Guest “implied facepalm” by David Middleton
Worried about Earth’s future? Well, the outlook is worse than even scientists can grasp
January 13, 2021 12.00amAnyone with even a passing interest in the global environment knows all is not well. But just how bad is the situation? Our new paper shows the outlook for life on Earth is more dire than is generally understood.
The research published today reviews more than 150 studies to produce a stark summary of the state of the natural world. We outline the likely future trends in biodiversity decline, mass extinction, climate disruption and planetary toxification. We clarify the gravity of the human predicament and provide a timely snapshot of the crises that must be addressed now.
The problems, all tied to human consumption and population growth, will almost certainly worsen over coming decades. The damage will be felt for centuries and threatens the survival of all species, including our own.
[…]
Corey J. A. Bradshaw
Matthew Flinders Professor of Global Ecology and Models Theme Leader for the ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, Flinders UniversityDaniel T. Blumstein
Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, University of California, Los AngelesPaul Ehrlich
The Conversation
President, Center for Conservation Biology, Bing Professor of Population Studies, Stanford University
I got this far…
We outline the likely future trends in biodiversity decline, mass extinction, climate disruption and planetary toxification.
Before I just had to find this…
This apocalyptical fantasy is loaded with hilarious factoids like this:
Our research also reviewed the current state of the global environment. While the problems are too numerous to cover in full here, they include:
[…]
about one million plant and animal species globally threatened with extinction.
The Conversation
All “plant and animal species” are “globally threatened with extinction.” Extinction, real extinction, by definition is global and way over 90% of the species that ever existed on Earth are already extinct…
The combined mass of wild mammals today is less than one-quarter the mass before humans started colonising the planet.
The Conversation
Colonizing the planet? What, are we Martians?
Or are we actually descended from the passengers of Golgafrinchan Ark Fleet Ship B?
Of course the mass of wild mammals is smaller… We ate a lot of them, domesticated a lot of them and many just got smaller after the last Pleistocene glacial stage.
Insects are also disappearing rapidly in many regions
The Conversation
Not fast enough in my region. Besides, aren’t the Malthusians encouraging us to eat bugs to save the planet?
This bit made me break out George Carlin twice in the same post!
Consumption, as a percentage of Earth’s capacity to regenerate itself, has grown from 73% in 1960 to more than 170% today.
The Conversation
“Earth’s capacity to regenerate itself”? Earth has been regenerating itself for over 4 billion years.
This just boils down to another screed about why we need less people and no economic growth.
I could go on, but I’ll just leave you with this WUWT post, dedicated to Paul Ehrlich’s greatest hits misses:
Great moments in failed predictions
You have to feel sorry for Erlich and his ilk. It must be hell to live in a state of constant, total pessimism.
https://youtu.be/ICGIcfj4ZKE
We should be rejoicing, David. Ehrlich hasn’t been right about anything yet!
Like The Guardian, Ehrlich is wrong about everything, all the time.
Love the way the conversation boasts “Academic rigour, journalistic flair” & it’s contributors often use The Independent, BBC & the ‘Gargantuan’ as scientific sources.
They banned me 2 yrs ago because I kept disputing their mad claims with data from NOAA, NASA & IPCC .
Middleton,
You are priceless. I needed a laugh this morning and, god bless you, you have provided it.
It is nearly impossible to believe that anybody pays the slightest bit of attention to Ehrlich. It is an object lesson in “How Many Times Can You Be Wrong And Still Show Your Face In Public?”
The guy clearly has no concept of shame.
Like most Leftists. Or Clintons.
Socialists/Communists are always declaring, this time it will work.
We outline the likely future trends
Indeed they do.
“By the year 2000 the United Kingdom will be simply a small group of impoverished islands, inhabited by some 70 million hungry people…If I were a gambler, I would take even money that England will not exist in the year 2000.” —Dr. Paul Ehrlich, speech at the British Institute for Biology, Sep. 1971
And they get it consistently wrong.
A prime example of mis-use of the “Dr.” honorific.
Well he did get something almost right! UK population is nearly 70million so he was only 20 years out.
I don’t know, Fretslider, with BoJo mishandling the ChiCom virus and apparently being under the spell of a Greenie in the bedroom; I not sure that the England we knew still exists! Of course, if the American public doesn’t stand up to the Big Tech tyrants and the criminally corrupt DemoKKKrats stealing our freedom, wealth and elections the US will exist in name only!
One of the main documents referenced in this idocy is an article by Molly Brown and Cris Funk.
Their article states: “On page 607 of this issue, Lobell et al.(1) show that increasing temperatures and declining precipitation over semiarid regions are likely to reduce yields for corn, wheat, rice, and other primary crops in the next two decades”
Once again we see so-called “scientists” referencing climate change as “increasing maximum temperatures” which will kill the harvest of most grains. These so-called “scientists” have bought into the myth that global warming means max temperatures are going up and will, eventually, turn the Earth into a cinder. Absolutely no understanding that most of the global warming is higher MINIMUM temperatures which promote the growth of grains!
I live in one of the continental US semi-arid deserts known as the breadbasket of the US. We are *NOT* seeing increasing maximum temperatures – we are seeing the minimum temps going up. Nor are we suffering from any more droughts than we have in the past.
The proof is that we continue to see record harvests every year – including globally, not just here.
These two researchers live in MD and CA respectively. What do *they* know about grain harvests in semi-arid areas? You would think they could look up grain harvest totals by year, they are all over the internet from various sources.
Paul Ehrlich’s decades long credibility and influence is a powerful indictment of what is wrong with academia.
May I suggest the Heartland Institute create the Paul Ehrlich Award to be given annually to the most wrong-headed prediction made by an academic? Or have they already done so?
planetary toxification , a very apt description of what leftwing brainwashing has produced.
I can really see the Guardian picking up that phrase to replace “global heating”.
A nice one 😀
Stefan Rahmstorf sounds the alarm and warns of alarmism
“Stefan Rahmstorf sounds the alarm and warns of alarmism. “The danger of alarmist climate headlines” is the title of his article. As usual, the mirror provides the platform for this . This is very exciting in view of some of the Rahmstorf articles. On September 14th, 2020, Der Spiegel headlined a Rahmstorf article: The Gulf Stream is limping . The Gulf Stream has been doing this for 20 years, according to Rahmstorf. On November 27th, 2020 the Geomar made it clear that the circulation is stable. So much for the alarm. What may have moved the PIK man to the new article? We learn: Don’t contradict any climate alarmists, wait until they do it themselves.”
😀
Will it be published in Arabic, or Mandarin, or any of the languages used in India?
A useful publication from Ehrlich would be a primer on how to profit from outlandish claims and predictions that never come to pass. Co-author it with Jeffrey Sachs and list it in the “…for dummies” category and by dummies.
Don’t forget Canada’s Jeff Rubin, he should be part of that group. Check out his new book, “I can’t believe people still pay me for this crap!”
Ehrlich and accomolices may be right, when…..:
Given the people I see constantly being hailed as “experts” I have come to the conclusion that “expert” means “someone who is always wrong”
Expert, an ex is a has been and a spert is a drip under pressure. Not the dictionary definition but when it comes to this guy and those like him who needs a dictionary.
At the Bad Predictions Hall of Fame, Paul Ehrlich has a wing devoted to him and several trinkets in the gift shop devoted to him featuring a collection of rare metals like copper and other former base metals in very short supply. /sarc
53 years of doom and gloom and yet another, just further out on the horizon. Not one of his predictions has made the light of day. Yet, there’s Dr. Paul still on the payroll…
I find it amazing, and sad, that anybody anywhere listens to anything Ehrlich has to say. How can anyone who has been so consistently wrong still have a platform to blather away
See also: Paul Krugman
Ehrlich is the Sith Lord of eco-fasc1sm.
Those who do forecasting for a living in areas where forecast error matters with consequences have a special disdain for the Teflon armchair prognostications that have no cost to the dope that dishes them out.
You do have to admire the Doomsayer’s basic internal “logic”, though:
We said things were going to be bad, and that means that although NONE of what we said would happen has actually happened, that obviously means that because things are going so well, we have much more to lose when things do get worse.
Which they really, REALLY will this time.
For sure.
Where’s my cheque?