On the eve of another St. Scowlypants doom deadline
Alright – this is going to be a relative quickie, offered purely as a public service announcement you understand.
I felt it behooved me, as the self-appointed Green guardian around here, to warn you all of the impending approach of the edge yet another irreversible climate cult cliff.
If the European Union Parliament does NOT PASS the EU Nature Restoration Law (I told you a couple weeks ago was in trouble)…
Europe's Green Deal may be dead and buried by tomorrow. A coalition of centrist and right-wing parties have pledged to vote against the climate bill in the European Parliament tomorrow. https://t.co/scKcpRSaIk pic.twitter.com/VM536nlLCY
— Net Zero Watch (@NetZeroWatch) July 11, 2023
…and it is looking mighty shaky as to whether it passes or not…
…The nature restoration law, proposed in June 2022, aims to reverse the drastic decline of Europe’s ecosystems and is a foundational pillar of the EU Green Deal, an over-arching package of policy initiatives which aims to set the EU on the path to climate neutrality by 2050.
However, after fierce opposition from right-wing parties, particularly the EPP, the fate of the law hangs in the balance as the European Parliament gears up for a decisive vote during the plenary session on Wednesday (12 July).
There is no obvious majority to support it, but equally, no clear majority to shoot it down. On the eve of the vote, it is still touch and go as to whether the Parliament will give its blessing.
…St. Scowlypants Greta Thunberg has said we’re all going to die.
Or words to that effect.
…According to Thunberg, a rejection of the law would spell disaster for future generations.
“We demand that the MEPs do not reject this law and vote for the strongest law possible,” she said during the protest.
“Anything else will be seen for exactly what it is – a betrayal both to those suffering from these crises, to future generations, and to humanity as well,” she added.
Those in power are “continuously sawing off the branch we are all sitting on” and the situation will only worsen unless action is taken, said the youth activist, who was joined by a host of campaigners from organisations such as Extinction Rebellion and her own Fridays for Future.
Well. I have fallen off of a few barstools in my time, but I am rock solid in trees, I’ll have the little minx know.
A member of the EU parliament made sure to cite the Scientific Consensus™ whilst appealing to the imminent fear of humanity’s collapse to encourage support for more draconian restrictions on freedoms and standards of living citizens.
What a unique approach.
He even did his hair for the presentation – the earnest neanderthal is “in” as far as seed, weed and nut eaters go, emphasis on the nuts.
This chick thinks she’s making a list of every appeal to authority that should convince the peasants of the righteousness of the law’s cause and justify the ensuing regulatory strangulation, when it’s actually a litany of offenders. Aren’t they the same know-it-alls who enforced jabs and lock-downs?The science is absolutely clear - The biggest threat to our food security, to the future of Agriculture, to the very persistence of Humanity, are #Climate and #Biodiversity Crises. The Nature Restoration Law can help to address both - #RestoreNature is an Existential Necessity... pic.twitter.com/YpvvQKUjkz
— Mick Wallace (@wallacemick) July 11, 2023
The scientific community.
— Soraya Rodríguez (@sorayarr_) July 11, 2023
Big companies.
Our citizens.
The youth.
All of them see the need for a Nature Restoration Law.
Scientific evidence is what we have, and political will what we lack today at the European Parliament. #RestoreNature #NatureRestorationLaw pic.twitter.com/lILt65OkHX
HAH! I didn’t fall off the coal truck yesterday, you know.
Protests broke out in front of the Parliament building, as farmers – God bless them – brought their tractors and agricultural supporters from all over Europe to counter-balance the Greta lemmings marching and kumbayahing.
…A parallel protest, spearheaded by the EU farmers’ association COPA-COGECA, rallied over 300 protestors and 50 tractors from 20 different European countries, to give a clear message: “Yes, farmers are first in line for restoring nature but no, we can’t do this with the proposal as it is presented in the plenary in Strasbourg”.
In a statement following the protest, the farming group said that “the stakes are high: the three committees that attempted to amend this text within the European Parliament failed to reach a satisfactory position, given the unbalanced nature of the text presented by the Commission and the lack of clearly identified funding”.
…Manfred Weber, the EPP’s chair in the European Parliament who has faced staunch criticism for his stance on the law, also joined farmers during their protest.
“If we want to succeed, our farmers have to be part of the solution and they deserve our respect. We need a new proposal,” he wrote on Twitter.
With the gains the farmer and popular people’s parties have been making across the EU in local elections, you would think it might behoove the elite to listen, but, no. They are working as hard as they can to jam through whatever they can before the tide turns, as it very much seems to be doing. Even going as far as to demonize the farmers as being tools of an “agro-industrial” lobby instead of the torqued off citizens they are.
COME ON, MAN"Since success of populist farmers’ movement in Dutch local elections in April, EPP have waged a campaign against von der Leyen’s environmental agenda, particularly the nature restoration law"
— Adam Tooze (@adam_tooze) July 11, 2023
NB: "farmers" = agro-ind lobby & it has real teeth. https://t.co/IjjF9s7bcx