Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Despite the complete failure of COP26, Russia’s veto of the UN Security Council Climate Resolution, and Senator Manchin killing President Biden’s Green New Deal, Climate Activists at Discover Magazine claim everything is going their way.
Did 2021 Deal a Fatal Blow to Climate-Change Denial?
Data and extreme weather events are making it harder than ever to ignore our warming world. But climate change denial has also taken on a new form.
By Tom Yulsman Dec 22, 2021 3:15 AM
From brutal heat in North America and Siberia to devastating flooding in China and Europe, 2021 delivered worsening climate extremes of the kind long predicted by scientists. Streetcar cables melted in Portland. A raging river swept away entire homes in Germany’s lush Ahr Valley wine region. And wildfires have set records across the globe in the past two years.
For many people, recent disasters have transformed human-caused climate change from a theoretical, far-off risk to an undeniable reality. And this summer, the United Nations dropped a landmark climate report, emphasizing that avoiding even worse impacts will require deep, rapid cuts in greenhouse gas pollution. But does that mean 2021 will be remembered as the year denial of climate change all but died?
At least one renowned environmental scientist believes so. “I think you have seen a seismic shift,” says Jonathon Foley, executive director of Project Drawdown, a non-profit that advances climate solutions. “Most of the conversation now is really more about what we should do, not denying whether or not climate change is happening.”
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Surveys show rising alarm about climate change. In a 2021 poll by George Mason and Yale universities, 70 percent of Americans surveyed said they were worried about global warming. A similar poll also showed growing bipartisan support for climate action, with 6 in 10 voters voicing support for ambitious climate and clean energy infrastructure legislation.
“I do think our country and world have changed in important ways,” says Edward Maibach, director of the Center for Climate Change Communication at George Mason University. “We’re now in an inevitable transition to an economy in which we are no longer emitting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.”
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Read more: https://www.discovermagazine.com/environment/did-2021-deal-a-fatal-blow-to-climate-change-denial
What can I say – people who see the end of the world in normal weather likely believe a lot of other things as well.
As Benny Peiser says the debate has changed because the cost of alarmist zero emissions absurdity is becoming clear.
There’s one born a minute
Bad weather and a few arson-induced fires are not climate change. Period. Real climate change does not come overnight, but these twits refuse to believe that it is not spontaneous and instantaneous. They are too wrapped up in their own conceit to understand anything that does not provide instant gratification. They also have no idea how to appreciate the bountiful stuff this planet lets us provide. They are nuts.
I pity them.
From the article: “Data and extreme weather events are making it harder than ever to ignore our warming world.”
The Data shows it is 0.6C cooler now than in 2016, the warmest year in the 21st century.
There is no established connection between the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere and extreme weather events.
The people at Discover are not very good at discovering things.
From the article: “Streetcar cables melted in Portland.”
You mean metal cables can melt at a temperature a little over 100 degrees F?
I live in the Portland area and it was really hot so they must be right! /s
BTW Trimet (the Portland metro area transit authority) is truly one of the most incompetent government entities that has ever graced this planet. They created a light rail system (“Max”) that fails when the temp is above 100F or below 32F – not that they could avail themselves of knowledge that others, who live in areas that routinely exceed those temps, used to build rail systems that can still operate in those conditions. ODOT (the Oregon Department of Transportation) can give them a run for their money though as they are famous for (a) disposing of a beached whale by blowing it up, (b) using recycled shredded tires as a “sustainable” road base (what could go wrong under compressive loading?), and (c) an experimental deck material for a drawbridge that peeled off when the bridge was raised (apparently nobody thought to test that scenario). Not that Oregon has a monopoly on stupid but it is also known for the brilliant concept of “ceiling heat” where resistive heating elements are buried in the ceiling (rather than e.g., placed along the baseboards) b/c everyone knows that hot air descends!
From the article: “For many people, recent disasters have transformed human-caused climate change from a theoretical, far-off risk to an undeniable reality.”
No, what’s transformed thoughts, if they have been transformed, is the relentless climate change propaganda and distortions that the public is fed on a daily baiss. And this article is a perfect example of that. They make unsubstantiated assertions that cannot be backed up with facts.
From the article: “At least one renowned environmental scientist believes so. “I think you have seen a seismic shift,” says Jonathon Foley, executive director of Project Drawdown, a non-profit that advances climate solutions. “Most of the conversation now is really more about what we should do, not denying whether or not climate change is happening.””
Talk about denying reality. This looks like a lot of wishful thinking on Mr. Foley’s part.
Discover went to s— back in 2007. It should have folded.
Naomi Oreskes telegraphed this a few months ago at COP26 when she asked why they are still funding climate science, something like: all studies show the Earth is warming so further funding is a redundancy.
There is an impatience here on the part of the Great Reset elites to get on with the spending (“build back better”) with the understanding that climate scientists are under increasing pressure to explain how cold weather is caused by Global Warming.
Well, I agree that we should stop funding “climate science” in its present iteration.
If they squint their eyes, and really really Believe something’s true hard enough, then voila, it becomes true. Like magic!
I used to read Discover Magazine. I gave up on it about 20 years ago or more. It’s a rag. Used to be a good “science light” magazine. Science and Nature are about the only 2 bigger “good” ones left. Scientific American is now probably the worst, where it used to be my favourite 25-30 years ago. It’s very interesting how these reasonable and responsible publications gave up their credibility, all about the same time. Can anybody explain how and why this happened? it’s hard not to see it as some kind of deliberate and joint effort.
CO2 is going to rise at about 2ppm a year for ever, well, let’s say 30 or 40 years inexorably. How does that affect things?
Discover magazine is in the process of discovering what it is to be totally irrelevant.
Eric’s states “What can I say – people who see the end of the world in normal weather likely believe a lot of other things as well.” – they are trying to convince people of absurdities.
Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities. – Voltaire
The sense of denial is greater than ever coming from activists as their world comes crumbling around them. Even those countries that made commitments at COP 26 made such vague commitments that no normal human being could describe the result as action on climate change. Rather than admit their indoctrination has failed abysmally they use rose coloured glasses to avoid expressing the absolute devastation they really feel about the lack of real action. The only ones who can’t see that the emperor has no clothes are the activists. Everyone else plays lip service to avoid the faux outrage that will hound them if they divert from the created narrative. Don’t ask people what they think about global warming but ask them what they really think? Most people actually couldn’t care less. I would count that vast majority as deniers.
So they think that rising alarm equates to winning the debate? LOL
“environmental scientist ” – there is no such thing, it is an oximoron.
Specious strawman.
Discover magazine has been an embarrassment for decades. It’s poor writing in general and makes glaring scientific errors all of the time. It’s like someone took popular mechanics and bolted gender studies onto it.
As has been pointed out many times in the past, what questions are asked during a poll, and how they are asked, can lead to a seriously skewed result – probably just what the organization paying for the poll wanted.
Oh, and Merry Christmas to one and all – and may ’22 be significantly better than ’21.
From the above fluff excerpts taken from author Tom Yulsman of Discover magazine:
Really? Streetcar cables, the kind used to pull streetcars along streets, are typically steel wire woven over a center of hemp rope . . . the kind of cable first verified to develop sufficient long-life flexibility and made famous in the streetcars of San Francisco (ref: http://www.cablecarmuseum.org/the-cables.html )
In San Francisco, and presumably in Portland, OR, the cable used measures 1 1/4 inches in diameter and is made of steel with a hemp center to increase flexibility. The cable itself is composed of six steel strands of 19 wires each that are wrapped around the sisal rope center. It has an average life of 6 to 8 months, and if it becomes worn, the system is shut down at night and a splice is made in the powerhouse.
“It has been shown that thermal degradation of natural fibres generally occurs in two stages: one at 220–280°C temperature range and the other at 280–300°C range. The first range is associated with degradation of hemicellulose, whereas the second range is associated with degradation of cellulose and lignin. For hemp fibres, Prasad et al. have shown that heating the fibres between 160°C and 260°C results in softening of lignin leading to opening of fibre bundles into individual fibres.”—source: “A Study in Physical and Mechanical Properties of Hemp Fibres“, https://www.hindawi.com/journals/amse/2013/325085/
So, it is IMPOSSIBLE that global warming, especially recent hot spells in Portland, OR, would be responsible for melting steel (m.p. >= 2500 deg-F). Also, hemp (sisal) rope would be expected to be unaffected by temperatures below 160 deg-C (320 deg-F).
Bottom line: Discover magazine, via author Tom Yulsman, has no idea what they are talking about.