Guest Post by Thomas Fuller
After the tragic events in Maryland on Wednesday of this week, where a man took three hostages and tried to make The Discovery Channel a vehicle for publishing his manifesto, there have been accusations and counter accusations in the global warming world about taking advantage of this to advance political goals.
In particular, Joe Romm of Climate Progress harshly criticized Anthony Watts for the title of his blog post alerting readers to the situation. Personally, I think Anthony’s choice was mistaken, but not malicious–I’ve made worse editorial decisions myself.
And this may be one of them. The deluge of catastrophic predictions regarding global warming and its consequences have reached almost everyone on the planet, and perhaps unintentionally have replaced Cold War bomb scares as the primary source of doomsaying.
The messages are well-thought out and prepared by professional communicators, with disturbing and graphic images of a post-apocalyptic scenario lifted from Mad Max, and with about as much connection to reality.
In March of this year, a couple in Argentina shot their two children before committing suicide over fears of global warming. On Wednesday, in Maryland, James Lee apparently committed ‘suicide by cop’ after taking three hostages in an attempt to force the Discovery Channel to alter its programming to suit his fears over the environment.
At what point will we call to account those who have preached ‘the end of the earth as we know it’ to countless people? How many people will be driven to desperation by those who distort the science?
The IPCC’s AR4, published in 2007, painted a future with global warming as a serious, multinational problem that we should face together. You may agree or disagree with their findings–I agree with most of it, not all.
But nowhere does the work of thousands of scientists in peer-reviewed literature say that we are doomed, that civilization is at risk, that there is no future for us.
That falls to several groups of committed lobbyists, scientists, environmentalists and politicians who began saying the IPCC report was too conservative almost the day it was published. The evidence they bring forward for that claim is nowhere near as robust as the science referenced by the IPCC.
They are scaring people to death. How many more lives will be blighted or destroyed before they understand that their propaganda has real world effects?
It’s hard to work up too much sympathy for Mr. Lee–he took hostages, threatened to detonate an explosive device, and pretty much guaranteed his fate. And his worries weren’t confined to global warming. He was equally concerned with overpopulation, another scare story put out by some of the same people pumping hysteria over global warming.
At any rate, what these people are doing is despicable, if not murderous.
Sea levels are not going to rise by 20 feet. Or 10. Or five. There is not going to be a climatic tipping point that pushes our planet into a spiral of ever-increasing temperatures. Global warming is not going to cause the extinction of half the species on this planet, or even 1%.
And it is long past time that respected members of the scientific community publicly acknowledge those facts and helped bring this debate back within the realm of reality.
My father met Jim Jones briefly before he moved to Guyana with his flock, and described him as intelligent and persuasive, able to talk reasonably about a multitude of subjects. We don’t need more smooth talkers preaching the language of despair. We can now see the results. In their zeal to communicate their fears of the effects of global warming that go far beyond the predictions of mainstream science, those who Anthony called ‘warmistas’ in his blog title and who I call alarmists and sometimes hysterics have created a library of disturbing words and images that can influence the vulnerable.
Are these people responsible for the tragedies in Argentina and Maryland? No. But did they act responsibly, caveating their predictions as personal fears instead of the verdict of science. No. They were trying to scare you. They succeeded too well.
It’s time to stop the hysteria.
Thomas Fuller http://www.redbubble.com/people/hfuller
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Stop the hysteria???
How about that piece of crap?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/massextinctionthreatearthonvergeofhugeresetbutton
“Some scientists have speculated that effects of humans – from hunting to climate change – are fueling another great mass extinction.A few go so far as to say we are entering a new geologic epoch, leaving the 10,000-year-old Holocene Epoch behind and entering the Anthropocene Epoch, marked by major changes to global temperatures and ocean chemistry, increased sediment erosion, and changes in biology that range from altered flowering times to shifts in migration patterns of birds and mammals and potential die-offs of tiny organisms that support the entire marine food chain. ”
The “major change of global temperature” is the most laughable BS Jeremy Hsu, writer for Livescience could come up with…
Another example of hysteria:
The Dutch newspaper NRC reports that today at the International Penguin Conference in Boston, Stephanie Jenouvrier will predict that the Emperor Penguin of Antarctica with be extinct before the end of this century.
The NRC heads the article with “EMPEROR PENGUIN EXTINCT THIS CENTURY’ in bold letters across the page, accompanied with a huge, dark picture of emperor penguins standing in the snow.
That’s how you do it: short, in your face, dramatic statement + big picture.
That’s how you reach people’s emotions.
At the end of the article: Stephanie Jenouvrier says that if the predictions of the IPCC are correct, there is a 40 and 80% chance that the penguin population will be down to 5% at the end of this century.
Alarmist enough, but decidedly less than the message of the NRC.
Stephanie Jenouvrier has a PhD in Population Ecology and works at the Woods Hole Oceanografiic Institute in Massachusetts.
She published:
“Demographic models and IPCC climate projections predict the decline of an emperor penguin population,” by Stéphanie Jenouvrier, Hal Caswell, Christophe Barbraud, Marika Holland, Julienne Strœve, and Henri Weimerskirch, which appeared in issue 6, February 10, 2009, of Proc Natl Acad Sci USA (106:1844–1847; first published January 26, 2009; 10.1073/pnas.0806638106).
James Sexton says:
September 2, 2010 at 3:18 pm
Tim says:
September 2, 2010 at 2:17 pm
“…How many volunteer their life in the armed services to protect their country just to be treated as disposable pawns in the never ending wars? I feel sympathy for them all. ”
===========
Tim, you do a great insult to the men and woman in the service of their nation. There is no comparison of that lunatic to the guardians of your freedoms.
James Sexton
————————————————————————–
No sir I do not do a disservice to them at all. Look at how the vets are treated. Look at how those with depleted uranium poisoning are treated. Do you think that is what they signed up for? No they signed up full of ideals and a true desire to help and serve their country.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-VkpR-wka8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvIqhVnaalo
http://www.umrc.net
Those that serve in the forces are volunteers not disposable pawns. The latter is how they are treated by those in power. Yes Mr Lee was disturbed and most of those in the forces are not but I thought that was obvious. Let me be clear. The points of similarity are between what they sign up for and what they get used as by those in authority. They get conned and used up then disposed of.
Was Lee insanse or did he go rogue, betraying a bigger anti-humanist movement? I am of the opinion that if Lee was insane, then so is the entire lefty/green argument and all who espouse it. All Lee did was act independently, like any responsible martyr.
Smokey,
I’m sorry if I’m the one that’s not getting it, but what ExpVid was really giving us was a nice little video from the Minnesotans for GW; one that I hadn’t seen.
Thank you for your soothing words, Brother Thomas.
From the comments that have been made on the subject here around the Village pump I can see that many support your view that these scare stories shouldn’t be further propagated and exaggerated by constant repetition.
Too, it’s reassuring that none here in our little community would even think of making up negative stories about how the Great Cooling will affect society. Again we can be proud that we command the moral high ground!!
Though fabricated scare stories will always be in circulation (remember the one a couple of years ago about the ‘economic crisis’ and all those job losses?) we can be sure that once the Great Cooling starts all this Warmist propaganda will melt away like so much Arctic ice!
(BTW, any news on the start of the Great Cooling yet? There was snow in Poland a few days ago which obviously proves the world isn’t warming. But is the Cooling close? The signs are there in the quiet sun, the return of the little girl. Should all of us here in the Village open our ‘fridge doors to help it on its way – and give those Warmists a real tipping point to worry about!!)
Oliver R,
I liked ExpVid’s post. Sorry, my comment just didn’t come across as intended. ☹
Yo, Idiot,
You’re asking the wrong questions. You should be asking: where’s that runaway global warming? Is it hiding behind the tipping point? And where is that climate catastrophe the alarmists are always trying to scare us with? Where’s the
DOOO-O-O-O-M??
Tim says:
September 2, 2010 at 9:03 pm
“Look at how the vets are treated. ”
Son, I am very well aware of how the Vets are treated. Please don’t try to pretend you know what our motivations are and how you feel about our treatment. You don’t know WTF you’re talking about. I don’t know what nation you’re from, but if you’re from the U.S., I have to tell you, ….We have always protected the citizens of this nation, even if we vehemently disagree with your thoughts. This is how you remain free to express your lunacy.
James Sexton,
The hypocritical weasel dance it is.
I am not having any fun, though.
I even think that if I would try to say the truth — to dig deep into the historical and evolutionary origins of the modern green religion, even the staunchest skeptics would proclaim me incurably mad.
For the hypocritical weasel dance is sacred.
Hey Idiot – great name, and well-suited, judging from the pitiful attempt at sarcasm in your rant, so congratulations on that.
Aside from the sarcasm, all you have presented are straw man arguments, which is pretty typical of Warmist trolls.
There was a bit of Cooling hysteria back in the 70’s. The funny thing is, it was propounded by the same folks, who then switched to Warmist mode, and it was, of course, man’s fault.
Tim: September 2, 2010 at 9:03 pm
No sir I do not do a disservice to them at all. Look at how the vets are treated. Look at how those with depleted uranium poisoning are treated. Do you think that is what they signed up for? No they signed up full of ideals and a true desire to help and serve their country.
Pretty condescending of you, Tim — you make it sound like you trade your brain in when you accept the uniform. When you take the oath, you take it with full knowledge that you’ll be called to do whatever it takes and take whatever comes your way, and you have the benefit of knowing beforehand that your elected bosses won’t always have your best interests at heart.
There are more vets that comment here than you’re aware of, and we ain’t anywhere *near* as fragile as you seem to believe.
Tim,
Bill Tuttle is right. I’m another veteran [Tuy Hoa, Viet Nam, ’67 – ’68]. The only way to understand how a vet sees his service to his country is to become one.
So, when are you gonna enlist?
How about something beautiful and mellow and relaxing just for something totally OT?
Tea for two.
Tom,
I can agree with this post.
Sorry, but this guy was not a weird aberration. His action might have been, but not the underlying philosophy which is entirely in tune with the mainstream green movement’s.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100052207/james-lee-is-al-gore-is-prince-charles-is-the-unabomber/
““Demographic models and IPCC climate projections predict the decline of an emperor penguin population,” by Stéphanie Jenouvrier, Hal Caswell, Christophe Barbraud, Marika Holland, Julienne Strœve, and Henri Weimerskirch,”
Demography
noun
the study of statistics such as births, deaths, income, or the incidence of disease, which illustrate the changing structure of human populations.
• the composition of a particular human population : Europe’s demography is changing.
Do the penguins have to fill out forms ?
Dave Bob says:
September 2, 2010 at 1:03 pm
But somehow I’m thinking that the phrase “and of course the squirrels” will stick in my mind forever.
Don’t forget the froggies.
The deluge of catastrophic predictions regarding global warming and its consequences have reached almost everyone on the planet, and perhaps unintentionally have replaced Cold War bomb scares as the primary source of doomsaying.
I lay most of the blame on the media. In this day and age when normalacy does not sell papers, the news is trying to outbid itself to make the extra buck. So they seek out the lunatics like Al Gore (preaching the doom and gloom) and raise them to some kind of messianic status in order to legitimize their malfeasance and incompetance.
In their eyes, the world cannot be normal, it has to be headed towards some type of Armegeddon. After all, what movies sell the most tickets? My Friend Flicka? or 2012?
DR says:
September 2, 2010 at 9:16 am
Some posters at Joe Romm’s were trying to link James Lee to “righties” because he wanted to stop illegal immigration.
The interesting part of that is that he was Convicted of smuggling an illegal into this country and admitted doing it at least 3 times.
A short time after the blow-up at Copenhagen Canada’s National Post carried a story about a United Church minister having a meltdown and reduced to a sobbing heap because of her despair over the millions who are dying because of AGW. Now there was a woman who had her mental health damaged by the warmists fearmongering and gross speculation of disasters that have not even happened. Yet these scenarios were real enough to her that for all intents and purposes had actually occurred. Is it any wonder the public revulsion over the lies and hypocrisy of AGW continue to grow?
To all vets on this site and elsewhere. My apologies if my comments have offended you. They were not intended that way. I do respect the ideals for which you have served as have members of my family. It was never my intention to speak poorly of vets or the service they render. No I do not think you are fragile. Nor was I picking on the US military in particular though some seem to think so. Last count there are 17 countries selling depleted uranium weapons you are only 1. All governments treat vets poorly when they need help.
The point I was making was that this individual has had done to him what has happened to others and I despise those in the AWG movement and governments that treat people in this fashion. In the future I will generalize more and not use the military as an example. It seems to be a touchy subject and it is not my intent to offend.
Village Idiot said
“(BTW, any news on the start of the Great Cooling yet? There was snow in Poland a few days ago which obviously proves the world isn’t warming. But is the Cooling close? The signs are there in the quiet sun, the return of the little girl. Should all of us here in the Village open our ‘fridge doors to help it on its way – and give those Warmists a real tipping point to worry about!!)”
I’m glad you asked. Here is an article written by a colleague and myself which has just been released that identifies some 100 places around the world which have been cooling for at least 30 years.
http://diggingintheclay.wordpress.com/2010/09/01/in-search-of-cooling-trends/#more-630
Tonyb
Tim: September 3, 2010 at 11:08 am
To all vets on this site and elsewhere. My apologies if my comments have offended you. They were not intended that way.
No intent to offend = no foul, and with that explanation, Tim, I need no apology.
For what it’s worth, I agree with your sentiments, but in this context, it was a bad analogy.
@ur momisugly Smokey: Can Tho, ’69 – 70.