Bill McKibben loses his mind – says planet is going to boil

I’ve always thought 350.org founder Bill McKibben was a bit off, but with this op-ed in the Guardian, he’s really made the case for it.


The Trump administration knows the planet is going to boil. It doesn’t care

Bill McKibben

n the cloud of toxic dust thrown up by the Kavanaugh hearings last week, two new Trump initiatives slipped by with less notice than they deserve. Both are ugly, stupid – and they are linked, though in ways not immediately apparent.

In the first, the administration provided the rationale for scrapping President Obama’s automobile mileage standards: because Trump’s crew now officially expects the planet to warm by 4C . In the environmental impact statementthey say it wouldn’t make much difference to the destruction of the planet if we all keep driving SUVs.

The news in that statement is that administration officials serenely contemplate that 4C rise (twice the last-ditch target set at the Paris climate talks). Were the world to actually warm that much, it would be a literal hell, unable to maintain civilizations as we have known them. But that’s now our policy, and it apparently rules out any of the actions that might, in fact, limit that warming. You might as well argue that because you’re going to die eventually, there’s no reason not to smoke a carton of cigarettes a day.

This will, of course, get steadily worse in the years ahead – every climate forecast shows deserts spreading and water evaporating across the region. And of course more migration will follow, in every corner of the world. The World Bank predicts we may see 140 million climate migrants before long, and given the chaos that even a million people fleeing the (partially drought-fueled) crisis in Syria created, we better come to grips. Some of that migration will be internal – perhaps six million people will abandon their coastal property in Florida alone, according to recent reports. And much of it will be international, as people flee because their lives depend on it.

Telling people to stay home is not an option – when there’s no water, or when the floods come each year, or when the sea rises into your kitchen, people have to leave. Period.

And telling people to stay home is not a moral option, either. Because the climate chaos setting off waves of refugees is born above all from the unconstrained migration of carbon dioxide molecules from America over the last century. No wall can prevent the exhaust from our armada of oversized cars from raising the temperature in Mexico; if Guatemala could ship its changed climate back north it doubtless would, but it can’t. We have to realize that global warming stems from the fact that we are a world without atmospheric borders, where the people who have done the least to cause the problem feel its horrors first and hardest. That’s why, over the last half-decade, the environmental and migrant-rights movement have grown ever closer.

The Trump years are a fantasy land where we pretend we can go on living precisely as in the past, unwilling even to substitute electric SUVs for our gas guzzlers, and able to somehow insist that the rest of the world stay locked in place as well. It’s impractical, it’s unfair, and when it ends up with camps for kids in the desert it’s downright evil.

Full story here

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October 2, 2018 9:17 am

Wow.. what a rant that has no factual basis. These guys would make great fiction writers.

Trebla
Reply to  SteveB
October 2, 2018 9:48 am

If the planet boils, it will reach 100 degrees Celsius and will go no higher. Therefore, it can’t get any worse. At that point, we will (mercifully) be spared of the “it’s worse than we thought” rant. Be grateful!

drednicolson
Reply to  Trebla
October 2, 2018 10:07 am

Pro Tip for McKibben: Evaporation is endothermic.

Carbon Bigfoot
Reply to  Trebla
October 3, 2018 7:24 pm

SEPP has an award called the Jackson. Named after Ken Hapala asked for names I was first to recommend Obummer’s first EPA chief for the award before it carried her name.
Anthony we need a STRAIGHT JACKET AWARD and I nominate Bill McKibben as the first recipient.
Perhaps we could call it the CRAZY BILL MAC AWARD.

Bryan A
Reply to  SteveB
October 2, 2018 9:56 am

unwilling even to substitute electric SUVs for our gas guzzlers

What Electric SUV’s???
Do you mean those $120,000 Teslas???

Thomas Englert
Reply to  Bryan A
October 2, 2018 6:42 pm

That would be an electric coal-burner SUV in my neighborhood.

Pixie
Reply to  Bryan A
October 5, 2018 2:37 am

Don’t knock Elon… he is a true climate warrior providing electric super cars for the super rich… Now if he could build one for $15,000 with the same performance….

Henning Nielsen
Reply to  SteveB
October 2, 2018 2:07 pm

No, sorry, very BAD ficton writers. God fiction must be convincing, this is the opposite.

Pillage Idiot
Reply to  Henning Nielsen
October 2, 2018 4:08 pm

Your typo makes your comment even better.

To describe what McKibben’s atrocious writing should aspire to as “God fiction” is priceless!

Jeff Alberts
Reply to  Pillage Idiot
October 2, 2018 7:23 pm

“god fiction” is redundant.

Michael 2
Reply to  Jeff Alberts
October 2, 2018 8:48 pm

Seems every story must mention Hitler (done!) or God. Even when its about electric SUV’s.

Michael 2
Reply to  Jeff Alberts
October 2, 2018 8:49 pm

God exists and cannot fail to exist (depending of course on various definitions).

Caligula Jones
Reply to  Henning Nielsen
October 3, 2018 6:26 am

Too lazy to look up who said it, but “truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense”.

william Johnston
Reply to  SteveB
October 2, 2018 6:20 pm

I thought he already was.

Greg
Reply to  william Johnston
October 3, 2018 5:03 am

Indeed, the suggestion that weeping Mac may has lost his mind ( like it’s current news ) is preposterous and blatantly false.

It happened long ago.

That he continues to spout this hysterical nonsense simply means that he not in a suitable state of mind to be released into the community in the near future.

Reply to  SteveB
October 3, 2018 1:50 am

No way. Bill lacks imagination, irony and any kind of critical sense. It would be a very boring book.

ozspeaksup
Reply to  SteveB
October 3, 2018 2:39 am

abc aus rn this am had flimflm flannery on stating as fact that oceans jhad risen and caused strife along with a huge pile of other bulldust
fawning announcer accepts it as godgiven truths
he on air cos the korean jaunt is underway
and they have to stir the pot..again
around 730ish am so if anyone needs an emetic you can podcast the pukemaking repeat

DonM
October 2, 2018 9:19 am

” … – every climate forecast shows deserts spreading and water evaporating across the region.”

Whereas, reality shows the world greening.

This guy’s fractured logic is scary. He’s not much removed from the stereotype guy on the corner with the end of the world sign.

Caligula Jones
Reply to  DonM
October 2, 2018 9:25 am

“” … – every climate forecast shows deserts spreading and water evaporating across the region.”

Whereas, reality shows the world greening.”

Yes, and to most people, even scientists (with their inside voices) would say: “Perhaps…the models are wrong?”

As they say, a liberal is someone who sees something work in practice, but doesn’t believe because it shouldn’t work in theory.

Tom Gelsthorpe
Reply to  Caligula Jones
October 2, 2018 9:29 am

Touché!

Rocketscientist
Reply to  Caligula Jones
October 2, 2018 9:33 am

Yes, the same sort of ‘science’ that says bumble bees shouldn’t be able to fly. If the could figure out how to implement it, I’m sure they would be fining the miscreant bees for defying their ‘settled science’.

john
Reply to  Rocketscientist
October 2, 2018 11:45 am

Stop Catastrophic Global Buzzing!

John Endicott
Reply to  Rocketscientist
October 4, 2018 5:53 am

Ah, finally we know why bees were disappearing* it’s because the “settled science” crowd told them they shouldn’t be able to fly and the bees realized they were right!

*actually the disappearing bees story was just one more catastrophic fiction.

drednicolson
Reply to  Caligula Jones
October 2, 2018 9:50 am

Or conversely, someone who thinks something should work in theory, and ignores every case of it not working in practice. See: anyone with a pseudo-intellectual love affair with socialism.

Chris G
Reply to  drednicolson
October 3, 2018 9:06 am

In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is. 🙂

DonM
Reply to  Caligula Jones
October 2, 2018 9:56 am

They may be right, but my perception is that a liberal(progressive) is someone with a solution, continuously walking around looking for the problem that fits their self-important unique solution.

When enough liberals get together, with like solutions, you can be sure they will find (or create) their prerequisite problem.

At this point in time, in the USA, there are too many different “solutions” floating around in the liberal community to coalesce into (what their emotionally limited abilities see as) a common problem.

So, they will lost the last election. Hopefully they won’t find a common solution before the next election.

Craig from Oz
Reply to  DonM
October 2, 2018 4:38 pm

The problem with Left types and their ‘solutions’ is the co-operation they require is at odds with their prime driving belief that ‘Everything would be better if only *I* was in charge’.

What then happens is one of two things.

– Their house of support cards they built up collapses and they scuttle back into being fringe minority groups with memberships of 6,

or

– physical violence.

The first is normally an irritation. The second can spill over to ruin everyone.

john
Reply to  Caligula Jones
October 2, 2018 11:43 am

Comparing Marx’s view of economics to Adam Smith’s, I would say that pretty much sums it up!

Pop Piasa
Reply to  DonM
October 2, 2018 12:18 pm

May his Christmas tree have Pine Bark Beetles.
Wait until Tucker Carlson gets ahold of this.

wws
Reply to  DonM
October 2, 2018 3:52 pm

The difference is that the guy on the street corner is probably broke, but McKibben is making 1 million + each year off his catastrophic messiah act.

Reply to  DonM
October 2, 2018 6:28 pm

You wouldn’t think people would drink a lethal dose of acid laced kool-aid, that even their children would be screaming and hiding in fear from, but they do and force it down their children’s throats.

” He’s not much removed from the stereotype guy on the corner with the end of the world sign.”
…. he’s the same one….

Paul S
October 2, 2018 9:20 am

“…every climate forecast shows deserts spreading and water evaporating across the region…”

Yep, that is what the climate forecasts, based upon inaccurate models, predict. Yet actual satellite observance show the greening of the Sahel and the rest of the globe. So I have a tricky decision, believe the computer models or believe what I can see with my own eyes.

Robert Stewart
Reply to  Paul S
October 2, 2018 9:48 am

If the only thing you’ve ever seen is a computer screen, or the evening news, or the videos in your school, then the need to make a choice isn’t apparent.

Reply to  Robert Stewart
October 2, 2018 10:10 am

“Robert Stewart October 2, 2018 at 9:48 am
If the only thing you’ve ever seen is a computer screen,…”

Bubble people?
Totally isolated from interacting with the real world?

Never feel the sun?
Never feel the wind?
Never touch rain?
Never feel the air dry one off?
Never walk through grass covered with dew?
Never visit the sea? And notice the lack of change?
Never walk through snow or go snow skiing?
etc. etc.

Except for bubble people and alarmists remaining wilfully ignorant, most people can trust their senses and rely upon history to know life will continue.

Steven Fraser
Reply to  ATheoK
October 2, 2018 3:51 pm

I had a Rod McKuen flashback reading what you wrote 🙂

Julie near Chicago
Reply to  ATheoK
October 2, 2018 9:05 pm

Read the short SF story “The Machine Stops,” by E.M. Forster. Pretty sure it’s online.

gmak
Reply to  Paul S
October 2, 2018 10:31 am

“So I have a tricky decision, believe the computer models or believe what I see with my own LYING eyes”. There. FIFY.

Joe Crawford
October 2, 2018 9:21 am

You’re right. He’s definitely not playing with a full deck.

Pop Piasa
Reply to  Joe Crawford
October 2, 2018 12:50 pm

Bill’s emoji
🔥🌡😵🌡🔥

Pop Piasa
Reply to  Joe Crawford
October 2, 2018 1:25 pm

⚠🥨-🧠⚠
maybe?

Gunga Din
Reply to  Pop Piasa
October 2, 2018 4:48 pm

They both probably deserve a couple of “plusses” but, since I don’t have a cell phone or do “emoji”s, I don’t know what in the (Bill’s vision of the future) you said. 8- )
(The pretzel minus the pink brain-thingy really threw me.)

John Endicott
Reply to  Gunga Din
October 4, 2018 5:58 am

For those that can’t see it, the Bill’s emoji shows
fire
a thermometer
an open mouthed face
another thermometer and
more fire.

Jeff Alberts
Reply to  Pop Piasa
October 2, 2018 7:26 pm

How about the pile of steaming you know what.

Bill Taylor
October 2, 2018 9:21 am

reality is these liars have ruined the concept of “science”……they have credentials but NOT ONE ounce of sense or integrity

Rocketscientist
Reply to  Bill Taylor
October 2, 2018 10:42 am

McKibben, based upon his personal history, has only ever been a propagandist.

Pop Piasa
Reply to  Rocketscientist
October 2, 2018 12:29 pm

To be both scientist and activist reveals a conflict of interest and leads to researchers being considered unscrupulous in methodology, tainted by confirmation bias.

R Shearer
Reply to  Pop Piasa
October 2, 2018 3:24 pm

My understanding is that he was an English/journalism major who took to writing environmental fiction. He’s no scientist, activist, yes.

John Endicott
Reply to  R Shearer
October 4, 2018 6:00 am

Even of he had the proper credentials to be a scientist, his being an activist means he’s no scientist. You can’t be both. Science is impartial, activism is not.

Caligula Jones
Reply to  R Shearer
October 4, 2018 8:58 am

I think they already lowered the bar when the allowed cartoonists to be considered Subject Matter Experts in climate change.

It was just a matter of time before journalists followed the economic bread crumbs.

Barbara
Reply to  Bill Taylor
October 2, 2018 11:45 am

UNFCCC

Articles:
Search results: 350.org
https://unfccc.int/gcse?q=350.org

Provides some insight on the 350.org?

Nik
Reply to  Barbara
October 2, 2018 1:32 pm

The latest (as of 9/5/2018) “preliminary” number at “Earth’s CO2” is 406.99 ppm, measured at Mona Loa.

https://www.co2.earth/

Reply to  Nik
October 2, 2018 2:56 pm

I suggest a name change: co2.dearth
Average co2 June 2016 407.9
Average co2 June 2017 402.6
Average co2 June 2018 403.4
K30 1% datalogger at 19° 11′ 38″ S 146° 40′ 31″ E. 60% airflow onto western Pacific shore line.

pochas94
October 2, 2018 9:26 am

Memba back in the ’90s when we were all going to fry? That was the good weather.

drednicolson
Reply to  pochas94
October 2, 2018 5:16 pm

Scalloped, fried, baked, or boiled. Poached, blanched, blackened or broiled. How many flavors of projected planet cooking have we gone through so far?

BillR
October 2, 2018 9:27 am

Every day is now Popcorn Day, when reading such buncombe.

Peter Wilson
Reply to  BillR
October 2, 2018 11:38 am

bunkum?

Walt D.
Reply to  Peter Wilson
October 2, 2018 2:17 pm

Peter: Buncombe was a town in North Carolina from which the term arose.

Rocketscientist
Reply to  Walt D.
October 2, 2018 3:04 pm

Buncombe County, actually.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buncombe_County,_North_Carolina

The epithet arose from the verbose politician from those parts who often began his tiresome speeches with, “Back in Buncombe County…” And the phrase grew from his colleagues rolling their eyes while uttering, “What a load of buncombe!” or just “bunk!” for brevity.

Martin557
Reply to  BillR
October 3, 2018 6:19 am

Excellent. I live in Nebraska and we grow the best popcorn in the world.

Michael Combs
October 2, 2018 9:28 am

McKibben must prefer the 85% of the past million years, glacial periods when life was difficult and brutal, to the brief interglacials when life flourished. His ignorance that we are now in the coldest 1,000-year period of the past 10,000 years has to be willful; no even casual student of recent climate change is that uninformed.

Pop Piasa
Reply to  Michael Combs
October 2, 2018 12:38 pm

“Thou shall not inform thyself beyond the climatariat approved media pablum!”
“History is moot! CO2 will change what it should have been!”
(the 2nd quote was my wife’s cousin. brilliant, eh?)

Joey
October 2, 2018 9:31 am

McKibben is completely nuts. He needs to be in a rubber room.

Pouncer
October 2, 2018 9:31 am

@BillTaylor, Mr McKibbon has not only ruined the concept of “science” but ignored the definition of “boil”.

Allencic
October 2, 2018 9:35 am

How could you not believe everything McKibben says about climate? He is after all an English major from Harvard. As we see daily with so many of our Congressmen and Senators who are Harvard (or Yale) grads they are just so smart, honest and by gosh, just the best people in the world. They (and McKibben) only want the best for all of us. Pure altruism.

Derg
Reply to  Allencic
October 2, 2018 11:27 am

I think the world could use a few less Ivy leaguers in gov’t.

Thomas Englert
Reply to  Allencic
October 2, 2018 6:50 pm

I was more surprised to learn the Trump people expect 7°F warming by 2100.

jon
Reply to  Thomas Englert
October 3, 2018 8:56 am

Thomas Englert October 2, 2018 at 6:50 pm
I was more surprised to learn the Trump people expect 7°F warming by 2100.
Thomas,
I followed the link and found a graph from the environmental impact statement which showed 4 scenarios relating to CO2 and temperature (http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/documents/national/national-highway-traffic-safety-administrations-2100-climate-scenario/3218/).
It showed about 3.7 degrees C warming – RCP8.5. Another model they displayed showed 4.2.
I saw NO statement as to which model or scenario they believed to be true.

Rich Davis
October 2, 2018 9:36 am

Imagine what life would be like if Minnesota and Saskatchewan were more like Louisiana and North Carolina. What a living hell. All that golfing.

rbabcock
Reply to  Rich Davis
October 2, 2018 10:20 am

Living in NC I can vouch for that.

Right now (Oct 2, 2018 1:19PM Eastern) Raleigh is 81F with a balmy light breeze out of the south … Calgary, Alberta is 31F with snow showers. Lows tonight: Raleigh 66F Calgary 20F.

DMacKenzie
Reply to  rbabcock
October 2, 2018 2:59 pm

Calgary is expecting 15” of snow before the system moves out tomorrow afternoon. It’s a “freak fall snowfall”. In 2014 we got one September 14. Since this one is Oct. 2, McKibben would say it’s proof of global warming.

Allencic
Reply to  Rich Davis
October 2, 2018 1:16 pm

Maybe that should disqualify them from government jobs? Or any jobs?

Phillip Bratby
October 2, 2018 9:38 am

Better get him a strait-jacket and find a padded cell to put him in.

Latitude
October 2, 2018 9:44 am

so…we’re all going to die…the US has to do it all
…over 200 countries can pollute all they want

No more traiffs…let China do all the manufacturing…they can do it so much cheaper without any of those annoying environmental regulations

…and it’s always the US that has to change

Hugs
Reply to  Latitude
October 2, 2018 10:44 am

Yeah it’s funny how the British Guardian kind-of blames Trump for Germany, China not doing anything efficient. US emissions are on the decline, after all. Not small yet, but in decline.

william Johnston
Reply to  Latitude
October 2, 2018 6:32 pm

And pay for the privilege.

John Bell
October 2, 2018 9:45 am

It IS going to get drier, and wetter, and hotter, and colder, and more snow, and less snow, and more hurricanes, and fewer hurricanes, we predicted it, but not sure when, but before long, must act now, send money, and you give up luxuries, but not me…

kent beuchert
October 2, 2018 9:47 am

McKibbon even looks like the village idiot.

Gary Ashe
Reply to  kent beuchert
October 2, 2018 10:19 am

Yeah.
And the internet means the the V I now goes global.

No longer constrained by Parish boundaries and ASBO’s.

Graemethecat
October 2, 2018 9:49 am

Bill McKibben is so dumb he thinks that the World’s water is disappearing as a result of Climate Change. He has apparently never heard of the Hydrological Cycle.

Tom Abbott
Reply to  Graemethecat
October 2, 2018 3:32 pm

Yeah, as if evaporation is the only thing water does.

william matlack
October 2, 2018 9:51 am

Syrians shipped because of climate. Really ?? Ithought it had more to do with Assad dropping chemical bombs on them that motivated the departure

Gary Ashe
Reply to  william matlack
October 2, 2018 10:16 am

Sheesh, what made you think that, bit naive.

Andy in Epsom
Reply to  william matlack
October 3, 2018 5:01 am

The one question everyone should ask about the migrants coming to Europe is :-

Why are there no families just single men in their 20s/30s claiming to be schoolboys? If it was a real problem it would be everyone surely!

drednicolson
October 2, 2018 9:51 am

You imply that he once had a mind to lose. 😐

John Endicott
Reply to  drednicolson
October 4, 2018 6:30 am

“What a terrible thing to have lost one’s mind. Or not to have a mind at all. How true that is.” – D.Q.

Joey
October 2, 2018 9:54 am

McKibben is nuts. That’s all that needs to be said about his yammering.

Art
October 2, 2018 9:55 am

McKibben is nuts. That’s all that needs to be said about his yammering.

October 2, 2018 9:58 am

“350.org founder Bill McKibben was a bit off”

“A bit off”?

That is, if a bit off means outside the orbit of Saturn.

Hugs
Reply to  ATheoK
October 2, 2018 10:47 am

Astronomically speaking yes, but that’s a bit long way for an electric car.

John Endicott
Reply to  Hugs
October 4, 2018 6:29 am

A trip across town is “a bit long way for an electric car.”

rubberduck
October 2, 2018 10:00 am

Make no mistake, America’s contribution to the world has been overwhelmingly positive. But then you get these weirdos coming out of that whole tradition of preachers of the apocalypse. We can only hope that America’s strong traditions of free speech allow an open debate.

MIKE MCHENRY
October 2, 2018 10:01 am

The 2022-25 mileage standard would of led to people driving Obama coffins. Anyone familiar with the US highway accidents statistics knows that subcompact cars kill

Barbara
Reply to  MIKE MCHENRY
October 2, 2018 11:54 am

CAFE began with small numbers and the numbers have increased over time. Start with small requirements and then keep increasing the “demands”. A way to things get done.

Also Demand-side Management.

E J Zuiderwijk
October 2, 2018 10:05 am

It reads as a satire, almost.

One wonders what Bill’s feelings will be when it finally dawns on him that the planet won’t boil and that the Trump administration is actually the only one in the western world that puts sensible energy policies in place.

Pop Piasa
Reply to  E J Zuiderwijk
October 2, 2018 1:44 pm

I think the venerable TV star will hold onto his doctrines and ride the “west coast climate express” until it crashes or runs out of fuel. He will change his story only when it becomes more lucrative to do so.

Pop Piasa
Reply to  Pop Piasa
October 2, 2018 3:34 pm

Oops, I was multitasking and got off on a Bill Nye tangent! sorry.

Pop Piasa
Reply to  Pop Piasa
October 2, 2018 3:49 pm

Too many Bills connected to fighting climate.

Steven Fraser
Reply to  Pop Piasa
October 2, 2018 3:57 pm

You mean, like 50s and 100s?

Tom Abbott
Reply to  E J Zuiderwijk
October 2, 2018 3:36 pm

People hold on tight to their delusions.

Gary Ashe
October 2, 2018 10:10 am

Yall have to give up on luxuries like personal transport, heating or cooling equip, and children.

You can do it, yall just to selfish.

Kamikazedave
October 2, 2018 10:12 am

Bill, I know you read this blog. Suppose you provide us with the scientific evidence (FYI, computer models are not scientific evidence) to support your alarmist claims. BTW, I’ve asked you this before and, not surprisingly, never got an answer.

John Endicott
Reply to  Kamikazedave
October 4, 2018 6:27 am

ideologue propagandists never answer questions, they just spout their rubbish ad nauseam.

Lee L
October 2, 2018 10:12 am

”Electric armada saves us all’ = ‘good’, yet…’nuclear generated fuel for the armada’ = ‘bad’.

Further, if you were truly truly a deep believer in human caused future armageddon then global contraception would be top of your list of urgencies yet nary a peep on the subject.

Something is off in these people.

Tom Gelsthorpe
October 2, 2018 10:13 am

McKibben never had a mind to lose. He’s a Churchill/textbook fanatic — someone who can’t change his mind, and won’t change the subject.

For one thing he scrupulously avoids mentioning China, who passed the U.S. in CO2 emissions 23 years ago, and has no intention of stopping. Nor does he mention India, who is catching up fast. They both have more to lose from his doomsday scenarios than we do, but 3 billion Asians say, “What, me worry?” Only 100 million Americans are worried. If there were a referendum at the U.N. McKibbenites would be outvoted 30 to 1. So much for global consensus, fake non-binding agreements, and the like.

Second, most “climate refugees” within the U.S. consist of people from the Northeast and Midwest moving to warmer states like California, Texas and Florida. Those are our most populous states now, up from a combined total of about 5 million in 1900 to 90 million now, mostly from migration. Even the Mexicans in California and Texas migrated from cooler parts of Mexico.

People aren’t afraid of warm weather. They like it. We are tropical animals with no fur. If McKibben ever stood in front of a mirror, he might notice that. McKibbenism represents the triumph of propaganda over facts — AKA looniness.

Bruce Cobb
October 2, 2018 10:15 am

Climate Liars like McKibben and his cohorts are the evil ones. I wonder which he hates more: Trump or America?

Pop Piasa
Reply to  Bruce Cobb
October 2, 2018 3:58 pm

Or maybe Humans in general. At least the ones that stand in his way while he’s saving the planet from them.

HotScot
October 2, 2018 10:18 am

And by complete coincidence, from the august annals of WUWT, just earlier today:

“Middle East Researcher Dismisses the Alleged Climate Link to the “Arab Spring””

So why would Syria be any different?

Perhaps McKibben should read WUWT to keep up with breaking news before seeking out the Guardian to sympathise with his fairy story rants.

https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/10/02/middle-east-researcher-dismisses-the-alleged-climate-link-to-the-arab-spring/

ResourceGuy
October 2, 2018 10:19 am

Spoken like any true marketing agent, courtroom litigant, or carnival barker with vested interests in the monetary gain. The more forceful the better in presentations and it helps cover up for in-competencies.

Jon Salmi
October 2, 2018 10:22 am

So, the opposition is evil, how trite can he be, not to mention it is right out of the Progressive playbook.

HotScot
October 2, 2018 10:22 am

And while I’m at it. From the August annals of notalotofpeopleknowthat real evidence of increasing wheat production in the face of what, 0.8˚C warming? and an increase of 120 ppm CO2, despite what the BBC reports.

https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2018/10/02/wheat-yields-to-fall-as-they-continue-to-rise/

Linda Goodman
October 2, 2018 10:38 am

More proof that gorebull warbling is the cause of Trump Derangement Syndrome.

Moderately Cross of East Anglia
October 2, 2018 10:46 am

We shouldn’t let the Gruaniad off the hook for making this poor man’s mental derangement worse by encouraging such paranoid nonsense. The problem is that the half wits who now run the Gruaniad probably believe the scientifically innumerate rubbish themselves and even more amusingly that the rapid fall in readership of their failing newspaper is just down to a general decline in print readership.

If poor Bill really reads WUWT I think he needs to consider that his ever more dramatic claims of catastrophe have exactly the opposite effect he intends – rational people just disregard his hype as the absurd hysteria it so clearly is.

Jaakko Kateenkorva
October 2, 2018 10:47 am

The Trump years are a fantasy land where we pretend we can go on living precisely as in the past

Say what McKibben? Never mind Obama who tried to get mankind back to pre-industrialization? Times before discovery of inorganic liquid hydrocarbons? You must be kidding, right?

Betapug
October 2, 2018 10:51 am

One way that Bill McKibben is different from “some guy with a sign on a street corner” is that he trains “environmental journalists” at Middlebury College ($54,000/yr tuition, $15,500 room.board) as the Schumann Distinguished Scholar and simultaneously directs Middlebury’s Fellowships in Environmental Journalism.

He also a Trustee of the Schumann Center for Media and Democracy (founded by Bill Moyers) which is the grantor for his Distinguished Scholarship.

Some street corner!

Barbara
Reply to  Betapug
October 2, 2018 12:59 pm

UNFCCC

Articles:
Search results: Vermont, USA activities.
https://unfccc.int/gcse?q=Vermont

n.n
October 2, 2018 10:56 am

That would be catastrophic… global warming, but is it anthropogenic?

And will carbon credits save our secular soul?

Pop Piasa
Reply to  n.n
October 2, 2018 5:25 pm

“And will carbon credits save our secular soul?”
You’ll need something more than a flag decal, I guess.

RAH
October 2, 2018 11:03 am

The globalist left are more scared now than I can ever remember them being. The worse they perceive their prospects to be the crazier and nastier they will get. They can’t help it; It is who they are.

tom0mason
October 2, 2018 11:22 am

Mr McKibben is just very deranged third rate entertainer.

whiten
October 2, 2018 11:40 am

I may be wrong but just got to say it.

The problem with these arrogant guys, is that most probably they have no clue about what called the “art of the deal’ or better of put as “art of the war”.

These guys depend a lot in past successes, where if put in context is something like in the lines due to a “militia” exercise against civilians. (controlling the people and civilians through scare propaganda or otherwise tactics)

But the whole environment and the prospect changes when a real proper “military’ force engages against such “militia”, regardless of numbers.
The outcome is simple, as always, these “militia” will simply be in a position of meat meeting the mince machine.

Better these guys, these arrogant propaganda “militia” guys, start realizing this, as otherwise they could loose
big time.

Numbers do not really matter any more, especially when the very people these guys have tried over time to control by scare tactics happen to start getting fed up with the noise and the unjustified harassment.

As far as I can tell, in principle, this is not a joke.

Really sorry if this may “sound” a bit out of line or context.

Again these idiots have no clue what so ever about the “art of the deal” or the “art of the war”.
They keep doing the same all over again and again, the same silly mistakes and grave errors with no shame what so ever, with no any comprehension or and understanding at all, and still considering that people at large are stupid, with no regard or consideration of consequences in this silly stupid “adventure”.

Again really sorry if I have crossed the line.

cheers

October 2, 2018 11:42 am

The 3 plus million Venezuelans fleeing “21st Century Socialism” founded by Chavez don’t worry about climate change.

Joel O'Bryan
Reply to  Fernando L
October 2, 2018 12:15 pm

Neither does the family cooking their meals over a dung fueled fire in Africa.
And any Climate Aid cash that family’s government might receive to alleviate such poverty is lost in a pit of corruption between the NGO’s and crooked politicians. Even the Vatican is involved in the climate aid racket shakedown.

Wiliam Haas
October 2, 2018 11:46 am

In the past the CO2 level has been more than 10 times what it is today and the oceans never boiled away. Despite the hype, there is no real evidence that CO2 has any effect on climate and plenty of scientific rationale to support the idea that the climate sensitivity of CO2 is zero. Most likely the current Modern Warm Period will gradually end as well as the current interglacial period and a new ice age will develop but it may take thousands of years to develop. Based on the paleoclimate record and the work done with models one can conclude that the climate change we are experiencing today is caused by the sun and the oceans over which mankind has no control.

Steve
October 2, 2018 11:48 am

Electric SUV’s charged with windmills and solar panels?

Barbara
Reply to  Steve
October 2, 2018 6:47 pm

UNFCCC

Search results.

Articles on interest rates and renewable renewable energy project financing.

https://unfccc.int/gcse?q=Central%20Banks%20interest%20rates%20renewable%20energy%20project%20finncing

https://unfccc.int/gcse?q=Bank%20interest%20rates%20renewable%20energy%20project%20financing

Follow the money. And is it even possible that interest rates are being kept low to facilitate global renewable energy project financing?

Joel O'Bryan
October 2, 2018 12:11 pm

Bill McKibben, Neil DeGrasse-Tyson, Bill Nye, James Hansen, Al Gore, Barack Obama, the Clintons, all the self-labeled Progressives, and most of today’s Democrats suffer from this problem —>

The Science of Lying: The More You Do It the Easier It Gets

https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/the-science-of-lying-more-you-do-it-easier-it-gets.html

“Lying, in effect, desensitizes your brain to the fear of getting caught or hurting others, making lying for your own benefit down the road much easier.

“The dangerous thing about lying is people don’t understand how the act changes us,” Ariely says.”
….
Researchers found:
“… when people faced no consequences for dishonesty, their falsehoods tended to get even more sensational.”

Bill McKibben has lied so much and so often about climate that his brain is completely re-wired to accept the falsehoods and block out any conflicting information.
And as for not only no consequences, McKibben has only had reward for his climate change lying. Same is happening across the Left in United States on a wide range of social, scientific, and legal issues.

We see it today with so many on the Left willing to accept as absolute truth a woman’s memory from when she was 15 and had a beer. She makes a serious assault accusation against a man with an impeccable character record. She can provide no corroboration from others, no evidence, no day/date/ month, no location, her named witnesses deny any knowledge, she tells no one for 33 years, and she has motive to stop her accused professional promotion to the Supreme Court based on her ideology and social circle egging her on.

This without time/date or place, the man has no ability to refute the allegation.

Professional body language experts have analyzed both the accuser and accused appearances before the Senate committee. Those experts says she displayed deceptiveness, and he displayed anger. I’d be angry as hell too if someone accused me of something serious I didn’t do.

And this is the Left we have today. Destroying this country. They are entirely comfortable with lies and destroying good people’s lives and livelihood for the furtherance of their ideology. It is not just Kavanaugh I speak, this has been happening now since the 1990’s when Al Gore working through the levers of power began forcing AGW skeptics out of science. We saw it with Bill Gray. Judith Curry to name two examples of how the Left is willing to destroy people’s lives for their ideology.

There is no redemption for Democrats. No mea culpa or epiphany is coming to save the Left’s deteriorated brains from their decades of lying. They must be voted out of office. They must be confronted with their lies on widely read blogs and social media, like Anthony does here at WUWT and Tony Heller does at his blog. And you can add Roy Spencer probably to that list since the liberal dishonest AP has now decided to start calling him a denier too. But Roy Spencer is even calling out the lying Climate Change fanatics on his blog in his own words:
“This is the state of climate science today: if you support the alarmist narrative, you can exaggerate threats and connections with human activities, fake experiments, break government rules, intimidate scientific journal editors (and make them resign),and even violate the law.”
source: http://www.drroyspencer.com/2018/09/my-tucker-carlson-interview-last-night-and-calling-out-bill-nye-james-hansen/

After this recent interview of Dr Spencer’s on Tucker Carlson’s FoxNews opinion show, I have no doubt the LEft has its knives out (rhetorically) for Dr Spencer’s livelihood.

Destroying good people — It’s what the Left, and Democrats by association, does to silence them.

Tom Abbott
Reply to  Joel O'Bryan
October 2, 2018 3:57 pm

“And this is the Left we have today. Destroying this country. They are entirely comfortable with lies and destroying good people’s lives and livelihood for the furtherance of their ideology.”

That’s exactly right.

I bet Kavanaugh has a lot of empathy for Trump now that he is getting some of the same dispicable treatment the Left has been doling out to Trump for the last couple of years.

Nothing matters to the Left except gaining and keeping power. They don’t care about the truth, or about morals or about anything but winning power, no matter what it takes and no matter how low they have to go. It’s all for a good purpose, they tell themselves: Putting themselves in power.

bonbon
Reply to  Joel O'Bryan
October 3, 2018 3:59 am

See Tucker Carlson’s new book “Ship of Fools: How a Selfish Ruling Class Is Bringing America to the Brink of Revolution”. The party system is the problem, both parties. And not only in the USA. It is a British system imposed on a constitutional republic.
And that trembling “soccer mom” is a professional trained clinical psychologist, knows all about polygraph, self hypnosis, false memories. What a fraud. A Roman Colosseum circus perpetrated on the minds of citizens. Exactly that method (see Augustine’s confessions) destroys any thinking.

So climate porn and extrajudicial porn are all of a feather – to ruin an electorate. Trump is facing a Caligula, Caracalla, and Nero all at the same time.

Richard Thornton
October 2, 2018 12:16 pm

Wait, does he not need to change his web site to 425.org or 450.org? Move them there goalposts!

Tom Abbott
Reply to  Richard Thornton
October 2, 2018 3:58 pm

350 org is falling behind the times.

whiten
October 2, 2018 12:37 pm

Joel O’Bryan

“We see it today with so many on the Left willing to accept as absolute truth a woman’s memory from when she was 15 and had a beer.”
————————-

It is far more sinister when considering the Elite Left behaviour in Congress.
No regard what so ever for and about the best interest of this women and her testimony.

Still, regardless of her testimony as it stands, if the Congress let it be, for what ever reason she still have immunity against further investigation and discovery by any other court in the land.

But if the case referred to FBI, she better be right as otherwise, if FBI further investigating concludes that most probably that is a fake or made up claim, the only way that women to keep considering at that point the
continuation of immunity due to her testimony before the Congress is solely dependent on her confession, if it happens that she made up that story.

The cabal left does not care about such food for cannon no matter what, really heart less…
Again a nothing burger obstructing attempt, regardless of loss to whomever.

cheers

Joel O'Bryan
Reply to  whiten
October 2, 2018 1:21 pm

Ms. Blasey-Ford does not have immunity from perjury before Congress or the FBI. The problem though to prove perjury you have to “knowing intent.” She almost certainly is lying about her 100% certainty it was Kavanaugh based on her own best friend from those days having said she never met or knew of Kavanaugh or any knowledge of Ms Ford’s assault claim. As Ms Ford is supposedly a trained professional in Psychology, I find such claimed certainty from a 36 yr old memory by Ms Ford a severe indictment of her professional training and personal integrity.

The FBI is not handling this as a criminal investigation. They are just making interviews and will assemble the interview documents for Congress to read and to place a copy in Judge Kavanaugh’s background folder.

The best document by far that sums up the whole Blasey-Ford mischief is in this memorandum written by Rachel Mitchell, the prosecutor who questioned Ms Ford at the committee hearings last week:
I strongly encourage everyone to read this completely:
https://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/Mitchell093018.pdf

Reply to  Joel O'Bryan
October 2, 2018 1:44 pm

Perhaps both Dr. Ford and Judge Kavanaugh are telling the truth AS IT EXISTS IN THEIR MEMORY.

According to a quote from this DOJ report, the trauma of sexual attack can result in transfer of the identity of the attacker in the mind of the attacked.

https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/Photocopy/153416NCJRS.pdf

“Alternatively, they may fantasize a pornographic scene and have sex [experience the event] with a fantasy partner rather than the person.”

Perhaps Judge Kavanaugh is the substitute fantasy ‘partner’ in Dr. Ford’s memory. This might be even more likely, if the actual perpetrator was a person Dr. Ford held in high esteem.

Joel O'Bryan
Reply to  Dan Pangburn
October 2, 2018 2:05 pm

Well I understand that it is in her mind. But she is supposedly trained in Psychology. A discipline that should thoroughly understand how implanted memories and missing information can easily get wrapped together so that the truth is not recognizable to the individual from falsehoods and invented memories. Psychologists know this phenomenon well and lots and lots of research backs it up. If she is any kind of Psychologist, she knows that. So when she says “with 100% certainty it was Brett Kavanaugh” she must inside know that is not true. What is true is she wants to believe it is true. Just like the Left wants to believe climate fantasies told by climate pseudoscientists is true, simply becasue it’s “science.”

What seems likely is she saw smart, nice guys like a teenage Kavanaugh with envy because school work seemed easy to them. Elite colleges, Yale Law school. Prestigious clerkships.

Ms Ford alluded to struggling in her studies in the last years of High School.
So it’s no wonder she left the affluence of her East Coast private girl’s school circle after High School, when all her firends were headed off to to name colleges and universities, and went out to the West Coast and joined the “Point Break” surfer community.

And undoubtedly her professional career as a psychologist was dead-ended, until now. Now she can ride the lie to money (even her GoFundMe balances are over $500,000 at last report) , just like McKibben rides his climate lies to the money.

John Endicott
Reply to  Joel O'Bryan
October 4, 2018 6:17 am

When George told Jerry “it’s not a lie if you believe it” what he left out was “that just because you believe it doesn’t make it true.”

RAH
Reply to  Dan Pangburn
October 2, 2018 3:29 pm

Perhaps pigs really can fly. The polygraph was taken in August. Timing of the installation of the front door easily confirmed by permit and receipts. The woman is lying.

whiten
Reply to  Joel O'Bryan
October 2, 2018 2:07 pm

Joel O’Bryan
October 2, 2018 at 1:21 pm

The problem though to prove perjury you have to “knowing intent.” She almost certainly is lying about her 100% certainty it was Kavanaugh.
———————————

Still the Congress or FBI may let her be even if she found to be making up that story.

But the point is, if she is suspect of lying in this case, will not be too hard for FBI to conclude
that most probably it is so…as there could be points in her testimony to check out.

For example, just as a point of argument only, not that it may mean much.

She gives a detailed account of the place where the alleged event happened, but does not remember
the actual house.
If she is making up this story, lying, most probably the description of that place will very much match her own house, probably her own bedroom, just saying…

cheers

Joel O'Bryan
Reply to  whiten
October 2, 2018 2:24 pm

The FBI in these matters make no conclusions. The FBI agents merely gather the statements and any evidence if it exists, and puts in a binder, and sends it to Congress.

There is nothing for the DOJ to prosecute (unless a perjury is provable). There are no issues of federal law in regards to the allegations.

Even the Maryland prosecutors would have to apply the laws and statue of limitations as they were in 1982. Which makes the assault allegations (sexual or simple) a misdemeanor with a 1 year statute of limitations that has long expired under 1982 Maryland law.
Ms Ford could file a Maryland criminal complaint, but she won’t, because she can’t even give a date, or even a year, with certainty when the allegation happened. If she were to list a date or year on the form and sign it until penalty of perjury, she would be directly contradicting here testimony to the Senate under oath.

Indeed, part of her and Senator Feinstein’s smear strategy is to leave out any specifics on date or year so that Judge Kavanaugh cannot refute the accusation by showing he was somewhere else.

They don’t care if they destroy Judge Kavanaugh. They have no ethics or morals. They know that having 5 conservative Supreme Court justices will shut down their progressive agenda for the next 20-25 years. That is what gives the Democrat’s motive and reason to destroy a good man, his family, his reputation, and his career.

Boy Ling O'Shuns
October 2, 2018 12:45 pm

Were the world to actually warm that much [4C], it would be a literal hell, unable to maintain civilizations as we have known them.

For most (99%) of the last quarter of a billion years the world has been that warm and warmer (see WUWT Paleoclimate Reference Page here: https://wattsupwiththat.com/paleoclimate/).

As far as I know, the seas did not boil. If they did, they came back. Apparently there were some dinosaurs and other animals in Literal Hell. Also some plants. I’ve seen the fossils. That is, unless you believe that Gaia created the Universe 6,000 years ago, and the fossils are fake evidence stuck around here and there by Gaia to fool us. She’s a trickster, that Gaia.

john york
October 2, 2018 1:28 pm

“Bill McKibben loses his mind – says planet is going to boil”

Really? 212 degrees? I guess he was letting off a little steam.

Louis Hunt
October 2, 2018 1:30 pm

“Telling people to stay home is not an option…”

So we have to open our borders and allow climate refugees into our country because climate change won’t cause the same problems here as it will everywhere else on the planet. Is that what he’s saying? Why would there be less warming, fewer storms, and fewer climate catastrophes here than elsewhere? And wouldn’t Canada and Scandinavia be better places to escape warming? But why do we need to start allowing climate refugees in right away before the 4 degree increase has even happened? Is Bill afraid it isn’t going to happen so he needs to implement his political agenda now, before he’s discovered to be a charlatan?

Joel O'Bryan
Reply to  Louis Hunt
October 2, 2018 1:43 pm

Hustlers, all them.

Al Sharpton and Jessie Jackson hustle the race card to make their living.
Gubment and academic climate scientists hustle the climate change card to make their living.
And so to does Bill McKibben hustle his ridiculous sensational claims on climate to make a living.

But it happens on the “right” too.
Hustlers like Alex Jones of InfoWars hustle their fake conspiracy claims to make a living.

All the above depend on a large ignorant, brainwashed population, so even a small fraction is enough people who will believe them to offer them money for their lies — to hear stories they want to believe..

Amber
October 2, 2018 2:32 pm

Doesn’t Boiling Bill get it ? He and the other eco wacho’s have been replaced by a new batch of trailer trash
claiming hurt feelings from 35 years ago when they started to play with boys .
Even Al Gore realizes he just can’t compete with MSM suffering from Donald Trump derangement syndrome . As CNN viewership tanks even Ted Turner has called them out .
Rant on mad men Trump is playing you for the dumb asses you are .

October 2, 2018 2:51 pm

Bill McKibben would lead a good comedy team in a rubber room, bouncing their heads off the walls.

Jim Edwards
October 2, 2018 2:58 pm

And meanwhile UAH satellite data continues a downward trend. At this rate it will be below baseline next year during this long minimum, however AGW people will have us burning in hell and plants suffering from thicker leaves.

R Shearer
October 2, 2018 3:40 pm

“You might as well argue that because you’re going to die eventually, there’s no reason not to smoke a carton of cigarettes a day.”

Now who has time to smoke a cigarette every waking 5 minutes, or every 7 minutes if you could do so in your sleep also in order to be able to smoke a carton/day?

In New York a carton of cigarettes runs just over $1000. That would be over $3000/month. How many people can afford half that?

In fact, there is enough nicotine in a carton of most cigarettes to kill 6 adults if consumed over 24 hours. There are plenty of reasons not to smoke a carton of cigarettes a day, and McKibbon is an idiot.

R Shearer
Reply to  R Shearer
October 2, 2018 3:41 pm

Just over $100 for a carton of cigarettes in NY.

Jimmy
October 2, 2018 5:56 pm

This dude is unhinged.

John W. Garrett
October 2, 2018 5:57 pm

McKibben is an out-and-out crackpot.

He is a modern day Rasputin to the well-intentioned but horribly misguided and guilt-ridden Rockefellers.

hunter
October 2, 2018 6:12 pm

McKibben accuses President Trump of having illusions.
From a man clearly suffering from delusions.
lol.

Sheri
October 3, 2018 5:41 am

Bill McKibben using the word “evil”. Either he doesn’t know the meaning of the word or hopes you don’t. Lies and misleading propaganda flung out by this man for decades to enrich himself. That’s meaning of the word.

old construction worker
October 3, 2018 6:01 am

350.org founder Bill McKibben: The only thing I can say is his pay check depends on such type of hype. I would like to know which stocks are in his retirement fund. I bet he owns a large number of shares in Tesla and solar panels companies.

observa
October 3, 2018 10:44 am

“Telling people to stay home is not an option – when there’s no water, or when the floods come each year,”

That’s why we get out and build dams Bill and we’ve found it’s best to take advantage of the internal combustion engine rather than picks and shovels but if you really must, feel free to gather like minded folk together and get stuck in. They tell me if you do it with forks and spoons it creates more useful jobs for the like minded folk.

Earthling2
October 3, 2018 12:16 pm

There probably will be 140 million refugees at some point if there isn’t already, (economic-political refugees) but it won’t be because of an abundance of CO2 molecules and CAGW. Geez, I am a climate refugee every winter along with millions and millions of others from all around the northern hemisphere fleeing the annual ice age (winter). But boiling oceans? Of course it is nonsense, and let him rant and rave because even the sheeple in his own flock know he is off his rocker and well into the deep end. The more insane the ranting becomes the more we know we are winning this nonsense war on CO2. Almost everyone I know, even the converted, all this nonsense goes in one ear and out the other. Not many actually believe the end of the world doomsday warming bit.

It is exactly because of the utilization of carbon products, mostly fossil fuels, that we even have a modern world order with all its technological advancements. And we will always be a carbon dominated species and economy, albeit we won’t have the luxury of cheap fossil fuels forever. But those are just details that will be figured out when the price point dictates so. We are so, so lucky that we are debating a warming world and whether that will be good for us into the long term future and if any of the predictions made in the 20th century would have been correct about the state of the planet by 2018, then we would have seen some of the effects by now. But on every metric compared to the world of a few generations ago, the world is a better place, politics notwithstanding. That isn’t to say everything is just rosy, and there are no issues or challenges, just that the biosphere is doing very well and is healthy overall.

If it were a drastically cooling world 4.5 degrees colder, like the beginning of an ice age, then much of what Bill was crowing about would be true, except for the boiling part. They have the shoe on the wrong foot. It is always a cooling world that is so instantaneously damaging to society and the world. That is what leads to immediate political instability and societal collapse. Not warming. And that has happened numerous times throughout the recent 5,000 year old history of humanity on the good Earth.

John Endicott
October 4, 2018 6:06 am

The news in that statement is that administration officials serenely contemplate that 4C rise (twice the last-ditch target set at the Paris climate talks). Were the world to actually warm that much, it would be a literal hell, unable to maintain civilizations as we have known them.

and yet civilizations cope just fine with the “literal hell” that happens each year as the temps rise many multiple of 4C in the transition from Winter to Summer.

Carl Carlson
October 4, 2018 6:49 am

E=MC^2

42

[“Please answer in the form of a question.” /Jeopardy TV game show host .mod]

Carl R Carlson
Reply to  Carl Carlson
October 8, 2018 7:54 am

The science behind the mathematical equation E=MC^2 is discomfiting.

Please debunk.

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