Ex-greenie apologises for telling climate truths
Climate change has been reignited by the claims of a greenie activist, Michael Shellenberger, who claims he has solutions to the arguments about the warming of the planet. His statement about his ideas is in the form of an apology for being so alarmist in the past, but has now seen the light. The statement is entitled: “On Behalf of Environmentalists, I Apologize for the Climate Scare.”
It is really an advertisement for his new book: “Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All.”
In Independent Australia, 3/7/2020, Steve Bishop posted a review of an article about Shellenberger published in The Australian. Bishop’s review is entitled: “Murdoch press supports ‘reformed climate activist’ Michael Shellenberger.”
“The mainstream media press published an attack on climate science by a supposed environmentalist who is, in fact, a nuclear lobbyist, writes Steve Bishop.
“The Australian [1/7/2020] misled its readers this week when it carried a major article purporting to be written by a climate activist who was, as it turned out, admitting climate science was bunkum.”
Bishop also reveals that Shellenberger has been exposed long ago in 2010 by the Public Interest Research Centre.
Another review of Shellenberger’s statement was written by John Tierney in the Wall Street Journal, 21/6/2020 (a Murdoch publication).
When Robert Hunziker read the Wall Street Journal review of Shellenberger’s statement, he says he realised that Shellenberger had “missed the target by a country mile.”
He gave an example of Shellenberger’s misinformation when Shellenberger writes:
“No, climate change has not caused an increase in the frequency or intensity of floods, droughts, hurricanes and tornadoes. Really? Nebraska, Missouri, South Dakota, Iowa, and Kansas re the Great Flood of 2019, the longest flood on record?”
“Shellenberg, who evidently promotes industrial action as humanities saviour, actually suggests, not facetiously, capitalist entrepreneurs saved whales by discovering cheap substitutes for whale oil, like petroleum.
“… and not to worry about plastics as sunlight and other forces break down the substances…
“… and solar and wind power are impractical and damage the environment requiring vast amounts of land and harm flora and fauna…
“While industrialisation causes a short-term rise in carbon emissions, in the long term it’s beneficial to the environment as people move to cities, allowing farmland to revert to nature, as prosperity enables them to switch to cleaner and more compact forms of energy.”
By that, Shellenberger means nuclear power – and accompanying nuclear weapons!
“Based on Tierney’s review”, says Hunziker, “Shellenberger is simply one more lifeline for the fossil fuel industry and Wall Street’s neo liberal dreamland advocacy.”
Hunziker is critical of:
“Wall Street and its kissing cousins the Wall Street Journal responsible for promoting the neoliberal leviathan that ‘sucks up’ to fossil fuel interests and literally destroyed America’s middle class and unions and checks and balances on pollution by shipping US manufacturing offshore to the lowest common denominator of wages and avoidance of environmental regulations.”
And Hunziker is critical of environmentalists as well.
“Climate activists have been warning about the overheating of the planet for decades, ever since Dr James Hansen’s testimony before Senate in 1987: “The greenhouse effect has been detected, and it is changing our climate now!”
“The truth of the matter”, says Hunziger, “is environmentalists have not screamed loud enough to make a difference as greenhouse gases are presently at all-time highs after three decades of screaming, but not loud enough!”
Hence the title of Hunziker’s article: “Arctic Heat Overwhelms Green Infighting.” The evidence is there all over the planet and the environmentalists are squabbling and arguing among themselves.
But, someone like Shellenberger accuses the environmentalists of alarmism, catastrophe and apocalypse. He says that the greenies are scaring the children.
But Shellenberger himself might well be afraid of Greta Thunberg and the hundreds of thousands of young people around the world marching to protest the lack of real action on climate change – and they are certainly not embracing the Shellenberger solution of nuclear power and nuclear arms.
Meanwhile, says Hunziker, people live in ‘fabricated/artificial lifestyles’…
”This artificiality breeds ignorance and stupidity, as reflected in political elections”.
“Ecosystems are coming apart at the seams, which Shellenberger ignores and refutes by advocating, as core values, industrialism and fossil fuels and nuclear over renewables and economics. He misses the important point as far as the biosphere is concerned. Salvation for humanity and for the planet is dependent upon tossing out the entire neoliberal experiment in favour of eco economics that favours natural and human values over profits and inane infinite growth schemes.”
He goes on to list numerous examples: of dying fauna, high temperatures, ice melts on a massive scale, permafrost gases, heat threats to human health, droughts…the things about which environmentalists need to shout more loudly.
Hunziker finishes with a postscript:
“A fact worth repeating time and time again because it is not going away: According to NOAA Climate.gov, ‘In fact, the last time the atmospheric CO2 amounts were this high was more than 3 million years ago, when the temperature was 2-3 degrees C (3.6 -5.4F) higher than during the pre-industrial era, and sea level was 15-25 metres (50-80 feet) higher than today. The lag effect is in process.”
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David Evans
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Vikingduk
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Phil
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Josephus
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Jack Cade
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David K Hilderman
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Phil
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Phil
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wam
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Ken Fabian
Return to home pageGolly! I wonder if somebody should tell Australias’ greatest ever scientist, philosopher, economist, meteorologist, immunologist, saviour of planet Earth, disrespected commentator on disrespected television stations, most willfully ignorant member of Parliament, most arrogant member of any electorate and occasional BBC television comedian, and all round wealth of knowledge and permanent back bencher whose social media posts and the depth of knowledge therein are becoming legendary? The clown prince posted huge plaudits and verbal rapture over the author, and content of this book, even posting color photos of the cover, before the books release. Hadn’t read any of it, but hey, it got his idol a bit of advertising.
Huge geotextile sheets have been lain over the Presena glacier in Italy to slow down or prevent melting. Methane emissions growing rapidly, a substance that doesn’t hang around to the extent of CO2 emissions, but is far more potent (think I’ve heard a figure of 80% +) as a result of increased use of and mining of gas. On and on are the stories of environmental destruction and still the wilful ignorant, the braindead, the evil can’t hear or see this rapid degradation of life on planet earth. Shouting any louder won’t work, too many refuse to see, too many will never see, too many don’t won’t to see and, perhaps, far too many sociopaths populate the upper echelons of business and government.
Is this virus a prelude to a mass depopulation of our beautiful earth? Will nature, that beautiful beast, now devour us? Slap some sense into us? Has nature determined in its pain, that we humans are worthless, ungrateful bastards not deserving of this most beautiful place? I was taught respect and an understanding of nature at a young age when I was absolutely monstered by a freak, humongous wave, took me out of myself, saved my life. So, from that point I have considered nature to be an intelligent being capable of feelings, forever attempting to nurture us and to take our time here as a gift, to be the protectors and to find sanity. Who, willingly, shits in their own nest? Shits in it, on it, rapes it, destroys it, abuses it in every way possible? Humans.
Gaia has had enough and is culling out the biggest virus on this planet and that’s US. The human race is doomed to fail. When I see the Japanese harpooning whales and rounding up masses of Dolphins to murder to eat and I make no apology, I wonder if there are any ‘ Big Boys ‘ left in the nuclear arsenal? When I see a hunter carrying a Leopard or some other exotic cat over his shoulder killed to satisfy his insane lust to kill, I go into a state of f@#$%&@ melancholy that a wheelbarrow full of Valium wouldn’t fix. I could stick a gun in the bastards mouth pull the trigger and sleep the sleep of a thousand babies. Humans don’t deserve this planet and the quicker we are all deep sixed and gone the better.
Sadly I agree. One day giant lizards or flies will dominate the planet and they will worship a god in their own image. Meanwhile read Karel Capek’s The war with the Newts, a marvellous fantasy novel of the 1920s in which the seas rise as the Newts take over.
I’m with you, Phil. How courageous is it to kill a browsing giraffe from the back of a truck with a high-powered rifle with telescopic sights.
I have been saying for years that Gaia makes more sense than a bearded twat who demands that the founder of his cult slaughter his own son ‘..to prove you love me.’
And, what’s more, the twisted prick, revered as the originator of 3 religious cults, was prepared to do it.
The very last hope of the World is the complete isolation of the USA ( long enough for them to kill each other the way they killed 40 Million bison and 40 BILLION passenger pigeons. Because they surely will.)
CO2 hasn’t been as high as it is now in 3 million years. Neither have plants grown as quickly in 3 million years. Is that a bad thing?
” CO2 hasn’t been as high as it is now in 3 million years. Neither have plants grown as quickly in 3 million years. Is that a bad thing? ‘
I will leave it to others to respond in a meaningful way, I can’t stop laughing.
‘ The very last hope of the World is the complete isolation of the USA ( long enough for them to kill each other the way they killed 40 Million bison and 40 BILLION passenger pigeons. Because they surely will.) ‘
Agree. They are a cancer on the planet.
Michael Shellenberger is as confused as climate change itself. But I am also an ex,( the modern pragmatic kind,)-loonie
We could accept that climate is a collection of weather changes and every time the weather changes the climate changes.
Then were can forget the process and concentrate on gas emissions and the greenhouse effect.
This will get glacial, tundra and sea ice melts to the for and thing we can see hear and touch in real time become the focus.
No it wont work stick with climate change sounds better. and the loonies and aimn tragicst love it.
What is not for climate science denying opponents of climate action not to like? Shellenberger tells them the climate problem causing widespread concern is the fault of Environmentalists, that it is not actually that serious and Environmentalists have been needlessly alarming people with their carrying on like the climate scientists’ advice should be take at face value.
After assuring everyone the problem doesn’t matter he proposes the most unpopular and problematic nuclear power as the essential solution, and blames Environmentalists for mainstream politics not doing it, like they cannot commit to it until and unless Environmentalists agree first! As if denying the seriousness of the problem has not been the worst kind of politics for promoting nuclear as solution. He appears to want unconstrained use of fossil fuels until everyone is too rich to be worried about climate change (which he claims isn’t a worry anyway).
Shellenberger’s target audience – climate science denying supporters of fossil fuels and opponents of environmental regulation – don’t care about the climate problem or nuclear energy but they like the unconstrained use of fossil fuels and the anti-environmentalist rhetoric.
The self promoted idea that Shellenberger is a better grade of Environmentalist than Environmentalists was always BS. Making the climate issue about what Environmentalist say and want and do and not about decades of consistent science based advice has been one plank of broader anti-climate action politicking – along with alarmist economic fear of reducing fossil fuel dependence. But he is just a tankthink hack, producing the justifications for inaction people who don’t care want whilst denigrating the actions of those that care. He seeks to blame the inaction of the very pollies and people that most fiercely oppose action onto those who are calling for action – and passes completely over that ongoing failure to care, and fails to notice or point out that NOT building nuclear to replace coal and gas is what those people really want.
If Green-Left activists stand so tall is because mainstream politicians keep heads down, if they sound so loud it is because other voices have gone mute – and ceded the podium to them in “you care so much, you fix it” style, sure in the knowledge that what they do propose won’t work or won’t be acceptable. Renewables actually working (and ironically not by Environmentalists pe se but by the work of scientists and hard headed engineers and capitalist entrepreneurs) and being popular was not the outcome expected when they gave ’em enough rope! But ceding the issue to others was and is a profound abrogation of responsibility and a decision by those who actually sit in the Offices where the decisions that matter are made.