The real inconvenient truth!

Whichever fence you sit on when it comes to climate change, the simple fact is that the mainstream media have been pulling the wool over your eyes for a number of years. I never expected to enter into this debate on a games related website until such time that gamers were to be affected and it now appears that we are now victims of a very distorted money making scheme called ‘carbon footprint’. With the announcement that Ubisoft were to ditch manuals and go electronic it will open up debate in the games industry as to whether others should follow suit, hardly surprising that Larry Hryb (Major Nelson) has more a less confirmed Microsoft’s stance stating that videogame manuals are nothing but pamphlets on warranties and legal drivel.

What does manual-less video games mean for us? Well, firstly it completely detracts from the quality of product you buy, special editions will no doubt be changed to suit this new eco-friendly stance and for video game collectors this news sounds like pure hell. More alarming is the fact that we are now just a disc away from being fully digitised. We are already half way there currently. By delivering less of a reason to purchase disc based media the download only method (which let’s be honest it’s where all video game publishers would love to see us go) not only will gamers be without the ability to trade their used titles, the titles will hold no value over a period of time. Whilst I cannot state this is a fore-gone conclusion, the carbon trading scheme introduced by such wonderful people as Al Gore and his carbon derivative company (that has made him millions) Blood & Gore will no doubt push the climate change bandwagon to breaking point. Microsoft and Bill Gates is most certainly one of those mass corporations behind this faux save the world motive and so is the like of IGN owned News International led by Rupert Murdoch whom has been ramming ‘the world is going to end’ down our TV sets like no bodies business.

Did you know that icebergs naturally melt & reform?

How did all of this start exactly? Some of the most influential people in the world decided that by creating a new derivative and tax system (which will eventually effect more than just companies, you and me) to charge people and corporations for the amount of carbon emissions they use. By introducing this policy in business it means that corporations can trade between each other to off-set their carbon emissions. Does this save the environment? No it doesn’t. Why? Well, you can buy carbon credits from other businesses, hence you can pay to pollute as much as you want and when you have big manufacturing nations like China with little to no ethics, even if many countries were to co-operate any form of cuts would have minimal to no effect on our climate temperature at all. Where another slice of the money is made is in green industry. Companies are creating energy usage monitors with subscription schemes, green energy companies are set to make millions, whilst Arnold Schwarzenegger has already banned the use of TV sets above 40” in the state of California.

With the above paragraph in mind, how does this all pan back to game manuals? Well, it’s simple. The only reason why Ubisoft and eventually every game publisher in the world are doing this is so they can clamp down on their carbon footprint, so they do not get fined for a tax that never needed to be implemented. Carbon Credits are nothing more than a Ponzi scheme to rob corporations of their money. Of course many corporations will go with their stance that they are ‘looking after the environment because to suggest that man made climate change doesn’t exist (or is insignificant enough to make a overall difference to volcanic eruptions and solar radiation) would prove very unpopular by the ruling elite Fortune 100 companies and royals that are running today’s shadow society.

What is Carbon Trading? Each member state gets an annual emissions allocation that it then divvies up among its worst emission-producing firms. Each company in turn is then obliged to produce no more emissions than its allocation allows.
If it comes in under target, it can sell its excess allowance as ‘carbon credits’ to other firms that have overshot their targets. (Credits are measured in units of emissions reductions, each one being the equivalent to the reduction of one tonne of carbon dioxide). But if it comes in over target, it has to pay a penalty and then go to the market to buy credits to make up the difference. Monkeyweek.com

So who do you get angry with? Don’t get angry with the videogame publishers they are simply attempting to prevent themselves from becoming financially crippled because of some of the agreements made at Copenhagen. The people to be angry with are the greedy power brokers that are making absolutely billions of US dollars from this new derivative. Some of those that you can get angry at are climatologists whom have been frying the numbers for the last 20 years (particularly climatologists at East Anglia University, UK) or perhaps your very own government whom have been jumping on to the climate change bandwagon to generate millions and ensure that we the tax payer have less money to spend and higher energy bills. One of the people you should really be mad about is Al Gore who’s 2004 film Inconvenient Truth was riddled with lies and fraudulent data relating to real figures relating to the Earth’s temperature. Did you know that for the last 10 years, the Earth has been actually cooling? Any media mogul would have you believe differently.

If videogame manuals are being phased out because corporations are being taxed through a false and outrageous claim, it is also doing no good for companies on the fringe of going bust from the recession in recent years. If the green economy becomes the everyday norm you can expect that it will be the final nail in the coffin for physical product in the games industry and for those that love importing games from Japan, expect some seriously stupid shipping costs as businesses offering these services will also suffer due to having to offset their carbon emissions when factoring in transportation used to ship items abroad. Are all videogame corporations just blinded by the fact of this stark reality? No, do not be surprised to see Microsoft peddling Carbon Footprint paid advertisements on our dashboards in future or videogame publishers using subliminal messages in games to ‘look after the environment or have environmental apocalyptic story lines’. This sounds audacious, but the fact is, like with the movie industry, they make millions of dollars from product placement and plot investment. Recent films most notable for doing this include; 2012, Knowing, The Happening and The Day The Earth Stood Still. Where this will all end remains a mystery, but before waxing hate on your nearest game publisher think about the economical encroaches they will be facing due to a lie in the coming years.