Pirate's Cove

It’s actually rather surprising that the BBC would run this, because, even though it takes a more even tone, these people really come off as nutjobs

The ‘climate doomers’ preparing for society to fall apart

An article by a British professor (Jem Bendell) that predicts the imminent collapse of society, as a result of climate change, has been downloaded over half a million times. Many mainstream climate scientists totally reject his claims, but his followers are already preparing for the worst.

As the last light of the late-winter sunset illuminates her suburban back garden, Rachel Ingrams is looking at the sky and pondering how long we have left.

Her hands shielded from the gusts of February air by a well-worn pair of gardening gloves, Rachel carefully places tree spinach and scarlet pimpernel seeds into brown plastic pots.

Over the past year, Rachel, 45, has invested in a greenhouse and four bright blue water butts, and started building a raised vegetable patch out of planks of wood. It’s all part of an effort to rewild her garden and become as close to self-sufficient as she can, while society continues to function.

Within the next five to 10 years, she says, climate change is going to cause it to fall apart. “I don’t see things lasting any longer than that.”

Sounds sane, eh? But, hey, suddenly preppers are cool, as long as they’re doing it due to a slight increase in a trace gas necessary for life on Earth

Bendell, a professor in sustainable leadership at the University of Cumbria, is the author of an academic article, Deep Adaptation: A Map for Navigating Climate Tragedy, which has become the closest thing to a manifesto for a generation of self-described “climate doomers”.

In it, he argues that it is too late for us to avoid “the inevitability of societal collapse” caused by climate change. Instead, we are facing a “near-term” breakdown of civilisation – near-term meaning within about a decade.

The paper was rejected for publication by a peer-reviewed journal, whose reviewers said its language was “not appropriate for an academic article”.

Even Michael “Robust Debate” Mann, who knows a lot about garbage science, called the paper trash and “pseudo-scientific nonsense.”

Bendell rejects the scientists’ claims and says people have been inspired by his paper to demand radical government measures to tackle climate change.

“I hope Michael Mann gets to meet some more climate activists on the streets, so he can meet the new breed of fearless people taking peaceful direct action after being moved by uncompromising assessments of our situation,” he says. “Many of the leaders of Extinction Rebellion read my paper and quit their jobs to go full time to try to reduce harm and save what we can.”

Mann underestimates the number of people driven into the Cult of Climastrology who are believing this clap-trap. They hear politicians yammering about having so many years to save the Earth constantly. That doom is coming. Only so many will act on this, like the lady in the story, but, the rest are just becoming mental messes.

It’s a long article, worth the read to see climamoonbattery.