Wow, this is just nuts. I mean really, really, “Trenberth’s missing heat is going to jump out of the ocean and get you” kind of nuts.

The website scaredscientists.com looks like this at right.

Like the wailing we saw in the hand written letters of feelings last week, this one is also from Australia. Personally, I think this is some sort of mental disorder on display coming to light because Australia has done an about-face on the carbon tax and have put a lot of climate change programs on the back burner or eliminated them altogether.

And of course, there’s an “ACT NOW” button, which is a code word to send money, but there is no mention of what that money will be used for. A list of “fears” follows with comments by me interspersed in blue.

They write in the About page:

A quick chat to the experts and it’s immediately apparent that climate change is not only real: it’s serious. Very serious. But this isn’t what scares scientists. They’re afraid humanity will continue to bury its head in the sand; instead of facing its greatest challenge head on. Scientists don’t want to be right, they want to be wrong. Research shows this is our last decade to slow climate change before it’s too late. The science community believe if people are willing, we can transform the current trajectory from one of fear to one of hope. But the science can only take us so far. If we want a safe and sustainable world, we need to take the facts seriously – and do what needs to be done to change them.

Source: http://scaredscientists.com/About

Here’s the big list of scared scientists:

WILL STEFFEN

Earth System Scientist

University of Florida, University of Missouri, Australian National University

FEAR: LOSS OF CONTROL OF THE CLIMATE SYSTEM

The climate is related to many parts of the Earth; the land, the ocean, the ice, the atmosphere. We’re noticing abrupt changes in all of these areas.

We’ll reach a point where we’ll lose control over the system. Right now, if we reduce our emissions, we can probably stabilise the system. If we push the climate too far, if we start losing ice too rapidly, start flipping things like the Amazon, then the internal dynamics of the climate will take over – and even if we pull emissions back, we won’t be able to stop very large changes – that’s my biggest fear.

The thing people don’t realise, is getting emissions down is not only feasible but economically promising and will actually lead to a better life. The narrative needs to change, it’s not all doom and gloom. Yes, it will be another massive transformation in human history, but it will lead to a cleaner environment, to more jobs, and an easier lifestyle.

We still have a chance to pull back climate change, but we need to act vigorously and we need to act soon.

(Funny, I never knew any scientist who said we were “in” control of the climate, much less lost control of it. The hubris on display here could fill a stadium.)

LESLEY HUGHES

Ecologist, Macquarie University, Sydney

FEAR: SPECIES EXTINCTION

My work on the potential impacts of climate change on species and ecosystems has made it clear that the human species is now threatened.

We need to acknowledge the time lag between what we do to the atmosphere and its impacts on the climate. What we do now, affects the climate decades into the future. This means we need to drastically cut our emissions, now and forever, to stabilise the climate in the second half of the century.

(Odd, she doesn’t seem frightened at all. Good luck stabilizing the climate though, because in the entire history of the planet, the climate has never been stable.)

TIM FLANNERY

Mammologist, Palaeontologist

University of New South Wales,

Monash University, La Trobe University

FEAR: DISRUPTION OF GLOBAL CIVILISATION

Climate Science underestimated the pace of climate change, it was too conservative. We’re now having far more rapid change than originally projected. Change that if not slowed, will undoubtedly affect my children and my grandchildren.

There is genuine potential for a change in climate to disrupt our global civilisation. If that happens, we know human nature has a dark side, people will fight over an ever diminishing resource pool, and that is a future we want to avoid.

This decade is critical, it is our last chance to prevent our children from that type of world. We have to make significant progress and get the global emissions trajectory turning downwards. That is the urgent task at hand.

(I think maybe Tim has been smoking the same thing that always-wrong doomster Paul Ehrlich has been smoking. “We’re now having far more rapid change than originally projected.” Hmmm. I suppose he must not know about ‘the pause’ and all the excuses being made for it.)

SARAH PERKINS

Extreme weather researcher

University of New South Wales

FEAR: INCREASE IN EXTREME WEATHER EVENTS

As the background climate warms due to human activity, this increases the frequency and intensity of hot temperature events. I am concerned about how the very broad and damaging impacts of heatwaves will affect human health, infrastructure, agriculture, and natural systems. By the time we realise we need to make changes and start to put these changes in place, it might not be enough to balance out the range of catastrophes we will be facing.

(This lady should read my 2014 paper with Michaels and Knappenberger to understand heat waves, plus my essay on how technology and reporting bias figure in to extreme weather fears. She should also spend some time reading why some of the much touted heat waves have nothing at all to do with “climate change”.)

MATTHEW ENGLAND Oceanographer, Climate scientist, University of NSW, Sydney FEAR: CLIMATE INDUCED GLOBAL CONFLICT Accelerated warming and expansion of water in the oceans, and increased melting rates of glaciers and ice caps are expected to increase sea levels by a metre or more over the next 100 years. This will pose a decisive threat to the existence of human settlements, infrastructures and industries across the world that are close to the shore lines. Those environmental degradations will aggravate global conflict as tens of millions of people migrate and their food supplies become threatened. We need to understand that the cost of solving the problem is so much less than the cost of dealing with it down the track; that cost is going to be huge for future generations. Not dealing with it is selfish, short-sighted, narrow minded and obscene. It represents such a level of injustice as those that are going to be impacted are not playing a role in the decisions that are being made now. (Hmmm, the only climate wars I’m aware of are those being fought in the mind of Michael Mann, who fits England’s description of “selfish, short-sighted, narrow minded and obscene” pretty well.) SHAUNA MURRAY Biological Scientist University of Technology Sydney, University of Tokyo, University of New South Wales FEAR: REACHING THE FOUR DEGREES OF WARMING We’ve recorded all sorts of climate change shifts in multiple areas. However, the scientific process is consistent. Every single individual study that has been done, has gone through the same rigorous process, data collection, research analysis, and qualified peer review. At the moment, we’ve at least 10 000 different papers, completed over 20 years, each using different data sets, and they are all coming to the same climate change conclusions. We’ve a weight of evidence that the average person is simply not aware of – and this frightens me. I’d like to think that we’re not going to reach the projected four degrees of warming this century; because I can’t even imagine what that would look like. 80 years is not that long, and unless we act soon, my seven year old daughter will probably have to live through that. (Apparently she only reads the papers that scare the crap out of her. Or maybe Skeptical Science, who posted this graph: Meanwhile, The BBC reports ‘the pause’ may go on for another 10 years or more.) PETER MACREADIE Marine Ecologist University of Technology Sydney, Deakin University FEAR: GLOBAL CATASTROPHE IPCC predicts that the impacts of climate change will be catastrophic. This affects everybody. Nobody is safe. We’re going to lose low lying countries, there will be a loss of live stock, potential wide spread famine and species extinction. One thing people need to remember, is that scientists are the biggest skeptics on Earth. We’re constantly trying to disprove each other. This is the one thing we agree on. The evidence is endless. We’re not making this up, this is really serious, we’re very concerned and there’s not enough being done about it. We really need to be pushing our governments. Let’s not look back and regret what we’ve done. (“Nobody is safe“, and this guy has the temerity to suggest scientists like him are the “biggest skeptics on Earth”? Wow. ) PENELOPE AJANI Biological Scientist University of Macquarie, Sydney FEAR: UNKNOWN REPERCUSSIONS OF CLIMATE CHANGE The scientific community know sea levels will rise, people will be displaced and food resources will diminish. But I work on the small things, the ocean’s plankton, and we are already seeing climate shifts in these organisms. How those changes will affect the global ocean is something we really can’t answer – and that scares me. For example, the fact that we’re seeing tropical species all the way down the east coast of Australia, means massive changes are occurring. However, we currently can’t predict the exact impact of these shifts. Another example is that climate change will create winners and losers, there’ll be some species that get wiped out and some that will become prolific. Will it be the toxic algal species that are going to survive? There will come a time when we need to have answers, when these changes will greatly challenge humanity. (Any biologist who thinks that life is a static enterprise really should go back to school. Like climate, life changes. It also evolves, and adapts.) Each “scared scientist” vignette ends with: If you think these facts are frightening, help us change them. Take action here I’ll point out that there isn’t a hard sciences person in this group, and not a one of them appears to have any basic meteorological training, much less any climate science training. In their case, ignorance is not bliss, but a ticket to being scared out of their wits. You gotta love the black and white photography and the caricatures of dark doom the portraits exude. It looks more like “performance art” than science. Note the website traffic rank: http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/scaredscientists.com Nearly 15 million. Wow, off the scale of lower than low. Meanwhile, WUWT is at: http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/wattsupwiththat.com Lower traffic rank numbers are better, for example Google is #1. This comparison says a lot: Finally, about that money they ask for when you “act now”, I wonder if it ends up here? Gotta love the domain registrar they use, quite appropos. ================================================== Domain Name: SCAREDSCIENTISTS.COM Registry Domain ID: 1801341743_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.syrahost.com Registrar URL: http://www.crazydomains.com Updated Date: 2014-08-08T02:08:31+08:00 Creation Date: 2013-05-15T00:00:00+08:00 Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2016-05-15T00:00:00+08:00 Registrar: CRAZY DOMAINS FZ-LLC Registrar IANA ID: 1291 Registrar Abuse Contact Email: Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +61.894220890 Reseller: CRAZY DOMAINS Domain Status: ok Registry Registrant ID: 12093151 Registrant Name: RACHEL GUEST Registrant Organization: Registrant Street: 6/5-13 LARKIN ST Registrant City: CAMPERDOWN Registrant State/Province: NSW Registrant Postal Code: 2050 Registrant Country: AU Registrant Phone: +61.299944154 Registrant Phone Ext: Registrant Fax: +. Registrant Fax Ext: Registrant Email: ================================================== In case anyone gets bent out of shape for me posting that info, I’ll point out it is public domain information, available to anyone who makes a WHOIS query, like this one: http://whois.domaintools.com/scaredscientists.com Anyway, good luck with the gloom and doom Rachel, you’ll need it to get past the laughing, especially after your last flop, the Years of Living Dangerously, which tanked in ratings after burning through several million dollars in production costs.

Share this: Print

Email

Twitter

Facebook

Pinterest

LinkedIn

Reddit



Like this: Like Loading...