Climate “scientist” Kate Marvel has posted another of her infantile rants at “Scientific” American. With the excuse of Halloween, it’s even sillier than usual.

In 2018, the idea that we need a special holiday to be scared feels a little strange. Zombies, vampires, and werewolves don’t seem so frightening when the real world provides us with Vladimir Putin, white supremacists, and greenhouse gas emissions. And trust me, as a climate scientist, I’m frightened every day. Watching our best projections of future climate is like watching a horror movie you can’t walk out of. And the worst part is the willful ignorance of the characters. I mean, who could be so stupid as to walk straight into a house they know is haunted?

These “best projections” apparently include the ratpocalyse:

The hallway teems with rats, some the size of human infants. Climate change, it has been pointed out by skeptics, will be good for some species. And this turns out to be true, just not for humans. The shorter winters mean longer breeding seasons for urban rats, and they’re manifestly enjoying themselves. In these increasingly ideal breeding conditions, two rats can, within three years, turn in to almost half a billion.

It’s an amazing coincidence, I’ve noticed, that climate change is so discerning in its effects on wildlife — anything cute and cuddly, like say, to choose such an animal at random, a koala, is going to be threatened by climate change, but any nasty animal like a rat is going to increase catastrophically in just a few years.

Now of course it’s easy for us to laugh at charlatans like Marvel, and the organisations that are so keen to give people like her a platform. But the point of this post is not just to ridicule another so-called scientist making things up (“There is no beer”) to promote her political agenda.

The serious point is that because scientists are generally regarded as trustworthy, the actions of people like her have serious consequence for other people’s mental health. Some people, unfortunately, perhaps those who are more vulnerable, have less understanding of science, or less experience of previous bogus scare stories, really believe this nonsense, and are terrified.

Here are a few comments posted from the website reddit, all from different people, all within the last month:

Will civilization soon come to an end due to climate change and are there any estimates when? … I want to try and enjoy my time with my family and friends, but i’m afraid of not having enough time and things getting crazy really soon. I’m 20 years old and i’m scared i’m going to be alive when stuff gets really bad. Hey everyone, I’ve lurked on this sub a little bit, but this is the first post I’m made, so I’m sorry if this gets asked a lot. But with so many studies saying that there aren’t enough resources to go around, humans can’t undo changes they’ve made at this point, carbon capture is still years away etc. is there reason for hope? Do we really have a chance or should I just pack up shop and set up a bunker. I’m sorry if this sounds like a joke but honestly I don’t know what to do. This shit has me so worried it consumes almost every thought I have. How do you all cope? With the consequences of climate change playing out in real time, would it be inhumane to intentionally father a child? How Should I Live When Facing Catastrophe? I, like many people, read the most recent climate report and kind of freaked out. I spent the evening ranting to my wife that I didn’t know what we were supposed to do. Is there no hope? I feel like a lot of what I’m reading is really getting at me as a depressive person, and with how idiotic the political climate here in America is as a person concerned about our climate change issues I can’t help but feel hopeless and depressed about the future. I don’t know if I’ll want to live 20 years from now if what I’m reading is any indication of our future outcome… am I only seeing one side? Is my worry being blown out of proportion? Is there any hope? Could you guys maybe enlighten me a bit? I’m having a real anxiety and depression attack right now and could use some more informed opinions… Collapse is making me depressed. I watch Paul Beckwith and Guy Mcpherson, and other cynics like Chris Hedges every day. I keep telling my self its over, and its time to enjoy myself… But that concerned part of me keeps coming back. How do you cope? So I always knew that climate change was a problem, but I’ve been falsely assuming that the government would fix the issue. When the IPCC report came out a few weeks ago, I was directed to this sub and that is when it all hit me. I’ve been researching this issue non-stop, and the more I find out, the more I realize how fucked we all are…

My question for you guys is if this has caused you to feel depressed and hopeless, how do you motivate yourself to get up everyday and keep on going? How do you keep on fighting even when you know it won’t matter?

How do climate activists like Kate Marvel sleep at night, with all this on their conscience?