Some are Warmists, some are Alarmists. Either way, most of them are bat-shit crazy
(KCET) In the last few days an alarming (ie, batshit crazy) article making the rounds on social media has revived the idea that our species might be doing itself in by changing the global climate. The article, by vice.com’s Nathan Curry, minces no words in its title: “Humanity Is Getting Verrrrrrry Close to Extinction,” with the extra rs in the original.
Curry cites sources ranging from climatologist James Hansen to admitted doomsayer Guy McPherson to advance a startling notion: human society has triggered enough irrevocable climate change mechanisms that we’re locked in to warming temperatures sufficient to kill us off.
It’s alarming, but is it alarmist? Could we really heat ourselves to extinction? Maybe, but that’s asking the wrong question.
So, now you’re expecting a reasonable, rational reply from the article’s author, right? LOL
All species eventually go extinct, and things can always go badly wrong when you’re futzing with your life support system. But if a few things happen that aren’t accounted for in climate forecasts — like a wholesale release of methane from permafrost and seabed deposits, there’s a significantly larger chance that most of what we humans currently think of as good places to live will become literally uninhabitable for at least part of the year.
Literally!!!!!!1!!!!!
There’s actually so much wrong with both the KCET article and the original by Nathan Curry that I wouldn’t even know where to start. Let’s look at one thing to see just how much they know about science, at the Curry article
Peter Ward is a paleontologist and author whose 2007 book Under a Green Sky: Global Warming, the Mass Extinctions of the Past, and What They Can Tell Us About Our Future provides evidence that all but one of the major global extinction events (dinosaurs) occurred due to rapid climate change caused by increased atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. This time around, the carbon dioxide increase happens to be coming from humans figuring out how to dig billions of tons of carbon out of the ground and release it into the air. Ward claims that during the last 10,000 years in which human civilization has emerged, our carbon-dioxide levels and climate have remained anomalously stable, but the future doesn’t look so good:
Except, the bold part which refers to the book is a crock of unscientific shit. While increased CO2 levels can explain some of the major and minor extinctions (despite CO2 levels being much, much, much higher during most of the Earth’s lifespan than today), most scientists understand that other factors include glacial periods, massive volcano eruptions cause flood basalts, supernovas, gamma ray bursts, volcanoes, drops in sea levels, ocean onoxia, rising oxygen levels, more volcanoes, followed by more volcanoes, changing landforms, and more volcanoes. And impactor events, ie, asteroids and comets. These Warmists can’t even be honest when discussing science.
