Global Warming Ruled a Religion by British Judge

American Thinker ^ | April 30, 2009 | Marc Sheppard

[neverdem]

A fired British executive is suing his former employer on the grounds that he was unfairly dismissed due to religious views – his belief in global warming. 

According to the Independent:

“In the first case of its kind, employment judge David Sneath said Tim Nicholson, a former environmental policy officer, could invoke employment law for protection from discrimination against him for his conviction that climate change was the world's most important environmental problem.”

The judge ruled that Nicholson’s extreme green views fit the definition of “a philosophical belief under the Employment Equality (Religion and Belief) Regulations, 2003.”  So strong were these “beliefs,” that they “put him at odds with other senior executives within the firm.”  The 41-year-old told the employment tribunal that, as head of sustainability at Grainger plc, Britain's largest residential property investment company, he constantly tangled with fellow-executives over the company’s environmental policies and corporate social responsibility.

Nicholson complained that senior executives obstructed his attempts to lower the company’s “carbon footprint,” and that while Grainger advertised green policies, executives actually drove "some of the most highly polluting cars on the road".  He also griped that chief executive Rupert Dickinson refused numerous requests to change the company’s policy toward employee air travel.  Nicholson even included this personally upsetting example in his written complaint: "He [Mr Dickinson] showed contempt for the need to cut carbon emissions by flying out a member of the IT staff to Ireland to deliver his BlackBerry that he had left behind in London."

All of which offended Nicholson’s green beliefs, which he says dictate his very existence, "including my choice of home, how I travel, what I buy, what I eat and drink, what I do with my waste and my hopes and my fears".   

Harry Trory, counsel for Grainger, argued that Nicholson’s “views on climate change and the environment were based on fact and science, and did not constitute a philosophical belief.”  But the judge agreed with Nicholson, finding that “his belief goes beyond a mere opinion.”

The decision makes Nicholson the first person ever to be allowed to sue for religious discrimination with environmentalism listed as the affronted creed.

What next, Earth Day declared a religious holiday, tax-exempt status extended to recycling plants, or defacing effigies of Al Gore prosecuted as a hate crime?  Not likely.

On the other hand, greenies scoffed when Michael Crichton first called environmentalism “one of the most powerful religions in the Western World” over five years ago, insisting that “settled science” was on their side. Since then it’s become increasingly evident that alarmists’ warming beliefs are based not on reason or evidence, but a trusting acceptance in the absence of either.  They outright refuse to discuss it, debate it, or abide those daring to question it.

Antitheist Sam Harris once wrote:

“The difference between science and religion is the difference between a willingness to dispassionately consider new evidence and new arguments, and a passionate unwillingness to do so.”  

If British carbo-chondriacs now choose to capitulate which better exemplifies their position in an effort to exploit victims’ status, we can only hope their American counterparts soon follow their lead.

It’d be well worth a few silly law-suits to establish precedent necessary to keep this nonsense out of our public schools on those very same grounds.

And that’s just the tip of the expanding iceberg.

Hat Tip: Larwyn

[HiTech RedNeck]

Fitting.

[americanophile]

[Spktyr]

Makes sense, as Anthropocentric Global Warning cannot be proven as fact - so it must be a religion.

[ChicagahAl]

"All of which offended Nicholson’s green beliefs, which he says dictate his very existence"

For a person to be so shallow...

is appalling.

[PeaceBeWithYou]

Bump. Ping.

[USNBandit]

Religion, no. Disability based on mental illness, yes.

[GeronL]

something flying over my house barking...

these people are insane

[Steve Van Doorn]

It is a religion. They worship mother nature.

[Vanders9]

The 41-year-old told the employment tribunal that, as head of sustainability at Grainger plc, Britain's largest residential property investment company, he constantly tangled with fellow-executives over the company’s environmental policies and corporate social responsibility. Nicholson complained that senior executives obstructed his attempts to lower the company’s “carbon footprint,” and that while Grainger advertised green policies, executives actually drove "some of the most highly polluting cars on the road". He also griped that chief executive Rupert Dickinson refused numerous requests to change the company’s policy toward employee air travel. Nicholson even included this personally upsetting example in his written complaint: "He [Mr Dickinson] showed contempt for the need to cut carbon emissions by flying out a member of the IT staff to Ireland to deliver his BlackBerry that he had left behind in London."

He sounds like a right pain in the tail.

[momincombatboots]

I think that is appropriate along with Darwinism. Maybe we can correct some thinking by seeing these ideas and there adherents as they are. Darwinism has been used to promote racial disparity and the belief that an embryo is not human.

[boxerblues]

Good let them rule it as a religion and them shut them up like are trying to do to Christianity

[agere_contra]

“carbo-chondriacs”, LOL

[Gorzaloon]

Tim Nicholson, a former environmental policy officer, could invoke employment law for protection from discrimination against him for his conviction that climate change was the world's most important environmental problem.”

Tim, you were fired because you were an @$$hole. Get over it.

[1010RD]

Luckily, we have a Constitution and Bill of Rights to protect us from this nonsense, right?

[concerned about politics]

“a philosophical belief under the Employment Equality (Religion and Belief) Regulations, 2003.”

It is a religion.

Earth religion is a New Age term used mostly in the context of Neopaganism. It is an umbrella phrase that is used to cover any religion that worships the Earth, Nature, or fertility gods and goddesses, such as the various forms of goddess worship. Some find a connection between Earth-worship and the Gaia hypothesis. Earth religions are also formulated to allow one to utilize the knowledge of preserving the Earth.

[concerned about politics]

dictate his very existence

Exactly. Most left wing cults evolve from this pathology. These people have no identity of their own. The cult gives them not only an identity, but a psodo-family that recognizes them as well.

Small children , while going through their developmental stages, will often start "clubs" that give them and their friends a temporary group identify. As time goes on, the children usually grow out of this club mentality. Others never mature beyond this stage. These are the liberal fringe groups that go out of their way to make themselves known, even though they serve no reasonable purpose in a normal society.

The Oboma cult is a classic example of this malady. These are the lost souls who have never gone beyond stage two in Maslows Hierarchy of needs.

[LearsFool]

Good! Can we get a little “separation of green and state” now?

[Category Four]

Only in England ... "I think it must be one o' them Crackpot Religions."

Monty would've had a field day with 'em.

[cookcounty]

"What next, Earth Day declared a religious holiday...?"

Then it would have to be kicked out of the schools!

Unless it was a form of Islam. Then they would have to have "Green Rooms" in the schools.