Newest scam: donate money to help alleviate the fears of 'scared scientists'

scared_scientistsWow, this is just nuts. I mean really, really, “Trenberth’s missing heat is going to jump out of the ocean and get you” kind of nuts.

The website scaredscientists.com looks like this at right.

Like the wailing we saw in the hand written letters of feelings last week, this one is also from Australia. Personally, I think this is some sort of mental disorder on display coming to light because Australia has done an about-face on the carbon tax and have put a lot of climate change programs on the back burner or eliminated them altogether.

And of course, there’s an “ACT NOW” button, which is a code word to send money, but  there is no mention of what that money will be used for. A list of “fears” follows with comments by me interspersed in blue.

They write in the About page:

A quick chat to the experts and it’s immediately apparent that climate change is not only real: it’s serious. Very serious.

But this isn’t what scares scientists. They’re afraid humanity will continue to bury its head in the sand; instead of facing its greatest challenge head on.

Scientists don’t want to be right, they want to be wrong. Research shows this is our last decade to slow climate change before it’s too late. The science community believe if people are willing, we can transform the current trajectory from one of fear to one of hope. But the science can only take us so far. If we want a safe and sustainable world, we need to take the facts seriously – and do what needs to be done to change them.

Source: http://scaredscientists.com/About

Here’s the big list of scared scientists:

WILL STEFFEN

Earth System Scientist

University of Florida, University of Missouri, Australian National University

FEAR: LOSS OF CONTROL OF THE CLIMATE SYSTEM

The climate is related to many parts of the Earth; the land, the ocean, the ice, the atmosphere. We’re noticing abrupt changes in all of these areas.

We’ll reach a point where we’ll lose control over the system. Right now, if we reduce our emissions, we can probably stabilise the system. If we push the climate too far, if we start losing ice too rapidly, start flipping things like the Amazon, then the internal dynamics of the climate will take over – and even if we pull emissions back, we won’t be able to stop very large changes – that’s my biggest fear.

The thing people don’t realise, is getting emissions down is not only feasible but economically promising and will actually lead to a better life. The narrative needs to change, it’s not all doom and gloom. Yes, it will be another massive transformation in human history, but it will lead to a cleaner environment, to more jobs, and an easier lifestyle.

We still have a chance to pull back climate change, but we need to act vigorously and we need to act soon.


(Funny, I never knew any scientist who said we were “in” control of the climate, much less lost control of it. The hubris on display here could fill a stadium.)


LESLEY HUGHES

Ecologist, Macquarie University, Sydney

FEAR: SPECIES EXTINCTION

My work on the potential impacts of climate change on species and ecosystems has made it clear that the human species is now threatened.

We need to acknowledge the time lag between what we do to the atmosphere and its impacts on the climate. What we do now, affects the climate decades into the future. This means we need to drastically cut our emissions, now and forever, to stabilise the climate in the second half of the century.


(Odd, she  doesn’t seem frightened at all. Good luck stabilizing the climate though, because in the entire history of the planet, the climate has never been stable.)

next%20ice%20age[1]


TIM FLANNERY

Mammologist, Palaeontologist

University of New South Wales,

Monash University, La Trobe University

FEAR: DISRUPTION OF GLOBAL CIVILISATION

Climate Science underestimated the pace of climate change, it was too conservative. We’re now having far more rapid change than originally projected. Change that if not slowed, will undoubtedly affect my children and my grandchildren.

There is genuine potential for a change in climate to disrupt our global civilisation. If that happens, we know human nature has a dark side, people will fight over an ever diminishing resource pool, and that is a future we want to avoid.

This decade is critical, it is our last chance to prevent our children from that type of world. We have to make significant progress and get the global emissions trajectory turning downwards. That is the urgent task at hand.


(I think maybe Tim has been smoking the same thing that always-wrong doomster Paul Ehrlich has been smoking. “We’re now having far more rapid change than originally projected.” Hmmm. I suppose he must not know about ‘the pause’ and all the excuses being made for it.)


SARAH PERKINS

Extreme weather researcher

University of New South Wales

FEAR: INCREASE IN EXTREME WEATHER EVENTS

As the background climate warms due to human activity, this increases the frequency and intensity of hot temperature events. I am concerned about how the very broad and damaging impacts of heatwaves will affect human health, infrastructure, agriculture, and natural systems. By the time we realise we need to make changes and start to put these changes in place, it might not be enough to balance out the range of catastrophes we will be facing.


 

(This lady should read my 2014 paper with Michaels and Knappenberger to understand heat waves, plus my essay on how technology and reporting bias figure in to extreme weather fears. She should also spend some time reading why some of the much touted heat waves have nothing at all to do with “climate change”.)


 

MATTHEW ENGLAND

Oceanographer, Climate scientist,

University of NSW, Sydney

FEAR: CLIMATE INDUCED GLOBAL CONFLICT

Accelerated warming and expansion of water in the oceans, and increased melting rates of glaciers and ice caps are expected to increase sea levels by a metre or more over the next 100 years. This will pose a decisive threat to the existence of human settlements, infrastructures and industries across the world that are close to the shore lines. Those environmental degradations will aggravate global conflict as tens of millions of people migrate and their food supplies become threatened.

We need to understand that the cost of solving the problem is so much less than the cost of dealing with it down the track; that cost is going to be huge for future generations. Not dealing with it is selfish, short-sighted, narrow minded and obscene. It represents such a level of injustice as those that are going to be impacted are not playing a role in the decisions that are being made now.


(Hmmm, the only climate wars I’m aware of are those being fought in the mind of Michael Mann, who fits England’s description of “selfish, short-sighted, narrow minded and obscene” pretty well.)


SHAUNA MURRAY

Biological Scientist

University of Technology Sydney, University of Tokyo, University of New South Wales

FEAR: REACHING THE FOUR DEGREES OF WARMING

We’ve recorded all sorts of climate change shifts in multiple areas. However, the scientific process is consistent. Every single individual study that has been done, has gone through the same rigorous process, data collection, research analysis, and qualified peer review. At the moment, we’ve at least 10 000 different papers, completed over 20 years, each using different data sets, and they are all coming to the same climate change conclusions. We’ve a weight of evidence that the average person is simply not aware of – and this frightens me.

I’d like to think that we’re not going to reach the projected four degrees of warming this century; because I can’t even imagine what that would look like. 80 years is not that long, and unless we act soon, my seven year old daughter will probably have to live through that.


 

(Apparently she only reads the papers that scare the crap out of her. Or maybe Skeptical Science, who posted this graph:

Marcott_rcp6

Meanwhile, The BBC reports ‘the pause’ may go on for another 10 years or more.)


 

PETER MACREADIE

Marine Ecologist

University of Technology Sydney, Deakin University

FEAR: GLOBAL CATASTROPHE

IPCC predicts that the impacts of climate change will be catastrophic. This affects everybody. Nobody is safe. We’re going to lose low lying countries, there will be a loss of live stock, potential wide spread famine and species extinction.

One thing people need to remember, is that scientists are the biggest skeptics on Earth. We’re constantly trying to disprove each other. This is the one thing we agree on. The evidence is endless. We’re not making this up, this is really serious, we’re very concerned and there’s not enough being done about it. We really need to be pushing our governments. Let’s not look back and regret what we’ve done.


(“Nobody is safe“, and this guy has the temerity to suggest scientists like him are the “biggest skeptics on Earth”? Wow. )


PENELOPE AJANI

Biological Scientist

University of Macquarie, Sydney

FEAR: UNKNOWN REPERCUSSIONS OF CLIMATE CHANGE

The scientific community know sea levels will rise, people will be displaced and food resources will diminish. But I work on the small things, the ocean’s plankton, and we are already seeing climate shifts in these organisms. How those changes will affect the global ocean is something we really can’t answer – and that scares me. For example, the fact that we’re seeing tropical species all the way down the east coast of Australia, means massive changes are occurring. However, we currently can’t predict the exact impact of these shifts.

Another example is that climate change will create winners and losers, there’ll be some species that get wiped out and some that will become prolific. Will it be the toxic algal species that are going to survive?

There will come a time when we need to have answers, when these changes will greatly challenge humanity.


(Any biologist who thinks that life is a static enterprise really should go back to school. Like climate, life changes. It also evolves, and adapts.)


 

Each “scared scientist” vignette ends with:

If you think these facts are frightening,  help us change them.

Take action here

I’ll point out that there isn’t a hard sciences person in this group, and not a one of them appears to have any basic meteorological training, much less any climate science training. In their case, ignorance is not bliss, but a ticket to being scared out of their wits.

You gotta love the black and white photography and the caricatures of dark doom the portraits exude. It looks more like “performance art” than science.

Note the website traffic rank:

scared_scientists_alexa

http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/scaredscientists.com

Nearly 15 million. Wow, off the scale of lower than low.

Meanwhile, WUWT is at:

WUWT_alexa

http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/wattsupwiththat.com

Lower traffic rank numbers are better, for example Google is #1. This comparison says a lot:

WUWT_scared-alexa

Finally, about that money they ask for when you “act now”, I wonder if it ends up here? Gotta love the domain registrar they use, quite appropos.

==================================================

Domain Name: SCAREDSCIENTISTS.COM

Registry Domain ID: 1801341743_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN

Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.syrahost.com

Registrar URL: http://www.crazydomains.com

Updated Date: 2014-08-08T02:08:31+08:00

Creation Date: 2013-05-15T00:00:00+08:00

Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2016-05-15T00:00:00+08:00

Registrar: CRAZY DOMAINS FZ-LLC

Registrar IANA ID: 1291

Registrar Abuse Contact Email: 

Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +61.894220890

Reseller: CRAZY DOMAINS

Domain Status: ok

Registry Registrant ID: 12093151

Registrant Name: RACHEL GUEST

Registrant Organization:

Registrant Street: 6/5-13 LARKIN ST

Registrant City: CAMPERDOWN

Registrant State/Province: NSW

Registrant Postal Code: 2050

Registrant Country: AU

Registrant Phone: +61.299944154

Registrant Phone Ext:

Registrant Fax: +.

Registrant Fax Ext:

Registrant Email: 

==================================================

In case anyone gets bent out of shape for me posting that info, I’ll point out it is public domain information, available to anyone who makes a WHOIS query, like this one:

http://whois.domaintools.com/scaredscientists.com

Anyway, good luck with the gloom and doom Rachel, you’ll need it to get past the laughing, especially after your last flop, the Years of Living Dangerously, which tanked in ratings after burning through several million dollars in production costs.

 

 

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August 24, 2014 10:04 pm

I just LOVE Rachel’s list of Science advisors, advisers, whatever:
Joseph Romm, Ph.D.
Heidi Cullen, Ph.D.
Robert Corell, Ph.D.
Charles H. Greene, Ph.D.
James Hansen, Ph.D.
Katharine Hayhoe, Ph.D.
Radley Horton, Ph.D.
Michael Mann, Ph.D.
Michael Oppenheimer, Ph.D.
No wonder she is off the deep end.

Steve Oregon
August 24, 2014 10:06 pm

They should have the fear of being humiliated, fear of losing their credibility, fear of career loss
and a fear of being forever stigmatized as having participated in mankind’s biggest farce in history.

NikFromNYC
August 24, 2014 10:14 pm

Here they show only their sheep’s clothing as their human hateful influence on the media still leads to rationalists being slandered as being deniers of the boring old textbook greenhouse effect, the one they poker face invoke to falsely support their positive verging on runaway feedback scenarios that form the basis for all alarm in opposition to celebration of a warmer world.
These world saviors are only too aware that climate sensitivity is a motivated guess but they lyingly sell that profitable and famous guess as being proven by basic physics, and are only too happy to leverage this knowing lie into stereotype worthy slander against computer model skeptics.
These are adults with both scientific training and access to the full range of alarm skeptical knowledge, so their ignorance of the highly speculative nature of alarm is entirely feigned. We are dealing with sociopaths, not climate hypochondriacs, unless you want to believe science degrees don’t inform people how to dissect rational arguments, which I assure you, yes, outside is the social sciences, yes, such degrees do teach exactly that. These are mad scientists, with a clearly identifiable Marxist subversive agenda, addressed to laypeople, not seasoned critics.
-=NikFromNYC=-, Ph.D. in chemistry (Columbia/Harvard)

August 24, 2014 10:15 pm

Where is Kari Norgaard?i thought it was all black and white to her.

August 24, 2014 10:21 pm

Earth System Scientist = gardiner?

F. Ross
August 24, 2014 10:37 pm

I’d be happy to donate some olde Monopoly money.

George McFly......I'm your density
August 24, 2014 10:45 pm

the poor darlings…..lying in bed at night, worried sick, not being able to sleep. Maybe I could send each one of them a cuddly Teddy bear to hug…

kfg
August 24, 2014 10:51 pm

“You mean to tell me we’ve been in control of the planet’s climate all this time?”
Projection of the inverse. He is pathologically anxious that he is not in control of the climate, to the extent that he cannot even acknowledge his lack of control, so it is turned around as an expression of fearing the loss of control. A paranoid delusion of granduer.

bh2
August 24, 2014 10:56 pm

Since the very earliest ruminations by warmists, they have expressed fear of some future climate cataclysm owing to actions of mankind (never owing to natural ones). Perhaps it’s their obsessive and bizarre behavior which warrants closer study.

LamontT
August 24, 2014 11:00 pm

Does a mammologist study mammaries?

M Seward
August 24, 2014 11:14 pm

Relax folks. Its just the Climate Council. They have a media habit they just can’t shake and need to score. Now they are off the government funded program they are begging in the streets.

August 24, 2014 11:16 pm

PETER MACREADIE says: “IPCC predicts that the impacts of climate change will be catastrophic.” Last time I used the word catastrophic in debating with a warmist – I was told that the IPCC has never predicted a catastrophy (“not a very scientific term”, and “Catastrophic” is ONLY a term used by skeptics trying to incorrectly state what the IPCC is saying.” ) Stunned I reviewed many of the IPCC reports, and found he was correct-IPCC have apparently avoided using that word in their reports. So, now I feel vindicated- a REAL Scientist (Not just national geographic and Al Gore) claiming the IPCC says so. LOL …
PS- so far, I’m liking the new format- hope it’s easier for you to manage!

M Seward
August 24, 2014 11:19 pm

LamontT:-
In this particular case he studies living off the public mammary.

August 24, 2014 11:29 pm

Someone get Sarah McLachan on the phone now! We need her to sing behind a slowly repeating slideshow of these devastated faces in these black and white images! “In the arms of the warming…..far away…and near….from this cold, dusty eco lab….where we alllllll live in fear. You will drown in the oceans….or be burned into ash…..if you don’t heed our message….and send us….all your cash…”
Won’t you please help us save these sad scientists?

Anarchist Hate Machine
August 24, 2014 11:43 pm

They’re obviously scared sh*tless that their free ride is about to come to an end. Good Fk’in riddance worthless societal leaches, try getting an honest job for once – you know, one that doesn’t involve theft.

Andrew N
August 24, 2014 11:48 pm

Tim Flannery (top right hand corner) looks like he is about to cry. Maybe he keeps thinking about the AUD 180,000 (~ USD 168,000) that he used to get for a three day week when he suckled on the public teat.

Jimbo
August 24, 2014 11:52 pm

Why are they scared on NO global warming for 17 years?

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something if his salary depends upon his not understanding it”.
Upton Sinclair

Jimbo
August 25, 2014 12:00 am

SHAUNA MURRAY – Biological Scientist
I’d like to think that we’re not going to reach the projected four degrees of warming this century; because I can’t even imagine what that would look like. 80 years is not that long, and unless we act soon, my seven year old daughter will probably have to live through that.

Shauna is right. We must act now! It’s all for the grandchildren.

Abstract
Carlos Jaramillo et. al – Science – 12 November 2010
Effects of Rapid Global Warming at the Paleocene-Eocene Boundary on Neotropical Vegetation
Temperatures in tropical regions are estimated to have increased by 3° to 5°C, compared with Late Paleocene values, during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM, 56.3 million years ago) event. We investigated the tropical forest response to this rapid warming by evaluating the palynological record of three stratigraphic sections in eastern Colombia and western Venezuela. We observed a rapid and distinct increase in plant diversity and origination rates, with a set of new taxa, mostly angiosperms, added to the existing stock of low-diversity Paleocene flora. There is no evidence for enhanced aridity in the northern Neotropics. The tropical rainforest was able to persist under elevated temperatures and high levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, in contrast to speculations that tropical ecosystems were severely compromised by heat stress.
doi: 10.1126/science.1193833
—————-
Abstract
Carlos Jaramillo & Andrés Cárdenas – Annual Reviews – May 2013
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Global Warming and Neotropical Rainforests: A Historical Perspective
There is concern over the future of the tropical rainforest (TRF) in the face of global warming. Will TRFs collapse? The fossil record can inform us about that. Our compilation of 5,998 empirical estimates of temperature over the past 120 Ma indicates that tropics have warmed as much as 7°C during both the mid-Cretaceous and the Paleogene. We analyzed the paleobotanical record of South America during the Paleogene and found that the TRF did not expand toward temperate latitudes during global warm events, even though temperatures were appropriate for doing so, suggesting that solar insolation can be a constraint on the distribution of the tropical biome. Rather, a novel biome, adapted to temperate latitudes with warm winters, developed south of the tropical zone. The TRF did not collapse during past warmings; on the contrary, its diversity increased. The increase in temperature seems to be a major driver in promoting diversity.
doi: 10.1146/annurev-earth-042711-105403
—————-
Abstract
PNAS – David R. Vieites – 2007
Rapid diversification and dispersal during periods of global warming by plethodontid salamanders
…Salamanders underwent rapid episodes of diversification and dispersal that coincided with major global warming events during the late Cretaceous and again during the Paleocene–Eocene thermal optimum. The major clades of plethodontids were established during these episodes, contemporaneously with similar phenomena in angiosperms, arthropods, birds, and mammals. Periods of global warming may have promoted diversification and both inter- and transcontinental dispersal in northern hemisphere salamanders…
—————-
Abstract
ZHAO Yu-long et al – Advances in Earth Science – 2007
The impacts of the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum (PETM)event on earth surface cycles and its trigger mechanism
The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) event is an abrupt climate change event that occurred at the Paleocene-Eocene boundary. The event led to a sudden reversal in ocean overturning along with an abrupt rise in sea surface salinity (SSSs) and atmospheric humidity. An unusual proliferation of biodiversity and productivity during the PETM is indicative of massive fertility increasing in both oceanic and terrestrial ecosystems. Global warming enabled the dispersal of low-latitude populations into mid-and high-latitude. Biological evolution also exhibited a dramatic pulse of change, including the first appearance of many important groups of ” modern” mammals (such as primates, artiodactyls, and perissodactyls) and the mass extinction of benlhic foraminifera…..
22(4) 341-349 DOI: ISSN: 1001-8166 CN: 62-1091/P
—————-
Abstract
Systematics and Biodiversity – Volume 8, Issue 1, 2010
Kathy J. Willis et al
4 °C and beyond: what did this mean for biodiversity in the past?
How do the predicted climatic changes (IPCC, 2007) for the next century compare in magnitude and rate to those that Earth has previously encountered? Are there comparable intervals of rapid rates of temperature change, sea-level rise and levels of atmospheric CO2 that can be used as analogues to assess possible biotic responses to future change? Or are we stepping into the great unknown? This perspective article focuses on intervals in time in the fossil record when atmospheric CO2 concentrations increased up to 1200 ppmv, temperatures in mid- to high-latitudes increased by greater than 4 °C within 60 years, and sea levels rose by up to 3 m higher than present. For these intervals in time, case studies of past biotic responses are presented to demonstrate the scale and impact of the magnitude and rate of such climate changes on biodiversity. We argue that although the underlying mechanisms responsible for these past changes in climate were very different (i.e. natural processes rather than anthropogenic), the rates and magnitude of climate change are similar to those predicted for the future and therefore potentially relevant to understanding future biotic response. What emerges from these past records is evidence for rapid community turnover, migrations, development of novel ecosystems and thresholds from one stable ecosystem state to another, but there is very little evidence for broad-scale extinctions due to a warming world. Based on this evidence from the fossil record, we make four recommendations for future climate-change integrated conservation strategies.
DOI: 10.1080/14772000903495833

Jimbo
August 25, 2014 12:18 am

The reason why they are scared is simple to understand. A loss of funding. They know that the global surface temperature standstill and an subsequent cooling will end their funding.

EternalOptimist
August 25, 2014 12:24 am

such low ratings. Maybe they should hook up with the union of concerned scientists and sceptical science and real climate.
they could become the real concerned, scared yet sceptical scientists

Dennis
August 25, 2014 12:29 am

I’m scared too! Please send me money to be less scared.

Brian Johnson UK
August 25, 2014 12:30 am

The scary thing is they believe all their lies. They have the same genetic strain as those who previously believed in dragons, witches, papal indulgences and phlogiston………
Sad, sad set of so called “scientists”.

Jimbo
August 25, 2014 12:33 am

In a 2007 interview Tim Flannery said “So even the rain that falls isn’t actually going to fill our dams and our river systems, and that’s a real worry….”.
After epic floods and overflowing dams Tim Flannery said that “climate change cannot be ruled out” as a factor.
The only thing I’m scared about is climate projection failure.

rogerknights
August 25, 2014 12:39 am

Hey! The Recent Posts list is missing from t sidebar!
REPLY: HEY! No need to yell. Yes, yes it is missing. Since posts are now so condensed, you can find them all easily with a simple scroll downwards. In fact we have infinite scrolling now, you can find posts from DAYS AGO where before you could only find the most recent two days worth in the sidebar widget. – Anthony

kfg
August 25, 2014 12:44 am

“Recent Posts list is missing from t sidebar!”
Act Now!