Peak Oil is You
Donate Bitcoins ;-) or Paypal :-)
Page added on November 23, 2017
How Greed, Fear, And Our Own Biases Blind Us To The Reality Of Climate Change
The Climate Science Special Report that the Trump administration released last Friday is straightforward and relentlessly sobering. Scientists from 13 government agencies agree that the long-term global warming trend is “unambiguous” and that human activity is responsible. There is, they tell us, “no convincing alternative explanation.”
Meanwhile, the president whose administration released the report maintains that climate change is a hoax and he and his EPA administrator, Scott Pruitt, resist efforts to address it.
What’s going on? How is this possible? Short-term economic self-interest (i.e., greed) is the driver for the energy industry, its supporters and their propaganda. But it’s the psychological factors, and the biology in which they’re grounded, that sustain denial. If we’re going to mobilize Americans to address climate change, we first have to understand what they’re thinking and why, and then help them change their minds.
The belief that human activity is not causing global warming is widespread outside of as well as within the White House. And it’s remarkably resistant to evidence. Ninety-seven percent of scientific papers agree that humans are causing climate change, but 30 percent of American adults remain unconvinced.
Many attribute this denial to mistrust of science and the “elites” who are devoted to it. This is, at best, only partially true. A recent Pew survey shows a striking difference between trust in medical (and other scientists) and climate scientists. The vast majority of us still believe in the people who design our heart monitors and keep our planes flying.
Obviously, there are other reasons for climate denial. Fear of its possible apocalyptic consequences certainly encourages denial in all of us. But while most of us face the facts—perhaps with great reluctance—others turn stubbornly away.
Several studies show that such resolute deniers are far more likely to be politically conservative, white and older, and that twice as many are men. Researchers suggest that “social dominance orientation”—a tendency to conform to traditional values and to put faith in beneficial, protective hierarchic structures—predicts climate change denial.
This faith is, of course, molded by energy corporations, the scientists they hire and the politicians they fund. Our current resident, sitting at the top of the political hierarchy, undoubtedly hardens positions.
But this faith is more than a consequence of propaganda or a social construct. There are factors built into human biology that foster denial of climate change and resistance to doing anything about it. If we want to change consciousness and constructively address climate change, we have to take these factors into account.
Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert and others have pointed out that the human brain has evolved over millions of years to meet or avoid immediate, rather than long-term threats. We are primed to fight a human intruder now, not a natural disaster in some indefinite future. Our brain facilitates anger when we are insulted by another person, but insulates us from taking a distant destruction personally.
A recent Yale survey confirms the observation: A majority of Americans believe that climate change is happening, but only a “small minority” believe it will affect them. And, compounding this denial is our brains, which as Gilbert points out, are designed to react swiftly to dramatic events, but are far less sensitive to gradual changes, like progressively warmer temperatures.
Now, however, in the midst of ongoing environmental catastrophe, all of us—doubters as well as reluctant believers—have the opportunity and good reasons, to overcome our denial. This will be easiest for those who have been directly affected.
Disaster-traumatized people I’ve worked with, in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, in the northeast after Superstorm Sandy, in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake, and, now, in Houston and Northern California, are rarely in denial. They appreciate that human factors—including global warming and the sacrifice of natural protections to energy exploitation and of zoning regulation to the greed of developers—killed relatives and friends, and contributed to their collapsed homes and destroyed neighborhoods.
This understanding of causes, as well as consequences, transcends age, race, class and political affiliation, and overrides the temporary restriction of abstract reasoning and judgment that may follow severe trauma. A healthy majority of hurricane-affected Texans, Floridians and Puerto Ricans—and Californians devastated by fires fueled by climate-heated timber and grass—will likely be open to learning and acting on the same lessons.
Those of us who have so far been spared the full destructiveness of climate-related disasters are also neurologically primed for a teaching moment. The absence of direct trauma has left our higher brain functions, like judgment, self-awareness and compassion unimpaired. Meanwhile, we’ve registered emotionally compelling images of damage, destruction and death—water-bloated bodies, homeless children, flooded and crushed homes. Now is the time when all of us may be ready to translate what we have felt and know into action.
Mass and social media have a major role to play in keeping consciousness-affecting images of climate-related destruction alive, and in linking them to scientific evidence. The images will show us that the people suffering look very much like all of us—climate deniers as well as believers, white as well as black and brown, rich and poor alike. Clear presentation of the science will deepen emotional learning. And updates on survivors’ ongoing pain and life-deforming dislocation can provide effective continuing education. Little by little, everyone, including deniers, will get the message that what has happened to others can happen to all of us.
This may be especially important for older people, who in disproportionate numbers deny climate change. They will be reminded that they are far less able to escape natural disasters than younger people, and will, if affected, have far greater difficulty replacing what they’ve lost. The horror stories of residents boiling to death in power-deprived nursing homes need to be recalled and honored, as do the disorienting, destabilizing long-term consequences for older people who have lost their homes and neighborhoods. Groups like the AARP can take the lead in this painful but necessary educational process, and in advocating for climate sparing legislation.
It’s important, also, to continue to memorialize the selfless efforts of neighbors helping neighbors during and after the storms and fires, as well as the stories of distant Americans’ generosity. Seeing compassion in action will maximize activity in the parts of our brains that encourage fellow feeling. As they see and feel how satisfying it is to care for one another, even the most resistant climate deniers may want to join the rest of us in caring for the planet that sustains us all.
66 Comments on "How Greed, Fear, And Our Own Biases Blind Us To The Reality Of Climate Change"
joe on Thu, 23rd Nov 2017 8:26 am
So far Guy McPhearsons assessment is playing out. We have already done irreparable damage and even cutting emmissions to zero wouldn’t help. He bases it on the idea that habitat not temperature will determine humanities economic and thus actual future. He says that global bread baskets are localised and very vulnerable. When the US flyover states that make so much of the earths food are endangered in ten years from we may all agree with him and prepping wont help. So I think we should carry on, cause the earth will recover after we are gone (millions of years) but humanity wont survive clamite change.
Shortend on Thu, 23rd Nov 2017 8:58 am
Most of the decision markers in public policy and RICH and OLD…don’t care what happens 50 years from now..
Scott Campbell on Thu, 23rd Nov 2017 9:27 am
The statement that 97% of climate papers state that humans cause all the climate change is a COMPLETE LIE. The papers which allegedly say AGW is real are just a TINY part of the papers available. The scumbag who made the 97% statement DELIBERATELY ignored the rest. He chose 200 out of 21,000 papers that most said NOTHING about AGW. He is a complete fraud and so is his “report”. Anyone who parrots this is a frigging MORON, just like the mindless twit who wrote this huge pile of CRAP
Shortend on Thu, 23rd Nov 2017 9:43 am
Sure Scott, where did you read that piece?
Let me guess, Wattsupwiththat!
Fact is…The most dominant GHG is H2O which acts as an amplifier to temperature increases. CO2 is a driver of temperature changes
Then starting in the mid 18th century we dumped 1.5 trillions tonnes of CO2, a known GHG into the atmosphere, raising levels to those not seen in over 3 million years
No one takes climate science seriously except for every academy of science on the planet representing millions of scientists. Not one single academy disputes the conclusions of the IPCC
Sissyfuss on Thu, 23rd Nov 2017 9:47 am
Campbellsoupbrain, scientifically illiterates such as yourself belong at Fux News or other assorted obfuscation centers. Your faux intellectual bullying doesn’t work here so please take your room temperature IQ back to troll central and also adjust your maga hat as it obviously too tight and cutting off circulation to your frontal cortex. And repeat after me, I am the 6th mass extinction.
Davy on Thu, 23rd Nov 2017 9:52 am
Joe prepping does help if you know what you want. If you want guaranteed safety then you are pissing in the wind. Guy’s message is a bit extreme. I agree with some of it but I find the time frame too immediate in general but specifics are a different story. The entire planetary system is on the brink so various locals will collapse and suffer failure. These failures are across the spectrum so some areas may see only some effects other the full gambit.
Bill Wilson on Thu, 23rd Nov 2017 10:30 am
Great article: Cooperation raised us from the jungle floor and evolution provided our flight, fight, or freeze instincts. As pointed out these are more short term responses but getting closer. In the more dire sense we no longer can fight, or flee, or freeze and thus the passion by scientists like M Mann to step forward and a few key politicians. But the delusion the rich and powerful like Trump and his right wing talk hosts still rely on is flight. They can hop on a jet and get to their second or third home and anyone connected to their sphere of influence is pulled into same delusion. More significantly the rich and powerful that hold to denial/corruption want us all to freeze. Nothing we can do so just give up or focus on related issues like overpopulation. More significantly for humanity is evolution in the better sense articulated by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin’s Universal Consciousness as pointed to indirectly in this article as we are all increasingly aware of the harms and increasingly Chardin’s idea that what hurts you hurts me/empathy is the part of our brains/key frontal cortex that is lighting up around the globe. As the U.S. now is set to be world exporting of fossil fuel death and destruction under Trump’s plan for next five years we see a race is on between good and evil where the enemy can’t be underestimated as ideas like All Of The Above are a plea to and in reality has become Burn Baby Burn as Hillary handed off the next dirty phase to Donald. Evolution and cooperation is on our side but time and money is not.
Tom Anderson on Thu, 23rd Nov 2017 11:06 am
Good article but the US is the leading country for deniers and the question is why? I suspect a part of it is the abysmal ignorance of science in the US population combined with the fact a significant portion of the population relies on faith to understand the natural world. When you have a population that believes in a world wide apocalyptic flood or that Jonah survived being swallowed by a whale; then belief in a benevolent God who takes care of us may not be so preposterous.
steve bickel on Thu, 23rd Nov 2017 12:01 pm
My Father was a devoute Republican and an atmospheric physicist that worked for the Navy traveling the world building antennas and measuring weather and radio signals. He had no financial motive to change his findings. We have a big problem with CO2 … as is evident from all the regression analysis. Regression is the math used to actually determine what is causing what. Study after study says CO2 is much more important than solar radiation. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2015JD023901/full
Apneaman on Thu, 23rd Nov 2017 12:49 pm
Campbellsoupbrain,
“The statement that 97% of climate papers state that humans cause all the climate change is a COMPLETE LIE.”
It is a lie and one that was conjured up by you or your denier bum buddies.
As far as the 97% thing goes, it’s 97% of earth scientists who study the climate conclude that climate change is well under way and humans are the main driver.
Oh you did not know that’s what it said?
So basically you are arguing against your own imagination.
Put that in ALL CAPS ya fucking retard.
Apneaman on Thu, 23rd Nov 2017 1:26 pm
Are we headed for near-term human extinction?
Recent studies suggest it is irresponsible to rule out the possibility after last week’s “warning to humanity” from more than 15,000 climate change scientists
https://nowtoronto.com/news/are-we-headed-for-near-term-human-extinction/
Apneaman on Thu, 23rd Nov 2017 1:29 pm
Heat Wave Smashes Records in San Diego, More Forecast for Thanksgiving
https://timesofsandiego.com/life/2017/11/22/heat-wave-smashes-temperature-records-in-san-diego-more-on-tap-for-thanksgiving/
For thanksgiving 2025 you will not need your oven to cook your bird. Just put on the back porch for an hour should do…..who wants a drum stick?
David Woodruff on Thu, 23rd Nov 2017 2:02 pm
I think part of the reason denial of climate change seems to fall (most of the time) along politically partisan lines has more to do with Vice President Al Gore being one of the earliest and most vocal/visible proponents rather than just science illiteracy. We have difficulties separating the party alliance from the evidence.
JimB on Thu, 23rd Nov 2017 2:38 pm
The latest tack is to characterize skeptics as succumbing to fear. The climate change religion still doesn’t get it. Assume we are affecting the climate, the consequences are no where near the projections. First, we don’t have enough fossil energy economically recoverable to raise the CO2 concentrations to projections. Second, biomass is sequestering more and more CO2. There is a natural limit to CO2 concentrations, well below the projections, and the consequences of peak CO2 will be barely noticeable.
Davy on Thu, 23rd Nov 2017 2:46 pm
The denial is more widespread than climate change. What is worse is the science denial concerning the solutions. How many of those 15,000 scientist live in a fantasy fake green world of having cake and eat it? How many realize the dangers but then embrace fantasy solutions in desperation? I am not at all against options related to known scientific problems of climate change and ecological damage. What I have a problem with is the solutions that are just camouflage for more of the same.
Let’s face it real solutions would be draconian and unfair. No one is going to embrace that. We are toast but that does not mean we can’t make other arrangements. Yet, what are we doing but the same insanity over and over. This is likely becuase our systematic hardwiring. We are destined to have a day of reckoning precisely because of our human nature. We do not have enough time to adapt our human wisdom. Our current wisdom is from a different time and that time was a time of ignorance. We are no longer ignorant of the many problems but we chose to remain in the ignorance of denial. We are trapped in an end game of no solutions for the status quo of affluence but somehow can’t imagine that.
Pretending we can have an affluent green future is absurd. We can work at less pain and suffering but we are likely not going to remake an imperfect world. Nature is cyclical and our linearity is being bent and distorted towards necessary natural cycles. We are in the neighborhood of great changes and none of them good. The planetary system is everywhere on the brink of decline and failure. It is too late to change that. It is not to late to make new arrangements in line with nature’s cyclical changes. We can avoid making things worse. We can’t avoid the worse.
Shortend on Thu, 23rd Nov 2017 2:50 pm
Another post of nonsense that is opposite of reality by JimB.
First, we are past “safe levels”, and your second statement just is a fantasy regarding sequestering and natural limits.
Another from Wattsupwiththat, no less
The fossil fuel industry will stop at nothing to continue their exploitation.
Apneaman on Thu, 23rd Nov 2017 4:05 pm
JimB, when the bodies really start to pile up, you denier scum will be scapegoated and strung up in the town square. I can’t wait. Oooooo I hope they live stream it.
Record-high temperatures reached in 18 spots in B.C.
White Rock, Victoria and the Fraser Valley made new records for the unusually warm November day
http://www.trailtimes.ca/news/record-high-temperatures-reached-in-18-spots-in-b-c/
Apneaman on Thu, 23rd Nov 2017 4:06 pm
Record-breaking heat wave hits western U.S. for Thanksgiving
“In the Los Angeles area, temperatures this week have been about 25 degrees higher than normal for this time of year”
https://www.upi.com/Record-breaking-heat-wave-hits-western-US-for-Thanksgiving/6851511421024/
Deniers kill babies and grandmas
Apneaman on Thu, 23rd Nov 2017 4:08 pm
And yet another positive self reinforcing feedback.
“Due to climate change, including rising temperatures, more and more methane is bubbling up from lakes, ponds, rivers and wetlands throughout the world. The release of methane – a potent greenhouse gas – leads to a further increase in temperature, thus creating a ‘vicious circle’. “
http://www.ru.nl/english/news-agenda/news/vm/iwwr/2017/methane-bubbles-effect-cause-rise-temperature/
Apneaman on Thu, 23rd Nov 2017 4:10 pm
The doomsday glacier problem
The world is evolving into disaster at an ever increasing pace.
http://www.flassbeck-economics.com/the-doomsday-glacier-problem/
I’m blaming it all on deniers.
Apneaman on Thu, 23rd Nov 2017 4:15 pm
Cromwell[NZ] has hit its hottest spring temperature on record today, a sweltering 33.3 degrees
“NIWA meteorologist Ben Noll said Cromwell’s previous Spring record was 32.3° in 2010, but that has been beaten this afternoon by a whole degree, and it may still go higher.
Fourth generation Cromwell fruit gower, Simon Webb, said in the 40 years he has lived in the Central Otago town, he has never experienced weather this hot in November.”
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/344534/the-big-dry-soaring-temperatures-expected
Apneaman on Thu, 23rd Nov 2017 4:34 pm
I think deniers should take their kids hiking in the Swiss alps in the summertime. I’ll even kick in for air fare.
“The Alps are mighty and magnificent. Or are they mighty and terrifying because they are beginning to crumble and tumble down into the valleys below? This question has been raised by the dramatic events of summer 2017 in the Swiss mountains. This has highlighted the impact rising temperatures are having on the Alps.”
“Temperatures in the Alps have risen at twice the rate of the global average since the late 19th century.”
http://bit.ly/2BhiQdW
Makati1 on Thu, 23rd Nov 2017 6:41 pm
joe, good summary. The Earth will survive but humans won’t. “Mother Nature” is only now bringing out her big guns and we won’t even be able to see the microscopic ones that will kill us. We are making deadly bacteria and virus immune to our meds. Drought, floods, heat, quakes, food shortages, etc are all the ‘softening up’ events that will weaken us and allow mutated diseases to finish the job. Or, at least, that is the way I see it.
You can run, but there is no place to hide. The best you can do is chose a spot that will be slower to be exposed to all of those events, and to try to stay healthy. The 1st world is NOT one of those places. 2100 will see an Earth with only the strongest life remaining, and humans are not likely to be among them.
Davy on Thu, 23rd Nov 2017 6:55 pm
“The 1st world is NOT one of those places. 2100 will see an Earth with only the strongest life remaining, and humans are not likely to be among them.”
Ooo, mad kat, where exactly is that first world you talk about. LMFAO, you do realize your stupid condo in Makati, Manila is 1st world and “THE” worst place to be in a global crisis. You will starve within a month and good luck getting to that fantasy half built joke of a jungle farm. You will be on the menu literally.
Dredd on Thu, 23rd Nov 2017 7:55 pm
“It’s been a long time coming
gonna be a long time going …” Crosby, Stills, & Nash
Humble Oil-Qaeda
Makati1 on Thu, 23rd Nov 2017 8:08 pm
“On the day of peak gorging, we are reminded that America is facing a sustained obesity crisis. As Statista’s Dyfed Loesche notes, many doctors are warning that the fat scourge is reaching epidemic proportions.
Some experts believe that obesity is responsible for more ill health than smoking. Diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure are just three prominent illnesses that are caused by obesity.”
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-11-23/america-smoking-less-getting-fatter
“As we said, relative to today’s casino madness and the Goldman fairy tale hockey stick, Alan Greenspan circa April 2000 looks like a model of sobriety by comparison.”
http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/the-mother-of-all-irrational-exuberance/
“Finally, the grand-daddy of it all is the medical scam. Tell me again about that one, which steals from every household a middle-class house payment every single month. May I again remind you that the health firms have twice tried to claim their conduct was exempt from anti-trust and lost both times at the US Supreme Court?”
https://www.theburningplatform.com/2017/11/23/thanksfraud-day/#more-164291
“It is the (US) Universities that have become the most blatant cesspits of Marxist Political Indoctrination. It should surprise no one that this has happened. Long ago with Marxism in terminal decline the left threw aside their losing hand of class warfare and moved their chips all in with Identity Politics and the Progressive Stack.”
https://northgrant.wordpress.com/2017/11/22/an-ode-and-a-request/
“The TD Bank she attempted to rob is beneath my parking garage at 38th and Walnut in West Philly. This is my bank. She almost pulled it off. Seeing her make an escape using a walker in slow motion would have been epic. I’m surprised the heroes didn’t put 15 shots into her, while wounding 10 other bank customers.”
https://www.theburningplatform.com/2017/11/23/armed-dangerous-in-west-philly/#more-164287
And on and on… The frog in the pot?
Davy on Thu, 23rd Nov 2017 8:18 pm
We are doing ok Mad Kat. Are you mad becuase we spent the day with our families and you didn’t? I had a great day. I ate well and it was great to have all the kids together. Mom cooked an awesome turkey dinner. Sorry you bugged out because you missed out on family and happiness.
Sissyfuss on Thu, 23rd Nov 2017 9:05 pm
Wow,,two visits from newbys who are climate deniers. Must be the holiday season effect.
deadlykillerbeaz on Thu, 23rd Nov 2017 10:56 pm
The retreat of glaciers in Glacier National Park is plenty of evidence of global warming.
The Byron Glacier in Alaska is another example of a glacier retreating due to global warming.
Some good photos of Alaskan glaciers:
http://www.greatlandofalaska.com/pictures/glaciers/southcentral/index.html
A real nice warm Thanksgiving Day here on earth. Better than -17° Fahrenheit like it was about 1999 when it was a party.
At an eight ounce serving per person, a 20 lb turkey will feed 40 at the feast.
That’s like 8,000,000 turkeys in 8,000,000 ovens. Times 20, 160,000,000 lbs of turkey gobbled up in a matter of a six hour time span.
The bias is towards all turkey at Thanksgiving. No beef, no chicken, no pork, no goat, no sheep, no lamb, no fish. Just turkey.
The greedy pigs fear they won’t get any, it is dog eat dog at the dinner table.
Back to the climate ordeal.
Much better weather than usual.
In 1983 San Francisco State University’s biology department wanted to close the Sierra Nevada Field Campus and use the savings to support more molecular and genetic research. In contrast the Dean of the College of Science and Engineering, Dr. James Kelley, was an avid supporter of field stations. Dr Kelley understood that students must immerse themselves in the environment they are studying. Otherwise they would be forever misled by limited observations and the resulting bad models. Although Jim Steele was just completing his Masters Degree, Dean Kelley believed Jim Steele was the best person to resurrect and grow the Sierra Nevada Field Campus. Together they turned the rustic Sierra Nevada Field Campus into one of California’s leading environmental education centers.
In addition to building the Sierra Nevada Field Campus’s environmental education program, Jim Steele also taught several classes: World of Plants, Nature Study, Natural Sciences for Teachers, Bird Banding, and Bird Identification by Song. He was also the principal investigator for the Sierra Nevada Neotropical Migratory Bird Riparian Habitat Monitoring project sponsored by the US Forest Service and that research prompted the restoration of the Carman Valley Watershed.
Due to the extreme winter weather conditions, the Sierra Nevada Field Campus only operates during the summer and the director’s position was only halftime and the main duties were during the summer. So instead of pursuing a doctorate, Jim Steele chose to also teach science in San Francisco’s inner city schools during the remainder of the year to fulfill his sense of social justice. The students’ honesty and love for learning made him a better teacher and a better person. He realized that if he didn’t get his students to understand the science that enthralled him, then he had simply not made it clear enough. Jim Steele taught 8th grade science at San Francisco’s Everett Middle School and Advance Placement Biology, Human Physiology and Genetic Engineering at Wallenberg High School. Later Jim Steele lectured the cell and molecular biology labs for the introductory biology class for majors at San Francisco State University.
His understanding of climate change evolved as he sought to understand the causes of the declines in local bird populations that he had studied each summer as part of the Sierra Nevada Neotropical Migratory Bird Riparian Habitat Monitoring project. He soon discovered maximum temperatures in the Sierra Nevada had declined since the 30s (see graph) as observed at the nearby Tahoe City weather station that is part of the US Historical Climate Network. It became clear that the Sierra Nevada were not overheating despite publications blaming wildlife extinctions on global warming. The most important factors affecting local climate change were the cycles of El Nino and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation as well as landscape changes that had greatly altered the regional microclimates. Believing the politics of global warming have been misguiding conservation efforts, Jim Steele wrote the book Landscapes & Cycles: An Environmentalist’s Journey to Climate Skepticism. And the lessons learned from his students helped shape his writing style, making the book’s science lessons most enjoyable and easily grasped by all.
http://landscapesandcycles.net/about-us.html
Some things are hard to explain.
Bloomer on Thu, 23rd Nov 2017 11:07 pm
Cut corporate taxes and the climate will take care of its self. Doesn’t anyone on this board understand anything about the magic of a free market economy?
Apneaman on Fri, 24th Nov 2017 4:47 am
deadlykillerbeaz, you must consider that book to be reallllllllllly fucking important given that 1/2 mile long quote.
I guess cause of that book it means 2014, 2015 then 2016 don’t get to be the hottest years on record. Oh and the Hurricanes don’t get to be considered all jacked to hell because of latent ocean heat due to AGW, because of that book N all.
That area of study, what percentage of the global do you figure it make up? 1 1000th of 1/4%.
Hey are all the record billion dollar wildfires that happened all over the northern hemisphere canceled because of the bird book?
What about the last 5 years of ever increasing and destructive record breaking Rain Bombs – Are they canceled too?
Well, I for one feel relieved. Now I can buy that beach front property in Floria that I want since obviously sea level rise is canceled too. Miami Beach can cancel their $500 million dollar pumps and raised roads plan that is not preventing flooding anyway.
Does this mean the US won’t have to pay it’s 400 billion dollar agw jacked weather disaster bill for 2017 that blows the fuck out of the record books?
What does denier Steele think of all the records? An accounting error.
You people are fucking absurd.
Makati1 on Fri, 24th Nov 2017 5:06 am
Ap, denial runs deep in the US. The very thought that their cushy 30+% of the world’s resources is not going to be there for them to waste is unthinkable. You would have to be blind to not see just the changes in the last five years. It is a scary scenario, but real.
Davy on Fri, 24th Nov 2017 5:30 am
“Ap, denial runs deep in the US. The very thought that their cushy 30+% of the world’s resources is not going to be there for them to waste is unthinkable. “
Mad kat, you are exaggerating as usual. Your 30+% figure is disinformation or do you have a reputable reference? Just check out this place for the real sucking sound to world resources:
China Consumes Mind-Boggling Amounts of Raw Materials [Chart]
https://tinyurl.com/nb6a2aj
This reference show the US in proportion to the rest of the world.
“Percentage of global resources consumed by the 5 countries with the highest demand in 2014”
https://tinyurl.com/ybk4vqwb
Makati1 on Fri, 24th Nov 2017 5:39 am
“Tryptophan, an amino acid in turkey, is unjustly blamed for what mere gluttony does, making Americans comatose every fourth Thursday in November. But before nodding off, give thanks for another year of American hilarity, including:”
https://www.theburningplatform.com/2017/11/23/another-year-of-american-hilarity/#more-164293
“A food truck offering free lunches to workers cleaning up after Hurricane Irma was banished from a Florida town because its operator had no government permit to do that. United Airlines said: Assault? Don’t be misled by your eyes. That passenger dragged off the plane was just being “re-accommodated.”
And on and on with US insanity….
Makati1 on Fri, 24th Nov 2017 5:41 am
“I am instead praying for an asteroid strike on every single one of these jackass firms’ executives and board members along with every member of Congress and every member of the Executive that has sat idly by while you’ve been robbed for the last 30+ years.”
https://www.theburningplatform.com/2017/11/23/thanksfraud-day/#more-164291
“**** giving thanks — with a rusty chainsaw — until this **** stops.”
Davy on Fri, 24th Nov 2017 5:57 am
Wow, mad kat, I did not know you were a follower of the Tea Party movement??? You constantly surprise me like when you told us you were a Mormon priestess.
“ThanksFRAUD Day Guest Post by Karl Denninger”
“Karl Denninger”
https://tinyurl.com/y9fmkd6q
“Karl Denninger is an American technology businessman, finance blogger, and political activist, sometimes referred to as a founding member[1] of the Tea Party movement.”
Aidan Harrison on Fri, 24th Nov 2017 8:18 am
It is really, really bizarre that the deniers call climate-science a ‘religion’. Don’t they grasp the fact that science is evidence-based on verifiable facts. Religion is based on emotion and faith. The ‘religion’ in this whole debate is the belief that the Earth can carry ever-greater numbers of human beings, each consuming ever-greater quantities of resources on the basis of an irrational belief of ‘economic growth’.
The religion is therefore demonstrably not science, but a blind faith in economic growth.
MASTERMIND on Fri, 24th Nov 2017 8:58 am
Madkat
Spreading fake news once again…LOL…The burning platform..Such crude and unreasonable site filled with garbage…And cloggie is spreading fake news from Alex Jones…This site needs a new kind of criminal and I’m going to give it to em!
deadlykillerbeaz on Fri, 24th Nov 2017 10:35 am
Those climate deniers have got a lot to learn.
You can’t argue with the climate change zealots, they’re deniers of science itself.
Antarctica is a polar climate with an ice cap, an EF on the Koppen climate classification chart.
Polar Climates (E)
Polar climates have year-round cold temperatures with the warmest month less than 10° Celsius. Polar climates are found on the northern coastal areas of North America, Europe, Asia, and on the landmasses of Greenland and Antarctica. Two minor climate types exist. ET or polar tundra is a climate where the soil is permanently frozen to depths of hundreds of meters, a condition known as permafrost. Vegetation is dominated by mosses, lichens, dwarf trees and scattered woody shrubs. EF or polar ice caps has a surface that is permanently covered with snow and ice.
http://www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/7v.html
Some real climate science for some factual information, not agenda driven climate pseudo-science with their fake climate change news. lol
Down in Antarctica, I doubt much will change in the next hundred years unless there is a polar shift. It will remain a polar climate with an ice cap until it all melts, an EF, no change there for a long time to come. No denying that.
Duncan Idaho on Fri, 24th Nov 2017 10:37 am
“Watt is my head doing up my azz?” seems to have a following here.
Simple stories to make the sheeple feel they have solid ground beneath their feet.
Shortend on Fri, 24th Nov 2017 10:49 am
So YOU doubt…who cares?
This is what the current data, research indicates
A time-lapse video also released by NASA released this week shows how Earth has changed over the last two decades, showing how much ice in Northern Europe and Canada has receded over the past 20 years
Seeing is in your face.
Now, deny that!
https://www.aol.com/article/news/2017/11/17/nasa-new-york-flood-ice-caps-greenland-antarctica-melt/23281300/
energy investor on Fri, 24th Nov 2017 2:19 pm
AGW is a theory begging to be treated as something superior to the natural order of freezing and melting that has marked the earth’s cycles for the last two million years. Perhaps they are right. Perhaps not?
The real greed and fear is now led by an ex dictator from Fiji who happily presents a double hulled canoe to the IPCC folks in exchange for $$billions that he wants to “rescue” his people from rising sea levels (or for his personal benevolent fund).
I recall that the Vikings once grew grapes and ran cattle etc in Greenland when it was green and when the seas covered Tuvalu, Kiribas and many other islands screaming for rescue.
If no-one is prepared to address the true cause of human damage to our environment – i.e. the exponential growth of humans that pollute in every way possible, how do they think they can change anything by piffling things such as banning plastic bags in supermarkets or demonising some of our fuel sources?
Find a competent alternative fungible energy source or energy storage system and perhaps then we can do something. (where I invest most of my money at high risk)
Meantime it is just another case of 30,000 climate scientists and acolytes pissing in the wind.
We, together with our livestock now comprise more than 98% of all land mammals and yet we actively debase our gene pool as we expand. Still we claim to be smart – at least we will do so, until the inevitable die back starts.
Breathing and farting by us and our livestock alone does similar damage to burning fossils – so what about it?
Are we going to ban Indian farmers burning dung as a fuel too? What will that achieve?
As the late Prof Alby Bartlett said, “the biggest failure of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function”.
Since the industrial revolution got into top gear after 1750 when humans and our livestock were less than 10% of all land mammals…. and 80% of us worked on the land…the global population was only 940 million or so, and we have now taken it to 7.5 billion.
Every one of us breathing in 400ppm of CO2 and breathing out 12-14,000ppm of CO2.
And we demonise a fuel source?
Now how is that for denial!
If the climate alarmists are right there is absolutely no chance of turning this ship around.
But it is possibly better than a descent into another ice age. Or is it?
Scientists working in their own little silos and ignoring the big picture are only sure of one thing. If they scare us enough, they will be better paid.
Before trying to fix a theoretical problem we should first make sure we understand causation.
Makati1 on Fri, 24th Nov 2017 4:16 pm
Muddymind, you cannot give anything to anyone unless you have a STD. But then, who would even want sex with an arrogant, self important, uneducated child? LOL
MASTERMIND on Fri, 24th Nov 2017 4:22 pm
Madkat
I think you are projecting once again. I argue peer reviewed academic references. You argue fake news from conspiracy loon sites.
Shortend on Fri, 24th Nov 2017 4:36 pm
Energy Investor claims AGW is just a Theory!
Gravity is “just a theory”, based on the SAME principles… Natural orders and laws.
Test it our for yourself from a tall building.
Makati1 on Fri, 24th Nov 2017 4:47 pm
MM you shoot the messenger because you don’t like the message. Nothing more. Nothing less.
You hide behind years old ‘peer reviewed’ bullshit because you have been brainwashed to believe that that is the only truth in the world when it is just more paid for propaganda. ‘Peers’ are nothing more than a circle-jerk of self-important asses similar to yourself congratulating themselves for all thinking alike. No dissent allowed.
I have decided to just ignore your childish rants. Perhaps you will go away. You will waste your time if you direct any comments to me. As I do with Davy, I will not see or read them. You can continue to rant and expose your immaturity to the rest until they ignore you. There are intelligent, mature, open minded, experienced people here, but there are also some with mental problems. You seem to be one of the latter. Not worth my time to try to educate you. Good luck! You will need it.
Makati1 on Fri, 24th Nov 2017 4:48 pm
Good one Shortend.
MASTERMIND on Fri, 24th Nov 2017 4:54 pm
Madkat
I criticized your sources last comment not you personally..You are so paranoid..That is what you get for believing fake news…
Shortend on Fri, 24th Nov 2017 5:02 pm
Why does the government directly fund skeptics like Roy Spencer and John Christy who get all of their research funding from NOAA, NASA and DOE?
Other scientists, including skeptics, are funded by the National Science Foundation, which is at arms length from government. Richard Lindzen was awarded over $3,000,000 trying to prove his iris theory.
Then there the skeptics such as Willie Soon who is funded by the fossil fuel industry, Patrick Michaels who is paid by the Koch funded Cato Institute, William Happer who launders his money through the CO2 Coalition, the Heartalnd sponsored Fred Singer, Anthony Watts and the Idso family, etc..
________ on Fri, 24th Nov 2017 5:08 pm
How pedarastic do you have to be to be a pro-ice-ager? God I pray the end is near for you