CLIMATE CHANGE OUTED

On this blog I have questioned the climage change camp many times. From firsthand experience, it was easy to see that many in it were dishonest and had no clue about anything scientific. If I had any doubts, they were removed when the Green Party UK delegate told me I could not expect them to be scientists. No. He was right. Not sure if I can expect anything at all from them.

The latest revelation about them comes from emails proving that they were hiding relevant data. Tree rings, for instance, showing patterns of global cooling. Today' s piece by Kenneth Green in The Epoch Times (NY) lays it bare when he notes that the Climate Research Unit (UK) has not been able to deny its data manipulation as manifested by the hacked emails. They consistently denied Steve McIntyre's requests for information, acting like some dodgy government agency with something to hide. Like the facts. Phil Jones, former head of CRU's climate change group, said he'd rather destroy data rather than show it. Maybe his new job will be at the CIA, where they are in need of a paper shredder.

Green (ironic surname...) notes: "What the Climate Change documents reveal is that this small group of scientists, who often peer-review each others' work as well as skeptical articles, have discussed ways of keeping findings they don't like out of the peer-reviewed literature as well as the IPCC reports, even if it required trying to oust editors, boycotting certain journalists, or to reclassifying a prestigious journal that publishes skeptical articles aas a fringe journal unworthy of consideration."

In other words, a gang of green nazis. Stupid, arrogant people trying to make a buck off of others' misery. And none are keen to wear hemp or even hear the facts about hemp - which brings me to note another story in The Epoch Times, this one written by Barbro Plogander, in which it is pointed out that cotton is a "thirsty crop." Yes indeed, but go tell that to the green nazis. I tried and they turned on me like swine, before whom you cannot cast your pearls.

So I am glad to see some facts, inconvenient ones at that, get out, bravo to the folks at The Epoch Times here in New York. They are sort of a startup paper and it looks like they may bring some fresh reporting to the stage, so have a look at their site at http://www.theepochtimes.com/

NEW NEWS IS OLD NEWS

Image left is a copy of a magazine from 1937, the year the Marihuana Tax Act came into effect which ultimately led to the suppression of hemp in the US. A quite recent article in the New Republic picks up on arguments by Fred Pearce in the New Scientist that cotton is bad news. Well, duh. Maybe he was reading this blog. It does not take a rocket scientist to realise that any plant that uses up our water is bad news - but facts are ignored by the lefty do-gooders; that is why they put Mugabe in power. If we perish our blood is on their hands. Food riots are going on in many countries, and this is a function of land use - too many organic cotton farms taking up water. Time to make a noise, and it is good to hear some from Pearce and Suzy Khimm, who writes in the New Republic.

Khimm points out that the cotton industry is a Goliath business, with $3billion a year in subsidies in the US alone. However, ignorance is her next step. Not a word from her about hemp, jute, ramie, flax, bamboo, nettles or other alternatives, maybe she thinks we can all just go naked. Khimm talks about cutting down on demand for cotton by-products, as if this would get to the root of it. And worse, she makes some curt remark about not leaping to trade in her cotton shirts for hemp. She tells us there is a big problem and she has no idea whatsoever about a solution. Journalists these days do not take much time for research, but there are people out there who do use their brains, and the best part about this article is the comment posted on the net by Aaron B Brown, who takes her to task. Brown asks: "...do you own any hemp clothing? Have you done the comparison? He then gives the reader what Khimm misses - some facts about hemp. Well done mate.

The issue is starting to be heard, the Scotsman on Sunday ran a similar article in February of this year and did mention hemp. But as Khimm noted, cotton is a Goliath industry, so we need to work harder if we are going to succeed.

HEMP FOR THE BIRDS

Today I take a break from the controversy brewing here in London and turn my attention to a very pleasant subject indeed, falconry. This is the sport, or some might say the art, of keeping a bird of prey and hunting with it. Part of this art is maintaining the environment - most falconers are also environmentalists, such as the ones who researched DDT in the '60s and made it illegal to use in many countries. Were it not for them, we might not have the Peregrine Falcon or the Bald Eagle in the US.

Birds of prey are of course carnivores, their niche in the system is keeping down rodents and avian pests, but hemp ties in to all this as well. Specifically, hemp has been used in raptor medicine for centuries, by both Mughal and Anglo-Indian practicioners - the former being Raja Rudradeva, of the latter, Col Phillott and Maj Ewing. A book published by the Eryr Press, which uses hemp paper in its titles, mentions all of these (pp. 44,121,128,130 of One Thousand Years of Falconry). Another book by the same press, Musings of an Afghan Falconer, makes further note on p. 210.

Perhaps more indirectly, hemp figures into their diet in that hemp is a favourite food of many prey species, such as pigeons, quail, partridge, finches, crows, etc. One finch is named after hemp - the Linnet, whose Latin name is Carduelis cannabinis. Hemp is rich in protein and GLAs, so not surprising that birds love it. In 1970, James Vance lameted the depletion of feral hemp from the landscape in North America because it was a loss to the hunting community. His article was titled "Marijuana is for the Birds" - but that may be misleading, as hemp is not marjuana; both are Cannabis sativa, but marijuana is only C. sativa whose leaves and buds contain a high percentage of THC. Most hemp does not, and it grows tall and thin rather than short and bushy. Any variety however is good for birds, it is not thought that they have cannabireceptors in their brains as do humans.

Another aspect of falconry into which hemp may figure is the ubiquitous hawking bag, most of which are made of cotton. For those browsing this site, they will see that I object to cotton as it is a monocrop which uses lots of pesticides and depletes the water supply. Hemp is a tough fibre and can easily replace cotton for our field gear. One also might mention that falconry can be used for avian pest control, US government literature on the subject estimates that one hawk can patrol 200 acres. For areas where birds pests such as Quelea quelea devestate fields and occasion the use of harmful chemical avicides, this is good news.

REVIEW OF ECO-CHIC: THE FASHION PARADOX

This book, with almost the same name as a book published earlier this year by Matilda Lee of the Ecologist, finally gives a bit of space to hemp. Sandy Black is the author, and she appears to have done a good bit of research, albeit UK-centric, and one might note rather Brighton-centric at that. The bulk of the book is on cotton/organic cotton, and yes there is mention of the fact that cotton drinks up too much water, there is even an image of the Aral Sea, showing its depletion.

Chapters tend to feature specific designers, and as such tend to read as infomercials, complete with full colour pictures from their ads, with some emaciated looking models. This is a paperback coffee table book, but not just all images and breezy text, it serves as a history of the UK eco-fashion industry from the late '90s to the present. The very good resource guide and somewhat good bibliography (it does include Hemp for Victory, which was pointed out to her by Bobby Pugh of The Hemp Shop in Brighton). There is no index, sadly.

Hemp is mentioned on pp. 21, 42, 62, and 126-131. There was a fair amount of effort put into this, going so far as to feature THTC quote Mina Hegaard and Chris Conrad, but marred by the obvious inconsistency of stating on one page that hemp cultivation was illegal in the UK, then talking about hemp cultivation in the UK, along with a picture of such; which those in the know assert is from Bobby Pugh's hemp farm in the mid-'90s.

Sandy Black is well known in the UK for her work in fashion, and this book will be passed around and read by fashionistas from Brighton to Glasgow. What she has had to say about hemp has been basically positive and accurate, but one does wish she had said more, or used images of hemp clothing rather than images of buds, leaves and a farm.

Eco-Chic is published by Black Dog Press, London. 4to, pbck, pp. 256. ISBN- 978 1 906155 09 4

£24.95/$39.95