Guest essay by Eric Worrall
According to Michael Mann, the upcoming US Presidential election is “a Tolkienesque battle between good and evil, and Sauron needs to be defeated on election day here in the United States.”. But Mann claims he is not being partisan.
A second Trump term would be ‘game over’ for the climate, says top scientist
Michael Mann, one of the world’s most eminent climate experts, says Earth’s future ‘is in the hands of American citizens’Supported by
Mark Hertsgaard Fri 2 Oct 2020 20.00 AEST
This article is published as part of Covering Climate Now, a collaboration of 400-plus news outlets to strengthen coverage of the climate story. The Guardian is the lead partner of CCN.
Michael Mann, one of the most eminent climate scientists in the world, believes averting climate catastrophe on a global scale would be “essentially impossible” if Donald Trump is re-elected.
A professor at Penn State University, Mann, 54, has published hundreds of peer-reviewed scientific papers, testified numerous times before Congress and appeared frequently in the news media. He is also active on Twitter, where earlier this year he declared: “A second Trump term is game over for the climate – really!”, a statement he reaffirmed in an interview with the Guardian and Covering Climate Now.
“If we are going to avert ever more catastrophic climate change impacts, we need to limit warming below a degree and a half Celsius, a little less than three degrees Fahrenheit,” Mann said. “Another four years of what we’ve seen under Trump, which is to outsource environmental and energy policy to the polluters and dismantle protections put in place by the previous administration … would make that essentially impossible.”
…
Mann denies that it’s a partisan statement to say that four more years of Trump would mean “game over” for the climate.
“It is a political statement, because it speaks to the need to enact policies to deal with climate change,” he says. “But it isn’t partisan to say that we should act on this crisis.”
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“The future of this planet is now in the hands of American citizens,” he says. “It’s up to us. The way we end this national and global nightmare is by coming out and voting for optimism over pessimism, for hope and justice and progress over fear and malice and superstition. This is a Tolkienesque battle between good and evil, and Sauron needs to be defeated on election day here in the United States.”
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/oct/02/donald-trump-climate-change-michael-mann-interview
Last time I checked President Trump did not resemble an immortal wizard who is busy trying to recover his lost magical ring, which would grant him eternal dominion over the entire world.
But comparing President Trump to Tolkien’s premier villain probably makes as much sense as anything else Mann says.
To be fair, famous science fiction author Isaac Asimov once suggested in his essay “The ring of evil” that the One Ring represents technology:
“… it is the lure of technology, the seduction of things done more easily; of products in greater quantity; of gadgets in tempting variety. It is gunpowder, and the automobile, and television; all the things that people snatch for if they don’t have them; all the things that people can’t let go once they do have them. …“.
If Tolkien’s irrational yearning for a fantasy age of pre-industrial agrarian bliss is Michael Mann’s inspiration, this is not a vision I share. I choose the comforts of the industrial age, over the grim pre-industrial reality of back breaking toil, hardship, misery, bone chilling cold, disease, and an early death. It should be possible to enjoy a breath taking fantasy like Lord of the Rings, without confusing fantasy with reality.
Please remember though, Mann is not being partisan.
** OK, technically Morgoth is Tolkien’s premier villain. But you would have to be a real LOTR geek to know that.
Man is 54? He is in pretty poor health. He should worry about that.
The planet will be fine long after he is gone.
In a race between 100 mm SLR and 6 feet under, I’m not betting on SLR.
If he makes it to 108 he may see that 100mm. Maybe! ( IMV likely not, as we may be at or past a 100 plus year peak)
And I hope at least one American Citizen gets up and smythes him like an ISIS follower.
Back off man, I’m a scientist.
Question: I always thought that anyone who fudges their data to earn a degree is automatically “kicked out of the program.” Or does it not apply to professors publishing. Guess not if it is Penn State University. Truly disgraceful. Signed, Naive Ned, PhD 🙂
..”This is a Tolkienesque battle between good and evil, and Sauron needs to be defeated on election day here in the United States.”
============
Wow.
I usually reserve such vitriol towards an ant invasion of my kitchen.
They too, have a need.
I well remember the climate screaming in terror in the late 1780’s to the ratification of the US Declaration, poor climate new the wrong types of president would slowly rape it to death.
signed: M. Mann
10-3-2020 @ur momisugly 1357hrs EDT
I well remember looking at the rings of that poor cherry tree that washington murdered.
and I wept. I wept and wept and wept some more.
wept is the correct term for sexual self gratification correct?
no matter, I got some college papers written to cement by career of weeping.
signed: M. Mann
10-3-2020 @ur momisugly 1615hrs EDT
no scientist would ever make such a statement……mann is a raving idiot IF he believes any of the stuff he writes or says
Another “last chance to save the world/climate?” Come-on, Mann!
I thought that we defeated Sauron back in 2016?
“Another four years of what we’ve seen under Trump, which is to outsource environmental and energy policy to the polluters…and climate change is finished” How could anyone believe this. The issue for global emissions is China. China, repeat China. In 2019 and 2020, global emission have fallen everywhere in the world, expect for China. China is not responsible for some growth in carbon emissions, it is responsible for ALL growth in carbon emissions, plus some. At least China has no issues with air pollution, wrong, besides having the worst air pollution in the world with daylight second, pollution has increased 60% in the last decade alone. As for China and the Obama effect. “Made in China”, does not result in a cleaner world, only an increase in tariffs on Chinese goods can limit some of the “Made in China” effect.
Mann-made Gore-bal warming has been nothing be a rent seeking scam from the git-go. The pols piled on when they saw they could use it as an excuse to take freedoms away.
If PDT can get reelected, he’s going to have his EPA take the really stupid SCOTUS finding that CO2 is a pollutant and get it tossed based on actual science. One more reason to vote for him.
You mean “Hockey Stick” Mann? Ha! He’s only distinguished at filing grants and making up data!
So much irrelevant nonsense, as usual.
Couple of points:
1. There isn’t going to be a Trump second term, and it’s got nothing to do with bloody climate whatever. Climate ranks very low on the scale of things that affect voter choice of candidate. Trump will lose because he’s been an astonishingly bad President, and an astoundingly bad human being that has turned the US into a laughing stock in the rest of the world. His shameful behaviour during the last “debate” is testament to that.
The climate battle is over and the ‘skeptics’ lost, which is a crying shame, considering that we’re correct, and the Eco-Taleban is wrong. There was a slim chance that the skeptic viewpoint would win out, up to the moment that Trump became the Republican candidate and it became widely know that he didn’t buy the whole climate change thing. Of course, being a pig-ignorant numbskull, he didn’t arrive at that by a careful analysis of the data, a thorough knowledge of the issues and the science, or even from listening to different sides of the argument or expert opinion. His opinion is based on the fact that it’s bad for business, it’s bad for his friends and supporters business, and lots of US corporations won’t make as much money if things have to change.
With depressing predictability, the vast majority of the ‘skeptical community’ found themselves in agreement with Trump on that one issue, and naively jumped onto his bandwagon and bought into the rest of the repugnant garbage that goes along with it. So obviously, the skeptics aren’t nearly as smart as they otherwise appear or they wouldn’t touch Trumpism with a 10ft pole. Perhaps most of them were already rabid right-wing nutters and we just didn’t notice. And so climate change skepticism became synonymous with Trumpism. Which is wrong.
Consider how things look from your opponents perspective. Trump – odious piece of vile filth, thick as two short planks, fascist, liar, misogynist, corrupt – now has climate skeptics as supporters. Obviously, anyone who a) supports Trump and b) denies climate change is a real thing, is beneath contempt and may safely be ignored.
And so it came to pass. Imagine you are a curious person, not sure about the truth of climate change, and in the course of researching the topic you come across this site. Every single topic, however irrelevant, is turned into a foaming mouthed Trump-fest. What right-minded person would want to be associated with that, much less be persuaded by it? I frequently read the comments here and I’m aghast at the utter garbage, the immature, vacuous, ignorant and just plain wrong. On and on it goes, the steaming pile of dung grows bigger by the hour. And yet, you stand on top of it, with your Made in China “Trump 2020” flag planted on the summit as if you’d simultaneously cured cancer, landed on Mars and unified General Relativity and Quantum theory. Actually, you just look like a bunch of twats.
2. Marxists! Marxists and marxism everywhere! Doesn’t support Trump? Marxist! Thinks having cleaner air and water is generally not a bad idea? Marxist! Thinks that companies should have some restrictions placed on them, so they don’t poison or injure people with their products or just f*ck up the place in the desperate quest to increase shareholder value? Marxist!
If you live in the US, only have experience of the US and US politics, then you need to shut the f*ck up. You have no idea what you’re talking about. You wouldn’t know a Marxist if one whacked you in the face with a copy of Das Kapital. US politics is one party with two Right wings. Put the Democrats into any European country and they’d be on the Right. Not Marxist. Not even Socialist. Not even slightly left of centre. If you disagree, you either American, an idiot, or both. Twats.
Some good news though – the leader of the Free World has tested negative for coronavirus! That’s Angela Merkel, by the way.
108 days and counting.
Note: I am not related to Michael Mann, and do not support him or what he says in any way. I find him to be as obnoxious and fake as One-Term Trump. I regard them both with equal contempt. Just in case you were tempted to equate sharing the same surname with anything. Of course, some of you will do just that, because you are twats.
Quite the screed.
Did I miss them, or were your ideas for fixing things lost in the mix ?
Just asking, one twat to another.
Adrian missed a lot. He missed 120k in India giving President Trump numerous standing ovations. He missed tremendous support in Japan and in several European nations, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and other nations. He missed lowest black unemployment ever, biggest increase in spending power in many years, amazing international trade deals, a steady refusal to get locked into foreign wars, weakening the pharmaceutical monopoly, passively but effectively resisting CAGW alarmism, forcing EU nations to take responsibility for their own defense, a 100 percent increase in the arrest of pedophiles, prison reform, etc…
Well that was a foaming mouthed rant. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black .
Yoh! Adrian!
Someone once said that it’s best to Judge a man by what he actually accomplishes, not his actions. You don’t like Trump – got it – his style/personality can be grating. I get that, but I like his RESULTS, especially as the current cesspool has tried mightily to stop everything he’s accomplished – sausage making and politics are ugly. Complaining about the ‘process’ when you have no say in the ‘rules’ and the deck is HEAVILY stacked against you is just complaining about how a man works the process and ‘rules‘ to HiS best advantage to accomplish his goals, which I support.
Politics is VERY nasty – Trump is over the Target, the opposition knows, is extremely desperate, and will do ANYTHING to beat him. Chivalry is gone- I don’t care what it takes for him to defeat that swamp – we just need it done.
Judging a Mann by his accomplishments however, is easy, at least the Mann who wrote the column we’re commenting on.
I’m so sorry this happened to you, buck up it will get better. bless your little heart.
“Of course, being a pig-ignorant numbskull, he didn’t arrive at that by a careful analysis of the data, a thorough knowledge of the issues and the science, or even from listening to different sides of the argument or expert opinion. His opinion is based on the fact that it’s bad for business, it’s bad for his friends and supporters business, and lots of US corporations won’t make as much money if things have to change.”
I would think that only a mindreader could have such knowledge of Trump’s motives. Are you a mindreader? Please justify these assertions, or quit making them.
No mind reading abilities needed for a hater of Trump to post their ill tempered remarks.
https://www.amazon.com/Disgrace-Profession34-Mark-Steyn-editor/dp/0986398330/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=A+disgrace+to+His+Profession&qid=1601767952&sr=8-1
“A second Trump term is game over for the climate scam – really!”
Fixed that for ya Mikey. Watching folks like Mikey Man meltdown is just one more reason to vote for Trump this election.
The “Mann” speaks once more.
Micheal Mann is a gift to sceptics,for no fiction writer could have invented a character so toxic to the cause he espouses.
Almost Mr Anti Climatology or the Gilbert And Sullivan model of a modern Climate Creationist.
Michael Mann: the Eric von Daniken of climate science
The self-proclaimed climate ‘prophet’ has spoken. This fraudster belongs in State Pen for his hockey schtick. He should start critizising his puppet masters over in Bejing for their CO2 footprint, and stop talking nonsense about CO2 emissions in the US, Europe, Japan, South Korea or any other democratic region of the world. In democracies, we use the scientific method, not som confusius post-scientific propaganda theory of how science is conducted. His bullshit theory based on long ago falsified guesswork, fraudulent computer models and falsified climate data has been debunked by real scientists a million times already.
He now has a go at president Trump, like if he did something wrong. We all know that US CO2 emissions have dropped steadily as coal powered electricity has been replaced by electricity from oil and natural gas. At the same time his communist friends keep spewing out more CO2 than ever before, and have been given the go-ahead by Obama and Biden when these two ‘democrats’, who almost toppled the US republic, when they signed the un-scientific Paris Agreement, letting China keep polluting all they want until 2035.
Take Your bullshit with You and go home, Mike, we are discussing science here, not communist propaganda.
Just heard a CBS 60 minutes Radio report on the Calif fires, Atlantic Storm Season, Ice Sheet Melt,
caused by Climate change. Interviewing Hanson as a Genius for Predicting this 2020 year in 1987.
Then Mr. Mann. Then Trump recordings to make him look Silly. Very Good Propaganda Piece.