Posted on 03/01/2018 9:16:21 AM PST by Signalman
With her city under siege by one of the worse winter storms in years, and the army called out to deal with a rare snow paralyzing transportation systems, the mayor of Rome should have had plenty of things to do for her people.
But for Virginia Raggi, the most important thing was to be more than 6,000 miles away, in the sunny climes of Mexico, announcing a ban on one of her city’s most popular private forms of transportation.
In other words, the global warming gang was once again being humiliated by weather that refused to cooperate with the leftist agenda.
ven more humiliating for the citizens of Rome, though, was that Reggi chose the site on foreign soil to make the coming ban public on Monday — before she even made the announcement at home.
“Rome has decided to ban the use of diesel cars from its historical centers from 2024,” Raggi told the environmentalists, drawing a round of applause.
“My citizens still don’t know,” she added laughing. (The Daily Caller has the video here. The announcement comes about the 5-minute mark.)
While the might not have known what their 39-year-old mayor was up to in Ciudad de Mexico, Romans were getting a taste of global warming at home. (The environmentalist crowd has been trying to call it “climate change” ever since they realized the weather was something they couldn’t lie about, but everyone knows what they’re really selling.)
And this is what global warming looked like in Rome this week, while Raggi was regaling her fellow greens.
“The Arctic storm dubbed the ‘Beast from the East’ saw temperatures across much of Europe fall Monday to their lowest level this winter and even brought a rare snowstorm to Rome, paralyzing the city and giving its residents the chance to ski, sled and build snowmen in its famous parks and piazzas.
“Rome’s schools were ordered closed, while train, plane and bus services were crippled. Italy’s civil protection agency even mobilized the army to help clear slush-covered streets as a city used to mild winters was covered by a thick blanket of snow.”
And this is the time Reggi uses to announce a ban on diesel engines – and do it thousands of miles from her shivering city.
That was no small order to spring on a supposedly free people. While diesel passenger vehicles are rare in the United States, about two-thirds of all cars sold in Italy are diesel engines, according to the U.K.
And Rome has an unusually high number of automobiles – about 2.3 million — compared to its population. That works out to just more than 800 for every 1,000 inhabitants, Reggi told the conference.
(In the United States, by contrast, there were just under 450 private vehicles per 1,000 people in 2012, according to The Atlantic.)
One of the reasons the number of vehicles in Rome is so high is a previous, heavy-handed government action to control the population banned only cars with odd-numbered or even-numbered license plate on alternating days, according to the Guardian.
The Roman response?
“To skirt the alternate days regulation, many families buy a used car with a different number plate,” the Guardian reported.
Now, Rome obviously has great number of treasures from antiquity – monuments of marble that are being damaged by air pollution mainly caused by vehicle exhaust. And if Roman authorities wanted to present the fight in that light, they might be on firmer ground. Tourism is a major part of the Roman economy, and everyone can understand that tourists won’t be spending money in Rome if the treasures aren’t protected.
But that kind of dollars-and-euros reasoning wouldn’t satisfy the virtue-signaling ethos of modern environmentalism, which presents its climate change/global warming stance as a measure of moral standing.
So, to fight global warming, in the middle of one of the worst winter storms her city can remember, the mayor of Rome jets to Mexico City to announce a ban on the type of vehicles her people drive the most.
Even after a previous attempt to limit half the vehicles ended up resulting in more of them on the roads.
It was a humiliating moment for Rome.
It was a humiliating moment for the global warming gang, even if they should be getting used to this kind of thing by now.
And it should have been humiliating for Reggi, whether she realizes it yet or not.
mama mia!
They claimed automotive exhaust was acidic, literally eating away at the ancient marble. Buildings, fountains, whatever.
Dunno if that was actually true, but if it is, it's not just Global Warming they're trying to prevent.
I wonder how close the River Thames is from freezing over again? Anyone know?
So, during snow storms, you use trucks to get you out of trouble. Trucks that use diesel or gasoline. When the power goes out, you turn to generators powered by petroleum products.
Cut the hypocricy.
I was listening to an old (2003?) Art Bell show and he said Europe would be frozen and uninhabitable within ten years.
He cited the “climate experts” from Woods Hole.
The lying and hysteria about climate never ceases to amaze—the modern witchdoctors call themselves “climate scientists”.
As we said back in my HS days: “The lights are on, but nobody’s home”.
ManBearPig strikes again
Half man, half bear, half pig
Its super cereal
Which is why one has both kinds of license plates. When they ban odd and even license plates only criminals will have both odd and even license plates.
A fellow wouldn't have to live there full-time.
He could always just come and go.
LIB lunatic skank.
He had a climate historian on that gave him examples of climate change events that refuted Bell's utterings.
For at least the next three weekends, he had on pro-AGW extremists. The last guy I heard said we had to become vegetarians to avoid global warming from cows breaking wind.
I turned him off at that point, stopped the auto-record, and never listened to him again.
As long as you don't have any bunnies at home.
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Fatal stupidity!
She can join Libby Schaaf.
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Remember when they were going crazy trying to sell everyone diesel cars ,now they’ll ban everything but Electric Cars ,but they never say where the Electricity will come from
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Art Bell has a perfect record of being wrong on every issue, every time he has opened his mouth.
Who pays him?
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>> “but they never say where the Electricity will come from” <<
From that secret free power source that we keep getting emails about.
Plans are only $129.95, only 1000 copies left!
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The Philippines, so he could bring to the US his 40ish years-junior wife.
In the "Ring of Fire" for volcanic action, not to mention a prime location for being in the way of typhoons.
Yes, I thought he was a hypocrite.
Too bad too, because he was a great radio entertainer, as well as an interviewer, when he wanted to be.
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