Claim: “Climate Denial” is Dead – But Climate Apathy is Preventing Action

Guest essay by Eric Worrall

h/t Willie Soon – Business Green author Leo Barasi is worried people still don’t want to act to save the planet, despite the utter defeat of “climate denial”.

2017 was the year climate denial died

Leo Barasi

27 December 2017

Reality has killed climate denial – but apathy will still condemn the world to dangerous global warming unless it is confronted, argues Leo Barasi

2017 has left climate deniers with nowhere to go. Merciless hurricanes, heatwaves, floods, and droughts swept the planet all year, along with impossible-sounding fires – in icy Greenland; and in California in December. All are an early taste of what life on a hotter world would be like. Public opinion recognises the link with climate change, with international polls showing that worries about global warming are now at record levels with vanishingly few people thinking it’s a hoax.

Yet the climate war is far from over. While climate denial may have lost, there is another problem: climate apathy. Most people understand climate change is happening, but just don’t think about it much and don’t accept they should change their lives to deal with it. This matters because stopping dangerous climate change won’t be possible with only popular measures like replacing coal power stations with solar panels. There will have to be difficult changes too, like cutting emissions from flying and meat eating. So long as many people are apathetic, governments will avoid the hard changes that are also needed.

One long-standing reason for apathy is the way climate change often feels like a distant problem, something for polar bears and future generations. So it matters that climate change is now devastating places where emissions need to fall. Those of us who want faster action shouldn’t hold back from pointing out that this is what would become normal if emissions don’t fall.

The death of climate denial is one of the most under-appreciated stories of 2017. When the climate deniers played their hand this year they found the world had left them behind. But climate apathy is proving more resilient than denial, and is stopping the world confronting what it will take to live up to its promise to stop dangerous warming. It will take more work to turn that apathy into action.

Read more (paywalled): https://www.businessgreen.com/bg/opinion/3023569/2017-was-the-year-climate-denial-died

I guess the kind of mind which can imagine that this year’s weather was the opening salvo of the coming climate apocalypse has no problem believing that everyone is convinced of the need for climate action, but nobody wants to act.

0 0 votes
Article Rating

Discover more from Watts Up With That?

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

141 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
December 27, 2017 7:16 pm

97% agree that climate denial is dead? How boring! Think of the children and send money

Bryan A
Reply to  Peter Morgenroth
December 27, 2017 8:35 pm

So…
It’s a done deal
It’s happening now
Just look at California

This is such wonderful news that Climate Change has finally been proven as fact beyond a doubt…

Now there is no more need to fund studies to prove it’s existence…
Michael Mann and John Cook can now retire

Greg
Reply to  Bryan A
December 28, 2017 4:35 am

Most people understand climate change is happening, but just don’t think about it much and don’t accept they should change their lives to deal with it.

ie they now realise that though climate changes and some of that change is human induced it is not a sufficiently serious problem to require drastic action and destroy our economies and lives.

Isn’t that basically what most “climate denierz” have been saying all along??

Sounds like total victory to me. Great trick trying admitting that you have lost the argument and no one can be bothered to listen your alarmist BS any more, whilst claiming the opposition is “dead”.

Bryan A
Reply to  Bryan A
December 28, 2017 9:52 am

The Spin Doctors at work

Hivemind
Reply to  Peter Morgenroth
December 27, 2017 8:37 pm

Who cares about the children? Just send money.

PiperPaul
December 27, 2017 7:20 pm

I think the subtext here is “The publication I work for is probably going to go under once the taxpayer dollars stop flowing in to the people who read my magazine.”

December 27, 2017 7:22 pm

Leo is just trying to sell his book by selling the delusion on which it is based. I guess he thinks if he shouts it loud enough, (that the majority of people are alarmed by climate change), then that’ll make it so. A typical delusion of grandiosity for Leo. Sad.

But he is right IMO about 2017 being a cusp year in the climate hustle. This is the year their hustle began to die. From his perspective apathy.

But from an informed perspective following the larger picture of “one year does not climate make” (while Leo ignores the 12 year major hurricane hiatus for the US) and lack of any atypical persistent drought across the world, and bulging agricultural crop productions, the climate hustlers are desperately clinging to their religion. They are very much like the doomsday cult claiming all the signs of apocalypse have occurred and the end is near… REPENT! or face damnation is Leo Barasi’s claim (while pushing his latest book).

Curious George
Reply to  Joel O'Bryan
December 28, 2017 7:09 am

Leo Barasi is worried people still don’t want to act – and make him a billionaire.

TheLastDemocrat
Reply to  Joel O'Bryan
December 30, 2017 4:36 pm

^ Contiguous US has still not been hit by major, Cat3 or greater, hurricane. I and others were watching the weather buoys as these recent hurricanes hit.

AndyG55
December 27, 2017 7:23 pm

“2017 has left climate deniers with nowhere to go”

In a way he is correct.

The facts show absolutely clearly that whole “climate change” farce has zero science to actually back it, but still plenty of political clout.

No matter that the CC Agenda has been shown to be nothing but a empty load of mindless rhetoric, there is still a massive load of money and political corruption that has to be overcome.

That is going to be difficult.

kokoda - AZEK (Deck Boards) doesn't stand behind its product
December 27, 2017 7:26 pm

When you can’t defeat the opposition with science, well let’s just say they lost and maybe that will move lots of people to our side. Hey, it worked for the Presidential election where we convinced voters not to waste their vote by voting for Trump; wait, what….

December 27, 2017 7:32 pm

Claim: “Climate Denial” is Dead – No, no, I can see that there is Climate going on outside the Window. I would not deny that there is Climate and therefore Climate Change. What is preventing ‘Action’ on Climate Change, however, is the sure knowledge that whatever I do will have a vanishingly small effect on the Climate so little in fact, that I have become totally Apathetic about it all. In any case, the Climate seems to be getting better. Cold areas are a little less cold and hot areas are exactly the same as they were before. The Earth is greening up and food production is increasing nicely. Catastrophes are occurring less often and deaths from them are falling. Even those poor old Poley Bears are doing well. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!

Extreme Hiatus
December 27, 2017 7:35 pm

It is true. ‘Climate Denial’ is dead. It never existed except in the simplistic messaging of the CAGW propagandists.

But looks like this writer is in a serious state of denial about the political climate and where things are going.

Reply to  Extreme Hiatus
December 27, 2017 9:06 pm

Yes. Many disagree with the IPCC, but few of them deny anything about the known laws and methods of science. Pointing out erroneous assumptions, misapplied methods, misleading terminology, un-testable hypothesis presented as immutable conclusions and their pathological blindness to contradictory evidence is not denying anything, but is rejecting the denial of the scientific method as the arbiter of what is and what is not the scientific truth.

Reply to  co2isnotevil
December 28, 2017 5:16 am

Business Green author Leo Barasi is worried people still don’t want to act to save the planet, despite the utter defeat of “climate denial”.

Leo wrote “,,, despite the utter defeat of “climate denial”? Really?? He wrote that nonsense???

Clearly, this man is imbecilic and/or delusional and is unworthy of further comment.

Reply to  ALLAN MACRAE
December 28, 2017 3:04 pm

If the planet needs to be saved, it’s not from climate change caused by CO2, but from people like Barasi who misrepresent alarmist rhetoric as immutable truth.

Mark B.
Reply to  co2isnotevil
December 28, 2017 2:21 pm

Allan – Don’t forget the possibility of outright fraud.

Reply to  co2isnotevil
December 28, 2017 3:59 pm

ALLAN MACRAE
December 28, 2017 at 5:16 am

Business Green author Leo Barasi is worried people still don’t want to act to save the planet, despite the utter defeat of “climate denial”.

Leo wrote “,,, despite the utter defeat of “climate denial”? Really?? He wrote that nonsense???

Clearly, this man is imbecilic and/or delusional and is unworthy of further comment.

This is a good spot for one of my favorite quotes, by William F. Buckley, Jr.:

“I won’t insult your intelligence by suggesting that you really believe what you just said.”

Chris Wright
Reply to  Extreme Hiatus
December 28, 2017 3:10 am

Absolutely. “Climate denial” only exists in the fevered brains of these idiots.
No serious sceptics deny the reality of climate or indeed climate change. Ironically, a powerful sceptical argument is that the climate is always changing e.g. the MWP and LIA. I’m sure that the vast majority of sceptics do agree that some amount of global warming did occur in the 20th century, although the actual amount (and the honesty of the official measurements) are hotly debated.

For almost a year now the most powerful man in the world is a “climate denier”, so any claim that the war is won is laughable.
Despite his obvious faults, we owe Donald Trump a huge amount. Who knows, in the long run he may reverse this climate madness. Although a UK citizen I hope he does make America great again. Who knows, maybe he will also make the world great again.
Chris

F. Leghorn
Reply to  Chris Wright
December 28, 2017 11:15 am

As America goes so goes the world. Here’s to ya bloke! (I was going to say “mate” but it didn’t seem to fit)

TA
Reply to  Chris Wright
December 28, 2017 7:59 pm

“Although a UK citizen I hope he does make America great again. Who knows, maybe he will also make the world great again.”

I think Trump’s common sense will “trickle down” to the rest of the world. When people see something that works, they want to emulate it.

Reply to  Extreme Hiatus
December 28, 2017 3:48 pm

More than anything else this may well be different people talking about two different things. Leo Barasi is partially correct.

“Climate denial” existed as a only as a concept, and only in the minds of people like Leo Barasi. It was used as a tool to try to get rubes to accept that the people like Leo Barasi are smart, honest, and helpful. It is now obvious that trying to use the “climate denial” concept as a tool to get at the rubes is not working, and will not work (the rubes are not as ignorant as people like Leo Barasi thought).

So this is where Leo Barasi is indeed correct … the concept of “climate denial” truly has been killed by reality; but the reality is that the “climate denial” concept was complete fabrication and as a result it has come to be ignored by the general public.

Leo Barasi calls this apathy. This is where he is wrong. It is enlightenment.

December 27, 2017 7:35 pm

“There will have to be difficult decisions too–like cutting emissions from flying and meat eating.”
Clearly this calls for bean-powered aviation. No, wait, there’s CO2 in farts…

Bryan A
Reply to  Ronald P Ginzler
December 27, 2017 8:37 pm

Actually CH4 but burning it produces CO2 and H2O

gnomish
Reply to  Eric Worrall
December 27, 2017 11:12 pm

trust but verify! vid or it didn’t happend!
post the proof on liveleak.

Reply to  Eric Worrall
December 28, 2017 1:23 am

… commonly known as after-burners, a potentially very dangerous outcome following a few pints of Guinness!

Bryan A
Reply to  Eric Worrall
December 28, 2017 9:54 am

thomasjk
Reply to  Ronald P Ginzler
December 28, 2017 4:18 am

” No, wait, there’s CO2 in farts…” …….And methane — for God’s sake, don’t overlook or disregard the methane……Besides, without methane for pressure, would a fart still be a fart? And do you reckon that the millions of cattle that are living in the plains states today generate more methane than was being generated by the 60,000,000 or so buffalo who roamed the plains 200 years ago? Not to even mention the methane that was being generated by all the deer and the antelopes who were playing on the plains. I’m sure they were there — the song says so.

rckkrgrd
Reply to  Ronald P Ginzler
December 28, 2017 5:31 am

Don’t forget the stupid decisions ” a region known for its protests against fossil fuels now has an electricity generation plan to be ashamed of” https://goo.gl/2axquA

Mike
Reply to  Ronald P Ginzler
December 28, 2017 5:59 am

…..”There will have to be difficult changes too, like cutting emissions from flying and meat eating.”..
What about Vultures, Buzzards, Eagles etc?

R. Shearer
December 27, 2017 7:40 pm

Yes Virginia, there is a climate.

TA
Reply to  R. Shearer
December 28, 2017 8:05 pm

And yes Virginia, the climate does change, but nobody knows exactly why or how.

Those who claim they do know why and how are lying to you, Virginia.

Reply to  TA
December 28, 2017 9:58 pm

I believe that. in the future, if the causes are ever teased out, it will then become apparent that some individuals had it figured out by this time.
Or were, at the very least, on the right track.
Just because no one can really be very sure at this point does not necessarily mean no one has figured it out.
In this way the situation re germs and disease in the mid to later parts of the 19th century could be a close analogue.

mrmethane
December 27, 2017 7:52 pm

Sorta like whosit’s defeat of JV ISIS. Where has this guy been hiding out? What on earth (or the moon) does he call “reality”?

Richard
December 27, 2017 7:53 pm

Talk about denial….

gnomish
December 27, 2017 8:02 pm

these climate catamites have killed satire.
and the irony of the humorless BEING the joke somehow isn’t funny any more.

RAH
December 27, 2017 8:04 pm

People make a living writing this garbage? People really pay for this kind of crap? What a waste.

Reply to  RAH
December 27, 2017 8:07 pm

He’s pushing his book. Selling garbage. Very much like Naomi Oreskes did to push her MoD book a few years ago.

Reply to  Joel O’Bryan
December 28, 2017 11:53 am

“He’s pushing his book. Selling garbage.”
What’s the title? Is it by any chance
“What Happened … (to global warming)”.

commieBob
December 27, 2017 8:09 pm

When it comes to public opinion, the skeptics have won. In May, 2017, Gallup did a poll asking folks:

What do you think is the most important problem facing the country today?

As far as I can tell, nobody said anything about global warming or climate change.link

It is one thing to directly ask people about global warming. They will then offer an opinion. On the other hand, if you don’t prompt them, they won’t even think about climate change. Compared with all the other problems facing the nation, it just doesn’t count.

It’s an insult (or at least clueless) to accuse the population of apathy if they ignore your pet issue. The truth is that most Americans think the country has much more serious problems than climate change. The fact that the Democrat elite doesn’t understand that kind of thing is the reason President Trump won the election.

SMC
December 27, 2017 8:31 pm

Sounds like the author is trying to change the marketing meme. ‘Climate Denier’ hasn’t worked so lets try ‘Climate Apathy’. Calling people apathetic is less threatening and sounds less negative therefore it’ll get more traction and get people to join the Cause. If you coat your poison in a little honey it’ll be more palatable… At least that is my interpretation of what the author is trying to say. It’s still bovine scat.

Eugene S. Conlin
Reply to  SMC
December 28, 2017 4:44 am

Don’t underestimate Apathy SMC – Apathy would rule … if it could be bothered 😉

Editor
December 27, 2017 8:32 pm

Gotta love the switch-and-bait technique: “with vanishingly few people thinking it’s a hoax.”

Of course, that was always true — only a few real conspiracy-theory types thought it was a “hoax” — many of us, however, are quite convinced that the final results are not in yet, that the shenanigans revealed in the ClimateGate emails were very worrisome for the field, and that someday we may actually understand the climate and what it is doing and why.

Almost no real person believes in Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming anymore….it is only true in fairy tales and climate-scare propaganda.

JohnKnight
Reply to  Kip Hansen
December 27, 2017 11:08 pm

Kip,

“…with vanishingly few people thinking it’s a hoax.” . . Of course, that was always true — only a few real conspiracy-theory types thought it was a “hoax” —”

Hmm . .

“Almost no real person believes in Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming anymore….it is only true in fairy tales and climate-scare propaganda.”

. . hmm ; )

JohnKnight
Reply to  JohnKnight
December 28, 2017 12:52 am

A Schrodinger’s cat deal, it seems . . CAGW is in hoaxial superposition ; )

Moderately Cross of East Anglia
Reply to  JohnKnight
December 28, 2017 2:50 am

Re “fairy tales” he was clearly think of the totally ridiculous book for children published under Prince Charles’ name but apparently ghost written by the pompously absurd Tony Juniper. Both have zero credibility with the vast majority of people in the U.K.

Ben of Houston
Reply to  JohnKnight
December 28, 2017 5:17 am

It’s not a hoax, but it has been greatly exaggerated. Is that better, Sir John?

JohnKnight
Reply to  JohnKnight
December 28, 2017 12:06 pm

The exaggeration is the hoax, it seems to me, Ben . .

Reply to  JohnKnight
December 28, 2017 2:22 pm

These people are engaged in a massive telling of a web of lies for the purpose of enriching themselves and their cronies.
Which part of the definition of “hoax” has not been amply met?

Reply to  JohnKnight
December 28, 2017 2:27 pm

Oh, I am sorry, I got it mixed up with “scam”.
To be a hoax is a much lower bar:

hoax.
[hōks]
NOUN
1.a humorous or malicious deception

It is also clearly a scam:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraud
In law, fraud is deliberate deception to secure unfair or unlawful gain, or to deprive a victim of a legal right.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraud

Reply to  JohnKnight
December 28, 2017 2:28 pm

OK, I need to eat something after a day working before posting:

“scam Definition in the Cambridge English Dictionary
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/scam
scam definition, meaning, what is scam: an illegal plan for making money, especially one that involves tricking people:

gnomish
Reply to  JohnKnight
December 28, 2017 4:02 pm

SCAM may be an acronym
i was told that there was a manual at the FBI titled Sophisticated Criminal Activity Methodology
“scam” became common use among the US “drug culture” in early 1980 after Operation ABSCAM, an FBI sting operation directed at public officials, became public

TA
Reply to  Kip Hansen
December 28, 2017 8:23 pm

Anyone who claims Earth’s weather is being made worse because humans are burning fossil fuels is a believer in CAGW. That’s what CAGW means.

There are plenty of people who think humans have disturbed the natural order of things in the Earth’s atmosphere by burning fossil fuels. You see it every time there is an extreme weather event. The Alarmists claim humans are responsible. They are in effect claiming that CAGW is here and now and adversely affecting our lives now.

I don’t think you can say no real person believes in CAGW anymore. No, there are still lots of deluded people out there in the wide world who think human activity is already affecting the way the Earth’s climate behaves. That’s CAGW.

Editor
Reply to  TA
December 28, 2017 8:56 pm

TA ==> Just a technical point — the “C” in CAGW stands for CATASTROPHIC — thus catastrophic anthropogenic global warming.
There are a lot of folks, including most of us skeptical types, that think human activity has affected the climate of the planet, certainly locally in many cases. The disputed points are 1) How much? 2) By what mechanism? 3) In what ways? 4) Are changes beneficial or harmful? for who or what? etc.

TA
Reply to  TA
December 29, 2017 6:08 am

“TA ==> Just a technical point — the “C” in CAGW stands for CATASTROPHIC — thus catastrophic anthropogenic global warming.”

Kip, according to the Alarmists we are already experiencing human-caused catastrophic effects from the weather. No doubt you have read the MSM accounts of the last three hurricanes to hit the U.S., and nearly all of them claim the damage done was increased because humans have altered the atmosphere by injecting CO2 into it.

The Hurricanes and California wildfires are surely catastrophic for those affected, and the Alarmists are attributing the fires to human-caused Global Warming i.e., CAGW.

Anytime you say the weather was made worse because of human activity you are invoking CAGW.

Lewskannen
December 27, 2017 8:33 pm

I still deny that we have a climate.

Reply to  Lewskannen
December 28, 2017 4:02 pm

Weren’t you paying attention in 2017 … all the climate all the time. Harvey, Florida, tornados, hot and windy fast burning brush, other stuff.

If that doesn’t convince you that there is indeed a climate then you are beyond all hope.

(but, giving you the benefit of the doubt … maybe your apathy just didn’t allow you to pay attention to massive and obvious 2017 climate?)

Walter Sobchak
December 27, 2017 8:37 pm

I am not dead. And I still deny.

I deny that the so-called called climate record is a reliable record. I deny that the true record of the weather (as opposed to the ones cooked up by so-called “scientists”) supports a claim that the weather is measurably warmer now than it was in the first half of the 20th Century. I deny that climate models are anything other than mathematical masturbation. I deny that increasing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere has any ill effect on any biological system. I deny that the so called climate scientists are honest men. I deny that so called climate scientists have engaged in anything other than fear mongering. I deny that polar bears are in any danger from warmer weather in the arctic. I deny that sea levels are rising faster than they have in the recent past. I deny that so called “tropical” diseases have any causal relation with warmer weather. I deny that any of the weather events of the last year, or any other year are related to any changes in the general climate.

I affirm that the whole miserable theory of anthropogenic catastrophic global warming was created and advanced for the sole purpose of scarring people into surrendering their freedom, their property, and their prosperity to a global socialist government. I affirm that a warmer world is a happier, healthier, and more prosperous world. I affirm that CO2 is absolutely necessary for the existence of life on earth, and that we, and all other living things, are better off at 400 ppm than we were at 280 ppm. I affirm that it is more likely that the increase of CO2 in the atmosphere is due to the end of the Little Ice Age than it is due to human activity. I affirm that humanity would be far better off by the aggressive exploration of fossil fuel energy resources to bring prosperity to Africa and Asia, than it would be by any change in the general climate.

Please add your own denials and affirmations to this thread.

Reply to  Walter Sobchak
December 28, 2017 12:28 am

Well I agree with everything you have said (apart from scarring = scaring).

Walter Sobchak
Reply to  Phillip Bratby
December 28, 2017 7:16 am

I would fix the typo, if only Anthony would get us an edit function:-)

F. Leghorn
Reply to  Phillip Bratby
December 28, 2017 11:50 am

I disagree. I AM scarred. But I am not scared.

barryjo
Reply to  Walter Sobchak
December 28, 2017 7:04 am

Will someone please wake me when the climate doesn’t change?

Reply to  barryjo
December 28, 2017 3:22 pm

10-4 Mr. Van Winkle.

Moderately Cross of East Anglia
Reply to  Walter Sobchak
December 28, 2017 7:25 am

Excellently phrased and a pledge I’m happy to endorse and use Walter, thank you!

Jacob Frank
Reply to  Walter Sobchak
December 28, 2017 7:45 am

Ditto

Reply to  Walter Sobchak
December 28, 2017 3:17 pm

Except for this part:
“I deny that so called climate scientists have engaged in anything other than fear mongering.”
I think they have done a great deal more, and worse, than mere fear mongering.

Luc Ozade
Reply to  Walter Sobchak
December 28, 2017 7:42 pm

I will go along with all you wrote too, Walter. Now, where do I sign? Oh… here! OK – done.

Reply to  Walter Sobchak
December 29, 2017 9:05 am

Well said! May I quote you?

AndyG55
December 27, 2017 8:44 pm

I ask again, since I had no serious answers last time……..
(just some children posting stuff starting in the late 1970s , coldest period in 80 or more years)

1930s,40s were probably about the same temperature in the NH as they are now.

SH’s warmest period seems to have been around the late 1800s.

So, since those times, in what way has the climate changed?

(apart from becoming slightly more benign and liveable……..

although it seems NE USA is undergoing a “not so liveable” period of extreme cold at the moment)

Scottish Sceptic
Reply to  AndyG55
December 28, 2017 2:35 am

Since the 1930s there has been a dramatic change in climate. This change is easily seen on many old photos of towns and cities – where you will see that almost invariably on the sunny days when people brought out their cameras, it was impossible to see more than a few hundred meters into the smoke.

This change from burning smog creating fuels to that of burning cleaner fuels that started in the period called “the global cooling” scare and was largely completed just before we had the “global warming pause”, was one of the biggest changes in the climate in human history with a massive reduction in heat deflecting clouds within just a few decades.

And apparently if the academics were to be believed, it had no effect on the climate. Instead during this period all we saw was a rise in temperature due to CO2 that occurred between the global cooling scare of the 1970s to the global warming pause starting ~2000 – which is quite remarkable, because there was no sudden change in CO2 in this period. It didn’t decrease to cause the global cooling scare, and it didn’t stop rising when we got the pause. But I suppose academics know best (sarc off)

Reply to  Scottish Sceptic
December 28, 2017 4:50 am

Your last paragraph sums up the situation very well. The reduction in particulate carbon and aerosols such as sulphates, which arose from Clean Air Act and Anti-Acid Rain policies in the West from the 50’s onwards, reduced so called Solar Gloom: the reduction in solar energy reaching the Earth’s surface. The recorded temperature rises since then were in fact far more to do with this diminishing Solar Gloom effect than any CO2 rises.
Hansen shot himself in the foot when he desperately published his Paper based trying to explain “the Pause”, telling us this was very largely due to a recovery of this Solar Gloom effect from late 20th Century onwards increased Chinese uncontrolled fossil fuelled power stations emissions which arose during China’s late 20th Century escalating industrial expansion. He was, in fact, admitting Solar Gloom had far more effect on temperatures than any CO2 rises during this period. He failed to mention, or may not even have realised, that he was in fact agreeing with the non-CO2 cause of the later 20th Century increase in temperatures from such decreases in Solar Gloom. Was he seen hobbling around after publishing this Paper?

AndyG55
Reply to  Scottish Sceptic
December 28, 2017 12:17 pm

Ok, the “calculated global temperature” went down a bit then came back up a bit .

All within about ± 0.5ºC.. That’s margin of error sort of change. 🙂

Reply to  Scottish Sceptic
December 28, 2017 10:16 pm

For people that lived within a few large metropolitan population and industrial centers, there were no doubt many days of smoggy and hazy conditions brought about by burning stuff in a way that caused a lot of smoke and such, but there were vast areas of the Earth where this was never the case.

John F. Hultquist
December 27, 2017 8:44 pm

Someone should tell Leo these weather events are SOP for Earth.
The thing he is concerned about is supposed to happen about 2085, 2100, or 2150, or whenever RCP8.5 kicks in. Good luck there.
If he’s got a friend — can you see that he takes his meds?
Good, thanks.

TA
Reply to  John F. Hultquist
December 28, 2017 8:45 pm

Leo seems to think CAGW weather events are taking place today, not in 2085, 2100, or 2150. Leo says “2017 has left climate deniers with nowhere to go. Merciless hurricanes, heatwaves, floods, and droughts swept the planet all year,”.

And Leo has a lot of company in this fuzzy thinking. As far as your average Alarmist is concerned, CAGW is already here and doing damage.

High Treason
December 27, 2017 8:46 pm

Desperate claims to hold up what has been a spectacular bubble of lies, rhetoric and semantic manipulation.
Poor little diaper-soilers do not want to be caught out lying so they keep propping the lie up. When it finally comes crashing to earth like a hot air balloon vainly searching for the hot spot, there will be some serious soul searching with respect to how the lie was propped up for so long and why.
The People will not be too pleased they had been deceived and will be unlikely to want to believe the pathetic excuses that will come out the backsides of those that wanted to destroy our society because of their insane beliefs that they regarded as beyond question.
I for one am looking forward to the climate SHTF so we can chuck out Political Correctness (Cultural Marxism) along with it. Same heads which will roll the same.

eddie willers
December 27, 2017 9:19 pm

If denial were truly “vanquished”, there would be no apathy.

Apathy proves that “denial” won.

SAMURAI
December 27, 2017 9:33 pm

“The death of climate denial is one of the most under-appreciated stories of 2017.”

Yeah, right…

The reason “the death of climate denial” is under-appreciated is because it never happened…

Leftists believe the logical fallacis of argumentum ad nauseam, argumentum ad populum, post ergo propter hoc, and argumentum ad verecundiam will always be effective devices in getting people to accept lies as reality, but eventually the preponderance of empirical evidence overwhelm these brainwashing techniques.

Trump pulling out of the Paris Accord in June 2017 was the death knell for CAGW. Without the US, India and China paying CAGW extortion money, the remaining industrialized countries cannot politically and economically afford to increase taxes enough to cover the shortfall, especially with the competive advantage Trump’s tax-cut bill recently created.

Moreover, the disparity between CAGW global temp projections vs. reality have become so huge (already exceeding 2 standard deviations) the CAGW hypothesis has already become untenable.

CAGW is dead.

gnomish
Reply to  SAMURAI
December 28, 2017 7:47 pm

oh, climate cringe is just scratching the surface of the cult’s catechism.
take comfort in the knowledge that nobody in the world is buying it- it is strictly for domestic consumption.

白左(white Left)-White Liberal
圣母(Holy Mother)-third-wave feminists (European version)
圣母癌(Cancer Holy Mother)- Liberal NCO
喷青(spouting youth)-SJW

these are now common insults, apparently, and they all refer to the betamale, soyboy. fabianfags-
apparently merkel inspired the holy.mother slur. these burly macho orientals know a passive partner when they see one – it doesn’t take a trudeau level furry to be an obviously indecipherable pronoun.

there is practically nobody believing in the narrative- but there are many who wish to believe that others do as it is the only thing they have to sell apart from orogenital massage. this is not meant as metaphor, either- welcome to your millenial bonobo future. all those selfies are posing with lips made to look like little flowers for a reason.

Reply to  SAMURAI
December 28, 2017 10:23 pm

That fact that there are people on this very page who argue that there was no hoaxing or scamming or fraud, that is, no deliberate deception, no outright lies, no wild-eyed exaggerating, no purposeful miseducation of our children…that it is all some sort of a disagreement or mistake or ongoing uncertainty…THAT is the biggest reason that the whole charade continues to this day.
Anyone who has studied what has been going on and in any ways runs cover or let’s the fraudsters off the hook, even in any small way, is partially responsible for perpetuating the incredibly harmful, wasteful, and downright malicious evil which is being attempted.

RAH
Reply to  menicholas
December 28, 2017 10:55 pm

Yep. Believing this is not an organized scam requires the suspension of disbelief. Their projections are almost always dead wrong but whenever ANY extreme weather event occurs they show up like ambulance chasers claiming it backs their hypothesis

Toneb
Reply to  menicholas
December 29, 2017 6:39 am

“Their projections are almost always dead wrong ”

Err, do you have a time machine?
If so, what happened in 2050? 2100?
Do tell.
Including which RCP we followed such that these “projections” were wrong.

Some idiots said stupid things but why would you expect projections to be judgable now as CO2 concentration advances at just 2ppm/year?

Reply to  menicholas
December 29, 2017 9:34 am

menicholas:

That fact that there are people on this very page who argue that there was no hoaxing or scamming or fraud, that is, no deliberate deception, no outright lies, no wild-eyed exaggerating, no purposeful miseducation of our children…that it is all some sort of a disagreement or mistake or ongoing uncertainty…THAT is the biggest reason that the whole charade continues to this day.

My wife argues that we should not use such harsh, accusatory language, because many CAGW believers are genuinely concerned about the fate of The Planet, and have been convinced by the Environmental Left (not to mention the sainted Obama) that humanity must take action to eliminate the depredations of humanity that are destroying the Climate. After all, she says, they mean well, and we will never convince them otherwise by calling them names, as I am wont, like ‘dupes’ or ‘fools’. To which I reply that no amount of rational (i.e. empirical) argument will persuade them, as they are True Believers, and they have been told that an amazing ‘97% of scientists’ testify to their belief. But no, she says, we must use honey, not vinegar.

Contrariwise, I think menicholas is right: Neither honey nor vinegar will change the Believers, but we can indict the villains who created the hoax, and it is irresponsible not to.

/Mr Lynn (Walking Creek World)

Reply to  menicholas
December 29, 2017 9:46 am

My reply to menicholas went to moderation. I haven’t been here in a while. Is h.o.a.x still a trigger? /LEJ

gnomish
Reply to  menicholas
December 29, 2017 2:25 pm

“she says, we must use honey, not vinegar.”
but that’s how you draw the flies; not how you kill em.
feed em = breed em; and that’s the only way a parisite survives. they eat out your substance.
they’re not children to be cared for; they are a disease that infests and sickens.comment image

yarpos
December 27, 2017 9:42 pm

was last year particularly bad? I hadnt noticed

Reply to  yarpos
December 28, 2017 10:26 pm

That is because you are likely looking at the situation rationally, and comparing recent years to years in the past.
As such, you would never achieve success as a global warming catastrophist or mainstream “climate scientist”.
To be one of those, you need to either be. or pretend to be. completely ignorant of the past.

Toneb
Reply to  yarpos
December 29, 2017 6:41 am

“was last year particularly bad? I hadnt noticed”

You’re not expected to.
The clue is the G in AGW

We have scientists to do that.

Reply to  Toneb
December 29, 2017 3:15 pm

Haha!
You so funny!

Toneb
Reply to  Toneb
December 30, 2017 5:56 am

If you say so Menicholas.

Roger Knights
Reply to  yarpos
December 29, 2017 3:56 pm

The first half of 2017 was a below-average period for costly natural disasters, according to one of the European reinsurance companies.

ossqss
December 27, 2017 10:09 pm

Just talking about climate can be chilling for many!

https://mobile.twitter.com/RyanMaue/status/946208390849503234

1 2 3