Michael Mann and Friends Pound the Table Again and Predict Irreversible Climate Disaster, Societal Collapse and Doom

A new article in BioScience by Michael E.Mann and friends predicts total environmental and societal doom as a consequence of climate change. When will the histrionics and crying wolf ever stop?

DesignByDessie

The report is titled “The 2024 State of the Climate Report: Perilous Times on Planet Earth,” and the lead author is Walter Ripple, who is affiliated with the Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society at Oregon State University (OSU). Mann is listed as a co-author along with Naomi Oreskes and several other authors.

The article is one piece of hyperbole after another as the following excerpt from the summary illustrates (citations deleted, emphasis and paragraphing added):

We are on the brink of an irreversible climate disaster. This is a global emergency beyond any doubt. Much of the very fabric of life on Earth is imperiled. We are stepping into a critical and unpredictable new phase of the climate crisis.

For many years, scientists, including a group of more than 15,000, have sounded the alarm about the impending dangers of climate change driven by increasing greenhouse gas emissions and ecosystem change.

For half a century, global warming has been correctly predicted even before it was observed—and not only by independent academic scientists but also by fossil fuel companies.

Despite these warnings, we are still moving in the wrong direction; fossil fuel emissions have increased to an all-time high, the 3 hottest days ever occurred in July of 2024, and current policies have us on track for approximately 2.7 degrees Celsius (°C) peak warming by 2100.

Tragically, we are failing to avoid serious impacts, and we can now only hope to limit the extent of the damage. We are witnessing the grim reality of the forecasts as climate impacts escalate, bringing forth scenes of unprecedented disasters around the world and human and nonhuman suffering.

We find ourselves amid an abrupt climate upheaval, a dire situation never before encountered in the annals of human existence. We have now brought the planet into climatic conditions never witnessed by us or our prehistoric relatives within our genus, Homo…

Last year, we witnessed record-breaking sea surface temperatures, the hottest Northern Hemisphere extratropical summer in 2000 years, and the breaking of many other climate records.

Moreover, we will see much more extreme weather in the coming years. Human-caused carbon dioxide emissions and other greenhouse gases are the primary drivers of climate change.

As of 2022, global fossil fuel combustion and industrial processes account for approximately 90% of these emissions, whereas land-use change, primarily deforestation, accounts for approximately 10%…

The report details are of similar character and, as JoNova notes, completely ignore pre-history while telling everyone July produced the highest temperatures ever, as if that matched with geologic and other scientific evidence. Moreover, as reputable climate scientists have stated numerous times, there is no way to know, and no one does know, how much of the CO2 rise is attributable to natural versus man-made factors.

Every reader of this substack will understand how few, if any, of the declarations made in the report have any credibility whatsoever, so it’s not necessary to go further into that. But, there is something more.

That something is the source of funding for this nonsense. We’re told at the end that “Primary funding was received from the CO2 Foundation and Roger Worthington” and three of the four leaders of the Foundation are thanked for their “helpful suggestions.” The Foundation is a private foundation that is prohibited from doing any political lobbying, so it does it by funding reports of this sort that have an education veneer and a political interior.

The funders of the CO2 Foundation are hard to identify because they’re undoubtedly individuals, and this is one of the problems with non-profit tax-exemption; we often have no idea who is really spending the tax-exempt money to influence the government. The Foundation makes its money by selling assets that were apparently given it by some special interest.

What do know, though, is that one individual is listed as a funder of the report and that person is Roger Worthington. He is a trial lawyer who reportedly specializes in mesothelioma litigation and environmental law. His law firm, Worthington & Caron, PC, has secured over $2.5 billion asbestos-related court awards and settlements. He’s also made a $600,000 gift to the University of Oregon's Environmental and Natural Resources Law Center, so we can be sure he’s very influential with the University. The Center relentlessly promotes a “just energy transition.” Perhaps it also helps make a little rain for trial lawyers in another abuse of our tax-exemption rules. Who knows?

#MichaelMann #Climate #ClimateChange #RogerWorthington #universityofOregon #Hyperbole #Histrionics