In grand attention-getting fashion statement Coldplay band says it won’t fly to Australia

Quick, who has a yacht to offer these poor celebrities?

Following Greta’s marketing example, Coldplay are getting headlines by refusing to fly to Australia. Climate-compassion-marketing is a good way to promote their next tour, especially among the young delusionals:

Coldplay won’t tour its new album until the band’s concerts can be environmentally ‘beneficial’

Paul Donoughue, ABC “News”

Singer Chris Martin says the band will not be touring new record, Everyday Life, until it can find a way to tour that is not harmful to the environment.

“We’re taking time over the next year or two to work out how our tour can not only be sustainable [but] how can it be actively beneficial,” Martin told BBC News.

He said that rather than just be sustainable, he wanted to the tours to have a positive impact, but that flights for the band, crew and gear represented the biggest hurdle to that.

These fashionistas are just not good with numbers. Flights for the band and crew are probably nothing compared to flights and car travel for 10,000 people in the audience. Look, even the ABC (not good with numbers either) can find quotes to that effect:

Stage structures need to be trucked from town to town, or shipped between continents. The band and crew, often dozens of people all up, need to be flown and bussed around. Large venues require a lot of energy to power and they produce food and plastic waste.

Berish Bilander, the co-chief executive of Green Music Australia, which campaigns for sustainability in the industry, told the ABC earlier this year that plastic waste had been the main talking point so far in the music industry.

He agreed that, based on research by UK music sustainability group Julie’s Bicycle, the biggest emissions impact with festivals and concert tours was likely from fan travel to and from events.

I’m betting Coldplay might have enough money to rent a yacht, but no band on Earth has enough money fly solar.

In other words, Coldplay didn’t have to make this a news announcement, they could have just “solved their own emissions” quietly.

h/t Willie Soon.

10 out of 10 based on 43 ratings

133 comments to In grand attention-getting fashion statement Coldplay band says it won’t fly to Australia

  • #
    Dennis

    How about a band members babble hot air balloon?

    80

    • #

      Why not just put up a big screen and they can tele-concert.

      70

      • #
        Geoffrey Williams

        Who would bother to watch ?
        GeoffW

        90

        • #

          Do the concert goers go to watch anymore? I thought concerts nowadays were just an excuse for drug taking.

          80

        • #
          Tom O

          Precisely why they are not making their tour – in the current economic conditions, they don’t see it making a profit. Nothing to do with climate conscience, everything to do with how many dollars/yuan/euro/shekels they can make.

          40

        • #
          Graham Richards

          I’m really getting hysterical right now….our country will never be the same agai…please would somebody convince them thar we need the!!
          Life will not be worth living without a rock band visiting!

          20

      • #
        Geoffrey Williams

        Ps wouldn’t everything have to be solar powered or something ?!?!
        GeoffW

        50

        • #
          disorganise

          Maybe the band and crew can sit on exercise bikes generating electricity. Hand out bluetooth receivers to each attendee so they hear the music through a headset, so enormous amplification is not needed (too much power needed)

          40

    • #
      Ursus Augustus

      I’m a ‘baby boomer’ so who the heck are ‘Coldplay’?

      Boom, boom, baby… boom, boom!

      60

      • #
        disorganise

        ok boomer :p

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      • #

        Ursus
        I’m a baby boomer. and also an audiophile. collecting lots of recorded music since the 1960s.

        Back in 2002 Coldplay had a great song “Clocks” that I still consider to be among the top 100 songs in my collection (of over 2,000 compact discs). The song “Politik” from the same album was decent. It was downhill from there.

        If they stay away from Australia, you are not missing much.

        A live video of Clocks is always available for free:
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d020hcWA_Wg

        There is also a remixed version of “Clocks” with the Buena Vita Social Club Cuban band
        from a most interesting remix album called “Rhythms Del Mundo”
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RH2h5iHO6ZU

        Hope you enjoy one or both of these songs as much as i do.

        10

  • #
  • #
    James Hein

    So does that mean since it would take a lot more CO2 to drive to the CD store and back, as a responsible CO2 steward, and following their logic, I should thus save the planet by downloading the new CD? It all gets so confusing /sarc off

    90

  • #
    Yonniestone

    A highly over rated band with highly inflated egos, just another bunch of virtue signaling prats from the so called entertainment industry.

    260

  • #
    pattoh

    How ’bout a Big Ar*ed Sail on a Greater Iceberg?

    50

  • #
    Tibbles

    My guess is this “has-been” band were having trouble selling tickets so they managed to salvage the situation through a bit of virtue signalling.

    120

  • #
    OriginalSteve

    Ha…easy…no fans should go to the concerts to reduce emissions…..that should change thier tune on climate clownery….(a bonus dad joke in addition to the main joke of the whole stupid idea…..)

    Its friday after all…… 🙂

    100

  • #
  • #

    A writhing, jerking, moaning narcissist backed by synthetic thumping and grinding. Deep ‘n cryptic lyrics, of course. Yeah, I’m really going to miss that. Don’t fly till they invent the solar Airbus, guys. We’ll wait.

    200

  • #
    John F. Hultquist

    That’s their 15 minutes of fame.
    Next?

    120

  • #
    OriginalSteve

    And heres me thinking coldplay was the eco low energy version of just “play”……like cold water washing powder…that sort of stuff….

    80

  • #
    PeterW

    So who’s going to miss them?

    No-one with either good sense or good taste.

    90

  • #
    The Dark Lord

    pay per view your concerts you morons … nobody burns CO2 then …

    20

  • #

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQJI2Ol2nJ8
    WORLD THANKS GRETA FOR STOPPING COLDPLAY’S NEXT TOUR
    Nov 21, 2019. Looks like they are currently in Jordan. That would have involved a fair amount of carbon footprint.
    I wasn’t familiar with the band, but I think I concur with Yonnie. Virtue signaling prats. Can’t find anything of theirs I would want to cover in this evening’s old rock session.

    100

  • #
    Ian Hill

    Never heard of them before today, but one thing’s for sure, the Beatles they ain’t …

    70

    • #
      Deano

      O.T. – yes, I noticed The Beatles photographer died the other day and even that event made the news. I don’t think kids today have any idea just how big The Beatles were. Even my grandmother (long gone, born early last century) loved ’em. But she wasn’t too keen on Yoko.

      40

    • #
      RichardX

      I’d heard of them because one of their members married the Goop Girl, Gwyneth Paltrow, a long time ago. Probably when he was semi-cool and mildly relevant, depending on your definition of relevant. But, she dumped him (sometimes blonde actresses have a brief moment of intelligence) and now he’s irrelevant again.

      Hey! Wow! I’ve just had an idea that could rejuvenate their careers. But they have to come to Australia for this. They could take a QANTAS flight, ignore all the safety instructions, cause an incident with the Federal Police and then make vile accusations about the flight attendant on Twatter.

      10

  • #
    nb

    I do hope each member of the band lives in a bedsit.
    Maybe they should all live in the same bedsit, with bunks.
    Where does the lunacy stop?
    Oh, I know. Just at the point required by the virtue signal police.

    80

  • #
    Phillip Bratby

    Who are Coldplay? Unfortunately great pop groups are a thing of the past. Those were the good old days.

    70

  • #
    STJOHNOFGRAFTON

    “Singer Chris Martin says the band will not be touring new record, Everyday Life, until it can find a way to tour that is not harmful to the environment.”

    Build a raft out of driftwood and float to Australia.

    80

    • #
      Deano

      I assume all the band members cycle everywhere and insist only solar or wind powered devices all allowed to download their songs.

      50

    • #
      Tarquin Wombat-Carruthers

      Call in Thor Heyerdahl (if not deceased) a consultant. And buy balsawood futures!

      10

    • #
      sophocles

      The time that search will take might mean they never tour again.
      Sheesh, I’ll have to sell my shares in British Airways if they never tour again.
      Go on: do it. Life’s Good … and getting better!

      10

  • #
    Barry Dennis

    I am in Queenscliff this weekend for their annual music festival which attracts around 5000 patrons.
    Last year for the food stalls they banned plastic and encouraged the use of disposable bamboo based containers and cutlery, I have no problem with that.
    This year they are aiming at getting as close to zero waste as possible. Stalls are required to use reusable plates and cutlery. Patrons are to return them to wash stations where I presume they go through industrial machines and returned to the stalls.
    I wonder about the huge use of water and health risk, volunteers possibly with minimum training manning the machines. If I was an organiser I’d be a little concerned about contamination.
    Personally I think I’ll avoid the food.

    100

  • #
    StephenP

    While we are about it, we should cancel Glastonbury and all the other festivals.
    Think of all the CO2 that could be saved in travelling, and my dears, look at all the plastic mess that was left behind, even after David Attenborough has given them his pep talk.
    There is a lot of talk about businesses using conference calls to avoid unnecessary travel, then why not have conference call festivals?

    120

  • #
    Geoffrey Williams

    Coldplay (wtfrthey) band won’t be coming to Australia !!!
    What terrible, awfull news, I shall cry myself to sleep tonight.
    GeoffW

    90

  • #
    WXcycles

    Singer Chris Martin says the band will not be touring new record, Everyday Life, until it can find a way to tour that is not harmful to the environment.

    Now that’s how you jump a shark! These guys are in for a reality-overdose. This is what occurred to Simon Le Bon, and he knew what he was doing.

    Duran Duran singer Simon Le Bon watches 1985 sea rescue for the first time

    By Sian Davies

    21 March 2016

    In 1985, pop star Simon Le Bon “looked into the eyes of death” when the yacht he was racing capsized. Thirty-one years later, he watched footage of the dramatic sea rescue for the first time. “It’s the most dangerous situation I’ve ever been in,” said the Duran Duran front man. During the Fastnet race, which Le Bon was using in preparation for an attempt to sail around the world, his 71ft craft Drum ran into difficulty off the Cornish coast. The keel broke and the boat capsized, trapping the crew underneath.
    https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cornwall-35811828

    40

  • #
    PeterS

    Send them to the moon.

    40

  • #

    If I was Cap’n of ‘The Flying Dutchman’ I’d gladly offer them a lift.

    50

  • #
    TdeF

    Musicians? The most sensible people on the planet. We should listen to their theories on politics, the environment, race relations, gender assignment, makeup and arrangement. And publicity. Or they could donate their entire incomes to a good cause, like buying yachts for disabled *boriginal l*sbian parents without partners in Australia.

    110

  • #
    RichardX

    What a bunch of wankers. Didn’t Chris Martin used to be married to the Goop Girl? Strange people.
    They could do a Greta and find a carbon-free boat made of carbon fibre (aka carbon).

    60

  • #

    With these virtue signalling clowns, what ever happened to carbon offset? I am like many here in that I think the “Co2 is the temperature knob” theory is unproven. But if you believe the junk science then carbon offset is quite logical.

    But its not “out there” for fans.

    Probably sales of their albums have tanked and their PR manager thinks this may be good for some more sales – I would suspect that is the real reason for this rather poor virtue signalling attempt…

    100

    • #
      TdeF

      Yes, carbon indulgences, cash donated and sent to third world dictatorships and even to China. Like the last thirty years of carefully separating plastics from landfill rubbish so they can be shipped in containers to the beaches of the third world. There is no plastic recycling. At least the one place in South Australia closed costing 35 jobs because they could not afford the electricity. Or banning plastic shopping bags when the real problem if any is with plastic bottles and especially six pack plastic because some idi*t gave beer to dolphins.

      100

    • #
      WXcycles

      If you’re going to be a Climate-Saint you can’t bullschist with the hot-sauce. Religious fanatics talk themselves into morality and guilt-driven imperatives to amp-up the zealotry to higher levels. Because they want to attain a fake …

      Paradise – Coldplay
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1G4isv_Fylg

      30

    • #
      sophocles

      what ever happened to carbon offset?

      It’s in play for Air New Zealand. You can pay more for your air fare if you want to “offset your carbon.”

      00

    • #
      RichardX

      It’s not even a theory. It hasn’t got past the speculation stage. Then, after a lot of work, you get to the hypothesis stage if everything hangs together. Then you have to do a lot more work and other people have to be able to reproduce your results to get it to a theory. They are faced with the difficult fact that increasing temperature occurs before increasing CO2 levels, and not the other way round. How inconvenient.

      10

  • #
    Bobby Laing

    This is a major relief after the devastating news of poor Will.I.am.

    Fortunately our intrepid musical wonder boys will not have to experience the dread and woe of a Qantas flight attendant telling them to cut their hair and to go get a real job and calling the Federal Police on them when they refuse to comply.

    So they can stay home and spend all of their own money on developing new technologies that go about producing millions and millions of CD’s within a Fossil Fuel Free recording studio and distributing them to all parts of the world by Fossil free transport?

    I would suggest that they try flying via the Solar Impulse Project of a few years back and I suggest all readers search engine that magnificent project again as its outcome is just so entertaining…particularly the number of passengers and its cargo abilities…plus its entourage which had to follow in a real plane…The Guardian and CNN and Wired…solar impulse fried its batteries… need be added to your search as Google and other online sites seems to think this is the best thing since sliced bread…Yes. The Guardian…home of the insane poster demographic yet even some posters at The NutHouse find this whole thing purely nonsensical and idiotic! Dunno Why?

    if you require more entertainment of a Green Flying Kind then search engine Will.I.am…Climate …Helicopter
    There is no end to the sainted behaviour of the Celeb Set!

    100

  • #
    robert rosicka

    I think they are all yellow , but what do I know !

    50

  • #
    Greg in NZ

    The Most Boring Band In The World

    just got even MORE boringer!

    Y A W N . . .

    60

  • #
    Bruce Donaldson Scott

    What a bunch of ignorant poseurs.

    40

  • #
    pat

    22 Nov: Guardian: ABC journalists’ climate crisis group survives political heat
    Staff advisory group that outraged News Corp, and that Ita Buttrose ‘ruled out’, is going ahead
    by Amanda Meade
    Last year Justin Milne got into trouble for acting like he ran the ABC, giving directions for staff to be sacked or telling management what they should do. But no one seems to mind the current ABC chair’s forthright style. Ita Buttrose is in demand and she grants interviews and makes statements that occasionally sound like she, and not David Anderson, is the managing director. Or at least that’s how certain media outlets interpret her comments, to be fair to Buttrose…

    In the last few weeks she has “pulled Q&A”, made comments about bias and political correctness, and now has appeared to veto a staff-led climate emergency group to develop ways to report on the climate crisis.
    The Australian reported that Buttrose had “ruled out” the creation of a staff advisory group after the paper revealed ABC staff had suggested to colleagues they form an “ABC-staff climate crisis advisory group” and some staff welcomed the idea enthusiastically in a leaked email chain…

    But Weekly Beast can reveal the staff move has not been stymied at all. Staff are free to discuss climate change coverage among themselves and are still planning to go ahead with the advisory group, with 77 people expressing an interest already. There has been no edict from above to stop the email chain.

    Meanwhile over at News Corp, executive chairman Rupert Murdoch’s claim that “there are no climate change deniers around I can assure you” has left people wondering whether the Oz will get an edict from above that it needs to stop publishing climate deniers.
    Clearly editor-in-chief Chris Dore doesn’t have the memo yet because on Friday the paper published denier-in-chief Ian Plimer declaring “We are not living in a period of catastrophic climate change”…
    https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/nov/22/abc-journalists-climate-crisis-group-survives-political-heat

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    • #
      Annie

      If The Australian ceases to have a diversity of opinion, we’ll cancel our subscription to it. We started subscribing because it allowed various differences of opinion.

      30

  • #
    pat

    22 Nov: Australian: Ian Plimer: Let’s not pollute minds with carbon fears
    (Emeritus professor Ian Plimer’s latest book is The Climate Change Delusion and the Great Electricity Ripoff – Connor Court)
    As soon as the words carbon footprint, emissions, pollution, and decarbonisation, climate emergency, extreme weather, unprecedented and extinction are used, I know I am being conned by ignorant activ­ists, populist scaremonger­ing, vote-chasing politicians and rent seekers…

    But then again, we should be used to this after the hysteria about the Great Barrier Reef bleaching that has really been occurring for hundreds of years, fraudulent changing of past weather records, the ignoring of data that shows Pacific islands and the Maldives are growing rather than being inundated, and unsubstantiated claims polar ice is melting. By ignoring history and geology, any claim of unusual weather can be made sensational…

    We are not living in a period of catastrophic climate change. The past tells us it’s business as usual.
    It has never been shown that human emissions of carbon dioxide drive global warming…

    (1429 Comments at time of posting, beginning with smear by Mark – 8 minutes ago:
    To anyone that reads The Australian, the above article must be a enormous surprise, as the book review on May 9th this year is titled “No science in Plimer’s primer”, as the writer then demolishes the validity of the book and it’s ideas…ETC)
    https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/lets-not-pollute-minds-with-carbon-fears/news-story/1a215e8b9d2d958f597654ea7b591bcc

    30

    • #
      sophocles

      We are not living in a period of catastrophic climate change.

      No, not yet. It’s coming. When? Maybe before 2100, maybe afterwards. It’s the magnetic excursion we’re heading into. They seem to happen about every 12,000 to 13,000 years. The Gothenburg Excursion was the last one, 12,000 years ago — it’s in the climate record as the Younger Dryas. It holds the record as being the fastest and shortest excursion ever. So far.

      How many species did it take out?

      That’s coming right down the pike at us. There is always climate variation during one of these. Huge: it freezes. Remember the snap frozen mammoths in the Younger Dryas? Yes. Like that.

      If we’ve got unusual weather at present then check the current state of the planet’s magnetic field. This has all screwed up over just the last decade.
      Compared with what is coming, so called Climate Change is totally trivial. Not worth bothering with. Our main protection — the planetary magnetic field — isn’t going to be protecting. It is weakening, rapidly. The van Allen Belts may come down to touch the surface. That would be maximum cancer risk. That’s just part of a magnetic excursion.

      The more I find out about this topic the scarier it becomes. I listed about half a dozen papers here a couple of months ago. Find them and read them.

      10

  • #
    pat

    22 Nov: Crikey: Rupert denies deniers, but no one told The Oz
    Rupert says there are no climate deniers at News Corp. Just don’t read The Australian…
    by Kishor Napier-Raman
    At the News Corp AGM in New York on Wednesday, Rupert Murdoch faced an awkward question about his company’s support for climate deniers.
    Apparently Holt Street did not get the memo.
    Rupert Murdoch, Wednesday:
    “There are no climate change deniers around [at News Corp], I can assure you.”

    Ian Plimer, The Australian, Friday…ETC
    https://www.crikey.com.au/2019/11/22/rupert-denies-deniers-but-no-one-told-the-oz/

    21 Nov: Crikey: Rupert claims there are no climate deniers at News Corp
    So does that make him a denialism denialist?
    by Stephen Mayne
    After making a pitch through the “Australians in New York” Facebook page, I appointed a Melbourne-raised student called Jessica Craig as proxy to ask a few questions…
    https://www.crikey.com.au/2019/11/21/rupert-murdoch-news-corp-agm-2019-climate-change/

    40

  • #
    nc

    So rock and roll is now “wok”, no more old fashioned sex drugs and rock and roll?

    20

  • #
    pat

    21 Nov: ABC America: Gore kicking off 24 hours of climate talks around the world
    Former Vice President Al Gore kicks off “24 Hours of Reality,” featuring climate change presentations around the globe
    By TRAVIS LOLLER, Associated Press
    Former Vice President Al Gore said that even though President Donald Trump wants to back out of the Paris Climate Agreement, the U.S. cannot legally pull out until the day after next year’s presidential election.

    “If there’s a new president — pardon me for a minute,” Gore said to laughs and then loud applause, as he stretched out his arms and looked up. “Now don’t you dare interpret that as a partisan gesture. I have freedom of speech and freedom of prayer,” he joked…

    Gore said some of the more than 20,000 climate activists he’s trained will present their own takes on climate change as the event continues through Thursday at more than 1,700 locations, as far flung as Antarctica and Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.
    More than 1,000 people gave Gore a standing ovation at the opening presentation at Vanderbilt University in Nashville.

    ***Gore said he tries to avoid partisan politics at his climate presentations…

    He also took a shot at Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, accusing him of giving “the green light to burn down more of the Amazon.”…

    Gore said the U.S. is suffering from a “democracy crisis” caused by the influence of special interests on politicians.
    “They put a coal lobbyist in charge of the EPA, for God’s sake. The fact that there is not widespread outrage about that is a symptom of our weakened democracy,” he said.

    Gore called climate change “the life and death struggle of people alive today,” comparing it to 9/11, Pearl Harbor and such World War II battles as Dunkirk and Midway. Such an existential crisis demands an “aspirational set of goals,” he said, expressing support for the Democrats’ sweeping Green New Deal proposal to combat climate change
    https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/gore-kicking-off-24-hours-climate-talks-world-67193010

    40

  • #
    pat

    21 Nov: Time: As Smoke From Bushfires Chokes Sydney, Australian Prime Minister Dodges on Climate Change
    By Rachael Bunyan
    As hazardous smoke from raging bushfires blanket Sydney’s landmarks on Thursday, the Australian Prime Minister refused to admit a direct link between the fires and the country’s carbon emissions, which are among the highest per capita in the world…
    Fires have devastated large areas of the country since Oct. 20. New South Wales has seen the most severe and dangerous fires, with six people killed and around 1.7 million hectares burned. Climate Change has played a key role in the bushfires, Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology has said. They said: “Climate change is influencing the frequency and severity of dangerous bushfire conditions in Australia and other regions of the world.”…

    However, amid the bushfire crisis, Scott Morrison, Australia’s Prime Minister has argued that there is no direct link between Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions and the severity of the fires burning across the country. He told ABC AU during a radio interview on Thursday that there was no “credible scientific evidence” that cutting carbon emissions could reduce the severity of the fires…

    The conditions Australia experienced earlier this year count as the most severe in its modern history. Scientists have long warned that increasingly hot and dry climates, the result of the climate crisis, will lead to a worsening of wildfires around the world. And we are seeing the effects in Australia with unprecedented early fires. The wildfires also aggravate climate change by destroying treats(sic) that could absorb carbon in the atmosphere…
    https://time.com/5735660/sydney-bushfires/

    Rachael Bunyan, freelance journalist: Rachael is a freelance journalist for HuffPostUK, The Daily and Sunday Telegraph, The Times and The Guardian. Exclusives have covered grooming, family courts, sexual abuse and the benefits system. Her recent HuffPostUK exclusive on terminally ill people being denied access to benefits led to Amber Rudd calling for a serious review of the benefits system. Rachael is also Editorial Assistant for the Mail on Sunday.
    https://rachaelbunyan.com/

    30

    • #
      Kalm Keith

      My opinion of Scott Morrison has been lifted by his position here.

      Man made CO2 doesn’t create or worsen bush fires.

      50

      • #
        sophocles

        Man made CO2 doesn’t create or worsen bush fires.

        No, it’s lightning taking advantage of man-made Neglect.

        20

  • #
    pat

    Eco-pessimism segment – 24min20sec to 39min31sec:

    AUDIO: 53min31sec: 25 Nov: ABC Counterpoint: Amanda Vanstone: Cities and suspicions
    Climate change is here and as David Attenborough put it the ‘collapse of our civilisations and the extinction of much of the natural world is on the horizon’. His kind of apocalyptic view isn’t new, in fact, eco-pessimism has been around since the times of Ancient Greece. ***Joanna Szurmak takes us through the history of of eco-pessimism and argues that enviro-catastrophism, which has been repeatedly refuted throughout human history, is the wrong message in the first place. So what is the right message and why has this kind of doom and gloom thought dominated academic and policymaking discourse, as well as capturing the public imagination, in recent years?…
    https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/counterpoint/25-11/11728264

    Uni of Toronto: ***Joanna Szurmak, Science & Digital Initiatives Librarian
    I am a research services and liaison librarian at the University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM) Library where I work with the Psychology and Anthropology departments and the Robotics and Forensic Science programs…
    I am a doctoral candidate in the Graduate Program in Science and Technology Studies at York University, Toronto, ON. I have graduate degrees in electrical engineering and information studies from the University of Toronto…
    from Recent publications:
    Szurmak, J., & Desrochers, P. (2018). The one-sided worldview of eco-pessimists. Quillette (3 December, 2018). This was a response to Dr. Christian Berggren’s Quillette review of the Roslings’ book Factfulness.
    Desrochers, P., & Szurmak, J. (2018). Population bombed! Exploding the link between overpopulation and climate change. London, UK: Global Warming Policy Foundation. (258 pp.)
    Population Bombed! was short-listed for the 2018-2019 Donner Prize. Please see the reviews and the op-eds…
    http://sites.utm.utoronto.ca/szurmak/content/joanna-szurmak

    25 Oct: Spiked: The long history of eco-pessimism
    Climate change isn’t the first eco-apocalyptic idea, and it won’t be the last
    by Pierre Desrochers and ***Joanna Szurmak
    https://www.spiked-online.com/2019/10/25/the-long-history-of-eco-pessimism/

    40

    • #
      OriginalSteve

      The only thing that has collapsed is the spines of decent people who should be telling the climate numpties to pull thier heads in.

      The govt and “opposirion” too come in for an honourable mention – without its endorsement of climate change witchdoctoring and signing up to UN treaties that circumvent Australian law, non if this could have got as far as it has.

      Period.

      60

      • #
        Kalm Keith

        Good summary Steve.

        The bit about circumventing Australian law is particularly important considering that the United Nations is a weird shambolic monster lurching from one drama/emergency to the next on the world stage.

        A rational Australian government would have left the U.N. long ago but then the elites would have no more holidays in New York on our tax dollars.

        Poor Fella My Country.

        A country without a vision for the future being Crushed by the impossible burden of carrying tens of thousands of surplus, ineffective “Public Servants”, Media Infrastructure and “Personalities”: The Ministry of Propaganda and wokeness, on top of the extraordinary expansion of Universities where egalitarianism means that everyone can become a professor in five years of “study”.

        AusUNexit.

        KK

        30

  • #

    You can always tell when a band has bagged enough millions in earnings – they mutate into the sort of insufferable pr**ks they made their millions singing about.

    Last chance to nominate for prat of the year 2019 – St Greta of Thunberg is leading the pack. https://thepointman.wordpress.com/2019/11/15/84361/

    Pointman

    80

  • #
    David Maddison

    If you search Google images for “human powered truck” you will see a number of human powered vehicles they can use to transport their hundreds of tons of equipment on.

    The fuel consumed (food) will be much more costly than the equivalent cost of gasoline fuel but I assume that cost, efficiency and timeliness is irrelevant, as well as safety of the drivers.

    20

  • #
    Tel

    Do the people turning up to these festivals actually care which bands are playing?

    50

  • #
    Matt

    I am done with any virtue signalling band, company or politician.

    30

  • #
    Matt

    Not playing their music in public might be the most environmentally beneficial thing they can do.

    50

  • #
    Mark D.

    They are right you know.
    Once you are convinced that co2 is the problem then you must consider the carbon footprint of ALL luxury and entertainment. How much carbon is spewed through the followers of all kinds of sports? What about the lavish annual Super Bowl?

    Time to start turning the screws to them. It’ll be fun to watch them squirm.

    30

    • #
      Mark D.

      The more I think about this the more fun! Entertainment is a global co2 disaster!
      We must ban Hollywood. Multi million dollar productions and travel to location filming is a horrible unnecessary carbon emission. All of Hollywood must be shut down.
      Theaters, symphonies and bands must be closed (they create a temptation to travel unnecessarily).
      Malls and shopping centers (They cause more traveling than the more efficient on-line shopping and delivery services)-close them too.

      No more campers and RV’s (very wasteful)
      No more recreational motorized aviation.
      No more recreational boating (except by sail).
      No more automobile racing (OMG the emissions and waste there)
      Since no one is traveling you should close half the hotels (starting with the expensive luxury ones).
      Shut down all Las Vegas and other Casino’s

      You must not bathe more often than every 7 days. (since you aren’t going to the theater or movies no one will notice).
      With all the material recovered from the above (tearing down and scrapping), we can halt mining for quite a while.
      No more soda and beer in cans or bottles. You’ll have to carry your beer home in a environmentally respectful re-usable pail.
      No more restaurants and dining out.

      70

  • #
    PeterS

    They should follow their own cult of CAGW and not connect their equipment to the grid and instead use solar/wind batteries exclusively. Hypocrites.

    30

  • #
    John PAK

    My guess is that for a yesterday’s outfit like Coldplay, touring Au is hardly profitable so cancelling is no big deal. They can afford their opinion and that’s fine by me but they’ll soon be forgotten along with their political view-points.

    20

  • #
    pat

    22 Nov: SMH: PA: Prince William warns of urgency on climate change, population growth
    Speaking at the Tusk Conservation Awards in London, William said the trade in wild animal parts was “disgraceful and baffling”, while praising leading conservationists…
    “Climate change, human population growth, exploitation of natural resources, and habitat loss all pose major threats to the precious balance of our natural world,” he said.

    William said his father, Prince Charles, had rung alarm bells about the state of the environment for many years.
    “Right now, young people the world over are ringing that planetary alarm bell louder and with more determination than ever before,” he added
    https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/prince-william-warns-of-urgency-on-climate-change-population-growth-20191122-p53d9s.html

    10

  • #
    pat

    a BBC team fly to Dubai:

    22 Nov: BBC: Dubai Air Show: The challenges for us all in flying green
    By Russell Hotten, Sameer Hashmi, Adrienne Murray, BBC News, Dubai Air Show
    This time we’ve had airline Etihad rename a Boeing 787 Dreamliner a “greenliner” and Airbus unveiling an experiment in which aircraft follow each other to reduce drag and save fuel. It mimics bird flight.
    No press conference seems complete without a reference to aviation efficiency, and the president of Emirates airline even praised activist Greta Thunberg for helping focus minds on what they had to do…

    So, have we seen greenwash in Dubai or a genuine commitment to change? What are airlines doing to help tackle the climate crisis? And can the industry really wean itself off fossil fuels?
    The BBC’s Talking Business programme went to the air show to speak to experts involved in aviation’s attempt to clean up its act…
    With air travel set to double over the next 20 years, that target looks a tall order.
    But just because big breakthrough technologies are years away does not mean nothing can be done in the short term, the BBC’s expert panel say…
    https://www.bbc.com/news/business-50503721

    30

    • #
      OriginalSteve

      Hand wringing and basically complete nonsense…..virtue signally par excellence.

      20

    • #
      Annie

      Aircraft follow each other on busy routes anyway, but what about the turbulence for following aircraft if they are too close? Isn’t there a good reason for the spacings according to size?
      Just look at FlightRadar to see how busy some routes are.

      10

  • #
    pat

    forget all those Chinese coal-fired power plants, planned or under construction, in China and around the world:

    21 Nov: Xinhua: Interview: China on track for sustainable, creative future: LSE economist
    BEIJING: China is writing a sustainable and creative growth story as the country is seeking high-quality growth by such means as structural changes in the service sector, according to a pioneering expert in the economics of climate change.
    China “has moved very quickly” in changing its growth pattern and is putting many of its advantages like human capital to work, Lord Nicholas Stern, chair of Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at London School of Economics and Political Science, told Xinhua in an interview.
    Stern observed that China has been very strong in developing solar energy, and now leads the world in rail transport, which saves on air and road transport and reduces carbon emissions…

    Stern, also the former chief economist of the World Bank, said China’s past growth was “thoughtful” and “impressive,” as the country has achieved “extraordinary” progress in the previous few decades thanks to its constant planning for the future, evidenced by China’s five-year plan approach…

    China has made combating climate change a top priority and the country vowed to peak carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 or sooner under the Paris Agreement and to limit global warming to two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels or less by the end of the century.
    “I don’t want to pretend it’s easy, as it needs strong organization and strong policy, but I do want to suggest that the future is very attractive,” Stern said.
    http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-11/21/c_138573050.htm

    on the other hand, Donald Trump is very dangerous:

    The (US) administration’s climate denialism is getting more and dangerous
    Washington Post – 16 hours ago
    The Trump administration has long denied the reality of climate change. … Rather than protecting citizens, Trump officials have decided it’s better for us to pray the next big hurricane misses our toxic waste dumps…

    20

    • #
      pat

      22 Nov: Carbon Pulse: China CDM cash to be used to fund gas projects
      The Chinese government fund administering tax revenue from sales of UN-issued carbon credits has approved preferential loans to three new projects, including two natural gas distribution systems…

      21 Nov: Carbon Pulse: EU Parliament seeks to throw down marker with emergency declaration
      The EU Parliament will next week vote on whether to call for the bloc to declare a climate emergency, a ballot that could pressure the incoming European Commission into more short-term ambition…

      30

      • #
        pat

        and, as for Australia:

        21 Nov: The Conversation: New report shows the world is awash with fossil fuels. It’s time to cut off supply
        By Peter Christoff, Associate Professor, School of Geography, University of Melbourne
        A new UN report shows the world’s major fossil fuel producing countries, including Australia, plan to dig up far more coal, oil and gas than can be burned if the world is to prevent serious harm from climate change…
        The United Nations Environment Program’s Production Gap report, to which I contributed, is the first to assess whether current and projected fossil fuel extraction is consistent with meeting the Paris goals…

        Australia’s coal production is projected to jump by 34%, the report says. Proposed large coal mines and ports, if completed, would represent one of the world’s largest fossil fuel expansions – around 300 megatonnes of extra coal capacity each year…

        In Australia, this policy failure is driven by deliberate political avoidance of our national responsibilities for the harm caused by our exports. There are good grounds for arguing this breaches our moral and legal obligations under the United Nations climate treaty…
        https://theconversation.com/new-report-shows-the-world-is-awash-with-fossil-fuels-its-time-to-cut-off-supply-126605

        GreatTransitionInitiative: Contributor: Peter Christoff is a political scientist and Associate Professor who teaches in the Department of Resource Management and Geography at the University of Melbourne. He writes mainly on environmental policy, with a current focus on climate change. His most recent books include Globalization and the Environment, co-authored with Robyn Eckersley, and Four Degrees of Global Warming: Australia in a Hot World. He also has worked in government and the not-for-profit sector. He was the Assistant Commissioner for the Environment in Victoria in the late 1980s and early 1990s and has been a member of various government committees including the Board of the Environment Protection Authority (Victoria), the Victorian Premier’s Climate Change Advisory Group, and the Victorian Ministerial Advisory Council on Climate Adaptation. He was Vice President of the Australian Conservation Foundation from 2006 to 2013 and has served on its board since 2000.
        https://greattransition.org/contributor/peter-christoff

        30

        • #
          OriginalSteve

          Weve got to the moment whereby we have to loudly tell these green idiots to pul thier heads in. On the other hand , we can ensure they have a court docket number at the climate nurenberg trials should they persist in wanting to call for the destruction of our way of life based on scientifically unprovable nonsense….I thimk thats only fair.

          20

    • #
      Graeme No.3

      What comes out of Lord Stern? What comes out of the stern of a bull?

      20

  • #
    Deano

    I feel like mimicking the angry crowd in “The Blues Brothers” movie scene in the bar, chucking cans at the chicken wire fence in front of Coldplay yelling “We want The Good ‘ole Boys”.

    10

  • #

    Huh!

    Everybody wants to rule the World!

    Tony.

    20

    • #
      Kalm Keith

      Tony,

      Thanks, Been suffering from memory loss.
      I knew that they had a song that I liked from a long way back. That’s it.

      More recently at a Fort Scratchley function we did Fix You.

      Having heard those I looked through the rest of their stuff and couldn’t find anything else that grabbed me.

      KK

      10

      • #

        Sorry Keith, I only used that phrase as a form of metaphor.

        Coldplay did not sing this song.

        It was in fact from a Scottish band Tears For Fears, and was done around 11/12 years before Coldplay even came into existence.

        Tony.

        20

  • #
    James Poulos

    Someone should invent something where their performances are recorded on some sort of laser type medium and remotely distributed somehow only to people who actually know who they are and actually want to hear them and see them.

    20

  • #
    Another Ian

    “Delingpole: Best Climate Change News Ever – No More Coldplay Tours”

    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/11/22/best-climate-change-news-ever-no-more-coldplay-tours/

    10

  • #
    Yonason

    “Gas, grass or …uh… cash. No one rides free.” (It’s a 60’s reference)

    But, since she’s such a pleasant person, I’m sure she’ll have no trouble finding a ride…

    20

  • #
    Greg Sullivan

    Meh. I only like one of their songs, and even then, it’s what Stuart Price did with it, in his “Thin White Duke” version of “Talk”.

    00

  • #
    yarpos

    So the dreariest, mournful , warbling band in Christendom wont be coming? thats a relief

    Actually I hope this is the beginning of a new wave. If people who want “climate action now!” have consequences from their demands they might actually start to think about what they are asking for. I doubt many have done much more than learn the chant.

    30

    • #

      Frank Sinatra once made a crack about the importance of rhythm. He said that without rhythm your brain would just sit around all day listening to Eddie Fisher records.

      Eddie at least had a voice. Coldplay, on the other hand…

      But what happened to rock ‘n roll? It was supposed to be about shocking your parents. Now the rockers are your lecturing, puritanical, finger-wagging elders.

      40

      • #

        Frank Sinatra.

        In the 60s, bands and solo artists from all over the World went to LA to a studio where there were a large group of musicians who were the absolute best in their respective fields, a group somewhat erroneously given the name The Wrecking Crew.

        Frank Sinatra recorded his album Strangers In The Night in this studio with those musicians. So, on that huge smash Single from that album, the title song, we have Leon Russel on piano, and Glen Campbell on guitar. (incidentally, Frank hated that song with a passion)

        Glen Campbell watched Frank closely, and he said he learned a lot about breathing from watching Frank, and that helped him later when he started his huge solo career, having already worked hard at his music for 13 years, to become an overnight success in the late 60s. He was perhaps one of the greatest guitarists who ever played that instrument.

        Tony.

        50

        • #

          Look at this image, at this link.

          There are 23 guitars and one banjo there, and some of those guitars are the rarest in the World, and made only for Glen, by his guitar manufacturer of choice, Ovation.

          Tony.

          30

          • #

            Tony, there was a singing get-together by many of the country greats, sort of presided by Chet Atkins. As they sat in a circle, the musician who seemed to transfix all the others was…Glen Campbell!

            A lot of people thought of him as a hit parade and movie phenomenon. But musicians thought of Glen as a supreme musician.

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETkzK9pXMio

            20

            • #
              Greg in NZ

              When I was in Texas thirty-odd years ago, y’all, had to drive down to Galveston on the Gulf of Mexico to see what all the fuss was about…

              meh, give me Noosa or Margaret River or Whangapoua or Ahipara anyday. And the Wichita Lineman, is still on the line…

              penned by the unsung hero, Jimmy Webb, maestro of evocative road-trip music.

              10

    • #
      WXcycles

      This is just another example of … Get Woke –> Go Broke.

      Their recording company, management agency, touring company, and other contracted support operations will probably start suing them for millions due to breach of contracts. What’s for sure is such companies will bypass bands that pull this Woke loony nonsense. Only idiots sacrifice themselves for a fake religion.

      40

  • #
    George Cross

    WHO?

    30

  • #
    Zane

    They may need to change the band’s name to Warmplay.

    40

  • #
    Penguinite

    I have a secondhand Ark they can buy complete with Skipper Greta!

    30

  • #
    JCalvertN(UK)

    There is a much more eco-friendly way of flying. It’s called “economy class”.

    10

  • #
    Ian of Brisbane

    At least the six people who bought tickets will get their money back.

    20

  • #
    Morris1508

    Berish Bilander, the co-chief executive of Green Music Australia, which campaigns for sustainability in the industry, told the ABC earlier this year that plastic waste had been the main talking point so far in the music industry.

    On Friday, he said he was “rapt” with Coldplay’s decision.

    “This is a planetary crisis and every human is affected. Artists have a really crucial role to play and it’s great to see bigger artists stepping up,” Mr Bilander said.

    He agreed that, based on research by UK music sustainability group Julie’s Bicycle, the biggest emissions impact with festivals and concert tours was likely from fan travel to and from events.

    “Is there a way we can carpool? Is there a way we can take public transport? These kinds of decisions apply to everything in life and events are no exception,” he said.source: http://www.mintbc.com.au/

    00