Psychological Problems faced by disappointed alarmists
Story submitted by Eric Worrall
The Sydney Morning Herald has published an article describing the psychological problems alarmists are experiencing, in the wake of their Copenhagen 2009 disappointment.
Ask most alarmists and they will insist they are winning the debate – that the world is about to embrace green orthodoxy, that carbon trading schemes are rising, that “deniers” are more marginalised than ever before.
The article in the SMH tells a very different story – rising despair, despondency, disengagement, and in some cases delusional behaviour, in the wake of serial climate disappointments.
According to environmental scientist Nicole Thornton;
““It’s strange. Sometimes you just don’t feel you’re making headway in the time you’ve got, before it’s too late for the planet,” Thornton says. “All these little things weigh you down, and then the big stuff breaks you.”
The article goes on to describe more serious cases – for example, “Six years ago, a dehydrated 17-year-old boy was brought into the Royal Children’s Hospital, refusing to drink water. He believed having a drink would somehow contribute to the global shortage of potable water, and became the first diagnosed case of “climate change delusion”.
Personally I’ve always wondered if their is a correspondence between promotion of green ideas, and poor life choices made by far too many of our children – if you tell a child they have no future, that the world is about to be destroyed, that its all their parent’s fault, and that there is nothing they can do about it, don’t expect them to be enthusiastic about doing their homework.
However there is an even darker side to green despair. A while ago, Osama Bin Laden attempted to recruit frustrated environmentalists into his global Jihad – http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/01/29/strange-but-true-bin-laden-on-global-warming/
Bin Laden ultimately failed in his effort to recruit frustrated greens to his campaign of mass murder, but if we don’t find a way to pull back from this green brink of societal self hatred, next time we might not be so lucky.
h/t WUWT reader “berniel” for the SMH article
M Courtney says:
August 15, 2014 at 7:16 am
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Concise, clear and true. Bravo.
As a parting thought on Climate Despair.
Life: Defined as a sexually transmitted terminal disease.
I guess it is all in how you chose to see it.
And, lest we forget, she is talking about fellow ‘scientists’ (peers) here. If one needed any reason for the continual bombardment of gloom then read her words. Hardly a ‘dispassionate scientist’ pursuing ‘truth’. Here is an individual within the ‘scientific community’ who feels that everything is optional when one is ‘saving the world’. She seems to have a lot of ‘associates’ who feel the same way.
Tim Blair does a funny commentary on this article.
http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/timblair/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/repeated_and_uncontrollable_failures/
Just a thought. Back in the 80’s there was a rash of “old hippy” suicides – old, of course, meaning over 40. Sometimes related to too much too bad drugs, but sometimes with a note saying the world just hadn’t turned out like they expected…
Professor Helen Berry, of the University of Canberra, ” certain types of people are drawn to political activism, including people with or prone to mental health problems, ”
You think? I thought that was blatently obvious, in fact the CRU Climategate Emails looked to me like many of the hockey team members were pathologicaly narcissistic, and heavy into a messianic complex
It is the only rational course of action left to them, claiming their mantle of victim-hood. The at least they may receive benefits.
mikelowe2013 says:
August 15, 2014 at 1:16 pm
I feel really sorry for these alarmists who seem to be affected psychologically by the results of their studies. Get another job, forget about environmentalism, actually do some productive work. Become a plumber or an electrician – we need more of them!
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The sociobiologist in me perceives yet another coercive strategy in all of this – play on the sympathies of the observer to get what you want if arguing your case didn’t work.
I wonder if the same people will also switch to being overly aggressive if this kind of thing isn’t effective. Like the wife-beater who switches back and forth between violent aggression and pleas for sympathy.
O. Olson says:
August 15, 2014 at 9:15 am
“Chris B says:
August 15, 2014 at 8:34 am
One could argue that…”
One can most assuredly not argue this about the many acquaintances in my world.
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I’m surprised you admitted that.
On reread, this is their get out of responsibility card.
“It was not my fault, I had Climatosis.”
We are all victims here…
It warms my heart to watch the slow agonizing collapse of this cult of calamitous climate.
May the chicken littles enjoy their climate despair.
They have sure earned it.
Chris B says:
August 16, 2014 at 2:29 pm
If you truly didn’t get the gist of what I said, then for once the problem is worse than I thought. If you did, then maybe you might like this:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/08/18/monday-mirthiness-spot-the-troll/