h/t Chris Gilham; Tim Flannery has finally admitted his efforts have all been a big waste of time.
The gloves are off: ‘predatory’ climate deniers are a threat to our children
September 17, 2019 6.39am AEST
Tim Flannery Professorial fellow, Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute, University of MelbourneIn this age of rapidly melting glaciers, terrifying megafires and ever more puissant hurricanes, of acidifying and rising oceans, it is hard to believe that any further prod to climate action is needed.
But the reality is that we continue to live in a business-as-usual world. Our media is filled with enthusiastic announcements about new fossil fuel projects, or the unveiling of the latest fossil-fuelled supercar, as if there’s no relationship between such things and climate change.
…A ‘colossal failure’ of climate activism
Each year the situation becomes more critical. In 2018, global emissions of greenhouse gases rose by 1.7% while the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere jumped by 3.5 parts per million – the largest ever observed increase.No climate report or warning, no political agreement nor technological innovation has altered the ever-upward trajectory of the pollution. This simple fact forces me to look back on my 20 years of climate activism as a colossal failure.
…
Far fewer humans will survive on our warming planet
That future Earth may have enough resources to support far fewer people than the 7.6 billion it supports today. British scientist James Lovelock has predicted a future human population of just a billion people. Mass deaths are predicted to result from, among other causes, disease outbreaks, air pollution, malnutrition and starvation, heatwaves, and suicide.
My children, and those of many prominent polluters and climate denialists, will probably live to be part of that grim winnowing – a world that the Alan Joneses and Andrew Bolts of the world have laboured so hard to create.
…
Read more: https://theconversation.com/the-gloves-are-off-predatory-climate-deniers-are-a-threat-to-our-children-123594
Poor Flannery, if only he had been more persuasive, we would now all be enjoying the benefits of civilisation powered by renewable energy.
Update (EW): Andrew Bolt who is named in Flannery’s article has responded with a video which calls Flannery a crank, with examples of billions of dollars of taxpayer’s money which have been wasted because of Flannery’s “advice”.
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“Each year the situation becomes more critical. In 2018, global emissions of greenhouse gases rose by 1.7% while the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere jumped by 3.5 parts per million – the largest ever observed increase.”
Yet again, no mention of China or India ?
“Mass deaths are predicted to result from, among other causes, disease outbreaks, air pollution, malnutrition and starvation, heatwaves, and suicide”
Wrong..mass deaths will occur if the world tries to implement the GND stupidity…
“This simple fact forces me to look back on my 20 years of climate activism as a colossal failure.”
For once I agree…you are a “colossal failure.” ! : )
“For once I agree…you are a “colossal failure.” ! : )”
Its worse than you think……….
By my calculations, 2016 was the largest ever observed increase in atmospheric CO2 @ur momisugly 3.76 ppm increase, …. with 2019 coming in 2nd Place @ur momisugly 3.42 ppm increase.
And 2018 had the lowest increase during the past 5 years @ur momisugly 1.55 ppm increase, …. to wit:
year .. month .. ppm ….. increase
2015 …. 5 …. 403.94 …. +2.06
2016 …. 5 …. 407.70 …. +3.76 El Niño
2017 …. 5 …. 409.69 ….. +1.99
2018 …. 5 …. 411.24 …. +1.55
2019 …. 5 …. 414.66 …. +3.42
Source: ftp://aftp.cmdl.noaa.gov/products/trends/co2/co2_mm_mlo.txt
Colossal liars ultimately become colossal failures.
Thank you, icisil. I enjoyed that.
And thanks, Eric, for the post.
Regards,
Bob
Welcome Bob 🙂
Indeed so.
On the conservative/libertarian website Catallaxy Files he’s often called “Flim Flammery”.
The only ‘business as usual’ in this whole area is the look at me, look at me, self promoting BS that Flim Flannery et al utter every time they open their gobs. I am waiting for Flimmy to call ‘ENDLESS DROUGHT’ so Gaia has another opportunity to drop him on his useless, fat academic arse again like last time.
he mighta learnt a bit…hes been very quiet on that …so far
but he will be front n centre prob with the kids when the EX R media stunts are on I bet
icisil
Hey, don’t forget the colossal failure of his predictions! It must be somewhat embarrassing after 30 years to have never gotten anything right when future-casting. He is a member of an elite group of serial failures: J Hansen, T Flannery…
Who else is worthy of the 30 Year Medal?
P. Ehrlich.
Rev Camping
Crispin in Waterloo – September 17, 2019 at 6:51 pm
“HA”, the members of that elite group of serial failures have surely known that they have been “wrong” for all those 30 years …… so the only embarrassment is having to publicly admit it.
Admit the silliness of their claims, to wit:
The AGW Quandary.
The proponents of Anthropogenic Global Warming claim that increases in atmospheric CO2 quantities causes an increase in near-surface air temperatures which result in said AGW.
But natural world events in the Northern Hemisphere disproves their claim because as the cool Spring air temperatures start increasing to become the hot summer air temperatures the quantity of atmospheric CO2 starts decreasing and continues to decrease as the temperature increases on into the hot summer season.
And when those hot summer air temperatures start decreasing to become the cool fall air temperatures the quantity of atmospheric CO2 starts increasing again and continues to increase as the temperature decreases on into the cold winter season.
But now, is not that natural world event “bass ackward” from what the proponents of Anthropogenic Global Warming claim?
I think it is, I think it is.
The proponents of AGW claim “an increase in CO2 causes an increase in temperature”, ….. whereas in reality, … whenever there is “an increase in CO2 there is a decrease in temperature”, … or vice-versa, ….. whenever there is “a decrease in CO2 there is an increase in temperature”.
Cheers, ….. Eritas Rabuf
Isn’t S.A. already basking in the Benefits of and Mass Economic Suicide from the wholesale embracement of exclusive unreliable renewable energy sources? (except when they’re importing power generated from Coal or Gas that is)
big windstorms and duststorms coming to sa today/night
so there goes the birdshredder power and the pvs will all need cleaning if theyre nt too sandblasted to work at all
😉
“Our media is filled with enthusiastic announcements about new fossil fuel projects, or the unveiling of the latest fossil-fuelled supercar, as if there’s no relationship between such things and climate change.”
That’s because there isn’t any proven relationship between them, and your wild specualtions, Tim, don’t count as proof. Neither do spurious correlations or GCM output. Fossil fuels have been found “not guilty” in the court of public opinion. Only you, your friends, the collectivists seeking political power and their useful idiots, and of course, the corrupt press continue to tell the increasingly unbelievable story of future disaster brought on by our use of this miraculous fuel source.
The only “enthusiastic announcements about new fossil fuel projects” are decommissionings and delays. Renewable projects get oodles of hype. Every fossil-fuelled supercar “enthusiastic” unveiling is more than balanced by those about hybrids and all-electric.
This guy is off on some other planet.
He could have explained just how much the oceans have risen. All he has to do is show the unusual rise in sea levels and I’ll be convinced.
But but- “Paleoclimatology data are derived from natural sources such as tree rings, ice cores, corals, and ocean and lake sediments.”
https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/data-access/paleoclimatology-data
All that lovely proxy data and you simply want sea level rise evidence? Begone with you simpleton as these are lots of Green jobs you’re talking about here. What the Hell do you think we’re all going to do when there’s no more fossil fuel use?
Tim does not have to the BoM Australia does it for you
http://www.bom.gov.au/ntc/IDO60101/IDO60101.201908.pdf page 24.
Not much movement. Some a little up some a little down.
Meanwhile our good friends in FIJI want Australia to cut down on emissions while they seem quite happy to rely on several diesel electricity generators and aeroplanes and ocean liners to bring tourist $$$ to their economy. All to fix an apparently non problem.
I could suggest a win/win. Australia and the rest of the world to stop visiting them and supplying them with fuel for their generators thus reducing our CO2 emmissions. Their own CO2 emissions will drop as a result. Who loses? The whole population that’s who. And the tides will continue to rise and fall without taking any notice of the starving humans on the little islands.
Problem with our little pacific island friends is China.
China is not our friend.
China is our neighbour at best.
We are basically being blackmailed into giving foreign aid to prevent them seeking the same from China. That is the real big picture. Climate Change and sea levels are just the public face of ‘Giveme!’
You’ve hit the nail right on the head.
Hello Tim Flannery, I’d like to introduce you to reality.
I have to admit I’ve never heard of this Flannery here in Illinois, perhaps most of reality has never been introduced to him either. If he had just been the first person who claimed to be able to see CO2, he’d now have the UN behind him as a rising poster child for the global socialist agenda.
He has been very very quiet. I think he realises how hypocritical he has been since buying his ocean front property and, somehow, losing AU$90mil in a “hot rock” thermal power plant project and stating Sydney rain will never fill dams again.
Another, “shouty activist”, is Karoly. He does not debate, he just shouts people down who opposes him.
and Wivenhoe. Let us not forget.
No No No
Flannery bought a property on a large river which runs into the sea. That property does not have ocean frontage. Never heard about him investing in hot rocks but I don’t think he has ever had AU$90mil to lose. The quote about Sydney rains and dams is correct.
The current Oz drought is a great opportunity to test the dam comment. Stand by for a year or so.
No No No!
The property is beside a tidal river front (I corrected my initial claim with another post in this thread) and will be affected by sea level rises (Whenever they happen) which is the point.
I don’t think I said he invested AU$90mil and losing that. Not only was he a Govn’t adviser in a part-time job paying AU$180k p/y for a 3 day week, he was also involved at a senior level in the AU$90mil “hot rocks” geothermal power plant project which never went anywhere, in other words, AU$90mil of taxpayers money was lost on his watch.
Well, Flannery *DID* say the dams would not be full again. If you care to refute that go right ahead. In the meantime you could read up on some history;
https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/slippery-when-wet-tim-flannerys-climate-warnings-questioned-after-recent-flooding/news-story/032676cb0c4bd1ba0e1e99bda904bca2?sv=b88b53b3a64b900159375cfe7ddb486b
Here is something for you to read;
https://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/community/threads/flights-to-get-twice-as-bumpy-due-to-climate-change-study.49157/
Read both comments by “Lovestotravel”. However, the second comment is more interesting. It links to a Landline interview;
Landline – 11/02/2007: Interview with Professor Tim Flannery . Australian Broadcasting Corp
“We’re already seeing the initial impacts and they include a decline in the winter rainfall zone across southern Australia, which is clearly an impact of climate change, but also a decrease in run-off. Although we’re getting say a 20 per cent decrease in rainfall in some areas of Australia, that’s translating to a 60 per cent decrease in the run-off into the dams and rivers. That’s because the soil is warmer because of global warming and the plants are under more stress and therefore using more moisture. So even the rain that falls isn’t actually going to fill our dams and our river systems, and that’s a real worry for the people in the bush. If that trend continues then I think we’re going to have serious problems, particularly for irrigation.”
I have extracted this; “So even the rain that falls isn’t actually going to fill our dams and our river systems,…”
When you click on the hyperlink you get this;
“The page you are looking for, http://www.abc.net.au/landline/content/2006/s1844398.htm cannot be found. It might have been removed, had its name changed, or be temporarily unavailable.”
The ABC has “disappeared” the article from their site but not the internet.
Patrick MJD,
Flannery did say the rain that falls won’t actually fill the dams.
Look here: http://www.bom.gov.au/water/dashboards/#/water-storages/summary/state
Aussie dams at 50% of capacity: SE Australia had a reasonable winter thankfully and hopefully the monsoon season will help, but it’s not a good situation. Current SAM indicates below average rainfall for the next few months.
And look here: https://www.mdba.gov.au/sites/default/files/weeklyreports/River-Murray-Operations-Weekly-Report-11-September-2019.pdf
Paints a pretty grim picture. Read the inflow data at the end of the report.
You could say Flannery was pretty much spot on with his prediction.
Quote of the week goes to serial idiot Pauline Hanson who said on national TV, we need more dams to store water so we can put out the bushfires. I kid you not.
When you have a static water collection area as is with Sydney, and a variable rain pattern, it will fail. Modern societies rely on static systems of water collection and supply. Past societies collected water and TRANSPORTED it from where it fell to where it was needed. Incas and Romans spring to mind.
Now, modern day! What is Australia doing with water collection? Nothing. It falls and runs right out to sea. What are the Chinese doing? Building ~1400km viaducts collecting water from where it is in abundance to where it is needed.
Water waste is the problem in Australia.
Patrick,
All water collection systems are static, they’re called catchments and you are confusing transportation with distribution.
Sadly, Australia does not have a Yangtze River to tap into. The Yangtze flows are massive and the Chinese have an endless supply of cheap and expendable labour, so a project like that is achievable albeit at huge cost.
In Australia, the monsoon is seasonal, there is a sad lack of suitable storage sites and evaporation rates are around 3 meters per year. A scheme to divert water from the north had been bandied about for a hundred years but no economically viable plan has ever been produced.
Also, Townsville had almost expended its water supply earlier this year only to suffer devastating floods when they received three months rain in a week. Designing a system to cope with that is near impossible.
With regard to other aspects of wastage, much effort has been put into reducing consumption. Melbourne, for example in the mid 1990’s had a daily per capita consumption of 422 litres: the population at the time was approximately 3.5 million. Today with a population of 4.8 million daily per capita consumption is 165 litres. Do the sums…..
The Murray Darling Basin is a complete mess, with the current governments policies doing nothing to help the situation. Barnaby Joyce has a lot to answer for.
He is Australia’s knock off version of elongate muck, oops Elon Musk.
Pop, if you want the Flim Flan Man to come and enlighten the good people of Illinois I am sure my fellow Australians could crowd fun a one way ticket within eight or nine seconds.
Tim is an ‘interesting’ personality. I can still remember when he was just an expert in small long dead furry animals and head of the South Australian Museum. Somehow he managed to mutate that position into one in which his ‘expert’ words on Australia’s changing climate were actively sort and worshiped.
The fact his ‘expert’ words were utter bollocks never seemed to bother people. He was always an aim high sort of doom merchant with the wiggle room of ‘I said it MIGHT, not that it WOULD’ when held to task after his deadlines of doom safely passed.
To be honest he has probably cost Australia billions over the years and has in real terms shown to be a greater threat to children’s health than 99.99% of the population, all while happily living in a rather spiffing waterfront home.
Only thing I can’t work out is if he is simply too lacking in self awareness to realise he is wrong, unqualified on the topic and making a fool of himself, or a force for evil.
Thanks for catching me up! 👍
Climate activism has not been a colossal failure… it has cost the world billions. Fortunately, though, common sense seems to be making a comeback in no small part due to the efforts of Anthony Watts and many others. Mr Watts was a pioneer and is a kind of unsung hero. Thank you, Anthony Watts.
I’ll second that, Thanks Anthony!
I was a believer until I found WUWT. About a year of serious reading and I finally saw the light.
“No climate report or warning…”
You’re wrong their Flannery, the initial reports and warnings made a big difference to our living standards and finances. But yea, zero difference to the average world temperature.
“… no political agreement”; Can ever do squat, so why did you expect it to?
“… nor technological innovation”; And everybody except yourself knew that changing light bulbs wouldn’t save the planet. Bla bla bla.
“… has altered the ever-upward trajectory of the pollution.” What pollution? I thought you were all about CO2 and it’ll never rain again?
good grief…it’s not like the media hasn’t been trying their hardest
Every week it’s a new disease going to kill us all….swine, bird, malaria, ebola, pig….flesh eating bacteria
…every weather event…has never happened before…and global warming is going to make it all worse
click bait…..
..and “we” have to do something about it….when “we” have not caused any rise in atmospheric CO2 in ~50 years
if it walks and quacks like a scam….it’s a scam
moderation take forever….. 😛
good grief…it’s not like the media hasn’t been trying their hardest
Every week it’s a new disease going to kill us all….swine, bird, malaria, ebola, pig….flesh eating bacteria
…every weather event…has never happened before…and global warming is going to make it all worse
click bait…..
..and “we” have to do something about it….when “we” have not caused any rise in atmospheric CO2 in ~50 years
if it walks and quacks like a s c a m……it’s a s c a m
The drone of his alarmist rhetoric has been enormously successful at demonstrating how weak the case for CAGW really is.
That little embedded video in the story, I love how they depict C02 thru history, the way it depicts history with a leftist view of things, and they way the article is written, the way the words are crafted for an eloquent moral outrage…all as if they themselves never used and do not to this day use fossil fuels, they are unhinged hypocrites, it is appalling.
John B – of course, it was written and presented by Australia’s best government funded, University employed propaganda experts!
”This simple fact forces me to look back on my 20 years of climate activism as a colossal failure.”……
Absolutely Tim, lets see, maybe its all the failed predictions like the dams will never fill again which created a multi million dollar desalination plant mothballed. And why did you buy that mansion next to the ocean?? And you wonder why you failed?? LOL.
I thought it was near the ocean too, but it is not. However, it would be affected by sea level rise anyway.
https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/prof-tim-flannerys-waterside-getaway/news-story/f78bdfc72ee5a1488116215e2b26eb88?sv=56fbbb1f36ebdda9d6d065322f799093
Professional Fellows at Institutes are not expected to be professional when unprofessionalism is the name of the Institute’s game.
What would professionalism look like anyway? It would express analytical and interpretive doubts after raising issues and educating the public on natural cycles ranging from ENSO to AMO to grouped solar cycle influences plus easy to follow measurement systems like global satellite data and Argo. Standing up to agenda science tactics with policy distortion would also be a mark of professionalism.
Only a Climate Fellow can cast doom predictions of the human race while ignoring all the other failed doom predictions that came before. It’s a trademark characteristic…and a requirement for continued funding.
It must cause professional laments when you see even lesser qualified activism with pigtails passing you by.
OMG, you are so spot on.
This man had a position of authority in the Labour government and could dictate his whim with impunity.
Greta’s qualifications is that she dropped out of school, and she has already given speeches at the UN building at the age of 16 (after doing absolutely nothing at all).
Tim must be wondering what the hell?
We may need suicide watch on a number of climate scare experts at this point.
Funny kind of hell joke there.
Ground control to fellow Tim: relax dude, you have been told porkies.
It takes a pissant to use a word like “puissant.”
Well, he does have a BA in English, so such flowery prose is unsurprising.
Yes, it’s quite Flannelly.
But we should probably leave the last word for Steve Mosher. Isn’t he an English graduate too?
English Literature when I looked him up.
A wordsmith rather than a grammar technician.
“Puissant” is the French word for “powerful”, which Flannery could have used to equal effect, but “puissant” sounds more snobbish.
Of course, Flannery worries that the future earth may not be able to support its 7.6 billion people. If doubling CO2 would increase crop yields by 35% to 50% according to Dr. Idso’s data in a different post, maybe the Earth could support 10 or 11 billion people in the future!
Hilarious how the alarmists are always wording things differently, thinking that others just have not understood them yet, just re craft the message a bit and others will start acting and stop using fossil fuels, but of course the alarmists must keep on using fossil fuels so they can keep getting the word out to others to stop using fossil fuels. Insanity.
Pretty similar to a socialist’s view of applied Big Socialism in the world so far: all that’s needed is more of other people’s money, better people running the show — or preferably, both.
Flannery: “This simple fact forces me to look back on my 20 years of climate activism as a colossal failure.”
Congratulations, Tim! Admitting you have a problem is the first critical step to recovery from AGW derangement syndrome.
Can we refer to him by his true given name, which for as long as I have been aware of him, is Flim Flam Flannery 😉
He has the CO2 numbers but avoids temperature data. Is it because he knows that this century’s 43ppm increase has (as yet) only yielded a paltry ~0.2 deg C rise compared to the previous 20 years 31ppm increase in CO2 being accompanied by 0.5 deg C increase in global average temperatures.
And he needs to apologise for all of the mothballed desalination plants that tax payers still have to keep
It’s not only tax payers, it’s people with water meters too that pay for these desal plants too. Everyone’s water bills went up to pay for it. Thanks Timmy!
and Wivenhoe. He should have the decency to apologise for that as well.
As well as the “temporary” MediCare levy increase still applied IIRC.
I find it odd no one talks about the real evidence. So we all watch this CO2 molecule that plays a small role in the GHE, as it’s its only 0.04% of our atmosphere and only contributes to around 5% of the GHE. H2O is a molecule that is responsible for 70-90% of the heating from the GHE, and studies have shown atmospheric levels of water vapor have decreased since around the 1970s. (https://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/03/06/nasa-satellite-data-shows-a-decline-in-water-vapor/)
How or why is this possible? Its not confidently understood, but water vapor also creates clouds that increases our planets albedo. With less of the largest contributor to “global warming,” our planet is getting warmer. Talk about a conundrum.
https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/prof-tim-flannerys-waterside-getaway/story-fn6b3v4f-1226104010903?sv=56fbbb1f36ebdda9d6d065322f799093
Leftists more often than not accuse others of their own sins. His claim that “‘predatory’ climate deniers are a threat to our children,” is worrying.
Do you think he might be projecting his own emotions onto his enemies? Interesting idea.
more suicidal kiddies caused BY flimflams drivel and fearmongering than the other way round
still it keeps the shrinks n pharmas in their bad biz raking it in
sure Tim’d think thats just fine
hes kept HIS kids presence very quiet
wonder what they think in honesty if they could speak
Andy
September 17, 2019 at 3:24 pm
Thanks Andy…I had missed that. The Gores, Obamas and Flannerys of this world do speak with forked tongues don’t they!
Obama II
There is not much doubt that there is neurosis level illness and worse among prominent alarmists of any kind. Normally, it is diluted and muted in the population at large and manifests itself as troubled individuals needing medical help. But what happens when the world celebrates such a pathology? They gather into a movement (and of course don’t get medical attention!). There are thousands of Flannerys out there indistinguishable from each other psychologically. This is their chance to ‘be somebody’.
Political opportunists and rent-seeking academia and crony capitalists have harnessed the sick for ulterior purposes. They’ve hyped the meme, propagandized education and spread irrational fears that are doing serious psychological damage to school children and ordinary folk.
Self-serving scientists and institutions have watched silently, happy to exploit this up until recent weeks when it dawned on two or three of the more thoughtful ones that this maddening crowd may not be so helpful after all.Things were getting out of control. The IPCC science was fallen victim to this frenzied movement being castigated by uber alarmists as too understated. Not alarmist enough The see this makes it easier for sceptics to dismiss consensus science.
I’m genuinely concerned that when the platform falls out from underneath this hive of angst as it must, there will be more to deal with than simply cleaning up the mess. I see veiled threats in blacklists à la Nature and naming names by Flannery, Greenpeace, Antifa….
Flannery is right, mass deaths are going to occur, however that will be when the climate turns cold, not when it warms up a bit. If we are not very well prepared, billions will die shortly after the next ice age begins. It will begin in a few years or a few thousand years. In any case we need to start preparing now. We must also step up our game in preparing for pandemics, asteroid strikes, etc.
If the alarmists got their way and we all abandoned fossil fuels, there would also be mass deaths. The world would go from having the capacity to feed more than 10 Billion people to probably less than 4 Billion. There would be a worse short term bump though, as the infrastructure for non-fossil fueled food production is not in place. That may drop the supportable humans number down to 2 Billion for a couple of decades.
So, if he got his way, that would lead fairly directly to the deaths of 3-5 Billion people. If the alarmists want to go through with this, they must own it. They must say “We want to k*ll 3-5 Billion people”.
well they DO keep saying the populations are too big n must drop sharply
thing is the warmists always think its everyone else must go
going to be some rude surprises for many
Could we generate enough global warming to prevent the next glaciation?
OR better to adapt sufficiently to prevent billions from dying from its bitter cold?
“Could we generate enough global warming to prevent the next glaciation?”
Not with any current technology. You’d probably have to build giant mirrors in space or something along those lines.
Or move the Earth closer to the Sun.