After reading the transcript of her radio interview, I think she’s finally had her “jumped the shark” moment. From Andrew Bolt’s report in Australia, Oreskes sounds even more off the rails than the always wrong doomer Paul Ehrlich. Bolt writes:
Just how crazy are the world’s leading global warming alarmists? Tony Thomas investigates the strange case of Naomi Oreskes, and how the ABC’s Robyn “100 metres” Williams didn’t even blink an eye:
Global warming is going to “wipe out” every Australian man, woman and child, according to Naomi Oreskes, the much-quoted Professor of the History of Science at Harvard. Revered by catastropharians the world over, she was a guest on a recent edition of Robyn Williams’ Science Show on Radio National…
The glum forecast is in her latest book, The Collapse of Western Civilisation (co-author Erik Conway)…
What Oreskes predicts is that some people in northern inland regions of Europe, Asia and North America, plus some mountain people in South America, will survive the killer warming. These lucky ones are able to “regroup and rebuild. The human populations of Australia and Africa, of course, were wiped out,” she says, writing from a viewpoint some 400 years into the future…
But Oreskes forecasts something much worse than the death by climate for every Australian human. She prophesises the climate deaths of puppies and kittens…
“The loss of pet cats and dogs garnered particular attention among wealthy Westerners, but what was anomalous in 2023 soon became the new normal. A shadow of ignorance and denial had fallen over people who considered themselves children of the Enlightenment.”…
Radio National’s Williams was delighted with Oreskes’ pet-panic strategy. He chimed in,
“Yes, not only because it’s an animal but it’s local. You see, one criticism of the scientists is they’re always talking about global things…And so if you are looking at your village, your animals, your fields, your park, your kids, and the scientists are talking about a small world that you know, than it makes a greater impact, doesn’t it…”
Oreskes starts The Science Show by reading from her book. Be afraid:
“By 2040, heatwaves and droughts were the norm… In wealthy countries, the most hurricane- and tornado-prone regions were gradually but steadily depopulated… Then, in the northern hemisphere summer of 2041, unprecedented heatwaves scorched the planet, destroying food crops around the globe. Panic ensued, with food riots in virtually every major city. Mass migration of undernourished and dehydrated individuals, coupled with explosive increases in insect populations, led to widespread outbreaks of typhus, cholera, dengue fever, yellow fever, and viral and retroviral agents never seen before… The European Union announced similar plans for voluntary northward relocation of eligible citizens from its southernmost regions to Scandinavia and the United Kingdom…”
The ever-credulous Williams, instead of asking Oreskes, “Mmm, you’re smoking something good?” merely observed that all of the above is “fairly shocking”…
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Riiiiiight, I’ gonna go out and buy myself a great dane and a budgie.
I wouldn’t if I were you.
It might choke to death.
I can’t see a budgie choking to death on a great dane
Depends where the “budgie” is…
It’s an AGW mutated budgie.
They’re fearless…..
Look….
You forgot the disclaimer: Professionally trained animals, do not try this at home, (especially with a hound breed).
mikeishere
September 3, 2014 at 2:12 pm
You forgot the disclaimer: Professionally trained animals, do not try this at home, (especially with a hound breed).
=========
depends on the hound:-0 my dane deerhound n wolfhound cohabited with a galah and cockatiel walking all over them and free in the home.
as well as a pet crow 🙂
my present dane/stag/wolf hounds cohabit with sheep and my bitch tries to feed young lambs
The great dane may feed you for a few days but the budgie won’t even make a good snack.
I like dolphins.. they taste like chicken.
IIRC, Budgie is the short form of ‘Budgerigar’ which is said to be Aborigine for ‘tasty treat’.
“…one criticism of the scientists is they’re always talking about global things…And so if you are looking at your village, your animals, your fields, your park, your kids, and the scientists are talking about a small world that you know, than it makes a greater impact, doesn’t it…”
I’m looking out of my window right now. It’s a beautiful, clear day with no air pollution in sight, and no sign of global (or local) warming. In fact, it’s looking like fall may come early.
Naomi Oreskes is not a scientist. She wouldn’t recognize the scientific method if it bit her on the arse. She’s a narcissistic witch doctor. Shame on Harvard.
“Shame on Harvard” at the least. This “woman” is a professor of the history of science? WTF? How did this happen? How did these sick nuts get into these positions? People like this are supposed to be the fringe lunatics who people laugh at. Now they are in charge. What a world!
Normal, intelligent people are doing real things in the real world and would be bored out of their minds to give the same 3 lectures every week, every semester, over and over until they snap. Note that most of these “academics” have snapped while still grad students working as teaching assistants. By the time they manage to get that last college loan shunted into the university’s bank account to pay for that PhD they’re already off the rails. The only way they can pay that $600k back is to get an NSF grant to study the Damage to Kindergarten Aged Psyches Caused by the use of Crayons Labeled “Flesh” in Artwork of Drowning Polar Bears or they get jobs passing out off Broadway handbills and working as paid protesters. (Note that this does not really apply to the real sciences or engineering curricula… those folks have real world problems to solve and don’t need to make up problems to research.)
She is trying to flog her book for MONEY. The truth or realism is not what she is after. It doesn’t matter to her if she is shown to be wrong, as long as she makes some MONEY for her long overdue retirement.
She’s “trying to flog her book for money” by acting like a complete wacko, a fringe figure? Come on, that’s almost as silly as she is.
What I would like to know is why the mercenary explanation holds such appeal for so many (Bush into Iraq; Oreskes into AGW, skeptics funded by big oil,, etc. etc, etc.).
Agree. Shame on Harvard. I have written and told them so. Plus informed them zero contributions until they mend their ways. Oreskes book is fiction. Pretends to be a history of science written from the perspective of 400 years in the future.
@Niel Overton Sir, you are a poet.
In just 9 short years little kitties and puppies dying from the heat will be a new norm. Sounds like a best seller. Maybe the pet owners should bring the pet inside or give the pet some shade, and always leave a bowl of water for the pet.
Yeah, OUR pets survive San Joaquin Valley summers, with temperatures ALWAYS at least in the mid 90s, and occasionally in the hundreds. And of course, in the mid 1800s, dogs were able to survive in Virginia and Carolina summers DESPITE no air conditioning, and hot muggy weather.
Does Virginia Oreskes believe the whole world is always at the same temperature, and creatures are unable to acclimate themselves to changes?
An outbreak of retroviral agents. This is gibberish. The woman is a halfwit
Or witless.
Our local wit, Tim Blair, who writes opinion pieces for the Daily Telegraph in Sydney would call her a frightbat.
The ultimate useful idiot!!
She would need to be twice as bright as she is to qualify as a halfwit.
What is her source, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein?
This doesn’t belong on The Science Show.
This doesn’t belong on the History Channel.
This sort of fable-babble would be considered too ludicrous for Coast to Coast AM.
It sounds like a regurgitation of the Ehrlichian ‘science’ that justified the settings of Soylent Green, Bladerunner, etc.
Is there something in the water at Haavaad?
Grimm’s fairy tales?
If the water does not have anything in perhaps it should.
Or rather, as Terry Pratchett writes: “Grim Fairy tales”.
The water is probably ok. The smoke in the air, however, smells a bit funny.
whatever it is its also in the water at ABC
I heard that piffle and was as usual enraged at such bullshit being aired.
however after many prior attempts to get R williams culled from air I have given up even trying to comment let alone complain.
I will truly be overjoyed when he leaves(20yrs already so must be soonish) and when the funeral announcement is published.
he almost singlehandedly has ruined “science” for me.
20 years? I seem to remember Williams in my youth pushing Dawkins style “sciencism”, I’d say he’s been at the ABC for over 35 years. My guess is nothing about science is mouthed without his consent.
Hey, she wrote it and signed it. What more can anyone ask for.
Oreskes has obviously written a book of fiction, and good luck to her in that regard. It’s just a pity that Williams has been duped into thinking it is based on fact.
oh he lets ALL climate fiction get by as fact..
[snip -over the top -uncalled for -mod]
Good one!
Reblogged this on Aussiedlerbetreuung und Behinderten – Fragen.
Just look at her face. Most of the time, the substance (or lack thereof) of the human being is written, loud and clear, on the face.
Lets lay off the personal comments on appearance. It makes you look petty and illogical and unkind. Look up ad hominum as a fallacy. Naomi has plenty of dumb arguments to attack. Her appearnce is irrelevant.
[snip -over the top -uncalled for -mod]
“At 50, everyone has the face he deserves.” – George Orwell
That her face is twisted into a permanent scowl is one of the most relevant facts in the entire climate debate.
No, human appearance is a book that everyone can learn to read. There could be nothing so stupid as not to pay attention to appearance. We all do it, and there is nothing wrong in commenting upon it.
That was the first thought that went through my mind upon viewing this page.
What a sad woman. Mind you I note that the IPCC has taken to dishing out weather “reports” forty years hence.
It looks like the whole shebang has jumped the shark.
“Why won’t you employ this man?”
“I don’t like his face.”
“But the poor man can’t help his face!”
“Anybody over forty can help his (or her) face.”
Now, which American president said something like that?
If this person is to be believed, perhaps this is how I should react …
http://www.arts-wallpapers.com/cartoon_tv_show/Looney-Tunes/images/Looney%20Tunes%20Wallpaper%20042.jpg
Can’t access your reaction. Must be good to be banned.
My elder son at school in English was asked to write a nonsense poem, he was so pleased when the teacher put the comment that even a nonsense poem should make some sense! Her book sounds as if it would fit into the same category as his poem.
In the opening passage she says
The European Union announced similar plans for voluntary northward relocation of eligible citizens from its southernmost regions to Scandinavia and the United Kingdom…”
The UK at the moment has one of the highest immigration rates of all the EU does she go on to say where these “eligible citizens” would live and what would they eat? (I assume by “eligible Citizens” she means bureaucrats)
James Bull
We already have voluntary relocation. It’s called moving.
Might as well call her a professional shark jumper – she has jumped so many now.
Well you are guaranteed that the shark wouldn’t jump her/him or whatever.
Her book is a work of fiction about what global warming may or will do.
Cats and dogs going extinct is not a real forecast but I imagine is meant as a shock factor to encourage action and/or even just to sell more books.
But that is exactly what is wrong with the global warming movement. Shock factor exaggeration in order to encourage action and to get more money.
Oreskes exemplifies exactly what the problem is here. Its not global warming. Its the global warming movement.
Hey, Naomi is making a pile of dough from all this, but she’s only following orders…
Another hysteric. I like Andrew Bolt, he’ll nail her.
I was going to make a clever comment, but I won’t.
She could also be a member of P.E.T.A., who don’t believe we should own pets or domestic live stock to eat. Let them all go!
PETA = People Eating Tasty Animals
That’s why I belong.
“explosive increases in insect populations”
So, global warming is good from the insect’s perspective.
Locusts, swarms. Copyright, the Bible. Oreskes cuts and pastes old stories rather shamelessly.
Oreskes must contact Ehrlich immediately. By training, Ehrlich is an entomologist. He is going to love this. Hey, insects are people too!
So global warming will solve the problem of meeting peoples need for protein. Bugs is good eating (according to some people)
With the increasing rate of bird kill from the wind farms and now the Ivanpah solar plant, insect populations will increase even if there is no more warming.
If we as a race need to think and plan for a “serious event” it would be the ebola outbreak in Africa. So many infected people are breaking out of “containment” and just walking free (trying at least). If ebola gets in to the slumbs of, say, Lagos in Nigeria, uncontrolled, I’d say WW1, the ‘flu of the 1918’s after WW1, WW2 and all the wars after will pale in comparrison. Althought there is an experimental drug that appears to work.
Influenza can be far more contagious and is contagious when the patient isn’t presenting symptoms.
To misquote John Ruskin: “There is nothing in climate catastrophism that some fool cannot make seem a little worse and sell for a little extra grant”
I love old Ruskin quotes (1819-1900) I used to have this one my office wall:
“It’s unwise to pay too much, but it’s worse to pay too little. When
you pay too much, you lose a little money – that’s all. When you pay
too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you
bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. The
common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a
lot – it can’t be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well
to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will
have enough to pay for something better.”
― John Ruskin
I believe he said that around 1856 according to the quote on my office wall.
And next to that:
“Quality is like buying oats. If you want nice, clean, fresh oats, you must pay a fair price.
If you can be satisfied with oats that have already been through the horse, well that comes a little cheaper.”
Unknown.
And from the depths of an old office drawer: “What’s the difference between a country boy and a Harvard graduate? A country boy has B.. S… on the outside of his shoes.”
Apply where appropriate.
http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/1606.John_Ruskin
“A man wrapped up in himself makes a very small parcel.” – Ruskin
Oh!!!!! Very Nice . . . . find . . . ! Funny selections.
This sort of stuff must make AGW leaning scientists cringe
Not at all. You won’t hear one of the AGW faithful say a word. There were no words after the Antarctic Ship of Fools incident headed by Dr. Chris Turney – indeed, they gave him an award of some kind which was also done after Peter Gleick’s felonious antics and others. No matter how nutty, there will be no criticism from the committed.
That is all.
The “Harvard” brand is not what it used to be. Were I on the Harvard board of directors I would be very concerned…… “do we really want our name to be linked to this person?”
And if I didn’t know better I would have thought that this was satire ….. maybe something from the Onion.
I hope everyone fully appreciated the irony of this quote: “A shadow of ignorance and denial had fallen over people who considered themselves children of the Enlightenment.”
The “Harvard” brand produced Tom Leary back in the 1960’s. Even when they booted him out for failing to teach his classes, he just took the notoriety and made of living out of being notorious for the next 40 years.
I meant Tim Leary, of course.
Leary’s academic work is still praised as being revolutionary in how it redefined personality interpersonally and thus socially, and he mapped interactions out graphically in time. The over zealous government sent G. Gordon Liddy of the Watergate scandal to raid his home. Far from not teaching classes, he was so popular in the psychology department for studying instead of rejecting the biggest breakthrough in consciousness research that the other department professors were lacking graduate students. Tim Leary was a staunch and outspoken skeptic of all authority, his mantra being to “think for yourself and question authority.” He was in no way a fraud or insincere, but a very serious psychologist who went in to become a hero of families relating to slow creep senility of which he joked about in very good humor. He went on to give lectures with Gordon Liddy, actually trying to diffuse the culture war we now suffer. Just as progressives are oppressive tyrants today, so too were conservatives in his era. As John Lennon wrote his California governor campaign song, running against Ronald Reagan, he was suddenly arrested for a joint and sentenced for decades. After the Weathermen helped him escape from the minimum security prison he was assigned to because *he* himself had written the test for prison escape risk (!), he radicalized for several years in a way that helped turn academics against our culture. To this day Drug War red tape profoundly hinders neuroscience.
-=NikFromNYC=-, Ph.D. in chemistry (Columbia/Harvard)
Bull.
Caleb, I’m reminded of that old post about “attention surplus disorder-part two” on your blog.
Drugs aren’t an answer. Maybe a treatment, but not an answer.
And only a very short-term treatment, at that, by people who understand what they are dealing with.
Tim Leary was a false prophet. It amazes me people still buy into his con-artistry even after his death.
When he was at Harvard both my father and stepfather taught there, and my elder brother was a student. Tim Leary liked to party hearty, and to call it “research.”
At age 44 he was notorious for inviting teen aged girls to his parties, and getting them very high, and calling what followed “Research,” as well. Although Harvard was not know for being prudish back then, an unstated reason for Leary’s dismissal involved fathers who were deeply concerned about their own daughters.
I hope I am never judged as harshly as I judge that man, but can’t help myself. I lived through it, and saw brilliant, young minds ruined. About the only good that came out of it all is that I recognize pseudoscience more swiftly, due to exposure at an early age.
Didn’t L Ron Hubbard say “Think for yourself”?
The promotion of “progressive” thought at Harvard over the decades, which is largely about soshulist elites supplanting democracy and free enterprise and the throwing open of the doors widely to all and sundry, diluting and corrupting scholarly pursuit, has this kind of downside. Unhappy, unfulfilled misanthropists pressing to rule the world – ” The European Union announced similar plans for voluntary northward relocation of eligible citizens..”!!!! She and many others of this neurotic group have expressed the need to suspend democracy to deal with the “catastrophe”, to force solutions on the people and to summarily imprison or worse, dissenters.
Yes, indeed, Be very afraid- it will be the end of civilization if we let these characters have their way.