Greens extend estimated point of no return – by 25 years!

One day we'll reach that tipping point Martha!
The climate tipping point

How many climate deadlines and incontrovertible tipping points have been noisily proclaimed over the years, only to be quietly forgotten or shamelessly rescheduled, when the deadline passes uneventfully?

The Earth League, a group composed mostly of climate personalities nobody has never heard of, have just extended the green point of no return to 2040 – a whopping 25 years from today.

According to their “Earth Statement“;

2015 is a critical year for humanity. Our civilization has never faced such existential risks as those associated with global warming, biodiversity erosion and resource depletion. Our societies have never had such an opportunity to advance prosperity and eradicate poverty. … This includes additional public funding for mitigation and adaptation at a level at least comparable to current global ODA (around 135 billion USD p.a.).

Read more: http://earthstatement.org

OK, I kind of glossed over a lot of their statement, but I think I have captured the essentials. And that extended deadline for the new green point of no return?

… With current emissions trends, the remaining 1000 Gt CO2 [in their estimated global carbon budget] would be used up within the next 25 years. …

The rescheduled 2040 tipping point, intriguingly, ties in nicely with the Chinese non-commitment to consider reducing CO2 in 2030.

I haven’t spotted any mention of the “N” word on the Earth League website. For all the Earth League’s claims of being deeply concerned about the planet, nuclear power, which former NASA GIS Chairman James Hansen recently warned is the only credible route to decarbonising the global economy, doesn’t even seem to rate a mention.

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April 22, 2015 11:53 am

Next up: Years will be decreed by executive order by our King and his mob as 730 days.

Charlie
April 22, 2015 12:05 pm

I checked some big news sites, The climate change propaganda is extra gnarly today. Anthony Watts with this well managed blog will most likely be made sort of a folk hero in years to come. I find the climate skeptics are intelligent people with the added benefit of common sense. It’s funny the elite types aren’t skeptic on this issue. Well at least in public the aren’t. This is sort of a white sock uprising against to most bizarre scam in recent human history.

Bubba Cow
April 22, 2015 12:08 pm

It’s Earth Day, right?
O is in Florida stumping for money to protect the Everglades – I thought they were 80 feet under by now. I must have missed a news cycle.

NancyG22
April 22, 2015 12:13 pm

The Earth League, never heard of them. I have heard of The Human League though.
“Well the truth may need some rearranging,
Stories to be told.
And plain to see the facts are changing,
No meaning left to hold.”
Were they singing about Global Warming? 😉
http://youtu.be/QqqBs6kkzHE

MikeW
Reply to  NancyG22
April 22, 2015 12:27 pm

Also the Human Fund, which I would consider more legitimate than the Earth League.
http://festivusweb.com/festivus-the-human-fund.htm

Jaakko Kateenkorva
April 22, 2015 12:19 pm

While waiting for the doomsday in slow-motion, climate Titanic has already reached the iceberg. More than 2/3 voted for something else than green/left in the Finnish parliament elections last week.

Reply to  Jaakko Kateenkorva
April 23, 2015 10:32 am

Congrats on the elections then

MikeW
April 22, 2015 12:37 pm

Fortunately, we have a record of predictions made by environmental doomsday alarmists in the past. Fool me once, shame on you …
https://www.aei.org/publication/18-spectacularly-wrong-apocalyptic-predictions-made-around-the-time-of-the-first-earth-day-in-1970-expect-more-this-year-2/

Steve Reddish
Reply to  MikeW
April 23, 2015 7:57 pm

8. Peter Gunter, a North Texas State University professor, wrote in 1970, “Demographers agree almost unanimously on the following grim timetable: by 1975 widespread famines will begin in India; these will spread by 1990 to include all of India, Pakistan, China and the Near East, Africa. By the year 2000, or conceivably sooner, South and Central America will exist under famine conditions….By the year 2000, thirty years from now, the entire world, with the exception of Western Europe, North America, and Australia, will be in famine.”
Looks like they were already using the consensus meme: “Demographers agree almost unanimously…”.
With apologies to Desi Arnez, it’s a sure sign they knew they had some persuadin’ to do.
SR

Chris
April 22, 2015 12:43 pm

I remember being told as a grade schooler in the 1960’s, we only had twenty years to live before all life was snuffed out on earth by air pollution. My dad told me the teacher was full of it, I told the teacher what my dad said, he insisted my dad was wrong, needless to say, we’re still alive.

Charlie
Reply to  Chris
April 22, 2015 12:54 pm

wow chris I’m kind of glad I was born in 1980

April 22, 2015 12:44 pm

I’m glad they included resource depletion in their list. I think that’s more important than global warming. I feel like it’s 1961, when NASA had to choose the concept they would use to go to the moon. We need new technology to help us produce cheap energy in the future.

Greg in Houston
April 22, 2015 12:50 pm

Solar energy will be economically viable in ten years and always will be.

Charlie
Reply to  Greg in Houston
April 22, 2015 1:14 pm

Whatchu talkin about wiillis? lol

Colin
Reply to  Greg in Houston
April 22, 2015 1:26 pm

At night time too?

Jim Reedy
Reply to  Colin
April 22, 2015 8:31 pm

I believe that Solar will be quite viable… but it really has to be generated out in space so 24/7
Japanese have been experimenting with microwaves to transmit energy (quite successfully I think).
[hear something about the Japanese experiments last week or the week before].
Land based.. not so much…

RWturner
Reply to  Greg in Houston
April 22, 2015 2:05 pm

That would be nice and quite possible. So here’s an idea, let’s save the $trillions being spent globally on solar today and put that money into something that is economically viable today so that when solar IS economically feasible we will still have a functioning economy when that time comes.

Aicha Wallaby
Reply to  Greg in Houston
April 22, 2015 8:04 pm

Hey, I knew what you were saying 😉 Economic feasibility is always just around the (perpetually receding) corner.I always think that cost is a good proxy for amount of energy consumed to create something. Greens seem to think we can “solar panel” our way into zero use of fossil fuels. The cost is probably indicating that this idea is a net (energy) loser.

Crispin in Waterloo
Reply to  Aicha Wallaby
April 23, 2015 2:34 pm

I was sent the NYT article boasting that solar and wind are now as cheap or cheaper than ‘new conventional’ power. Which is to say, the over-regulated and trumped up requirements imposed on coal and nukes. They mention 5 cents per kwh for wind.
So I wrote back to my friend with the true cost showing the need for greatly under utilised parallel generating capacity that has to be financed to make up for cloudy, windless days. The total was 29 cents per kwh for both solar and wind. That is about 4.5 times the claimed cost of new coal and more than 5 times the cost of new nuclear.
The thing solar and wind can’t overcome is the massive investment needed to keep the power flowing when they are down. As for CO2, the total CO2 needed to manufacture, erect, connect, maintain and dismantle a large wind generator is large. The CO2 emitted to build, operate and maintain, dismantle and dispose of an equal amount of conventional power plant has to be added to the tally because it is a necessary part of the same total system. The total CO2 is always higher if a windmill is involved.
Tesla would have us buy very large batteries from their subsidised plant in AZ to ‘store the excess’. The boys down the road from Waterloo who make one foot square thyristors will be delighted with that idea! We can put a 10 MW inverter on every major suburban street corner. What happens if you stick an ice pick into a 1,000,000 aH battery?

Reply to  Greg in Houston
April 23, 2015 1:52 am

Solar energy isn’t practical if we lack an energy storage medium. Thus far the combined cost of the solar power AND the storage medium kits is too high. The problem, of course, is the sun’s unwillingness to shine at night, and the panel’s reduced capacity on cloudy days.
I realize many of you think running out of resources is a joke, but I’ve been in the oil business for a long time, and I just can’t see where the heck we will find oil to replace what we are producing. The long term metrics show we are already experiencing a problem, and it’s bound to get a lot worse. This makes that “keep it in the ground” campaign truly pathetic. In 20 years those “keep it in the ground” climate hysterics will be screaming because oil prices went through the roof.

Non Nomen
Reply to  Fernando Leanme
April 23, 2015 3:34 am

Synthetic petrol and rubber. Coal(+electricity) in, petrol and rubber out. Easy. Standard since almost 100 years.

Reply to  Fernando Leanme
April 23, 2015 4:29 am

Synthetic fuels are extremely expensive. And we lack the natural gas and coal to take up the load. We have a growing population, increasing world GDP, and a limited amount of resources we can tap.
The technologies we need aren’t available, or are incredibly expensive. This is a pretty serious problem, but somehow global warming takes center stage. What I’m seeing is that global warming is just a nuisance, it seems to be discussed a lot because there’s a weird nearly religious movement around it. If Obama werent acting so dumb, I would think there’s a secret Energy Information Agency warning them we are headed for a brick wall.

Crispin in Waterloo
Reply to  Fernando Leanme
April 23, 2015 2:40 pm

Fernando, synthetic fuels are not expensive. Who told you that? They are pulling your leg. Coal to liquid fuels are profitable at less than $50 a barrel equivalent and the same plant can make plastics and dozens of chemicals like waxes, polyethylene, creosote, ethanol and so on. There are trillions of tons of coal in the world. The issue is not coal supply nor cost of conversion. It is CO2 and whether or not that makes an appreciable change to the climate if it goes back up to what is has been on historical Earth (3000 ppm).

April 22, 2015 1:25 pm

2040 … ironically, the date that entitlements in the US will exceed taxes on the GNP at current tax rates.

Aicha Wallaby
Reply to  wallensworth
April 22, 2015 8:06 pm

And not too far from 2033, when Social Security “runs out of money.”

April 22, 2015 1:49 pm

Me too said Mike Mann , firsts on grants.

RWturner
April 22, 2015 2:02 pm

Funny. A few years ago I often mentioned that we were past their fictitious tipping point and if they were serious shouldn’t they be running around like Chicken Little? Then of course they did. Then I often mentioned that if we were past the tipping point and emitting CO2 at ever increasing rates then shouldn’t we worry about adaptation instead of regulation. Now, surprise-surprise, they WERE just kidding about the past tipping point and the actual tipping point is still impending and we still have time to tax our way out of a problem. How convenient. They have taken a page directly out of Armageddon prophets dooms-day 101 book.

Chris Hanley
April 22, 2015 2:20 pm

As well as being associated with the IPCC, most members of the Earth League appear to be into their forties at least, so 25 more years of gallivanting from one talk-fest to another should see them into comfortable retirement.

CD153
April 22, 2015 2:53 pm

From the Earth League statement about itself:
“The Earth League is an international alliance of prominent scientists from world‐class research institutions, who work together to respond to some of the most pressing issues faced by humankind, as a consequence of climate change, depletion of natural resources, land degradation and water scarcity.” …..
Prominent scientists from world-class research institutions? Don’t know, I can’t say.
What I can say though is that if it is true, it proves once again that having fancy letters after your name like PhD does not guarantee that you have a lick of common sense nor that you will maintain your respect for sound science rather than let your way over-inflated ego drive you to deceit and scare mongering.
Reading through their climate change/biodiversity/resource depletion statement was like reading something from somebody who had lost touch with reality…..especially as regards climate change. It is truly sad and sickening to see what some scientists in this world have morphed into.

pat
April 22, 2015 3:33 pm

Republican presidential candidate not sceptical either!
VIDEO: Climate Depot: Watch: Jeb Bush Endorses UN Climate Treaty Process: ‘We need to work with the rest of the world to negotiate a way to reduce carbon emissions’
Jeb Bush: ‘The climate is changing and I am concerned about that.’ – ‘Be cognizant of the fact that we have this climate change issue and we need to work with the rest of the world to negotiate a way to reduce carbon emissions’…
Via Tampa Bay Times: Tom Steyer’s climate change group NextGen Climate praised Jeb Bush for ‘leadership’: “Jeb Bush demonstrated leadership today on the issue of climate change—distancing himself from the other Republican presidential hopefuls and demonstrating why climate change doesn’t have to be a partisan issue”…
Climate Depot Statement on Jeb Bush: ‘The Bush family appears to be a climate skeptic’s worst friend. It is not within the DNA of any of the Bushes to oppose the UN climate agenda. President George H. W. Bush signed onto the 1992 Kyoto earth summit treaty which was ratified by the Senate. George W. Bush rubber stamped every UN IPCC report, rhetorically accepted all the warmists claims and validated the UN climate treaty process as president…
http://www.climatedepot.com/2015/04/19/watch-jeb-bush-endorses-un-climate-treaty-we-need-to-work-with-the-rest-of-the-world-to-negotiate-a-way-to-reduce-carbon-emissions/
21 April: Politico: Mike Allen: Koch brothers will offer audition to Jeb Bush
In another surprise, a top Koch aide revealed to POLITICO that Jeb Bush will be given a chance to audition for the brothers’ support, despite initial skepticism about him at the top of the Kochs’ growing political behemoth…
Bush is getting a second look because so many Koch supporters think he looks like a winner…
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/04/koch-brothers-will-offer-audition-to-jeb-bush-117177.html
where to turn?

Goldie
April 22, 2015 3:49 pm

So – tipping points become the new meme for “nothing’s actually happening right now, but it might!”

M Seward
April 22, 2015 3:55 pm

Wolf! Wolf! The Wolf is coming in 40 years!
Greenies, the political gift that just keeps on giving. LOL.

toorightmate
Reply to  M Seward
April 22, 2015 10:56 pm

The little boy who cried wolf is now getting to be a very old man crying wolf.

Crispin in Waterloo
Reply to  toorightmate
April 23, 2015 2:43 pm

+1

Walt D.
April 22, 2015 4:11 pm

The ghost of Harold Camping returns.

Reply to  Walt D.
April 22, 2015 4:30 pm

Yep. And just like Camping they still line up behind the false prophet or is that profit?
🙂

April 22, 2015 4:26 pm

Of course they don’t mention nuclear power. The left only sees a solution through mass global poverty. The thought of any viable prosperity producing power is forbidden and evil. That’s ideology the adults on the planet have to deal with .

Hocus Locus
Reply to  logoswrench
April 22, 2015 5:27 pm

It’s not as simple as ‘wanting’ global poverty, These people are terrified of radiation but are not willing to come straight out and admit it. It always emerges as something else — distrust or paranoia directed at corporations, government or human ingenuity itself. Or an eerie silence after the topic of nuclear energy is fronted, and relief when it passes. They do not know whom to trust, so they trust the shrillest voices (to play it ‘safe’). They are uncomfortable with log scales and are not equipped to compare (for example) the tiniest units measurable against what is known to be lethal. Above all I think (deep down) they choose not to ‘believe’ there is such a thing as natural background radiation. That may sound harsh and it make be a clumsy way to put it, but it may be part of the Gaia phenomenon somehow. What ever it is, we must seek to understand it. Hansen is right about that one thing, nuclear energy.
I give a rundown on several events in the US that contributed to a general fear of all things nuclear power here, http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=5842213&cid=48178883 … and propose a nuclear renaissance in letters, http://www.scribd.com/doc/181187119/20130519-letterR-pdf and http://www.scribd.com/doc/181188043/20130407-halliburton-thoriumR-pdf … it’s time to finish taming fire.

Evan Jones
Editor
Reply to  logoswrench
April 22, 2015 6:49 pm

Of course they don’t mention nuclear power.
Because it is a tragedy.
The left only sees a solution through mass global poverty.
Because that is just a statistic.

F. Ross
April 22, 2015 5:00 pm

This is a big relief.
I start getting very nervous when those tipping points get near.
:=/

Evan Jones
Editor
Reply to  F. Ross
April 22, 2015 6:45 pm

When in doubt, overtip.

Gamecock
April 22, 2015 5:08 pm

“Our civilization has never faced such existential risks”
How ’bout an asteroid the size of Oklahoma? Now there’s an existential risk.
“as those associated with global warming, biodiversity erosion and resource depletion.”
Global warming is not an existential risk. It is beneficial.
What the heck is biodiversity erosion? (I’m sure it’s caused by CO2.)
Resource depletion. “opportunity to advance prosperity and eradicate poverty.”
We are going to eradicate poverty by reducing resource usage. Wait . . . what?

Evan Jones
Editor
April 22, 2015 6:42 pm

The Earth League, a group composed mostly of climate personalities nobody has never heard of, have just extended the green point of no return to 2040 – a whopping 25 years from today.
Don’t you get it? They’re laying in wait for when the PDO flips positive again. Then they claim that (typical effect) a tipping point.
Here’s a skeptic’s projection for you: We will very likely be cranking into a strong natural warming phase in 2040. It will look and last a lot like 1977-1998.

Evan Jones
Editor
April 22, 2015 6:44 pm

What the heck is biodiversity erosion?
It’s great. Oh, wait. I thought you said explosion.
(I’m sure it’s caused by CO2.)
It is. The explosion part.

michael hart
April 22, 2015 9:34 pm

Time for a cup of tea while we’re waiting. I’ll put the kettle on.