corpse is still stumbling about trampling on our energy policies, leaving a trail of chaos and darkness behnd it.
I do wonder what Shukman’s carbon footprint is like or even if he even considers it.
If we are not watching him up in a helicopter (presumably hired specially by the BBC at vast expense) then he is over in Nigeria. Many many times the reports he gives could be delivered from the studio. For example last night’s news had him in the rain forest, well it was a forest and it was raining – I think most of us could have imagined it.
His carbon footprint – the way he travels about I cannot believe he has any concern. (Neither do I but that is because I don’t believe a connection between carbon and the weather) but what does concern me is that I contribute via my license fee to Shukman’s expensive travel.