In recent weeks and months I have been amazed at the general public and most scientists ability to ignore the blatant evidence that we are in early stage, non-linear runaway warming. From individual activists, to the donation soaked and addicted corporate NGO’s, who are literally dependent on “Business as Usual” to maintain their cash flows, they ignore the elephant in the room, squandering vital time to prepare for the already unfolding collapse.
On an individual basis the decision to deny the severity of the situation is up to each persons conscience and/or courage to accept the predicament we find ourselves in but when it comes to research universities and their tenured scientists, governments and the large NGO’s it’s a ‘Dereliction of Duty’ for them not to be ‘completely frank’. That for me is abject dishonesty, especially toward the youth. I’ve previously singled out Dr Michael E Mann, the corporate media’s ‘Go To Mann’, for this dishonesty.
Below I will lay out just a few examples showing that we are in the runaway phase of this extinction event.
This fire season alone, “Australia’s wildfires have destroyed more than a fifth of the country’s forests, making the blazes “globally unprecedented” following a years-long drought linked to climate change, researchers said Monday.” Bushfires burned a fifth of Australia’s forest: Bushfires burned a fifth of Australia’s forest: study Remember this is not an El Nino year, the next El Nino, if we have one, will be brutal and will put this event on steroids. The double feedback from these fires is that the forests were formerly carbon sinks so that has been lost and all the carbon that has ben released will accentuate the predicament.
In August last year Professor Guy McPherson and I re-interviewed Dr Andrew Glikson from the Australian National University regarding an article he wrote titled:Beyond Climate Tipping Points: Greenhouse Gas Levels Exceed the Stability Limit of the Greenland and Antarctic Ice Sheets
“The pace of global warming has been grossly underestimated. As the world keeps increasing its carbon emissions rising in 2018 to a record 33.1 billion ton CO2 per year, the atmospheric greenhouse gas level has now exceeded 560 ppm (parts per million) CO2–equivalent, namely when methane and nitric oxide are included. This level surpasses the stability threshold of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. The term “climate change“ is thus no longer appropriate, since what is happening in the atmosphere-ocean system, accelerating over the last 70 years or so, is an abrupt calamity on a geological dimension threatening nature and civilization. Ignoring what the science says, the powers-that-be are presiding over the sixth mass extinction of species, including humanity.”
Links to the article and our interview with the exceptionally honest Dr Glikson can be found embedded below; Tipping Points in the Earth Climate System. Dr Andrew Glikson returns to Nature Bats Last
We are on the cusp of witnessing a sea ice free arctic ocean. The consequences of the albedo feedback loop and other side effects of the loss of sea ice like loss of habitat for algae, krill, sea lions, sea birds and polar bears. “Losing the remaining Arctic sea ice and its ability to reflect incoming solar energy back to space would be equivalent to adding one trillion tons of CO2 to the atmosphere, on top of the 2.4 trillion tons emitted since the Industrial Age, according to current and former researchers from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego.”
“At current rates, this roughly equates to 25 years of global CO2 emissions.For further reference see: ”Cascading Consequences of the Loss of Arctic Sea Ice
My cohost on Nature Bats Last recently commented on this aspect of the unraveling titled: “Edge of Extinction: Scientists don’t know why !!
“To believe that our species can avoid extinction, even as non-human vertebrates and non-human mammals disappear, is classic human hubris wrapped in a warm blanket of myth-based human supremacy. The evidence indicates humans will join the annihilation of “all life on earth,” as reported in the journal literature on 13 November 2018. Even tardigrades, the go-to survivor for those who deny the impacts of abrupt climate change on life, are unlikely to survive, according to a paper in the 9 January 2020 issue of Scientific Reports. If the organisms on which we depend do not survive, if even tardigrades do not survive, then humans will not survive.” Quoted from this article published by Counterpunch titled: Extinction Foretold, Extinction Ignored.
On next weeks episode of Nature Bats Last Professor McPherson and I will be interviewing George Tsakraklides on his recent article titled “Collapse means Collapse.”the interview can be found at the NBL archive shortly after the live broadcast on The Progressive Radio Network.
‘People believe what they want to believe. It is a striking-yet all too familiar-fact about human beings that our belief-forming processes can be so distorted by fears, desires, and prejudices that an otherwise sensible person may sincerely uphold a false claim about the world despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. When we describe someone as being “in denial,” we mean that he or she is personally threatened by some set of facts and consequently fails to assess the situation properly according to the evidence, instead arguing and interpreting evidence in light of a pre-established conclusion.’
— From the ‘cover notes’ of Adrian Bardon’s book, THE TRUTH ABOUT DENIAL
As I have written before: The New Climate Denial Position is to deny Abrupt Climate Change.
28/05.2025 Edit:
The Terrifying Theory of Stupidity You Were Never Meant to Hear – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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More cognitive dissonance from New Scientist.
Orwell couldn’t write this shit.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2416567-inside-the-brooklyn-start-up-making-clean-jet-fuel-with-captured-co2/?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_campaign=echobox&utm_medium=social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR2TuXSyX_36qrv3uGADrrYGSWOewVx_LpXqL8oYdK9gfu8xXjboFMOO2WM#Echobox=1708112094
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It has a paywall so I couldn’t read more than the first paragraph but that said enough. Remember Kevin, technology will save us!
And of course Orwell could have written this. He was cynical enough don’t you think?
Ain’t gonna get better is what I’m thinking…
sealintheSelkirks
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I used to admire Zeke many years ago but since he started making babies he’s lost all credibility.
Quote: “even if we start rapid emissions reductions tomorrow we will very likely pass 1.5C by the early 2030s (and would pass 2C in the early 2050s under current policies).”
This is complete nonsense and Zeke knows it.
Using 1750 as a baseline we are well past 2C.
SRM scares the hell out of me as wars could be fought over it, plus of course once started it has to continue, effectively forever.
The grasping of straws at the edge of extinction is incredible.
Cognitive Dissonance prevails.
https://www.theclimatebrink.com/p/the-geoengineering-question?fbclid=IwAR1MV4iHw0TnSxvcmRUjZaCxLMiKnM3M2v8lpTrB__Ld7ellp0x-k1GN9eA
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https://guymcpherson.com/retaining-mental-health-amidst-cognitive-dissonance-a-discussion-with-psychologist-peter-miller-26/?fbclid=IwAR223aEoluKYcagnHu3-BwtXt7SGMkABbJwcubPM7GOYmicil21mAEPFTz0
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How Good, Kind, Caring People Became The Bad Guys (okdoomer.io)
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Can’t read it, subscription only and I don’t have the income to subscribe to everything being a retired old guy surfer dude.
sealintheSelkirks
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Lying to Ourselves at The End of The World
Why the denial keeps getting worse.
Lying to Ourselves at The End of The World (okdoomer.io)
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Cognitive dissonance appears at the 14-minute mark, George on point as always.
Post-Growth Australia Podcast: Beyond the Petri Dish with George Tsakraklides
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Not cognitive dissonance from the speaker I’m assuming because I agree with him that it’s always about the wants of the Capitalist wealthy that are funding research. Big impacts on outcomes that are often subtle I’m guessing…
But climate science is starting to sound like a broken record because nobody is paying attention anymore? And it’s the scientists fault that people are, as Trump gushed and I quote: I LOVE the under-educated?
How are they supposed to ‘spice the information up’ to attract their attention? Science is just so boring compared to re-runs of the Game of Thrones, sports programs, and their damned cell phones!
The problem I see is that there just isn’t enough curiosity in the general population to want to ask questions, to WANT to know ‘abstract’ knowledge about anything beyond their immediate gratification. We’re slow evolving primates, if we can’t eat it or fuck it who cares, right?
Facts are powerful? No, they’re not.
Well hell, the disasters just aren’t big enough!! As I said in my other post today, let’s see a million dead in the US from one storm in one city with plenty more in the surrounding areas adding to the carnage; bobbing white babies this time floating in the grimy polluted water wearing red MAGA hats and beautiful blonde socialites in the latest Paris fashions right alongside of them. Will that get the public interested?
Probably not. In general our species is not very observant nor is it gifted with high intelligence…and is never educated to it’s highest potential. People that ask questions of the rulers are not really appreciated.
Like this collapse in the US to a Nazi Germany-like Oligarchy, nothing is really going to change except for the worst because the people in control want it that way. The science of what our climate is heading into is no different and we know that deep down in our bones.
At least those of us that still have a curiosity know. Sucks to be us, eh?
sealintheSelkirks
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George, on point as always.
“The cognitive blockage is so immense that the average human today perceives anti-growth arguments as a personal threat on their life.”
Delusion Is The Ultimate Renewable Energy Source
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Mis An Thrope
“for awhile now cognitive dissonance seems to have waned dramitically and we are continuing our species trend of plausible deniability. the first insinuates discomfort of which we are clearly seeing there is none based on behavioral patterns.”
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Georges latest riff seems like a good fit here.
On hope I quote Nitsche: “Hope in reality is the worst of all evils because it prolongs the torments of man”
The Tragic Limitations of Human Intelligence
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