Why some climate advocates shouldn’t have Twitter access

I almost labeled this a ‘Friday Funny’, but then I realized that this man needs help on many levels, and that label would be cruel. It also illustrates how climate advocacy is wrapped up in emotions, as Eric Holthaus seems equally emotional about his personal issues as he does climate.

 

Above is a screencap. The original source for the Tweet is here.

The moral of this story? Don’t tweet while drunk, and don’t announce your drunkenness to the world. The follow up moral is that after your hangover clears, have the good sense to delete your tweet 13 hours later.

 

0 0 votes
Article Rating
172 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Tom Halla
June 1, 2018 10:06 am

Schadenfreude!

wws
Reply to  Tom Halla
June 1, 2018 3:44 pm

His wife made a big mistake 5 years ago, but at least she’s correcting it. You GO girl!!!

michael hart
Reply to  wws
June 1, 2018 10:40 pm

May 13, 2018 quoted on WUWT
Eric Holthaus-“Over the past several months, I’ve stopped talking about climate change with my parents, my wife, and my sister in order to avoid heated dialogue about what I think is the most important issue in the world.”

michael hart May 13, 2018 at 4:53 am
I have some advice. But it’s for his long suffering wife.

oldfossil
Reply to  wws
June 2, 2018 10:56 am

She’s divorcing him because he’s not alarmist enough.

Reply to  Tom Halla
June 1, 2018 9:45 pm

I don’t like kicking anyone when they are down. It is cowardly and it is wrong.

However, note that Eric lives in Minnesota, which is just south of Manitoba, the coldest province in Canada. After this absolutely brutal (cold, long) winter we just survived, it must be really difficult for any objective Minnesotan to believe in catastrophic manmade global warming.

Crop planting is about one month late across the prairies and there may even still be snow on the ground in the woods.

Given the plethora of credible evidence that climate sensitivity to increasing atmospheric CO2 is quite low, no more than approx. 1C/(2xCO2) and probably much less, there is no logical reason to believe in a global warming crisis – NONE!

I am therefore of the opinion that those who cling to the failed hypothesis of global warming alarmism are mentally ill – brainwashed by the constant media bombardment of warmist bullsh!t that never ceases.

“If it bleeds, it leads!” is the motto of the media, and rerunning endless stories of global warming is an easy to gain readership – also, some people are just not happy unless they get their daily dose of climate misery.

So seriously Eric – repeat 1000 times: “The global warming crisis does not exist! This is good news!“ You are deprogramming yourself – purging your system of all that warmist propaganda – keep it up and you may find yourself getting gradually happier. This is one needless stress in your soul – get rid of it!

Regards, Allan

Greg
Reply to  ALLAN MACRAE
June 1, 2018 11:19 pm

I don’t like kicking anyone when they are down. It is cowardly and it is wrong.

Agreed, make snide remarks about someone’s personal difficulties because you disagree with with their politics is a mean and feeble act.

His obsession with climate alarmism seems to have strained his relationship with family and friends too. He should spend more time on WUWT and get an alternative to the constant hype. He would get a more balanced view and probable start feeling better.

zazove
Reply to  ALLAN MACRAE
June 2, 2018 12:03 am

“I don’t like kicking anyone when they are down. It is cowardly and it is wrong.”

However, I’m going to anyway.

Hivemind
Reply to  zazove
June 2, 2018 12:38 am

When it is disgusting, diseased people like this, yes. Kick away.

Reply to  Hivemind
June 2, 2018 2:18 am

zazove and hivemind

IF Eric is sincere in his comments, he is in a terrible emotional state. My comments, while direct, even blunt, were intended to help him.

I recently was asked to assist a man who was going through a terrible experience, in which criminal conduct by his ex-wife and her lawyer, in collaboration with corrupt police officers, had caused great harm to his children and him – it was an extreme case of the “Silver Bullet” child abduction, child abuse and extortion scam.

This man was so stressed he was almost incoherent, and was hurting his own case. My solution was adjourn the courtroom for a few minutes to instruct him very strongly to focus on the desired outcome – for him and his kids. It worked, is spite of continued criminal conduct of his ex-wife and her lawyer.

In my experience, when people are in great distress, they often can only be helped with blunt direction – do this, and don’t do that. Get the immediate problem solved, and sort out the “feelings” later.

It’s kind of like being first-on-the-scene at a car crash – I’ve done that twice. Fix the immediate problem: triage, limit further physical harm, get help. Some people are so busy providing emotional support that the patient bleeds out. (Sort out the feelings later.)

Sara
Reply to  ALLAN MACRAE
June 2, 2018 6:27 am

Alan, my reaction to Mr. Holthaus’s dilemma is that his wife is fed up with his obsessive behavior about something over which he has NO control, as well as his misbehavior – getting drunk and making it a public item – and thinks he’s a moron.

He brought this nonsense and the dissolution of his marriage on himself. He has to get himself out of it.

I’d take the internet away from him and allow him to read only 1950s comics like SGT Rock and Green Lantern and Supergirl, plus all of Heinlein’s books for teens and Isaac Asimov’s ‘Lucky Starr’ series. That might snap him out of it.

Also, he has to quit drinking. Period. Having a cat to take care of would do him good, too. I’d add taking care of a vegetable garden to that, too. Doses of the real world are very beneficial.

He brought it on himself. No sympathy from me at all.

Reply to  Sara
June 2, 2018 6:38 am

The cat suggestion is spot on, and alcohol never helps depression.

D. J. Hawkins
Reply to  Sara
June 2, 2018 9:32 am

He brought it on himself. No sympathy from me at all.

As my father used to say, particularly after having given me relevant advice, “There is no sympathy for self-inflicted injuries.”

tsk tsk
Reply to  Sara
June 2, 2018 9:50 am

Asimov is at his heart an authoritarian socialist. Never recommend him to anyone.

Tom in Florida
Reply to  tsk tsk
June 2, 2018 11:55 am

That is ridiculous.

kaliforniakook
Reply to  tsk tsk
June 2, 2018 1:02 pm

I take it you’ve never read his Foundation series.

Sara
Reply to  tsk tsk
June 2, 2018 1:06 pm

Politics aside, the Lucky Starr series was an adventure series aimed at tweens. I loved it. It was mostly set in space, with problem-solving by the protagonist and his sidekick Bigman Jones.
The only thing I didn’t understand was Asimov’s continued references to fake food being grown as yeast cultures in huge vats. It sounded gross and disgusting, because it made no sense.

Reply to  Sara
June 2, 2018 10:44 am

Good advice Sara. When I was grinding through my first Engineering degree, I kept sane by reading Marvel comics. I recently came across some of them – including Fantastic Four issues 1 and 2!

I retired one year ago from the Board of Directors of the largest homeless shelter in North America – one might say that most of the 1200 people we cared for every night had self-inflicted injuries.

Life is imperfect. People are imperfect.

No man is an island, alone of itself;
Every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;
If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is diminished, even as a promontory were,
even as a manor of thy friends or of thine own were;
Any man’s death concerns me, because I am concerned with mankind.
And therefore send not to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee.

MEDITATION XVII
Devotions upon Emergent Occasions
John Donne, 1624

Sara
Reply to  ALLAN MACRAE
June 2, 2018 1:33 pm

The real problem, Alan, is that people like Holthaus have no religious or spiritual beliefs to fall back on when things go sour. The entire Climate Alarmism fallacy has been built on taking advantage of people whose lack of faith of any kind (for whatever reason) leaves them with an empty spot in the part of the mind that looks for a connection to the Universe or the gods or God on High, or even Gaia. They don’t even have a mild form of zen to fall back on when things go sour.

There are too many people like Holthaus who are being misled by people like Gore, whose only intention is to acquire a large group of followers that they think will believe them without question. If the part of the brain that questions the illogic of things is squelched, then you have a mass movement like the CAGWers and Warmians or those poor souls who followed Jim Jones to Guyana and lost their lives to his ability to mislead them.

The common theme coming out of people like Holthaus is ‘I believe in –‘ which implies that it is a near-religious experience addressing the part of the brain that requires a belief system of some kind to fall back on when things go sour.

The effect in religion is an epiphany. With drug addicts, it is getting a high. Same thing. I’ve run into this in people who suddenly found religion and were trying to convert everyone they saw to it, because no matter what you grew up with, theirs was better. They could not be persuaded otherwise, nor could they understand how offensive they were to people who grew up in other faiths.

The fact that Holthaus has annoyed his own family by proselytizing endlessly about climate change indicates that it has acquired a religious or spiritual form of some kind. That makes it more dangerous than it would be if it were simply about discussing atmospheric chemistry and the effects of jet trails. If it is science, why is it becoming corrupted into a pseudo-religious anomaly that requires unquestioning agreement/obedience or you will be punished as a nonbeliever?

Holthaus does indeed need counseling, because this false belief system is destroying his life. He’d be far better off if he went to church or sat the zazen and meditated, instead of following this addiction to a false religion that is, by his own account, contributing to the destruction of what he should value the most.

Just my view on this mess called climate change and what it does to people’s minds.

Reply to  ALLAN MACRAE
June 2, 2018 1:45 pm

No arguments here Sara – all good points. I recently wrote this:

https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/05/your-tax-dollars-at-work-study-posits-how-space-aliens-might-solve-climate-change/#comment-2366965

There seems to be an audience for this sort of nonsense.

Ever notice how some people just love a new idea, no matter how crazy it is? They tend to be young, teenagers and young adults, self-styled “Progressives”, but some people retain this extreme form of naivety all their lives.

They just want to be “special” – they want to think they are more open and thus more intelligent than their peers, but their fatal flaw is they fail to examine the evidentiary basis and the credibility of the hypothesis they have adopted – that would be too much like real intelligence; too much like real work.

[end of rant]

Sara
Reply to  ALLAN MACRAE
June 2, 2018 3:23 pm

I read that excerpt from the Atlantic article, started giggling at the ridiculous conceit of its author, and made some comments on that, as well.
And you’re right – it is the conceit that they are “one better”, that they just know more, or that the whole thing is special somehow, that draws them, but their failure lies in not looking at the flip side of that coin.

Barbara Skolaut
Reply to  Sara
June 3, 2018 12:05 pm

“Having a cat to take care of would do him good, too”

Poor kitty.

Greg
Reply to  Tom Halla
June 1, 2018 11:07 pm

More to be pitied than scorned.

This is a classic example of the state of mind some people are getting into when they buy into all this thermogeddon BS. It is a real and serious psychological problem.

Since Eric Hothaus apparently believes that the whole thing will be “locked in” in a matter of mere months. Perhaps he will them be able to accept that is the way it will be and get on with his life.

However, I strongly suspect that he will be back in “mere months ” wailing and screaming that we still have a little time to adopt his world view and do something to “save the world”.

Paul Penrose
June 1, 2018 10:08 am

What a depressing world view he has.

Sheri
Reply to  Paul Penrose
June 1, 2018 1:35 pm

Agreed. A very sad and depressed person.

Greg
June 1, 2018 10:11 am

Maybe if he wasn’t such a doom and gloom, the end if nigh type his other issues may not exist?

Bryan A
Reply to  Greg
June 1, 2018 2:03 pm

Wait a minute…Are you saying that if he wasn’t such a Climate Pessimist he wouldn’t be a drunken mess??… That’s it, “Climate Change will destroy everything”…Now where is that keg of beer??

Crispin in Waterloo but really in Beijing
Reply to  Greg
June 1, 2018 9:56 pm

Looking one the bright side, he made a falsifiable prediction, eh? At least he is taking the bull by the horns. How many others are willing to put a short timeline of a catastrophic vision?

The question is what will he do if the prophecy fails? Let’s not pre-judge. A follow-up is in order, methinks.

schitzree
Reply to  Crispin in Waterloo but really in Beijing
June 2, 2018 3:15 am

I sincerely hope he isn’t expecting the impending apocalypse proving him right to save his marriage.

Sara
Reply to  Greg
June 2, 2018 6:33 am

You left out ‘boring, simplistic and obsessive’.

Drop him off in the woods some place and see if he still thinks the world is doomed.

Jeffrey Mitchell
Reply to  Greg
June 4, 2018 9:51 pm

It looks as if he is correct about climate change destroying his world. Climate change has destroyed him personally. Yes, he brought it upon himself. Unless he changes, there is nothing we can do.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the 2016 election, and perhaps a thought or two about it may be applicable here. When I read the news or my facebook feed, all I could see from the Democrats were attacks on my values and moral character. They demonized Republicans, and by extension, me, as racists, xenophobes, homophobes, islamaphobes, greedy, hateful, etc. There was nothing they offered that made my life or freedom better. I can’t imagine switching sides to be allies with that kind of hate. All I could think about it was they didn’t need or care about us deplorables*.

Many comments in this thread are kicking him when he is down. I would suggest that while he is down, that we give him support and show him that we aren’t the mean nasty people he makes us out to be. I would like to invite him to join us, and start anew. All he has to do is correct his incorrect beliefs. That may be too difficult for him, but I’d like us to try anyway. I’d like to see us with something to offer other than bashing him alongside the head with a two by four. The bashing won’t change his mind.

I’d propose tweeting empathy and mentioning that while we disagree with his climate positions, that we can empathize with him in his current downturn. Whatever his political views, divorce is hard. Drinking makes it harder, but it is a way to escape reality for awhile. I’d take this tweet of his and try to turn it into an opportunity to offer him some goodwill. It may not accomplish anything, but you never know.

*Proud to be deplorable btw.

Albert
June 1, 2018 10:13 am

Perhaps divorces are also caused by climate change. Let me see if I can get a grant to study this.

SMC
Reply to  Albert
June 1, 2018 11:15 am

Ah! So that’s why the missus left me and cleaned out the house. Climate Change and that magically evil CO2 molecule… It all becomes clear now.

Albert
Reply to  SMC
June 1, 2018 11:19 am

CO2 over 400 PPM increases risks of alcoholism as well.

ShrNfr
Reply to  Albert
June 1, 2018 12:05 pm

It’s those evil yeast things releasing CO2.

Reply to  Albert
June 1, 2018 1:17 pm

Dumbest drunk stunt I ever pulled in college involved a rock hammer, an empty light socket hanging from the ceiling of my dorm’s hallway, and the brilliant idea that I could impersonate Thor.

This was way back in the Pleistocene (1970’s) when both CO2 and the drinking age were lower… so don’t blame CO2… and we didn’t have Twitter back then… or smart phones… or anything smarter than a TI-55… or was it a 58?…😎

Rhee
Reply to  David Middleton
June 1, 2018 2:15 pm

it was likely a TI-30, with the faux denim-painted vinyl case

Chuck in Houston
Reply to  Rhee
June 7, 2018 12:44 pm

Still got my TI-30 and it still works.

eyesonu
Reply to  David Middleton
June 1, 2018 2:23 pm

Maybe it was a TI-50 or even a 42

MarkW
Reply to  David Middleton
June 1, 2018 4:10 pm

My first real calculator was an HP-41C.
You ain’t calculating unless you are using RPN.

Hivemind
Reply to  David Middleton
June 2, 2018 12:41 am

Mine was a Texas Instruments SR-50. It was a lovely device.

Steve Borodin
Reply to  David Middleton
June 2, 2018 1:55 am

Mine was a slide rule – less batteries.

jakee308
Reply to  David Middleton
June 2, 2018 3:38 am

Alternating voltage of sufficient current can cause rapid brain cell entropy.

The beer probably saved you.

Reply to  David Middleton
June 2, 2018 5:41 am

That and the rubber coated handle of my Estwing.

D. J. Hawkins
Reply to  David Middleton
June 2, 2018 9:36 am

Middleton;

So, did you utter that classic line, “Here, hold my beer” beforehand? 🙂

Phil Rae
Reply to  David Middleton
June 2, 2018 6:51 pm

The HP-41C’s predecessor, the HP-67 was the business…..and because u could only program 224 instructions in its memory, it taught discipline when coding. The HP-41C was a great machine too – I still have mine – but its much bigger memory favoured sloppy, less elegant code. Just my opinion, of course! : ]

Randle Dewees
Reply to  David Middleton
June 4, 2018 3:39 am

Still have and use two hp15C’s, and there is a 11C lurking around here somewhere, my wife cooped it years ago. Wonderful machines. My 41 is up in Alaska, hopefully repaired now and cranking away.

Alan Tomalty
Reply to  Albert
June 1, 2018 6:11 pm

Normally I love watching the Bloomberg carbon clock tick up but these days I get depressed because it’s late spring and it is losing CO2, but then I remember that it is photosynthesis time and the plants are eating it up so I get happy again. Boy, do those plants love that CO2. By late summer the carbon clock will tick up again and all will be well again cause there will be more CO2 in the air for the plants to use for next spring photosynthesis time. We need more CO2 NOT less

Bryan A
Reply to  SMC
June 1, 2018 12:06 pm

was it the daily emissions of CO2 or the nightly emissions of CH4?

SMC
Reply to  Bryan A
June 1, 2018 1:18 pm

Well, CH4 is supposed to be a 1000 times (or some such multiplier) more powerful as a greenhouse gas than CO2 so could be, could be. Have to think about it. :))

Tom in Florida
Reply to  SMC
June 2, 2018 12:03 pm

People separate because they end up preferring breathing in CO2 from someone else.

June 1, 2018 10:14 am

If he was a good scientist he wouldn’t be so sure about what is happening with the climate and its cause. Hypotheses consistent with the evidence are not necessarily correct. A good scientist always entertains the possibility of being wrong.

And if he wasn’t so sure he wouldn’t be so worried as to make it a personal problem.

If he didn’t make it a personal problem it wouldn’t add to his other personal problems and his life would look better to him.

Our own worst enemy is within us, and yes, he is in power.

Felix
Reply to  Javier
June 1, 2018 10:27 am

Catastrophic man-made “climate change” is not consistent with the evidence. Indeed, all the evidence in the world shows this baseless conjecture false.

CACA is an anti-scientific delusion.

PiperPaul
Reply to  Felix
June 1, 2018 4:09 pm

CACA is an anti-scientific but very profitable (for some) delusion.

Sara
Reply to  Felix
June 2, 2018 6:45 am

CACA truly belongs in the cacatorium. The Romans knew how to dispose of such things. 🙂

Reply to  Javier
June 1, 2018 6:29 pm

The voices in his head are apparently in power.

John Bell
June 1, 2018 10:15 am

AH! but making alcoholic beverages must be bad for Gaia somehow, so sober up!

Felix
Reply to  John Bell
June 1, 2018 10:29 am

The process produces CO2, but then, so does baking bread.

Myron
Reply to  Felix
June 1, 2018 10:46 am

There is a Miller brewery right next to a Mrs. Baird’s bakery in Ft. Worth, TX. You can definitely smell the yeast in the air. I like to say whenever I drive past it, “Man cannot live by bread alone. That’s why we have beer.”

Carbon Bigfoot
Reply to  Myron
June 2, 2018 4:17 am

And that’s why American males have high BMIs and beer bellies. See where you fit in:
https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/educational/lose_wt/BMI/bmicalc.htm

Sara
Reply to  Myron
June 2, 2018 6:49 am

I love the smell of baking bread. It is perfume to my senses. But some individual with a brain the size of a pea decided in the 1980s that a commercial bakery (Holsum) several blocks over was polluting the air with that wonderful scent and had the bakery shut down.

I just do not understand people like that, or like Holthaus. The negativisim is really, really bad stuff for anyone.

Felix
Reply to  Felix
June 1, 2018 11:06 am

Beer is liquid bread, with the CO2 and alcohol left in.

For extra calories, so that it’s like bread with sugar or syrup on it.

Thank God for fungi!

Bryan A
Reply to  Felix
June 1, 2018 12:07 pm

Who you callin’ a FunGuy?

Reply to  Felix
June 1, 2018 1:21 pm

So… beer is French Toast… no wonder I like French Toast… 🤣

Bryan A
Reply to  David Middleton
June 1, 2018 2:05 pm

Beer is Bread, It becomes French Toast if you add an Egg and a little cinnamon

Reply to  David Middleton
June 1, 2018 3:44 pm

Bryan A June 1, 2018 at 2:05 pm
Beer is Bread, It becomes French Toast if you add an Egg and a little cinnamon

So….when they wake up a vegan can have a beer but not French Toast for breakfast?

Reply to  David Middleton
June 2, 2018 5:55 am

If you add egg, cheese and Canadian bacon… an Egg McMuffin!

Sara
Reply to  David Middleton
June 2, 2018 6:54 am

Add nice, crispy bacon, butter and maple syrup, and grab a fork.

MarkMcD
Reply to  John Bell
June 1, 2018 5:29 pm

Sober up? That’s a hard call. I try my best to fight AGW by making sure I drink all the beer before all the bubbles escape into the atmosphere… 😀

I’d like to stay sober but my activism demands my sacrifice.

Reply to  MarkMcD
June 1, 2018 6:31 pm

I’ll drink to that.

Ron Long
June 1, 2018 10:16 am

I laughed out loud when I read his tweet – I guess that makes me cruel? I think you are in a no-win situation with this guy, caught between being an enabler in craziness and just waiting for the end of the world. I think I will go play golf.

Reply to  Ron Long
June 1, 2018 1:50 pm

I laugh my ass off every time Snowflake Holthaus whines on the Internet.

WXcycles
Reply to  David Middleton
June 2, 2018 7:55 am

While the lungs in his guilty little chest are mini CO2 factories … oh the humanity.

Gary
June 1, 2018 10:19 am

Clear-headed self-understanding ought to be a skill taught early in life. Twitter is not a vehicle for the journey.

Sunsettommy
Reply to  Gary
June 1, 2018 11:44 am

I don’t have twitter account, and left Facebook because it is more fun to debate warmists in forums, moderate three websites and still have time to visit the Athletic Club

Keen Observer
Reply to  Gary
June 1, 2018 11:54 am

His choice was to adapt to new information or break his brain. So he broke his brain, because his ego/worldview couldn’t allow anything else.

Rob Dawg
June 1, 2018 10:23 am

The more distressing aspect is warmists thinking of people who disagree with them on the complex issue of AGW as enemies.

Edwin
Reply to  Rob Dawg
June 1, 2018 10:46 am

Rob, That is true of almost every leftist belief. If you are not devoted to the orthodoxy, whatever it might be on any given day, then you are evil or worse. They call conservatives Nazis but how the left reacts to those that do not agree with them is the exact same mindset that Germans needed if they were to survive under National Socialism.

Anyway this guy probably also took Ambien before tweeting. Apparently the problem is going around.

LarryD
Reply to  Rob Dawg
June 1, 2018 10:51 am

But that is a trait of Progressives, because narcissism. “I am Obviously Correct, therefore any who disagree are either evil or whacko.”
I remember a time when you could debate most Progressives. I am an old man, it was long ago.

pochas94
Reply to  Rob Dawg
June 1, 2018 11:03 am

Progressives are slow learners, and what they know they learned from the drunk sitting next to them at the bar.

Sara
Reply to  Rob Dawg
June 2, 2018 7:03 am

He is a depressing sort to have to pay attention to.

I doubt it would do anything to him at all to be forced to take daily hikes on trails in any forest preserve because instead of paying attention to the thick growth of underbrush, or the wildflowers and birds and bugs, or even recognizing that the frogs so cleverly camouflaged by their coloring and spots, while they sit on logs sunning themselves – all of it has a purpose, which we can all recognize – he would be whining about being forced to be there, possibly catching West Nile virus from a passing bird, or encephalitis from a mosquito bite or Lyme disease from a tick.

He is so wrapped up in his own misery that the wonderful world we live on doesn’t exist for him. He is blind to it, blind to what it does FOR us and blind to its benefits. If there is a cure for that blindness, it might be lost in the woods where he never goes, and he’ll never find it.

Drunk, blind and stupid is no way to go through life.

R2Dtoo
Reply to  Sara
June 3, 2018 6:27 am

The world needs more tackle boxes – and fewer X-boxes!

Adam Gallon
June 1, 2018 10:33 am

Has the poor man no real friends? Reminds me of this cartoon. http://jasonalba.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/facebook_friends_funeral.png

June 1, 2018 10:37 am

Eric Holthaus:
We have mere months before we lock in irreversible planetary change.

This fallacy from the late 80’s has already been debunked:

17. Time running up predictions

1989 Noel Brown, director of the New York office of the U.N. Environment Program (UNEP) says that within the next 10 years, given the present loads that the atmosphere has to bear, we have an opportunity to start the stabilizing process. Associated Press. June 29, 1989

2006 NASA scientist James Hansen says the world has a 10-year window of opportunity to take decisive action on global warming and avert catastrophe.
NBC News. September 14, 2006

2007 U.N. Scientists say only eight years left to avoid worst effects
The Guardian. May 5 2007

Reality check:

Since February 2016 the world has been cooling, and has lost about 0.2°C in annual average, so it does not look as if we only have mere months.

Reply to  Javier
June 1, 2018 3:55 pm

Javier,
Actually, he’s … sort of … partly … correct.
Climate change is irreversible. It’s NATURAL!
About all Man could do to change it would be to set off all the world’s nukes producing a nuclear winter.
(Theoretically)

John Endicott
June 1, 2018 10:39 am

“We have mere months before we lock in irreversible planetary change, no one seems to care about the biggest problem in human history”

No one seems to care because it’s simply not true. There’s no evidence supporting his CAGW delusions.

commieBob
June 1, 2018 10:40 am

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt. Lincoln/Twain/Mother Goose/Bible

The main reason I post anonymously is that members of my extended family have run afoul of SJWs. It’s not an experience I would wish on my worst enemy. Another reason I post anonymously is that I occasionally say things that are grindingly stupid. 🙂

afonzarelli
Reply to  commieBob
June 1, 2018 10:47 am

That’s pretty rare, Bob. (your comments are consistently the best)…

Gums
Reply to  afonzarelli
June 1, 2018 12:33 pm

No kissing up, Fon!!

Gums sends..

commieBob
Reply to  Gums
June 1, 2018 2:23 pm

A kind remark is always appreciated.

PiperPaul
Reply to  afonzarelli
June 1, 2018 4:18 pm

Yeah, Bob’s OK. For a commie.

Ed Zuiderwijk
June 1, 2018 10:48 am

Methinks I know why he is getting divorced. His soon to be ex wife is a realist who doesn’t want to continue with a guy who has lost the plot.

Reply to  Ed Zuiderwijk
June 1, 2018 11:11 am

I think Dr. Jordan Peterson would frame it differently.

Holthaus’s wife probably wanted a competent partner who wasn’t essentially a wimp, running from imaginary hobgoblins.

It is the plight that adherence to the Lunatic Left’s adoption of speech codes and “gender normative roles” has wrought upon the beta males of the Left.

Recently actor James Caan, certainly someone on the Left, but also someone who has always been an alpha male in his world lamented a larger issue. “He’s suggesting that the rules of the road when it comes to men and women have changed, and he thinks it defies natural instinct.”

https://www.tmz.com/2018/05/25/james-caan-morgan-freeman-sexual-misconduct-men-women/

Felix
Reply to  Joel O'Bryan
June 1, 2018 11:14 am

Holthaus is an Omega “male”.

Reply to  Felix
June 1, 2018 1:56 pm

+ ΔΤΧ

drednicolson
Reply to  Felix
June 1, 2018 3:07 pm

To be a tad risque, his balls have been in his wife’s purse for a good while and they’re starting to smell.

afonzarelli
June 1, 2018 10:48 am

Test…

Jeff Alberts
Reply to  afonzarelli
June 2, 2018 7:52 am

What do you get when you multiply 6 by 9?

June 1, 2018 10:52 am

Wow! I guess the choice is to wallow in misery over something that has never happened (runaway global warming), or go outside and enjoy the beautiful weather we’re having today. I don’t know what the weather is like where he lives, but I would bet it’s nothing new. Doesn’t seem like a hard choice to me. This strikes me as a mental problem being self medicated with alcohol. He’s depressed that people aren’t following him down the drain.

drednicolson
Reply to  Hoyt Clagwell
June 1, 2018 5:46 pm

Misery has a love/hate relationship with company.

jorgekafkazar
Reply to  Hoyt Clagwell
June 1, 2018 6:32 pm

Another possibility: withdrawal from adrenaline addiction after repeatedly overdosing on righteous dudgeon. No joke.

afonzarelli
June 1, 2018 10:53 am

Any body else having trouble posting comments? i’m losing about two out of three. (must be getting lost in the fog of the new cloud)…

afonzarelli
Reply to  afonzarelli
June 1, 2018 11:08 am

Some show up on time, others late, still others not at all. (the shorter the comment the better)…

Albert
Reply to  afonzarelli
June 1, 2018 11:55 am

I’ve made 2 comments under the new system, seems to be working perfectly for me.

Reply to  afonzarelli
June 2, 2018 2:28 am

I agree Fonz – short comments show up quickly. Long ones, especially those with lots of url’s go into the spam filter, and usually appear after several hours.

With the new server, old posts lose their vertical spacing, some graphics no longer display, but these are minor problems. The big problem is references to wattsup url’s no longer work – you get to the article but not to the posting. It would be great if this feature were fixed.

Best personal regards, Allan

J Mac
Reply to  afonzarelli
June 1, 2018 4:15 pm

afonz,
My comments disappear when I hit the ‘Post Comment’ button and they show up in the proper queue after about 5 minutes delay.
I don’t see any ‘edit’ buttons at all.

I have tried using various browsers (Edge, Explorer, and Firefox, with Java active and inactive where allowed) without any improvement. MS Edge and MS Explorer both ran WUWT blog much slower than Firefox so I’m running Firefox for now.

Reply to  J Mac
June 1, 2018 4:32 pm

J Mac,
I don’t know why you don’t see the “Edit” option but the 5 minute delay is the window to edit a comment.
Maybe something on your end is preventing you from seeing your comment on your screen while “Edit” is available?
(A Layman on the learning curse)

Sara
Reply to  J Mac
June 2, 2018 7:10 am

I use Google because I detest MSN’s browser. I have no issues with seeing graphics or photos (so far) or finding my comments showing up. If something is long, it takes a little time, but I do see the ‘edit’ button, and occasionally use it. Well, sometimes I use it. Well, sometimes a lot. Okay I use it all the time.

I need a hug.

D. J. Hawkins
Reply to  J Mac
June 2, 2018 9:43 am

@J Mac;

I use Firefox under Windows Vista and the comments post after about 20 seconds and the 5 minute edit clock is available. I’ve also successfully edited comments.

afonzarelli
June 1, 2018 10:55 am

Anybody else having problems posting comments? (mine must be getting lost in the fog of the new cloud)…

Reply to  afonzarelli
June 1, 2018 4:11 pm

I’m getting used to it.
Where the “Reply” is, at first I saw a blue star followed by “…Loading”, yet, I could still reply.
Some mentioned seeing a “like” button but I’ve never seen it.
Some of the bugs might be on the new system’s end, some might be on the commentator’s end. Some of the “bugs” are just a learning curve in adjusting.
(And, of course, The Mod Squad and the bit bin are still out there.8-)

Reply to  Gunga Din
June 1, 2018 4:43 pm

“Some of the “bugs” are just a learning curve in adjusting.”
I’ve noticed that, it seems, if I reply to a different comment or go to a different post before the 5 minutes are up, I won’t be able to see my original reply.

Reply to  Gunga Din
June 1, 2018 4:54 pm

But I’ve just noticed that I didn’t see my reply or the edit option show up in my added “reply” to my “reply” until the 5 minutes were up.

(But this time I did and have used the edit option to add this parenthesis.
This site is worth dealing with a few bugs to root out the REAL bugs in “the system”.8-)

Reply to  Gunga Din
June 1, 2018 5:05 pm

*SIGH*
Even with the Edit option, it seems I’ll remain the King of Typos.

(But this time I did and have used the edit option to add this parenthesis.
This site is worth dealing with a few bugs to root out the REAL bugs in “the system”.8-)

Should be:
“(But this time I did see and have used the edit option to add this parenthesis.
This site is worth dealing with a few bugs to root out the REAL bugs in “the system”.8-)

Yirgach
June 1, 2018 10:55 am
eyesonu
Reply to  Yirgach
June 1, 2018 2:37 pm

Perhaps just regular BM. Glycerin suppositories and Fleets enemas may help. Can’t hurt!

ozspeaksup
Reply to  eyesonu
June 2, 2018 4:08 am

well hes full-of-it for sure;-) 😉
sounds like a good place to start
the old joke about the controller of the body being the sphincter etc
lol
seriously this sad excuse enjoys his misery i reckon
has he EVER posted anything at all positive?
i dont do the social doodads so have no idea what his priors are except for the pathetic, self obsessed, maunderings Ive seen of his posted here

June 1, 2018 11:04 am

Part of me empathizes with his plight. Divorce sucks.

But tweeting?

Just another piece of evidence how TDS and the avoidance of the pain that cognitive dissonance brings is tearing apart the weak minds on the Left.

Chuck in Houston
Reply to  Joel O'Bryan
June 7, 2018 12:50 pm

Any competent divorce attorney would have advised him to stay off social media for the duration. This advice required a competent client to be effective.

The Other Brad
June 1, 2018 11:08 am

Reading some of the comments is even more depressing. Someone actually replied “Drink some water. Trust me on this.” Now there’s some wisdom sharing for a guy with a miserable world view getting a divorce.

Yirgach
Reply to  The Other Brad
June 1, 2018 11:28 am

I did like the Bill Evans “Peace Piece” comment, lord knows he needs it:

The Other Brad
Reply to  Yirgach
June 1, 2018 12:42 pm

I’m not an aficionado but that is quite an extraordinary piano piece. Made me sit still for the duration. Thanks for sharing.

J Mac
Reply to  Yirgach
June 1, 2018 1:32 pm

Wonderful! A perfect example of ‘less is more’!

Latitude
June 1, 2018 11:11 am

….I read the replies

Hugs
Reply to  Latitude
June 2, 2018 12:34 pm

Oh profit. They’re priceless. Everybody seems to like Eric, why might be that?

Robert W Turner
June 1, 2018 11:13 am

Something about Twitter drops the user IQ by 50 points. Maybe it’s in the name.

Reply to  Robert W Turner
June 1, 2018 11:15 am

Which is why everyone who supports Trump wants him to get off Twitter. It ain’t helping at this point.

drednicolson
Reply to  Joel O'Bryan
June 1, 2018 5:50 pm

But it’s so much fun to trigger the twitterati…

TonyL
June 1, 2018 11:24 am

It may be time to put Eric Holthaus on the “Out Of Bounds” list.
The man is obviously deeply emotionally troubled, with serious mental health issues.
At this point, running him through the mill is no longer a sporting event.
Perhaps the further exposure of the trials and tribulations of Holthaus serves no useful purpose.

PiperPaul
Reply to  TonyL
June 1, 2018 4:28 pm

Seems to me being a leftist requires some sort of disorder. Or maybe it causes it.

Alan Tomalty
Reply to  TonyL
June 1, 2018 6:19 pm

To think that the guy actually is a meteorologist. He can’t see the sky for the clouds and it is raining on his parade.

jorgekafkazar
Reply to  TonyL
June 1, 2018 6:44 pm

I agree. This isn’t the place to post unhelpful comments. We can leave that for the bird brains tweeters.

michael hart
June 1, 2018 11:59 am

The moral of this story? Don’t tweet while drunk, and don’t announce your drunkenness to the world. The follow up moral is that after your hangover clears, have the good sense to delete your tweet 13 hours later.

There are also many things wrong with my life. I decided to give up Twitter.

michael hart
Reply to  michael hart
June 1, 2018 12:08 pm

But I reserve the right to change my mind, should I feel the need to say something regularly in public. It is possible twitter may be useful for that, but their user interface never came close to persuading me.

Joel Snider
June 1, 2018 12:12 pm

Honestly, I’m glad the have the opportunity to reveal themselves.

JimG1
June 1, 2018 12:22 pm

Anthony Watts,

Found a notation at the top on the clear cache in my settings on android samsung 10.1 tab labeled “time” which is default set for “last hour”. By setting it to “all time” was able to get to the new site. Didn’t want to try to go back to the old site and start over so am hoping you see this here. May solve some problems for others using samsung android systems.

Regards,

JimG1

Editor
June 1, 2018 12:29 pm

I get the feeling this bozo would be a weepy depressing snowflake even if there was no Gorebal Warming and Al Gore was king of the USA.

Reply to  David Middleton
June 1, 2018 1:11 pm

Mr. Holthaus obviously spends way too much time trying to change things he can’t (ie. climate), and not nearly enough time changing what he can (ie his own attitude about things). Sure divorce sucks–been through it 3 times, but living with a person constantly depressed sucks even more. Don’t blame the ex for your own undoing.

Reply to  jvcstone
June 1, 2018 1:59 pm

Yep… On top of that, he’s diminishing the value of alcoholic beverages.

Reply to  David Middleton
June 1, 2018 4:15 pm

Such usually find something to fret about.
(For his sake, I hope nobody tells him about DHMO!)

Peta of Newark
June 1, 2018 1:03 pm

Well well well, what have we got here?

Some guy walks in, announces he’s drunk them expounds on 2 different topics. All in perfectly spelled and grammatically (near) perfect English.
In most people’s experience, is that normal?

The guy’s been having a hard time – has he? Maybe his drunkenness is because he’s been partying in celebration of his divorce? Maybe he’s having a Good Time – not depressed and needing help.
(Unwise to broadcast it on the interwebz of course until the thing is entirely set-in-stone)

Nobody here ever been in a similar situation and behaved similarly, assuming it’s taken as assumed?
Nobody?
nah. Thought not

Could all the folks here and wherever, lobbing Ad-Holtisms and generally being Holier-that-Thou, give up the booze?
Now.
Not tomorrow or someday anyday in the future (a-la Climate Change)
Now?

Oh no you say, why should I? You justify with – “Doctors say its OK and may even be good for you. Mediterranean Diet etc etc blah blah blah”
Yeah.
This coming from the biggest group of dipsomaniacs there ever was and the same folks who (not THAT very long ago) told Asthmatics to take up cigarette smoking because it helped their breathing?
We know they drink a lot because they indulge suicide more than almost anybody apart from farmers.
Is anyone going to say alcohol does NOT precipitate violent crime – don’t much more violent than suicide.

Oh yes you say, I can give up Just Like That

Fine. I believe you. Tell me here & now if you like. get it in writing. This IS The Interwebz and EVERYTHING we see and read is The Absolute Cross Your Heart & Hope To Die Truth.
..
..
..

Get it yet….
(giya clue – and esp for drinkers and sugar-eaters alike- try to consider that you’re being had)

J Mac
June 1, 2018 1:11 pm

Take a lesson, Eric Holthaus: A delusional fixation on ‘catastrophic AGW’ and other faux gloom-n-doom crises will get you nothing but hot tongue and cold shoulder from your lady. This is a hell of your own creation. “Ask for directions from a genie in a bottle of jim beam and she lies to you!”
If You’re Going Through Hell – Rodney Atkins
https://youtu.be/l50L4GYhpLc

June 1, 2018 1:35 pm

Speaking of doomsayers, I suppose I could mention someone else whom some readers here might recognize, the sci-fi writer, Charlie Stross?

Mr. Stross has been lately taking a somewhat similar tone to that of Holthaus over on Stross’ own blog, sometimes referred to as the “antipope” blog. The most recent supposedly plausible scenario there, i.e., “the one we’re going to get, Happy 21st Century”, says, among other things, that,

“there will be much dying: even more so than during the worst conflicts of the 20th century”.

The major culprit in all this dying, of course, is to be global warming, aka climate change, along with the prospect that “the American Right” will supposedly engage in “culling the bottom 50% to 90% of the planetary population”. This is to happen just as soon as events force them to drop their climate “denialism”.
Really, I wonder which one of the Seven Seals in the Book of Revelation does the “antipope” think will portend this particular apocalyptic event? Sheesh! Anyway, Stross goes on at some length about how maybe medical science will be called upon to distribute cleansing viruses, etc.

Granted, as a sci-fi/horror writer, Stross has something of a professional interest in this sort of thing. I still find it excessive that this is stated, and commented on, as some sort of real life political commentary — as if a plausible scenario for our immediate future.

I used to like Stross’s blog, and would lurk there occasionally for Stross’ generally skeptical or insightful critiques of other folks’ Big Future ideas. Now, it appears, the only big insight to be gained there is just how pig-headed some of the Gloomy Big Ideas can really be! These are especially bad, it seems, if the ideas come from the direction of the socialistic or “eco green” political Left?

Anyway, cheers, everyone, and just be sure to take your anti-virus herbs, also keep to the high ground so as not to get trampled by all the climate refugee movements over the next few months, etc?

Craig from Oz
Reply to  daveheartgreen
June 3, 2018 8:18 pm

Mr Stross!

I have read and greatly enjoyed some of his books. I have met him in the flesh and enjoyed our brief chat. I have also read and been slightly… shrug… on a few of his books and stopped reading his blog years ago due to his creeping and non subtle Left Wing Elite attitudes.

(also he had a bit of a nasty habit of shutting down comments discussion if he disagreed with a sort of ‘My Blog = My Version of History’ attitude and also, in his defence, there was a fair bit of ‘So Many Blogs, So Little Reading Time’)

I stopped reading Howard Taylor (Shlock Mercenary) a bit after Briexit. He made a comment in one of his film reviews about how he currently found it hard to feel joy at Youth being The Future when Briexit has just crushed the dreams of so many of the young.

Sorry Howard, you know I love you in a creepy and inappropriate way, but one, you don’t live in Britain or even the EU and hence probably shouldn’t be lecturing people who do live there on what they can and can’t do for their OWN future, and two, the ‘youth’ turn out for the Briexit vote was pathetically low. Sorry, but if the apathetic slackers can’t be bothered caring enough to vote then too bad so sad.

The problem as I see it with socialism and Marxism is that most of it’s supporters are not actually part of the ‘working class’. They may feel empathy towards the ‘plight of the workers’ but very very rarely are they workers themselves. Hence when they kick over the ant hill in the name of equality they are never doing it in their own back yard. Getting rich off the sweat of the worker is Bad(tm) and hence factory owners must be punished, but getting rich off the bookmarks of the worker is perfectly acceptable.

Like all true Marxist, these people cast themselves in the ‘organiser’ role after the revolution, where they intend to keep doing what they did before they screwed it up for everyone else, only with slightly more authority.

Which is a pity, as occasionally some of their fiction is brilliant.

EternalOptimist
June 1, 2018 2:41 pm

I have been through a divorce but I never got the urge to make a fool of myself in public

schitzree
Reply to  EternalOptimist
June 2, 2018 9:35 am

I’ve often made a fool of myself, in and out of public. Never needed a divorce, though. Might be because no woman was ever fool enough to marry me.

~¿~

John Vinson
June 1, 2018 4:29 pm

Ahhh, the mythical “tipping point” again? How many of those have come and gone now?

Reply to  John Vinson
June 1, 2018 6:37 pm

Tipping the pint right now. So tipping points are at every bar and pub.

Sara
Reply to  John Vinson
June 2, 2018 7:16 am

Has anyone besides me seen that lumberjack video?

That’s the one where they drink all night and sleep all day.

Jeff Alberts
Reply to  Sara
June 2, 2018 11:39 pm

That’s “Sleep all night and work all day”

saveenergy
Reply to  Sara
June 3, 2018 2:06 am

Ear’tis

Hugs
Reply to  John Vinson
June 2, 2018 12:28 pm

It’s the peak tipping point.

Davis
June 1, 2018 5:30 pm

I keep hearing that some people want a radically different world. If so called global warming is true, you will get your radically different world, so, what is he crying about? He needs a sandwich board to wear, “The end is near”.

Bruce of Newcastle
June 1, 2018 6:37 pm

I’m sad for poor Dr Holthaus. He didn’t go through with his vasectomy, so at least he has some fine kids who he can look to when he is old and catastrophic global warming still hasn’t happened. I hope their separation can be amicable.

Life is too short to worry about a non-existent problem.

Reply to  Bruce of Newcastle
June 1, 2018 7:09 pm

The bigger point is that even if it is a problem, there’s nothing his worrying about it will change it.

Eric was obviously raised in a sheltered bubble. His parents created a snowflake who looks like a man.

BillJ
June 1, 2018 11:29 pm

Anyone that believes we have “mere months before we lock in irreversible planetary change” may as well accept it right now. It should be blatantly obvious that no drastic changes will be made in the near term. If the alarmists are actually right then you might as well sit back and see what happens because there is nothing that anyone can do to stop it.

Hugs
June 2, 2018 3:43 am

The person has lost his grip. The sad thing is that this kind of sign of mental illness gives left-leaning media an excuse to not criticize him. So he may say whatever stupid, the stupidness is effectively suppressed so that leftists will remember just the ‘great Eric Holthaus’ who warned us, not the mental Eric Holthaus who was babbling about climate doom of 2018. (“mere months”, what an extreme delusion!)

What’s wrong with Erics? Eric Scheiderman was also down to rabbithole this year.

Sara
June 2, 2018 6:51 am

Add nice, crispy bacon, butter, and maple syrup and dig in!

BallBounces
June 2, 2018 6:52 am

Eric should take some solace in this: “While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.” — Genesis 8:22.

Sara
June 2, 2018 7:29 am

I have so many photos from hiking the trails around my county. When I look at them, I see lush, green growth, food for critters and bugs, building materials and food for birds, and all kinds of wonderful things. The geese families (three of them) at Sand Lake have grown enough to fend off any predator without losing a wingbeat, which means that when fall flying time comes, the fox, coyotes, stray cats and other hungry beasts will get to watch them go south. And I will get more photos of those flights.

I will declare my attitude to be quite POSITIVE than in the “next few months’, the change will be to autumn weather and deer hunters will be culling the county’s deer herd, and eagles, hawks, and other raptors will be sitting in trees looking for rabbits foolish enough to be running out in the open.

And then to winter we will move, and the deer herd will browse what’s left from summer; catfish, bass, and trout will settle in for the ice fishing rounds, and snow will blanket everything.

And life will go on quite nicely through winter into next spring, WHETHER ERIC HOLTHAUS AND LIKES IT OR NOT.

I don’t understand anyone who is this utterly blind to the real world around him, the world that supports him and allows him to live. Maybe some day, I’ll understand what drives people like him to this state of idiocy, maybe not. The world will be here long after he is gone. I doubt that therapy of any kind would have any effect on him at all.

Note: Even Accuweather has an article that says plant cover is increasing. DUUUUH!

jclarke341
June 2, 2018 8:38 am

Some people just can’t hold their activism!

Pamela Gray
June 2, 2018 8:45 am

Sorry, but I don’t believe his sad cry-with-me story one bit. He has conveniently picked something to garner sympathy because the more likely truth is that someone finally put the garbage out to the curb for several reasons, climate change need not apply.

Pamela Gray
June 2, 2018 8:50 am

Test. Looking for my comment. Did it go down the Alice hole?

tsk tsk
June 2, 2018 9:51 am

I liked them better when they wore sandwich boards and screamed on street corners.

Tom in Florida
June 2, 2018 11:58 am

People who wallow in self pity get no sympathy from me.

June 2, 2018 12:12 pm

Why do all these guys have the same liberal millennial douche-bag look? Big black framed nerd glasses with the beta-male physique.

Sara
June 2, 2018 3:42 pm

Here’s a thought: climate change does not necessarily mean toward the warm end of the temperature scale.

Not at all.

It can go in exactly the opposite direction – the cold end of the temperature scale.

And we can’t do anything about that direction, either, can we? Well, maybe burn more coal and fossil fuels, but still — as Thurber said in ‘Skin of Our Teeth’: The ice age is coming! The ice age is coming! The mammoths are crossing the bridge over the river! Break up the furniture and throw it on the fire!

saveenergy
June 3, 2018 2:21 am

Whats going on ????
The link dissapeared /
I got another “Enter your coment here” box /
Speing chker failed

Fredar
June 3, 2018 12:31 pm

“Mere months” Great, yet another tipping point. Assuming this time he is right: How the hell does he know that? No source, so impossible to check. Then they get angry if you are skeptical. Typical. It’s like a religion.

Maconite
June 5, 2018 10:25 am

Reading his Twitter feed, it appears he is the victim of his own horrible personality.

One can hope that anyone could turn into a decent person. Maybe there is hope for this guy.