{"id":267308,"date":"2023-07-14T11:59:39","date_gmt":"2023-07-14T09:59:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=267308"},"modified":"2023-07-14T11:59:43","modified_gmt":"2023-07-14T09:59:43","slug":"just-stop-oil-an-unrealistic-demand-rooted-in-fear-and-paranoia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=267308","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Just Stop Oil\u2019: An Unrealistic Demand Rooted in Fear and Paranoia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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From Watts Up With That?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roger Pielke Jr. has\u00a0posted a sub stack with an excellent take on climate hysteria.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Just Stop Oil, a UK-based campaign group, has recently caught the attention of the media and the public by disrupting public transport and high-profile sporting events. As the name implies, they wish to abruptly halt oil production. The group\u2019s inflammatory manifesto insists that if our reliance on fossil fuels doesn\u2019t end within eight years, we will witness the \u201cstarvation and slaughter of billions of the poor \u2013 and the utter betrayal of our children and their future.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In his article titled \u201cWhat if We Just Stop Oil?\u201d Pielke Jr. suggests that this campaign is not just misguided but potentially catastrophic. He asserts,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cAdvocating for the impossible is a good way to get nothing done.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/substack.com\/notes\/post\/p-133501038<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, he points out that no scientific literature suggests it\u2019s even remotely possible to eliminate fossil fuel use in the next eight years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pielke criticizes the campaign\u2019s ill-informed call to just stop oil, noting that such a sudden halt would result in a severe global energy crisis. As evidence, he points to the 1973 oil crisis, when an abrupt change in oil supply led to prices spiking by 400%. A similar situation today would result in oil prices reaching $300 per barrel, leading to inflation, depressed economic growth, and a significant increase in global hunger and malnutrition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just Stop Oil\u2019s rhetoric can be traced back to what Richard Hofstadter\u2019s famous 1964 essay termed the \u201cparanoid style\u201d of politics. Hofstadter describes this approach as having an \u201canxiety of those who are living through the last days\u201d and setting a date for the apocalypse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The article suggests that the paranoid approach feeds on demands for impossible goals, leading to inevitable failure, which further fuels the sense of powerlessness among the movement\u2019s followers. This concept is encapsulated in Hofstadter\u2019s words:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis demand for total triumph leads to the formulation of hopelessly unrealistic goals, and since these goals are not even remotely attainable, failure constantly heightens the paranoid\u2019s sense of frustration.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/harpers.org\/archive\/1964\/11\/the-paranoid-style-in-american-politics\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pielke Jr. laments:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The fact that\u00a0Just Stop Oil<\/em>\u00a0and their fellow travelers believe that we face a looming apocalypse is not simply the result of some millenarian cult leader \u2014 it is in part the result of being egged on by scientists and political leaders. Below is the header found on the homepage of\u00a0Just Stop Oil<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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https:\/\/substack.com\/notes\/post\/p-133501038<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Probably the most scathing part of Pielke\u2019s essay is this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are some other quotes that Just Stop Oil<\/em>cites<\/a> in support of its impossible demands, based on a belief that \u201cFurther expansion of oil and gas production globally is putting us on course for human extinction\u201d:<\/p>\n\n\n\n