L Ron Gore for Archbishop of Canterbury

I had a bit of a lie-in this morning. Half-awake, I switched on the radio and caught the last half of the Sunday religious affairs magazine on BBC Radio 4.

They were talking about the Windsor Celebration, a meeting of world religious leaders pledging to 'reduce the carbon footprints of their faiths' (whatever the fuck that means) everywhere from Medjugorje to Medina.

So I was right, then. L Ron Gore has indeed got his 'control system' accepted as a world religion.

They had an angry Christian Aid woman on. Jeebus, I hope I never meet her because it would not go well. She went off message briefly, forgetting not to call it 'global warming' now that the approved line is 'climate change' because the globe is, er, cooling.

Still, nobody's perfect, and anyway she cheered me up immensely, complaining that huge numbers of the people on whom she inflicts herself refuse to accept what she called 'the science'. I leapt out of bed shouting 'Hurrah!'

I stopped putting money in the Christian Aid envelope they year they started taking advice from L Ron Gore on how to spend it. I told their collector so and at least he had the grace to grin.

UPDATE:

Argh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Because it is a global tragedy of the commons, individual action cannot be enough. I cannot ensure the survival of my grandchildren, nor even yours, without compelling you to behave in ways that science tells me are necessary. Not to act, not to coerce, itself becomes immoral.

There is a further twist to the argument. Compulsion will be needed but compulsion alone won't do it. People aren't made like that. They need to believe in what they are forced to do. They need idealism, and that will also mean its dark side: the pressure of conformism, the force of self-righteousness, huge moral weight attached to practically useless gestures like unplugging phone chargers. They need, in fact, something that does look a lot like religion. But we can't engineer it. It can only arise spontaneously. Should that happen, the denialists, who claim that it is all a religion, will for once be telling the truth, and when they do that, they'll have lost. I just hope it doesn't happen too late.

The mask slips...

Hat tip Mark Wallace