Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach
It doesn’t happen often … some would say not often enough … but I’m speechless.
Truly, I don’t know what to say about this. I can only shake my head and point and laugh. They are truly getting desperate.
w.
Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach
It doesn’t happen often … some would say not often enough … but I’m speechless.
Truly, I don’t know what to say about this. I can only shake my head and point and laugh. They are truly getting desperate.
w.
Let me illustrate my point by using a recent event: Fakegate. The only people who care that Gleick took one for The Team, Gleick himself, maybe (martyrdom is is only a so-so tough shroud to wear, especially as your approach retirement age and who knows, the paycheques probably still roll in even if your name is off the board), Heartland, some WUWT readers and a few other associated blogs, and about maybe 50 people on the outside who have expressed public dismay over the event.
Nobody’s heard boo from Gleick, Desmo doesn’t care because the medium is the message, and they continue to medium the message, as do their ideologues, and who’s still having to dig themselves out from under the poo shoveled over them? Heartland! This is the power of a modern media driveby. Heartland continues to restate its case, and in doing so, continues to draw attention, not to its belief system or its causes, but to the trangressions it never committed. Heartland needs to press for prosecution, sue, or let it go completely, quickly. Until it does and holds Gleick up in the bright glare of light for the whole world to see, it will always be the guy of whom the question “did you ever get caught beating your wife?” will always be asked. This is the power of high speed targeted media in today’s world. Even though innocent, the only way Heartland will regain the equivalent of years worth of PR back, is to monumentally hand Gleick from the highest public tree or commit a monumental act of public decency, which will still be viewed as guilt penitence. And I chose the word “monumental” intentionally.
While I admire and respect Anthony’s basic human decency, this side of the fence needs to get down and dirty too, and be willing to play in the same sandbox. You are in a fight with a pig. Don’t show up to a pigfight armed only with lipstick.
This report was published in February, 2012. Yet, it states:
“The interplay between the climate realities we likely face and the potential psychological
fallout from them was the subject of a conference convened in Washington D.C., in
March 2009. A highly respected group of experts offered insights. Their thoughts,
recommendations and supporting evidence are presented in this report.”
Apparently they haven’t noticed that the 13-year global temperature trend from March 2009 to February 2012 is absolutely flat. If they had only noted this in the 2012 report, it might have gone a long way towards averting global warming fears and psychosis.
This is the “Anti-Placebo Effect.” If you believe in catastophic climate change, you will become mentally ill.
Speaking of mental cases, Keith Olbermann made an appearance on the Tonight Show with David Letterman. Quite a scene there with Dave repeatedly baiting KO into publicly airing the dirty laundry about hissy fight between Gore and Olbermann. It really has all the hallmarks the breakdown of an “alternative” marriage.
There’s some great “alternative energy” metaphor attached to the breakup. Apparently, during a couple of episodes of the KO show, the lights in the studio went out because Gore had not paid the electric bill. Perhaps the sun went down and the wind subsided. KO, being the big star that he is, could not stomach working in such substandard conditions.
Hahahahaha!!!
Come on guys, that’s just Crazy Lisa, loopy as jitterbug. She’s harmless. Up her meds and shoo her home. No need to fear the barking insane; just keep them from wandering into traffic.
It is true that most Americans are not mentally fit to deal with future climate change. After all, the comfort seeking, debt addicted, med popping masses are really going to be in a world of hurt, when, not if, we incur the next major cold period. Keep your powder dry.
My apologies for my own apparent date confusion in my previous (10:09) comment. I should have merely written “Apparently the NWF hasn’t noticed that the 14-year global temperature trend from 1998 to February 2012 is flat. If they had only noted this in the 2012 report, it might have gone a long way towards averting global warming fears and psychosis.”
They did have a full three years between 2009 and 2012 to correct the hysteris that the 2009 conference report itself created.
Never underestimate the mental health care provider and advocacy community for mining tax dollars. They will do anything to keep budget pace and try to make gains in the health care mandate tab coming your way. They did not grow to their current outsized share of total medicaid spending by sitting around. What better way to expand their scope (and mandate tab) than to metastasize onto the other great money grab in climate change? No facts required of course.
viejecita says:
April 4, 2012 at 5:35 am
Ay, mi jovencita, mil gracias pa’ tus palabras, tan dulces como ti …
w.
Kevin J Coyle JD. Juris Doctor. Obviously qualified to speak about wildlife, Climate Change and Psychology.
The MD co-author might know psychology. So who’s the CAGW expert?
Plus, they don’t mention “Climate Angst”, My personal favorite climate related mental pathology.
they will never declare war on the citizens explicitly.
they’ll just do everything to deprive us of any rights whatsoever.
as long as there is doubt, there is hope.
give up hope. there is no doubt.
there is only one relationship possible between parasite and host.
a hug won’t cure them. talk won’t stop them.
WUWT shifted them to alternate means. it delayed things a little.
but the good times are gone and won’t be coming back until men have no doubts about what are virtues and values. this has to be fought on moral grounds.
they’ve already substituted theirs for the true ones, i.e., the ones consistent with human nature.
the debate for the past 200 odd years has only been how big a slice to cut off you or who shall wield the butcher knife.
not very many question the virtue of cannibalism or the value of being lunch.
and the calves will be taught the same but more.
next, you must learn to moo…. lol – or discover morality.
We all know, seriously, that they are lovely caring people and they do genuinely believe that they can and do ‘help’ but, we all know that a healthy and non-drug-addled human soul is quite capable of looking after itself. By example, the death of a parent is a commonly occurring event that happens to almost everybody yet, The World Does Not End every time it happens. We’re mostly intelligent grown-up adults and, despite all the best of intentions, we can actually cope with trauma. Something is already built into the human psyche.
Sometimes, the well intentioned help actually makes things worse…
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-186286/Counselling-makes-pain-worse-victims.html
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1812204,00.html
Thanks counselling people, but No Thanks.
ozspeaksup says:
April 4, 2012 at 4:05 am
I have to agree with ozspeaksup. It is getting to be almost impossible to fully comprehend the strength of the indoctrination that is happening everywhere. Video News Releases make up half the programming on many “news” stations, grade school children are taught that we are destroying the Earth and must all work together in a communal, “team” fashion to save it. I’ve been watching it in the college where I teach — classes in Building Industry Practices devoted almost entirely to demonstrations of “team work” combined with messages about “sustainable building.” Bob Hoffman has been writing about it for a long time in the advertising business — marching morons swayed to ridiculous degrees by implausible theories that have no empirical evidence backing them up.
The fight isn’t half over, and success is questionable. When stupid takes hold, it takes hold with a vengeance — especially when it has a moral underpinning,
They ran out of sharks to jump a long tine ago, but they are still around. I fear there is no end to this crap but an ice age.
I took a little time to look at the report. It’s worth stopping after the preface. I’ve tried to restore the italics. That meant rereading the piece. I feel so stressed out now.:
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
Having the reality of the destructive forces presented by climate change fully register with people, so they will to act with the needed urgency, is indeed a challenge. And, while the physical and environmental effects of global warming are studied and described, what has rarely been addressed, and is as compelling a topic as any, are the psychological impacts.
This report aims both to fill in the gap in our awareness of the psychological impacts of climate change, and by exposing the emotional side of the issue, to find the place in our hearts that mobilizes us to fly into action, forewarned, determined, relentless. It also is a call for professionals in the mental health fields to focus on this, the social justice issue of all times, with their capacity to work through denial and apathy, to bring insight and commitment before it is too late.
The language of science is, admittedly, not a stirring call to action. Scientists are by nature cautious, and restrained. While this report does not aim to present the forum participants as flame throwers, for this work to accomplish a primary goal, the reader will need to feel something in reading it. The language used here, and some of the questions asked, may feel uncomfortably probing, as they pierce our armor. After all, most of us want to be patriotic, to be optimist [sic] about the future. But we need to fully confront certain realities.
If we continue the adolescent-like disregard for the dangers we are being warned of, driving green house gasses up with only casual concern, there will be consequences. As our world begins to unravel and our role is undeniable, all eyes will be on us. Questions beg to be asked:
• What will the rest of the world think of us?
• Where will we be safe?
• How will we feel about ourselves?
The interplay between the climate realities we likely face and the potential psychological fallout from them was the subject of a conference convened in Washington D.C., in March 2009. A highly respected group of experts offered insights. Their thoughts, recommendations and supporting evidence are presented in this report.
We extend our heartfelt thanks to the RWJ Foundation and to our forum participants. We also note the sad death of forum participant and friend Dr. Jerilyn Ross. She added her characteristic straight talk, practical knowledge, and bright intellect to the discussion.
Sincerely,
Lise van Susteren, MD,
Forensic Psychiatrist
Kevin J. Coyle, JD
Vice President for Education
I just wonder if Pro. Kari, the above lot Hansen and company should all move to Glastonbury in the UK. I am sure they would be welcomed.
kim2ooo says:
April 4, 2012 at 7:48 am
(…) Narcissistic traits:
“An exaggerated sense of one’s own abilities and achievements.
A constant need for attention, affirmation and praise.
A belief that he or she is unique or “special” and should only associate with other people of the same status.
Persistent fantasies about attaining success and power.
Exploiting other people for personal gain.
A sense of entitlement and expectation of special treatment.
A preoccupation with power or success.
Feeling envious of others, or believing that others are envious of him or her.
A lack of empathy for others.”
Al Gore?
I don’t generally jump on the commentors here, but I do think it’s important to point out that, while it’s easy to laugh at a report like this, that doesn’t mean there might not be psychological impacts from a planet warmed one or two degrees. People living in Oakland, California, for instance, might easily become confused were they to suddenly start experiencing the climate of Freemont, some 25 miles to the south. Even more confusing would be those living in Concord, New Hampshire, who would suddenly be experiencing the climate of Boston. Believing that they had somehow moved to a different state, they could well end up refusing to show their drivers licences at roadside checks, believing them to be forged.
The possibility of social chaos is nothing to be laughed at.
Paul Coppin says:
April 4, 2012 at 9:57 am
“While I admire and respect Anthony’s basic human decency, this side of the fence needs to get down and dirty too, and be willing to play in the same sandbox. You are in a fight with a pig. Don’t show up to a pigfight armed only with lipstick.”
yes Paul unfortunatelly you are right (here and above). It is enough to check the media, the message is overall “climate weirding”, anti-science, etc, not enough “Merchants of Despair: Radical Environmentalists, Criminal Pseudo-Scientists, and the Fatal Cult of Antihumanism”
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1594034761/ref=nosim/nationalreviewon
They are definitely running out of steam. They know they are running out of time. They are panicking in a louder way and offering what dire threats they can (what’s left, that is, that haven’t already been thrown up to manipulate the emotions of the populace). They only know to scream louder before all is lost for their cause. Not the planet. Their cause. They only have so many days (up to the next election) to save their cause! Oh, woe!
Seems reasonable to me. It is obvious that millions of alarmists, other than the scammers, have mental health problems. They are probably a subset of the 50% of the population who believe in alien abductions.
Lars P. says:
April 4, 2012 at 1:46 pm
Paul Coppin says:
April 4, 2012 at 9:57 am
reflexion faite – in the end Paul what can and should we as skeptics do? I think that the only thing that we should do is stick to the science and continue to point out their failures to do so.
Not sure if we get down and dirty would serve our cause, let them do it – they do it very well – we can point it out, maybe we can get better at this.
Speaking of your example for Fakegate, in any conversation that I had with some warmist it was enough for 2-3 posts to calm him down and show him the reality. And this on “neutral” sites – so people see fast reality once shown out.
Quinn says:
April 4, 2012 at 10:12 am
“This is the “Anti-Placebo Effect.” If you believe in catastophic climate change, you will become mentally ill.”
You think you have cause and effect right?
Ray Hudson says:
April 4, 2012 at 4:00 am
This is the setup “science” so next they can claim that AGW causes people to flip out and use firearms to kill people in public places. You watch, it will happen, as sad as this may be.
______________________________________________
I took a quick peak and found this
So Ray, I think you are correct. The first part of the Strategy was to blame everything happening in the natural world on CAGW. Now they have moved to the next stage, blaming anxiety about every social catastrophe on CAGW. The last stage will be to declare “Denialism” a mental illness and have such people committed.
Unfortunately the precedence has already been set and a new international diagnostic manual released. http://news.mobile.msn.com/en-us/articles.aspx?aid=46329572&afid=1Millions of healthy people – may be wrongly labeled mentally ill by a new international diagnostic manual, specialists said on Thursday. (Reuters ~ 3:07 PM EST February 9, 2012)
And as the The Rosenhan Experiment shows once diagnosed as “mentally ill” the label sticks no matter what. So it is a bit of a facer to find another article by Psychology Today Field Guide to the Conspiracy Theorist: Dark Minds Thankfully the attack is on Alex Jones and not Climate Skeptics…. This time.
I had read several years ago a comment from a nurse that in the USA nurses and doctors were told to identify those who were 9/11 truthers, birthers and other “Conspiracy Types” as “mentally ill” She was cautioning people to keep their political opinions to themselves or they might just find themselves in a mental institution.
I hesitate to link to this but since Skeptics are now being lumped in with other “Conspiracy Types” it is worth paying attention to the example they offer.
A psychologist Doug Soderstrom, Ph.D. said in August 29, 2009, “…Having been a psychologist for nearly thirty years now I am not at all surprised to find that such a thing has occurred. The United States government has routinely used (or should I say misused) psychologists to do their “dirty work,” and only recently has the American Psychological Association been willing to consider the ethical concerns that individual psychologists have had to deal with….” http://clareswinney.wordpress.com/incarcerated-in-a-psychiatric-ward-because-i-said-911-was-an-inside-job/
This is definitely a future possibility we need to keep an eye on….
gee. I never knew. And to think, all this time, I’ve been blaming it on the full moon ….