But if we’re already afraid enough, if we’ve already surrendered enough control that we’ll never get any of it back or don’t care to, or if we’ve already ingested sufficient quantities of Dr. Mike’s indefensible Hockey Stick Kool-Aid, we won’t read it anyway. Even if we were to read it, we wouldn’t believe a word of anything that contradicts the proverbial narrative. And it’s dead-certain it won’t embarrass or inhibit the likes of the IPCC, the AAAS, or any of the many mainstream climate-fear-mongering outlets that continue to publish Mann’s screeds because their political and narrative agendas depend on it.
Why is that?
Why do we continue to fall for this kind of manipulative garbage? For the same reason, some of us believe JFK was assassinated by Bat Boy from The Weekly World News. For the same reason, some of us believe the world ended in 2012. For the same reason, Al Gore was awarded a Nobel Prize, an Oscar, and a Grammy Award (after he’d already invented the Internet, of course). For the same reason, some people believed Edmund Muskie was addicted to ibogaine. For the same reason some of us — in desperate need of vicarious titillation and vicarious thrills — thrive on hyperbole, hysteria, and drama.
We don’t question or call out the frauds that feed our insatiable need for that hyperbole, hysteria, and drama. On the contrary, for reasons that can only be explained by our pathological gullibility and our need for bogeymen, we celebrate and reward them.
Michael Crichton called that gullibility the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect:
You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well … You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward — reversing cause and effect … you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story, and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate … than the baloney you just read. You turn the page and forget what you know.
As Ye Sow, So Shall Ye Reap
As if to prove Crichton’s point, Britt Wray gets cause and effect exactly backward in this TED Talk. The fear, fatalism, hopelessness, shock, trauma, strained relationships, substance abuse, loss of personal identity and control, anxiety, grief, depression, conflict avoidance, helplessness, and resignation she bemoans are not caused by climate change, they’re the very reasons for which people believe in anthropogenic climate change. It’s powerlessness and paranoia unto delusional pathology.
Listen to what she says: “I’m here to evoke a feeling in you.” Please read that again. “I’m here to invoke a feeling in you.” She’s not here to make us think. She’s not here to make us question, examine, doubt, or discern. She’s not here to invite us to be objective enough to reach our own conclusions. She’s here to make us feel. To feel what? Fear.
Watch Britt Wray’s video. Better yet, read the transcript of her talk. Then, in contrast, watch this video. Please. Watch it and listen to what Dr. Michaels says. Then watch this one. Please. Listen to what’s being reported. After that, please consider this one example, a contention I recently heard: “Florida has had 119 hurricanes since 1850, but the last one was due to climate change.” Really?
We don’t all have to see eye-to-eye on this or anything else. All of us can’t possibly have the same values, the same predispositions, the same expectations. And we don’t have to share interpretations of evidence. But we should all be unified in the conviction that every piece of ostensible evidence — every source of that evidence and the agendas behind every one of those sources — should be questioned, examined and held to a standard higher than political or media narrative.
Who wants us to know, believe, or subscribe to what and why?
As models of intellectual rigor, sound argument, respect for knowledge, and standards of respectfulness, watch this video and this video. What Dr. Peterson says may not align with your values, your predispositions, or your expectations. But it should compel you to consider that there might be possible explanations for things like climate change — and things to be revealed with determined exploration and intellectual rigor — beyond popular narratives:
People who don’t have their own houses in order should be very careful before they go about reorganizing the world … People have things that are more within their personal purview that are more difficult to deal with and that they’re avoiding … the way they avoid them is by adopting pseudo-moralistic stances on large-scale social issues so that they look good to their friends and their neighbors. (Jordan Peterson)
Grandpa O’Brien loved to say, “Charity begins at home.” I suspect he and Dr. Peterson would have gotten along famously.
Let’s Get a Grip
Regardless of whether you’ve been moved in any way by any of this piece, irrespective of whether you’re inclined to change your stance on climate change or anything else as a result of it, please watch this one last video. As a logical, common-sense presentation of empirical truth, it’s tough to argue with. It might not change minds. But it shouldn’t be ignored.
At its heart, climate-change hysteria and its grounding in political manipulation and control — or, for that matter, any other issue that constitutes what Jordan Peterson described as pseudo-moralistic stances on large-scale social issues — is just Linus thinking; that is, it’s an apparent attempt to save humanity at the expense of individuals. (See History, Human.)
Can we be better stewards of the planet? Hell, yes. Does each of us have a responsibility to the planet? Without question. Should every one of us clean up after ourselves and recycle as much as we possibly can? Beyond doubt or debate. Should all of us be cognizant of and conscientious about wasting as little as possible in our daily lives? Positively. Every single day.
Will any of that meaningfully influence the natural and inevitable changes in the planet’s climate? No. If you doubt that, there are roughly 900 species of extinct dinosaurs that might beg to differ. And should we applaud virtue-signalers like Microsoft and Amazon that employ cause marketing to further enrich themselves? Watch this video. Decide for yourselves. But follow the money.
I have enough horrors and hysterics in my life. I don’t need politically motivated power-cravers, control-freaks, scare-mongers, wealth-redistributors, and narrative-peddlers making up new ones for me. And I most certainly don’t need anyone telling me climate-science — or any other science — is settled.
The last word belongs to Dr. Richard Feynman:
I would rather have questions that can’t be answered than answers that can’t be questioned.
Amen.
“The biggest factor influencing weather and climate patterns on earth is the sun, period” and the reference provided is not NASA but another article opining in similar vein on NASA.
NASA’s own website (https://climate.nasa.gov/causes/) asks and answers this question in the sidebar.
Question: “How do we know that changes in the Sun aren’t to blame for current global warming trends?”
Answer: Since 1978, a series of satellite instruments have measured the energy output of the Sun directly. The satellite data show a very slight drop in solar irradiance (which is a measure of the amount of energy the Sun gives off) over this time period. So the Sun doesn’t appear to be responsible for the warming trend observed over the past several decades.
Longer-term estimates of solar irradiance have been made using sunspot records and other so-called “proxy indicators,” such as the amount of carbon in tree rings. The most recent analyses of these proxies indicate that solar irradiance changes cannot plausibly account for more than 10 percent of the 20th century’s warming.
An article which talks about NASA and ignores NASA’s own statements, may manifest freedom of expression, but in my judgment is bereft of any scholastic or journalistic integrity.
Thank you, Mark for helping us understand that jumping headfirst into someone’s ideal is not always prudent. That simply taking someone’s word for it can lead to an ill-advised ideology. Thanks for pointing out that we should look at other’s views; especially when they conflict with our own. Thanks for showing how horrific it is when you only consider your own opinion and mock others who believe differently. That how narrowminded and narcissistic one is when they do everything in their power get rid of those who say they are wrong and believe they alone have the power to make anything great again. Those who’ve developed a skill of name calling because truthfully, they have no leadership skills other than to provoke others to do even more hideous acts than they already have.
Thank you for pointing out that we should do what we can not only to conserve and preserve our environment for future generations, but also do what we can to get rid of those whose selfish views have been promoted, propagated and put into law centuries before Florida ever began tracking whether events. That these ideals were singularly legislated to line their own pockets and purposely deprive others who don’t think (or even look) like them. Who believe that money and their pursuit in acquiring it, is far more important than creating any sense of equality for those who would dare question or think differently. Shame on them.
And thank you, Melissa, for inspiring Mark to write such an article. Just imagine if there were only 3 men who had half the determination of a hapless teenager who took the entire globe by storm primarily looking for a few more reasons for students to ditch school. What a difference these men could manifest and make this a far better planet for everyone to live and dream.
And thank you, Dennis, for providing a platform that allows everyone to freely express and communicate what they believe because everyone has the ability – and perhaps duty – to make this world better for us being here.
Thanks for the well thought out post. As I’ve said before, the era of “The debate is over it’s time to act” was when religion took over climate change debate. No scientist should ever utter such a phrase and anyone who says that should lose their degree.
Governments and green NGOs obviously have an agenda and reached a conclusion. That is essentially the only funding for this research and it is all tainted. Any data produced by this funding should be as questionable as that produced by big oil money. But, of course, it agrees with people’s current belief.
This is the biggest wealth transfer in history. So, for those who whine about big oil and big money as a reason to believe the greens, just realize the pro-human made climate change side is expecting to make trillions of $$$$’s of this issue. Doesn’t prove anything (although the greens have said for decades that it does, although they look in the opposite direction), but should make people think. But it won’t…
As to Greta…I have never seen such a clear picture of Satan. Seriously…I have nothing else to say as just the thought of her face gives me chills.
Individuals are smart. People are dumb.
Some may call you a contrarian, but I just call you Irish. If it weren’t for people like you in my life I’d be much more closed minded and knee-jerky. This piece is the perfect example of you sharing your open mind.
Who knows who’s right when it comes to climate change. I certainly don’t. I can’t. I’m not educated enough on the topic. But I’ll tell ya this – I’ll fight the urge to Dunning & Kruger your opinion and the opinions of others.
Climate change might be our fault. It might not. It might be both the sun’s fault and our fault. But I’ll leave that to the professionals. And continue to do my best to shrink my carbon footprint. If only for the reason that I want to and I can.
Irish. Okay. I’ll take it. 🤪
As always, JoAnna, time will tell. But I think we do ourselves and the world a service if we question everything. If we do question, we’ll be in better places from which to resist or accept. Or, as it’s been more famously said, “If we don’t stand for something, we’ll fall for anything.”
Thank you for your thoughtful comments.
Mark, there is much debate on this issue. I am not one to say there is or is not climate change going on. The last couple of winters here in New York there have been few cold spells with only a trace of snow. Over the weekend the temperature is going into the 60’s. I disagree with you strongly that in 2019 the world lost its marbles. I also disagree with your premise that we are being controlled. Certainly, the media on the left and the media on the right do try to sway our opinions to match theirs. Hysteria is not in control!! How can you say things like this which is clearly not the case? Encouraging kids to walk out of school for some sort of statement should warrant severe punishment for those children such as loss of certain holidays or extra homework which is actually a good thing. Kids need to be in school to learn. Any adult who encourages children to walk out of school is irresponsible not to mention very possibly breaking the law. Mark, you are too intelligent to succumb to paranoia which is what you are doing. Very disappointing article.
Joel, in celebration of our differences, Grandpa O’Brien loved to say, “That’s what makes horse racing.” The world would be a dull place if we all agreed. And it would be a scary place if everyone agreed with me.
I do think you misread my stance on Greta and her walkout. Be that as it may, I’m grateful to you for your comments and for our connection.
Thank you.
If I misred something you wrote then I owe you an apology. It shows I over reacted which is wrong. My flaws were on display. The great thing about our country is that we are free to disagree without fear of reprisals. Thank you, Mark for your response to my comment. Thank you for you for showing so much class.
It’s my pleasure, Joel. There’s no reward in reprisals. Only rancor. Life is much to short for that.
In some country’s reprisals are the norm but thankfully not here in Ameria. Thank you, Mark!
“Hysteria is not in control!! How can you say things like this which is clearly not the case?” Something to think about…
It’s much easier to direct a mob or a panicked group of people than it is to direct or control a group of well-reasoned individuals.
@Joel Agree with your points of both left and right media trying to sway.
Incidentally, skipping school in Sweden (Greta’s home country) is in fact against the law, and therefore the power and force of the protest. They are asking why go to school to learn for the future, if there is not going to be one for them. As the parent of a child who is little younger than Greta, I think this is an incredible burden we have placed on our kids.
As you indicated in the comment section of my post, I return the thank you, Mark!💖
You’re quite welcome, Darlene. I’m grateful for your comment.
My pleasure, Mark! As always, I enjoyed your fabulous articles!💖