Loony Of The Day Award
By Paul Homewood
From News Hub:
There’s no point trying to fight climate change – we’ll all be dead in the next decade and there’s nothing we can do to stop it, a visiting scientist claims.
Guy McPherson, a biology professor at the University of Arizona, says the human destruction of our own habitat is leading towards the world’s sixth mass extinction.
Instead of fighting, he says we should just embrace it and live life while we can.
"It’s locked down, it’s been locked in for a long time – we’re in the midst of our sixth mass extinction," he told Paul Henry on Thursday.
But Professor James Renwick, a climate scientist at Victoria University, says people should not use his words more as an excuse to give up.
While he agrees that climate change is possibly the "biggest issue humanity has ever faced", he says "giving up is not really helpful".
Instead, Prof Renwick says he hopes Prof McPherson’s 10-year claim will encourage people to take action.
"This is a really big issue and the consequences could be catastrophic," Prof Renwick says. "Though certainly [humans won’t all die off] in 10 years or even 1000 years."
The effects of climate change were first noticed 30 years ago and Prof Renwick says the sooner we get onto working against it, the less there will be to do.
"I’d love to see [people] take it on board as it is a very serious issue."
Prof McPherson’s comments come just days after Climate Change Issues Minister Paula Bennett appointed a 10-strong team to advise the Government on how New Zealand can adapt to climate change.
But if the visiting professor is right, it could all be a waste of time.
"I can’t imagine there will be a human on the planet in 10 years," he says.
"We don’t have 10 years. The problem is when I give a number like that, people think it’s going to be business as usual until nine years [and] 364 days."
He says part of the reason he’s given up while other scientists fight on is because they’re looking at individual parts, such as methane emissions and the melting ice in the Arctic, instead of the entire picture.
"We’re heading for a temperature within that span that is at or near the highest temperature experienced on Earth in the last 2 billion years."
Instead of trying to fix the climate, Prof McPherson says we should focus on living while we can.
"I think hope is a horrible idea. Hope is wishful thinking. Hope is a bad idea – let’s abandon that and get on with reality instead. Let’s get on with living instead of wishing for the future that never comes.
"I encourage people to pursue excellence, to pursue love, to pursue what they love to do. I don’t think these are crazy ideas, actually – and I also encourage people to remain calm because nothing is under control, certainly not under our control anyway."
New Zealand has been criticised by the international community for not doing enough to fight climate change – this month being awarded two Fossil of the Day awards at the UN Climate Change Conference in Marrakech.
The awards are for the country’s failure to live up to climate promises and the continued use of "dodgy" carbon credits.
The mind boggles!
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NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
So all those graphs showing the MWP warmer than today and the Roman Warm Period warmer than that and the Minoan Warm Period …. and the Holocene Optimum …. and on, and on…
They’re all a load of bollocks, Professor, is that right?
Warmest for 2 billion years? Verily is this man lunatic of the day …. nay, Lunatic of the Decade more like. Lock him up for his own safety, somebody!
But Mike, MM shows there were none of these warmer periods on his hockeystick graph! And it takes a complete lunatic to believe that cr@p.
I’ve always believed that putting an expiration date on humanity meant that we could party and not worry. Interesting to see a professor put that in print.
If you are planning to leave anything to a college or university….STOP right here. Evaluate what you are potentially funding. My will leaves my 2 alma maters in the cold–or heat, if they prefer. Hillsdale College in MI will be very happy. Their president, Dr. Larry Arnn was up for Secy. of Education. They take NO government monies whatsoever and teach the US Constitution in and out to all their students.
Excellent! Now we can tell everyone not to bother with climate change and as Reality Check says Paaaaaarrrrrrrttttttttyyyyyyyyyyyy like its 2026………………………
I’m sure there will be numerous attractive women who will throw themselves into my arms when I tell them this one.
Hang on! Maybe that cunning old Professor McPherson thought of that before me!
I like his style 😉
Can someone please lend me a couple of million, promise I will pay it back in 2028….
Yes, Pop round & pick it up….. most of it is in £97pound notes (:-))
A sixth MASS extinction? Temperature has risen less than one degree C and sea level less than a foot… in hundreds of years? But. in 10 years it will jump…how much? Sounds like a resurrection of the “hockey stick” scare.
During all this time the number of species, (with actual scientific names), that have gone extinct is less than 150. Most were killed off by humans, not by CO2 from humans.
All of this climate change hysteria is solely the result of climate forecasts deemed “settled science” and untested theory…not to mention a consistent disregard for historical empirical evidence.
But this guy is right that humans can do nothing to stop or mitigate whatever the natural variations decide to do. Maybe he should have passed that along to the expert gurus in Paris?
Read the wiki entry:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_McPherson
And the person that put this story together:
Breanna Barraclough
“Breanna is a digital producer for Newshub based in Auckland. She joined the team in 2015 and has a keen focus on environmental and science stories, while also dabbling in entertainment and gaming content.”
I think she has done a meld of entertainment and pseudoscience — call this a dabble.
Must be true cos I found this in my inbox –
“Before the Earth falls silent”
By 2020, two-thirds of wild animals will be gone. Life is being extinguished as fast as when the dinosaurs disappeared — and it’s happening because humanity is taking a chainsaw to the tree of life.
Unless we stop this tragedy, the Earth’s delicate biodiversity could completely collapse, leaving our planet deathly silent and uninhabitable for humans.
& their main source is that august fount of all things scientific… (The Guardian)
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/oct/27/world-on-track-to-lose-two-thirds-of-wild-animals-by-2020-major-report-warns?CMP=fb_gu
From the headless chickens at – https://secure.avaaz.org/campaign/en/protect_half_our_planet_loc_sus/
Two-thirds by 2020?
less than 150 in the last 100 years… add Homo sapiens… 151 for a mass extinction?
“The IISE… International Institute for Species Exploration, which is dedicated to finding 10 million new species of life on Earth during the next half century, says about 18,000 new species were discovered in 2012. Scientists estimate that they’ve only identified about 2 million of an estimated 12 million living species, with millions more species existing in the microbial world.”
In the absence of human influence, “the number of species that have gone extinct in the last century would have taken, depending on the vertebrate taxon, between 800 and 10,000 years to disappear,”
Where did “Humanity” purchase this “chain saw”? GISS?
He is in such angst it would be kinder to put him down with a nice does of anesthetic.
The poor, poor man.
Reminds me of this madness. Just replace “developers” with “deniers”:
There’s no point trying to fight climate change – we’ll all be dead in the next decade and there’s nothing we can do to stop it, a visiting scientist claims.
Visiting from another planet perhaps?
Let me guess- this Idiot is very old and won’t live to see his prophecy fail.
Otter.. Neither will any of us…or our grandchildren. We “lilliputian” humans cannot possibly alter whatever the natural variations decide to do… especially by trying to “capture” and eliminate fossil fuels, and then?…hide somewhere 100 gigatons of CO2? The patients are running the asylum?
The Prof. has spent to much time in the Aeizona sun without a hat on. Nutbar sums it up. Why anyone gives him the time of day is beyond me. As for Prof Renwick using this nutbars proclomations to try to get prople to take action it shows the desperation of the alarmists as the science offers less and less support for their catastrophic prophecy of doom.
@ Kevin Hearle permalink
November 25, 2016 12:56 am: And Renwick is a nutbar too, currently being sued with a colleague for his disgraceful misrepresentations.
Desperate, hysterical lunatics who are about to be defunded by the Trump Administration.
That gurgling sound is the swamp being drained.
Well then, logically, we should abandon all carbon related spending and taxes and enjoy the money now. No use planning for the future at all. I’d guess the good Professor is living the dream by increasing a mortgage he will never have to pay back, maxing the credit cards and partying like there is no tomorrow!
With his evident ability to absolutely prognosticate the future I’m surprised the man is not a billionaire from business and investments.
Over at Bishop Hill, stewgreen has suggested that George Monbiot should also be up for this award?
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/25/13-crises-we-face-trump-soil-loss-global-collapse
But Prof McPherson’s statement: “We’re heading for a temperature within that span that is at or near the highest temperature experienced on Earth in the last 2 billion years.” is quite astonishingly loony, and will take a lot to beat.
Update TODAY : Not end of world , just *World War III* said Monbiot on Radio 2
J Vine awards #BbcFreeKick to George Monbiot, he was on Radio 2 until 12:47pm
“Your worst fears are confirmed are they George ?”
..’We are at a global problem, he won’t solve so that ..and that is how wars start’
etc…
Coal : “Oh those jobs won’t come back” : they’ve been automated..same for fracking”
(George , last night on the BBC1 we were watching miners in a UK mine, we could see it was already highly automated, but those miners lost their jobs cos of UK climate policy not automation)
12:51 JV was reading out listeners comments and his own opinions
JV reads comment about “anyone who watched BBC Arctic Live knows”
JV says “There is not many who return from Arctic unconvinced”
I heard that – George also used the term ‘climate breakdown’ – what the hell is that supposed to mean. But to give Jeremy Vine his due, at least he read out a number of opposing views from listeners.
End of world in 10 years he says
Well Monday Channel 5 – 5 years was the Claim
On the Ben Fogle show about a creepy hippie who runs an eco-commune farm in Ibiza the.
The guy said “oh Climate, everything is changes we’ve got 5 years until the S-hits the fan”
@Lapogusmentions an article by Monbiot today saying that the Earth has only 60 years of agriculture left.
Not sure how many years of sanity Monbiot has left if he believes his own propaganda.
I like the way he immediately contradicts himself: “… we’ll all be dead in the next decade and there’s nothing we can do to stop it […] Instead of fighting, he says we should just embrace it and live life while we can.” Quickly followed by: “ … people should not use his words more as an excuse to give up.”
Also: “The effects of climate change were first noticed 30 years ago…” So, the Vikings did not notice when they had to stop farming Greenland? The Europeans did not notice when they had years without summers? Londoners did not notice when the Thames froze over? Nope. It only became noticeable, it would seem, when someone realised that they could make serious political capital out of it.
Oooh, I say! I’ve just read the other comments… they are rather good, aren’t they?
@ Radical Rodent
1 • No he didn’t contradict himself.
the words –
” people should not use his words more as an excuse to give up.”
were said by
Professor James Renwick, a climate scientist at Victoria University,
2 • “It only became noticeable, it would seem, when someone realised that they could make serious political capital out of it.” ….& a capital profit out of it
1. Okay – you got me there. (Note to self: read the bloody article properly, idiot!)
2. True – but it is the political capital that helps to drive their profit motive; without the generated “need” for “action”, how could they justify the subsidy-farms or carbon trading?