It is surprisingly easy to collect examples of climate alarmist hypocrisy, such as Canada’s “Ambassador for Climate Change” Catherine Stewart billing over a quarter of a million dollars in travel expenses in under two years, jetting from Abu Dhabi to Amsterdam to Bali and on and on including London, Milan, Paris, Rome and Zurich. And not steerage either. Which was immediately followed by news that the “leading opponent of fossil fuels” in Canada’s appointed Senate, Rosa Galvez of Quebec, “jetted more than 100,000 kilometres to climate conferences from Casablanca to Mumbai” in the past year. And we grant a certain role to human frailty here, the tendency to slip oneself the biggest slice of cake. But it’s also plain that the people calling for a dramatic change in how we live, including the infamous “You’ll own nothing, and you’ll be happy”, are imagining a world in which they themselves will not be making sacrifices. Whatever resources are available, they and their anointed fellows will be getting a heaping helping.

Contrast their insouciance, and expense accounts, with this story out of Australia:

“The nation is facing a deepening energy crisis on two fronts, with gas shortages so acute that Victoria’s main storage plant is set to run out by the end of winter and one of Australia’s biggest manufacturers warning it will slash jobs and close factories if supplies remain short. As the political battle rages over energy policy, there is also concern about supplies from the country’s wind farms, with output slumping to a five-year low.”

Or the 56 percent of Canadians who told the Angus Reid Institute that they favour a summer “fuel tax holiday” to save them 30 cents a litre on gas. Revealingly, fully 74% of those who say they’re “struggling” agree, and 60% of those who are “uncomfortable”, as opposed to 45% who are “comfortable” and just 37% of those who describe themselves as “thriving”. Like people with cushy government posts including big fat expense accounts.

It’s not that they don’t think the crisis is real or that you’re all going to have to make sacrifices. Sen. Galvez told her Senate colleagues in 2023 that “The climate crisis is the greatest challenge of our time and will require an unprecedented transformation.” So she’s not one of those saying nothing much will change. As she added, “It will take us out of our comfort zone, yes”. And by “us” she definitely doesn’t mean her. Or Ambassador Stewart who enjoyed the Club Quarters Hotel at Trafalgar Square ($412 a night) then the Hotel Alison, a bargain at $428 as it’s “perfectly located”, a two-minute walk from the Eiffel Tower, between the Champs Elysées and the Opéra Garnier.

You’ll have nothing… unlike them. (And good luck prying her salary out of various official documents touting her marvellousness in saving the world from carbon-spewing losers like you.) But don’t worry, you’ll be happy, like them, because Sen. Galvez said we’ll be out of our comfort zones, and indeed we already are reading this stuff, “but it is also an opportunity for us to come together and build a better future.” Which is the sort of feel-good gooblahoy politicians can spew forth in their sleep. But what does it actually mean? There is a branch of philosophy dedicated to exposing statements that make grammatical sense without having any factual content, and it could make as short work of this vapidity as “Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.”

It’s a somewhat different matter with Sen. Galvez’s claim that “Climate change has completely upended our relationship with the planet and the way we live and work.” This one is testable, even if she’s not in the habit of providing specific ways in which she thinks it has happened that we could compare to the facts. And the test comes back “Bunk.”

The vast majority of people still live, move around, work and play in exactly the same way with regard to city streets, country lanes, urban parks and lakeside cottages as they always did. Or, in her case, one jet airplane junket after another to fancy spots, for instance for a “global parliamentarians’ inquiry into the progress of fossil fuels phase out” at the toney four-star Hotel Excelsior Bari in scenic Apulia, Italy.

The Senator is, frankly, face down in the trough. Blacklock’s Reporter, which broke this story, explains that:

“Galvez is former chair of the Senate energy and environment committee. Newly-filed records show Galvez in the past year logged 100,084 kilometres’ worth of air travel on climate junkets. Charges were paid by the Parliamentarians’ Network for a Fossil Fuel Free Future, American Society of Civil Engineers, the University of Pau in France and other sponsors.”

Is she willing to give up this lavish lifestyle? Heck no. She and her chic friends flit from Basel to Mumbai to Pau to Saõ Paulo to Marrakesh eating fancy food, sleeping in comfy beds and agreeing that they are much better than other people.

Indeed at one point Ambassador Stewart flew from Ottawa to Toronto, no plebian train for her thank you very much, somehow chewing through over $10k on that trip alone “to promote Canada’s clean growth”. But it’s all worth it, says the department of Environment and Climate Extravagance, because “In-person outreach was required to have candid conversations,” and also to “showcase Canada’s leadership.” Too bad they don’t own telephones for the former. And as for the latter, the usual suspects who spew carbon from jet engines to meet one another in one exotic locale after another may well think they’re showcasing leadership but we can think of other descriptions.

The thing is, they have to stick together and avoid the people they’re annoying, who are vulgar and menacing. Back in 2019 Sen Galvez expressed unease at holding hearings in Western Canada on Bill C-69, called the “no more pipelines” bill by opponents. She whinged that “Rhetoric surrounding discussion of this bill is becoming increasingly hostile. I’m deeply concerned for the security of senators and staff were we to travel for public hearings.”

The total number of senators and staff roughed up by Canadians unhappy with climate policy is zero. She just despises them and isn’t shy about it. And one does not meet such persons in Apulia.

Elsewhere these grubby rubes who think they too should have power and stuff are becoming common. Including that in Canada, the 65% who said oil and gas are important to our economy back in late 2020 are now 74%. (The rest can’t do math, work for the government, or both.) As the Hill Times tried to warn its complacent insider readers: “Europe is in the middle of a ‘greenlash.’ If Canada doesn’t put workers first in its green transition, we could be next/ The European far right’s pivot to attacking green policies shows why Canada needs a climate change approach that centres the interests of working people.” That talk of putting “workers first” suffers the grammatical vacuity problem mentioned above. But putting appointees first class certainly won’t help.

The New York Times “Climate Forward” also tried to find some way to hold its nose and deal with this disgusting problem, writing in a piece “The world goes to the polls” that in Europe:

“there is widespread frustration over rising prices, farmers are protesting some of the bloc’s most ambitious nature-friendly policies and many once-accepted changes, such as installing heat pumps, have become culture-war fodder.”

Ugh. Culture war fodder. Them. But the peasants are revolting and it could matter. When the New York Sun writes “The Affordability Crisis Is Shaping Up as a Key Issue in the Election – and Trump Has the Advantage” the last thing that will help stop him, assuming you want to, is to sneer that nobody I know feels that way up here in expense-claimed business class.

P.S. We can’t resist noting that the August 2, 2022 press release celebrating Stewart’s appointment said “Ms. Stewart succeeds Patricia Fuller, who served as Canada’s Ambassador for Climate Change and helped raise Canada’s climate action profile internationally.” Oh really? And could a search party find either Fuller or our “climate action profile internationally” today? Just kidding, Fuller now has a cushy post at a public university; the system looks after its own. Gobble gobble gluck gluck munch munch munch.