Guest “nothing to add” by David Middleton
Michael Schellenberger’s Environmental Progress page has published a very cool slide deck, related to his new book Apocalypse Never. Here are the first five slides:
Mr. Schellenberger rocks! Like Bjorn Lomborg, Ted Nordhaus and Scott Tinker, he opens a pathway for constructive dialogue on environmental issues.
For those of you who want to read the uncensored Forbes article it is available on the Wayback Machine here
https://web.archive.org/web/20200629001029/https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelshellenberger/2020/06/28/on-behalf-of-environmentalists-i-apologize-for-the-climate-scare/#16d946a95dc3
Your link appears to be bad, at least on this end.
JI
It works here. I assume that you are getting the screen wash effect?
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If you want to pursue this then I suggest that you do the following:-
On opening the link click inside the screen washed page and then do Control A (all text) and then Control C (copy text). This captures and copies all of the text to your computer’s clipboard.
Then open a new Word document and do Control V (paste text) to place the captured text into the Word document, which you can then read.
(The screen wash is an editing overlay and does not get captured by ASCII copying.)
Works fine for me.
Here is Schellenberger’s article from his own website.
https://environmentalprogress.org/big-news/2020/6/29/on-behalf-of-environmentalists-i-apologize-for-the-climate-scare
David here is one of the Morons that opines on AIChE Engage forum.
I never heard of Michael Shellenberger. I haven’t read “Apocalypse Never” and don’t intend to. I looked him up. Seems he raised quite a stir with his book. He did a recent article for the Forbes website which was removed because it reeked of self-promotion. Wouldn’t be the first time that a “scientist” sold out. I found an interesting critique of his book.
Global warming is an existential threat to the human race. There is no doubt about it. It is not “manageable”. We have about 10 years to initiate the process of reducing carbon emissions. If global carbon emissions have increased in 2030 by the 20 to 30% currently projected, you won’t have to worry about global warming anymore because, barring a scientific miracle, we won’t be able to do anything about it.
BTW your feeling it necessary to state that Shellenberger is a “liberal, progressive Democrat environmentalist” tells me all I need to know about where you are coming from. It doesn’t make him or you right. Let me be the first to tell you, you are tragically wrong if you think the effects of climate change are “manageable”.
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John Braccili
Wallingford, PA
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I fully agree with you, David. We need sensible voices unequivocally exposing the reality vs the hype and hysteria! Voices like those of Michael Shellenberger are particularly worthwhile given his history on the āother sideā of the argument so his epiphany and adoption of a contrarian viewpoint is important.
Bjorn Lomborg has long been a voice of reason despite attracting some unfavourable comments here at WUWT. Anybody who has read his work (rather than just catching a TED talk) knows that he has done much to expose the malfeasance of the climate alarmists, environmentalists and purveyors of āfake energyā.
Indeed.
It’s also worth remembering ‘they’ tried to cancel Professor Lomborg, too!
It’s probable that the ‘turncoats’ might get a chance for a fairer hearing than the died-in-the-wool sceptics ever will.
I imagine the woke folk will look at the Miami pictures and argue it proves the case for global sea rise because of all those high rise buildings that have been erected there must be to combat the advancing water levels.
The shore lines are so under threat the ex president of the USA has been forced to purchase a $14 million mansion on the beach level at Martha’s Vineyard. No doubt to show his strong belief that “yes we can” stop the waters rising.
Those hotels look to be tall enough so that the upper floors will be resistant to SLR for a good while yet.
I suppose that is why the Penthouse Suites are so expensive.
I wonder Tony if the point of the photo contrasts is that in the event of a future natural disaster, when they expound the vast loss of property and life and the billions of dollars lost, maybe they might remember the first photo and realise that there wasn’t nearly as much to be lost in the way of life or property. The present perceived disasters have nothing to do with any concept of climate change or extreme weather events.
Megs
Spot on about natural disasters. Hurricane Andrew landing more or less 20 miles north of the Homestead landfall would have been a 1900 Galveston level disaster for Miami Beach and Miami.
He has mystical, magical powers that will keep King Neptune at bay.
There is magical thinking which goes beyond any requirement for correlation even.
Renewable energy comes to mind. In spite of all the evidence to the contrary, some well educated folks believe there will be a technological breakthrough that will make it feasible. At the same time, also in spite of ample evidence, they don’t believe we can adapt to a changing climate.
King Canute! Where are you when we need you?
But seriously, āconstructive dialogueā? With those whose mendacity is so entrenched? Excuse me a minute while I am overwhelmed with cynicism.
Nice to see WUWT back in action, and good postings already. The current Grand Unified Theory, with global warming, China Virus, and BLM, all rolled into an excuse to loot tv’s and blind federal agents with lasers, is Shirley getting noticed by mainstream voters as greatly exceeding their limit. The good news is never shown by the mass hysteria people. Stay sane and safe (an someday eat a great dinner at the Avalon along Ocean Drive on Miami Beach).
I like his Chapter 15 in āClimate Change – the Facts 2017ā where Bjorn Lomborg shows that if everyone follows Paris to the bitter end, then 2100AD temperature will reduce by 0.17degsC. Has this been challenged anywhere?
It’s good to be back to opportunities to have an intelligent conversations in regard to on topic issues that affect us all globally.
Thank you for this site. It does and will continue to make a difference. Thank you all for helping me personally grow as an individual, and to give me a voice in the real world.
+42
Alex Epstein interviewing Shellenberger: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eq60W2pRk84&t=2827s
Epstein interviewing Lomborg: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLX6u9X7sFA&feature=em-uploademail
Epstein interviewing Patrick Moore: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uawp_w3V1xE&t=294s
Alex Epstein interviewing me: https://industrialprogress.com/power-hour-dr-patrick-frank-on-the-accuracy-of-climate-models/
It’s surprising that Miami Beach hasn’t tipped over as its heavy on the ocean beach side.
Miami will tip over just after Guam.
Those bridges act like a plank clamp! ; )
I know its hard to understand for the generation that thinks pressing an icon on an app makes them a computer expert, but the Dutch kept their land from going underwater back in the Middle Ages using old timely tools and some elbow grease (a concept completely foreign for most people under 40 it seems).
I mean, the entire country is basically called “Under Sea Level” for a reason.
The political will needs to be there, that’s all. But easier to grift a few billion dollars to produce unlikely models and groom youngsters I guess.
As long as the underlying theory of CO2 causes warming however big or small is accepted it is hard to argue against wanting to waste money on wind farms or solar.
But if a nuclear plant can be built and operated more efficiently without producing CO2 then aren’t wind and solar just poor choices and another way for the progressives to virtue signal their belief in green energy at any cost?
One thing to add to the first slide. That big drop in deaths occurred while global population was growing substantially. Put in a per capita basis, the drop would be even more dramatic.
“he opens a pathway for constructive dialogue on environmental issues.”
This assumes that “environmentalists” want a constructive dialogue.
Well said MarkW. It bears repeating and reminding. They are generally past dialogue or are too young to have had one having been indoctrinated and programmed by their schools and professors years ago.
Schellenberger is proof that at least some environmentalists want a constructive dialogue. Granted that the Gore, McKibben, Mann, Ocasio-Cortez miscreants don’t want any dialogue, much less constructive. They just want power.
David you missed out St Greta, How Dare You!
I wasn’t counting Children of the Damned… š
He can smell which way the wind is blowing and doesn’t want to be caught looking a schmuck – none of the alarmist claims are happening or will happen.
Something that should not be forgotten in all this is that all the time that Michael Schellenberger was doing the damage he was doing as a misguided environmentalist there were millions–including Dave Middleton–who kept trying to point out the fallacy of such doomsday predictions. Although his becoming properly and fact-based-woke is admirable, I fail to accept that he should now be put on a pedestal higher than all those who knew all along everything he now ‘knows’.
You don’t get to stand at the front of the line ahead of all those who knew what he knows all along, just for changing your mind, any more than the reformed drug addict should be more of a hero than all those who never got onto drugs in the first place, or the former murderer who ‘found God’ should be closer to the Pope than all those who never hurt anyone. There is a lot of damage done that is yet to be paid back, if it ever can be.
They do say that the angels celebrate every time a sinner converts.
Yes, all the while staying completely silent about all those not sinning in the first place–aren’t angels brilliant and fair. I well remember the puzzling contradictions presented in catechism.
I see that the Kindle version of his book is $16; hard cover $27. ‘Celebrating’ there indeed will be.
We are all sinners, this category of those who have never sinned doesn’t exist.
given that we are all sinners, them angles must be partying all the time.
Hopefully.
Let’s not forget about the prodigal son. His brother argued from Len’s position.
š
Len,
Thank you. You put into words what I have been thinking about Shellenberger. Well said.
“There is a lot of damage done that is yet to be paid back, if it ever can be.”
I guess that my first point Len would be that the damage continues to be done, it hasn’t stopped.
The other point is that scientists that ‘we’ trust and respect can and do speak till the cows come home and the left will not listen. It’s different for them when ‘their own’ start telling our story. When the likes of Shellenburger and Moore, longtime high profile, vocal environmentalists, who have been equally committed to promoting their way of thinking and then suddenly say they were wrong, it sends a shockwave through the leftist community.
It’s not an easy thing to do, I’m not famous or well-known but when I became an anti renewables activist it became obvious to my friends that I wasn’t a leftist. All bar none turned their backs on me, and though it’s not the same grand scale backlash that they would be going through it’s still a very painful experience.
It was a big thing for them to do, I hope that more of the same ilk come out and publicly admit that it’s all a lie. The left are more likely to take notice of their own than they are of us. And in regard to the damage, the leftists are not confronted by it, because they are ignorant of how renewables come about, in their minds it doesn’t exist. We need to promote Michael Moore and Michael Shellenburger’s work to get in back in their face.
David,
So glad to see you back and thank you for the props to Schellenberger! Besides being very eloquent he also has irrefutable bona fides as an environmental activist. We should be welcoming him to the debate and standing with him to push for a nuclear powered US. Once the alarmists are discredited their money will dry up and we can get back to real scientific endeavors like geological studies of the Jovian moons!
By the way, I think your reply to Rod Evans about St. Greta may have left a red mark on her backside. Well done and well deserved!
While I have no doubt that Mr. Schellenberger and I would strongly disagree on many issues, I genuinely think we could find a lot of common ground on dealing with real environmental issues and energy poverty.
How is Texas doing there Mr. Rounding-error?
Well I haven’t done an extensive workup yet Henry, but it’s looking like if you live in a city/county run by Democrat progressives, or a city/county on the border of Mexico, well you might need to be extra careful.
For Democrat progressive governed areas, see here:
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/07/17/open-thread-weekend-23/#comment-3038375
Strangely, this micro-pattern of cities/counties in Texas appears to fit with an overall macro-pattern of U.S. States. It’s not a comprehensive analysis of course. But see for yourself.
Go here and sort by ttl deaths/U.S. state:
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/
The top 7 states make up OVER HALF of ALL deaths in the 50 U.S. states. All 7 of those are “Blue” states. Go figure?
For border towns, Jim did a little work on that front:
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/07/17/open-thread-weekend-23/#comment-3038271
Anyway, that’s how it’s going in Texas. If you’re in progressive land (e.g., Dallas, Houston, Austin), probably should run away fast to a NON-progressive governed city/county. Similarly if you’re in a border city or county (e.g., Hidalgo).
I’ll let you know if that really holds up if I get around to digging in further.
Wow.
And just like that?
Henry is *poof* gone . . .
The virus doesn’t care if the person it infects is “blue” or if they are “red.”
The virus infects people that it has an opportunity to infect. Usually people stressed out from all the imaginary grievances they have and their self-imposed victim status.
When those people go out and shout at the unfair world, that gives them freedoms and abilities that Kings of a few centuries ago would lust after, they are the low hanging fruit for the virus to infect.
Survival of the fittest, implies “Death to the Stupid”.
The data indicates the blue states are getting the government they wanted. They just didn’t realize that “Cradle to Grave”, was a grave much sooner than they thought.
Clearly, however, the virus infects more “blue” than “red” as I’ve shown above.
I don’t think the virus likes progressives.
The Chinese are finding out that a pension that lasts as long as you live, administrated by the government, gives the government a strong incentive for you to die sooner.
Anyone know why Amazon have just put back delivery of the book to September 25th here in UK?
I ordered it as a Pre-order with delivery for July 26th or so…