Oh boy. The propaganda gets thicker. It’s a Forrest Gump moment.
Billy McKibben connects the weather dots, except it spells out nothing more than – sh** happens. This is one of the most hilarious propaganda videos I’ve ever seen, showing weather events (and some not weather events), just like have happened for millions of years. Except this time the meme is “there’s something really wrong with our weather”. 
The smokestack in reverse at the end is a nice touch, which is a hat tip to the parent organization 350.org
Watch the video:
OK let’s look at the claims, from the front page of climatedots.org
Across the planet now we see ever more flood, ever more drought, ever more storms. People are dying, communities are being wrecked — the impacts we’re already witnessing from climate change are unlike anything we have seen before.
350.org, Bill McKibben’s parent of climatedots.org says:
And what does this 350 number even mean?
350 is the number that leading scientists say is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide—measured in “Parts Per Million” in our atmosphere. 350 PPM—it’s the number humanity needs to get back to as soon as possible to avoid runaway climate change.
And who made the 350 “safe” declaration? Well of course it is everyone’s favorite arrested scientist, James Hansen:
Where did this 350 number come from?
Dr. James Hansen, of NASA, the United States’ space agency, has been researching global warming longer than just about anyone else. He was the first to publicly testify before the U.S. Congress, in June of 1988, that global warming was real. He and his colleagues have used both real-world observation, computer simulation, and mountains of data about ancient climates to calculate what constitutes dangerous quantities of carbon in the atmosphere. The full text of James Hansen’s paper about 350 can be found here.
It follows then that the date of the “safe” level should be determined. This is easy to do using MLO’s CO2 graph, the most cited graph on CO2 in the world
Source: http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/
So ~1987 is the year where the atmosphere became “unsafe”.
How about those pre-1987 weather disasters Billy?
I’ve removed the ones after 1987 from the list below
From NOAA in 1999: NOAA RELEASES CENTURY’S TOP WEATHER, WATER AND CLIMATE EVENTS
Click here for background on the weather events listed below.
– Galveston Hurricane, 1900
historic photos: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
– Dust Bowl, 1930s
– Super Tornado Outbreak, 1974
– Hurricane Camille, 1969
– New England Hurricane, 1938
– Tri-state Tornado, 1925
– The Great Okeechobee Hurricane & Flood, 1928
– The Storm of the Century, 1950
– Florida Keys Hurricane, 1935
– New England Blizzard, 1978
Top Global Weather/Water/Climate Events (no particular order):
Click here for background on the climate/weather events listed below.
– Yangtze River Flood, China, 1931
– North Vietnam Flood, 1971
– Great Iran Flood, 1954
– Bangladesh Cyclone, 1970
– China Typhoons, 1912, 1922
– Typhoon Vera, Japan, 1958
– Asian Droughts (India 1900,1907,1965-67; China 1907,1928-30,1936,1941-42; and Soviet Union 1921-22)
– Sahel Drought, Africa, 1910-1914, 1940-44, 1970-85
– Iran Blizzard ,1972
– Europe Storm Surge, 1953
– Great Smog of London, 1952
– El Niño, 1982-83
=============================================
And there are more at this big list
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_natural_disasters_by_death_toll
McKibben and his 350.org/connect the dots followers are full of it.
According to Psychology Today, it may just be McKibben’s search for meaning in the emptiness in his head:
Humans have a rocky relationship with randomness. On the one hand, we declare that “shit happens”–an acknowledgment that bad things sometimes occur for no particular reason. But more often than not, our minds resist randomness, searching for meaning even where none exists.
I suppose it is all part of the illogic of climate hysteria.
And since McKibben relies heavily on TV news videos for his propaganda, it confirms exactly what I have been saying here:
“The fossil fuel industry is making life impossible for many of us.” Well I know what he means. Afterall, my car mysteriously stopped starting once I put gasoline in the dang thing. And my house used to be perfectly comfortable during Chicago winters & summers before I ever had a gas fired furnace in it and electrically powered central air conditioning: you know; nice & cool during the winter, & nice & hot during the summer; just the way it was supposed to be. And don’t get me started about the displeasure I experienced when hot water came out of the shower head in January once I got that gas fired hot water heater. Plus I know what it’s like to turn the water faucet on & have flames come out. Happens all the time. Makes it real hard to make coffee. Wait a minute. I just don’t know what hot coffee is. Because of those dang fossil fuel companies it just can’t be shipped here on a diesel powered freighter, roasted, trucked to the store by a diesel engined truck, ground by an electric grinder (you know, coal generated), or put in a French press with hot water (because flames come out of the faucet).
What a strange world we live in. What bizarre distortions these people engage in. They can take their pessimism and keep it to themselves.
I can’ even bring myself to finish watching that video, people are sheep,wait… I think sheep have longer memories. McKibben runs Vermont with his rhetoric, recently he did a similar video, for VTGIN, trying to empower teenagers to be the leaders of the world with the same dogmatic uncritical thinking.
@Hugh Pepper
So the answer is that all the world starve?
Equality of misery is not the way forward, hope is offered by continued economic development not being wrecked by money wasted on the false god of countering natural climate change.
Demographics respond to increasing wealth, which help reduce vulnerability and developed societies are more effective at countering the impacts of extreme natural events.
What next? Is nothing sacred? Obviously their models are completely and irretreivably broken when an event calling for crass political gain is put into direct conflict with a day I will spend thanking God for a memorably milld winter, surfing, eating fish tacos,and drinking anything alcoholic that comes from Mexico. Viva Cinco de Mayo!
Those who go to bed hungry every night do so because of the Marxist dictators who execute the farmers and then shuffle all of the food aid to their armies and cronies. Those dictators are the same types that you Warmists (re-read your religious creed) want to control the worlds energy supply … at gunpoint.
Hugh Pepper says:
April 21, 2012 at 12:32 pm
“Hoser claims that a Green revolution will drive us all into poverty. Well Hoser, perhaps you haven’t noticed, but half of the world goes to bed hungry every night.The world’s food supply is threatened, with countries like Bangladesh (a huge producer of food) experiencing floods every other year, and huge floods occurring in PAkistan and Australia. Weather events are threatening agricultural production in SE Asia (changing monsoon patterns) the USA (drought); and elsewhere. We have depleted our soils, and overused our groundwater everywhere on the planet and climate change is exacerbating these problems, This is not socialism, Hoser. This is atmospheric physics, demography and human behaviour.”
I followed the links that you provided – only kidding, you never provide sources for whatever imaginary problems you invent –
but you can look at this one.
Hans Rosling’s 200 Countries, 200 Years, 4 Minutes
That’s of course not in the vain hope that you grow a brain but for any bystander who happens to be uninformed about your catastrophist fantasies.
Sadly, in the run up to Rio+20 we can expect a lot more of this lunacy from climate zealots determined to ratchet up the fearmongering amongst general populations; Rio is, after all, serious business. With the emphasis very much on ‘business’. Huge $multimillion wealth transfers are in the balance, with our favourite ‘green’ NGOs all poised, as ‘partners’ to garner a slice for their role in implementing the next tranche of ‘green’ legislation, designed to enable yet more politically-targeted taxes on growth and industry. All in the name of Mother Earth, of course. If it’s not clear by now it should be: this was never about climate. Just follow the money, all the way to Rio, in June.
Mike Bromley the Canucklehead says:
April 21, 2012 at 9:05 am
They’re ramping it up. And we have to keep stomping it out. Nonetheless, I’ve come to the conclusion: I’m glad I’m getting old.
_________________________________________
Amen and I am glad I do not have children. Our would be rulers are bound and determined to reduce use back to serfdom. Agenda 21 = Smart Growth = Serfdom
The comments on this site seems to indicate certain people are begging for their chains.
see http://www.treehugger.com/environmental-policy/texas-republicans-attack-agenda-21-smart-growth-sustainable-development-and-all-europe.html
I notice no longer any mention of science in the ad, just the public ‘joining the dots’.
Telling.
MichaelC58 says:
April 21, 2012 at 4:40 pm
I notice no longer any mention of science in the ad, just the public ‘joining the dots’.
Telling.
It’s an election year. Time to use fear to herd the sheep into voting for the bad shepherds.
young eloi, these are the morlocks.
they know where to get free lunches.
Sheeple have always followed the loudest leader because thats what sheeple have always done. The problem is that many sheeple now have access to the Interwebs and are becoming informed instead of blindly following messiahs that proclaim doom. The louder we protest about this nonsense the less support they will garner and yes I did dislike the video and wrote a comment. Reposted on Weatherzone.
Does anyone here recall the In Search Of… TV series with Leonard Nimoy (1976–1982) ?
The global cooling episode is an informative one, as it uses identical rhetorical techniques of extreme weather to argue for the coming ice age. You should find this episode in the series somewhere between In Search of Atlantis and In Search of Bigfoot.
Reblogged this on Climate Ponderings.
Hugh Pepper says:
April 21, 2012 at 12:32 pm
Hoser claims that a Green revolution will drive us all into poverty. Well Hoser, perhaps you haven’t noticed, but half of the world goes to bed hungry every night.The world’s food supply is threatened, with countries like Bangladesh (a huge producer of food) experiencing floods every other year, and huge floods occurring in PAkistan and Australia.
Australia’s problem is they didn’t ban building on floodplains, the way places like the USA and Canada did decades ago. For which the climate alarmists like Flannery are partly to blame having stridently predicted droughts. The worst flooding occured when a major dam overflowed. The reason it overflowed was a desalination plant (which the alarmists said was necessary because of future droughts) had replaced a large proportion of the water previously taken from the dam.
Pakistan and Bangladesh have experienced floods for millenia and farmers know not to have crops in the ground during the monsoon, but then the average bangladeshi farmer is likely smarter than you. The main effect was damage to already harvested crops, which points at the real problem, poor infrastructure and ineffective government.
The actual fact is that the totalitarian Federal monster is THE threat,
expresssed by this slightly altered quote from ALARMIST HUGH:
I do not detect “hysteria” in the positions taken by ROMENY, RYAN, and THE TEA PARTY. I do hear deep concern and a consistent commitment to base their advice on the best well-researched data available. From a risk assessment point of view, it is far wiser to act conservatively now, as they advise, they to do nothing and risk real hardship later, WHEN THE U.S. COLLAPSES.
There is an immense challenge facing all of us at this moment, to fix problems CAUSED BY THE FEDS, which are getting worse by the day. We should see this as an unprecedented opportunity and be excited with our prospects to effect real change, BEGINNING WITH PERMANENT VACATION FOR THE PREZ.
Silly Billy.
Mr. Mckibben’s timing is sensational. This kind of environmental direction is utterly at odds with the serious economic situations facing much of the developed world. In Europe …. Greece, Portugal and Ireland have had to receive bailout packages. Austerity measures are crippling the economies o f Spain and Italy. Spain has 50% youth unemployment and had just re-entered recession. Both countries nee to pay about 6% to borrow money. The government of Holland has fallen and re-elections are imminent due to disagreement about cutting spending and yesterday there was an anti-government march with 120,000 people in Prague about austerity and corruption in Czeckoslovakia . Elections in France today are not anchored around environmental issues and everyone is aware that poverty is knocking on the doorstep. The UK will miss its renewables targets and has just approved shale gas exploitation. In short, no one can afford to tolerate this rubbish anymore. It’s almost fascinating to watch !!
Anyone who thinks the nonsense peddled by McKibben will lead to anything meaningful doesn’t need to worry about saving this planet …. they are already living on a different one.
Steve Zwick want to burn our houses down and Hugh Pepper is freaking out over Anthony calling someone Billy?
Sheryl Crow disrespected the name “William” in “All I Wanna Do.” I never realized how evil that is until now.
Hugh Pepper says:
April 21, 2012 at 9:40 am
Because you’re not an engineer, Hugh. That is OBVIOUS!
And what do engineers do? They build things that produce more than they cost.
And solar and wind do not rise to that level of merit, sir. They’re quite a long way off, actually.
So as an engineer, I can tell you that if you force a substantial part of the world to use inverted economics in your pipe dream, the segment of this planet’s population under duress will only grow; the situation will only get worse!
And you and others like you will be to blame.
So please get off your sick political/ideological kick and get some smarts–go become an engineer. That will be a good start.
You will definitely find that the hysterical “positions taken by McKibbon, Hanson and others” that you say is based “on the best well-researched data available” is a joke. You will realize that “From a risk assessment point of view, it is far wiser to act conservatively now, as they advise, they to do nothing and risk real hardship later.” is completely bogus.
None of these jokers are engineers.
And neither are you.
Done. It was +211, -41 when I finished.
By way of contrast, the Rosling video is +17,429, -150
I wonder what the -150 were “thinking” …
@ur momisugly Hugh Pepper.
If you don’t know what a word – such as “demonizing” – means, don’t use it – it makes you look stupid. Can you do a google search? Try searching for “King Billy”.
RockyRoad, you CLEVER little engineer! 🙂
It is sad that the IPCC is not crowded with clever ENGINEERS like yourself, and instead is filled with zealots with Ph.Ds in physics and climate science. I wonder Which school are you from? I would also like very much to become a clever little CLIMATE-ENGINEER which can grasp OBVIOUS things that 2000 scientists of the IPCC cannot!
The climatescientists are ALL LIERS! (except of course for the 1% of them that denies AGW). Good to have the truth-seeking ENGINEERS out there like yourself mr Sir RockyHard that have understood the OBVIOUS fact that we live on a planet with infinite resources. Thanks for brushing off boring piles of scientific reports with these two fantastic all-encompassing statements : “is completely bogus.” “None of these jokers are engineers.”
Thank you HardRock. You rule! 🙂
[WUWT readers find the shouted outbursts you make rather off putting and really add nothing to your argument. The sarcasm you use will stand by itself without the shouting for emphasis. Thank you . . . kbmod]
I located an essay by Bill McKibben in the August, 2006 National Geographic called, “A Deeper Shade of Green.” I remember that, back when I first read it, I kept saying to myself, “Interesting, but is it true?”
In the six years since I have gone through the claims McKibben made in his article one by one, and seen them either debunked, or else reduced to something shadowed by doubt too much to be called “fact.”
It just makes me wonder, who the heck appointed this guy authority and spokeman?
He grew up in a wealthy suburb of Boston about 8 miles from where I grew up, about seven years after me, but where I hit the road and have 5 decade’s worth of first hand experience of dirty jobs and hard toil, he never left the plush livingrooms of the lucky. He went straight to Harvard, and then straight to the New Yorker Magazine, and was then wealthy enough to head straight to Vermont where he’s been able to hide from reality ever since.
Was he really lucky? I once wanted the life he has lived, but now it is obvious that, if you live in a rarified world and avoid the dirt, your thinking strays from hard facts. You nibble eracers and dream up nice-sounding things about small farms, without knowing how hard and even brutal such a life is. You theorize stuff about “community,” unaware the government is crushing community, because you don’t actually live with “the little people.”
Off in his ivory tower, he likely gets frustrated that people don’t follow his advice. But how can they? How can everyone go to Harvard, be hired by the New Yorker, own a cozy farm in Vermont, and be funded Big Shots?
All I ever recieved from the New Yorker was rejection slips. My college was the School Of Hard Knocks. I have felt very sorry for myself at times, but all these years later I now understand I was actually the lucky one. My feet are on the ground, and I have a good relationship with the Truth. Billy’s in the clouds and his friend’s are, sad to say, foes of the Truth.
What a sad fate for a decent writer. But I guess that’s what you get when you sell out. If you stand for the truth you wind up in trouble with the PC crowd, but if you fawn and mince for the PC crowd you get all the acclaim and money and status McKibben once had, and, in the end, you can’t really look into your own eyes in a mirror.