Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Professor-emeritus Guy McPherson of University of Arizona, speaking in New Zealand, thinks we don’t have to worry about climate change, because the “6th mass extinction” will finish us all off in the next 10 years.
Humans ‘don’t have 10 years’ left thanks to climate change – scientist
There’s no point trying to fight climate change – we’ll all be dead in the next decade and there’s nothing we can do to stop it, a visiting scientist claims.
Guy McPherson, a biology professor at the University of Arizona, says the human destruction of our own habitat is leading towards the world’s sixth mass extinction.
Instead of fighting, he says we should just embrace it and live life while we can.
“It’s locked down, it’s been locked in for a long time – we’re in the midst of our sixth mass extinction,” he told Paul Henry on Thursday.
But Professor James Renwick, a climate scientist at Victoria University, says people should not use his words more as an excuse to give up.
While he agrees that climate change is possibly the “biggest issue humanity has ever faced”, he says “giving up is not really helpful”.
Instead, Prof Renwick says he hopes Prof McPherson’s 10-year claim will encourage people to take action.
…
Read more (includes video): http://www.newshub.co.nz/world/humans-dont-have-10-years-left-thanks-to-climate-change—scientist-2016112408
It is difficult to see why “its locked in, we’re all going to die” should be construed as a call to action.
On the other hand there might be a silver lining to this mass extinction business. With any luck the mass extinction event will take out all the mosquitoes and other annoying pest species first, giving us a last few happy years of bug free outdoor BBQs.
Homer, is that you?
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OUy9j_OCoaM/SO0CdxcQwpI/AAAAAAAAAGU/OD-uDGONS4E/s400/EndIsNear1.jpg
That’s funny, Al. The picture sums everything up perfectly.
These are the same folks that told me that we are entering a global ice age and that we only had 20 years of global petroleum supplies left when I was in high school some 30 years ago?
At least I feel a lot better about not saving much for retirement now
When these idiots are just down the street from me, I am SO tempted to deliver them a free sample of Jim Jones Cola… What an embarrassment.
McPhersen’s “Declaration” sounds just like the early 1980s interview of Stephen Schneider I watched on TV in Colorado , and by god, He’s Gone! But most Humans on Earth are still doing OK
I’ve never heard of newshub.co.nz, even though New Zealand is where I live, and even though I try to access a great many news sources and opinions of all stripes.
The key to this one isn’t merely McPherson and his NTE stuff, but the author of the article, one Breanna Barraclough. She claims to have “a keen focus” on “environmental and science stories, while also dabbling in entertainment and gaming content.”
I think that in this one she covered the lot.
I’m trying to understand how all these people think the earth is headed for destruction and ultimate extinction because it is “warming” by over a degree (maybe two!!), when it has been 8 to 12 C warmer than it is now for 95% of the entire time multicellular life has been dominant.
In 1975 I was told by my science Teacher that due to Global Warming by the year 2000 the UK Houses of Parliament would be under water, Holland will no longer exist as it’s under the channel and that all coast lines will have moved 100 miles inland. Well it’s 2016 and NONE OF IT HAS EVEN COME CLOSE to actually Happening. We are coming out of the last Ice Age, Global Warming is a scam and the only REAL issue is we do have a carbon problem, but if you cut down trillions of acres of Carbon scrubbers you get an Apollo 13 problem, Square Scrubbers and round holes. Just replant the Forests, problem solved.
And alarmists think CO2 is a problem at ~400ppm/v. Apollo 13 reached ~1.5%, that’s ~15,000 ppm/v.
He lost me when he implied that at the time of homo habilis there were practicing anarchists.
“Love Trumps Stone Tools!”
Nurse, Prof McPherson’s out of bed again! Not a real scientist, a walking joke, functioning idiot. No hard scientific basis for his theory of doom. And a seriously irresponsible waste of taxpayers money. Should be struck off for scientfic malpractice. Yes, w/o a pension. How does this nonsense pass peer review, how is he allowed out in public with normal folk? Why is it even given space here? Why am I asking you?
Don’t write off the Thylacine or Tasmanian Tiger just yet. There have been recent sightings in Tasmania and South Australia : http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/footage-claims-to-show-tasmanian-tiger-roaming-adelaide-hills/news-story/610af2e75314d491eaafd6c384835385
As for :“it’s locked in, we’re all going to die” : If there can be thousands of sightings of the Thylacine since the last one was supposed to have died in Hobart Zoo in September1936, then we might be reported as still around, for a Century after 2026.
Ha! Don’t ya get it? In another 10 years he will have a nice nest egg to retire on. “See ya Suckers!” Then again, he may be in demand to explain why his prophesy did not eventuate. Smart man, I say 🙂
There are times when I just want to give up.
Nothing like an article like that to restart the fires.
Ain’t dead yet !!
Que sera sera. Vive la mort. 😉 Ha ha
I’m at a loss to understand, if it is really that bad why McPherson and his death cult followers just top themselves right now and be done with it … let us get on with our lives sans their ignorant whining. I’ll take my chances with GAIA!
Didn’t the world end several years ago along with the Mayan calendar??? I seem to remember someone telling me that. (sarc off) Seriously, I can think of a few events that, should they happen, would end the world in the next ten years, but as far as I can figure out, globull warming, or any other sort of climate change isn’t one of them. Bout to turn 70==hope the good lord gives me another 10 just so I can see it.
You really have to be senile to intentionally join the ranks of the end of world prophets.
What seems really threatened by extinction is not humans, but crows. If “climate scientists” have even a smidgen of integrity left, they will eat all crows out of existence within 10 years.
Another example of the failed public/government education system.
It’s pretty arrogant to predict the “greatest” mass extinction ever, whether in ten or in ten million years. It’s an indication of what passes for “science” these days. There have been some pretty thorough mass extinctions.
Granted, if we humans die out or revert to simian cultural norms, which seems a much better bet, without cleaning up, or at least sequestering, the toxic mess we’ve made, mammals and birds may be in trouble. But other life forms might adapt.
OTOH, a lot of the responses here are illogical. If someone considered foolish predicts we’ll all die, is that evidence that we’re all going to live forever? It reminds me of the story of the guy who brings a bomb in his airplane luggage, “reasoning” that the chances are infinitesimally small that there would be two people carrying bombs on the same plane.
My observation is that people are increasingly losing the capacity to reason. And I fear that that process is irreversible. When it reaches critical proportions, such as in medical labs, operating rooms, airlplane cockpits and control towers, behind the steering wheels, and at the keyboard, etc., our house of cards will collapse rather quickly and we’ll soon succumb to the poisons with which we’ve blanketed our world.
I wonder if the good professor will sell me his home at a knock down price? My family will take it over in ten years. It should not be a problem because apparently everyone will be dead in ten years, so its money for nothing!
Post-science science. Which will come first – Arctic ice or us disappearing?
This is right up there with the non existent 50 million climate refugees and about as believable.
Imagine the drama if the cubs had left it until the tenth year to win the world series.
Another one of these kooky academics with their doom&gloom forecasts. How many times have we heard this brand of nonsense during the past half-century at least; yet the earth’s population keeps on increasing along with life expectancy, food production and living standards. These types of predictions need to be taken with not just a grain of salt, but with the whole box.
I think we should all rejoice in the fact that he had the courage of his convictions to not reproduce. He said that he and his partner had no children.
I thought the interview was a scream !!! Certainly Paul Henry was right in saying … why should I bother taking the time to talk to you.