Spare a thought for climate scientists: no longer the go-to experts for scary headlines. The epidemiologists have taken over.
2020 started well. The usual apocalyptic summer headlines. Then bang: they were gone.
For thirty years climate scientists have led public debate and focused political minds. No more.
It's now white-coated public health experts driving the debate and to much greater effect. No climate scientist ever locked a country down.
I doubt climate scientists will ever win back their exalted role. They now must piggy-back off coronavirus: "We can't go back to normal. The covid response shows what's possible".
The covid pandemic is just such a better scare. It's more immediate. Armageddon ten years hence is not as persuasive as tens of thousands dropping dead in ten weeks.
The covid scare is also up close and personal. We love polar bears but not as much as nana. It’s not the planet getting sick but me.
We also can do more. I don't know how to stop China burning coal but I can stay home and watch Netflix, wear a mask and social distance.
I can readily pot the neighbours for breaking their bubble but can’t do much about their V8.
Covid is just so much more satisfying.
Plus New Zealand has led the world in keeping us safe: it hasn't required the entire world to act in concert. We can do it: just us, a team of five million.
We can feel good and virtuous about being paid to watch Netflix. Our World War II is so much easier than the actual one. It's more in keeping with who we are. We don’t even have to plant trees. We can do the right thing by staying on the couch.
And Covid need never end. There will always be a mutant, people getting sick, and old people dying.
To be fair, climate scientists paved the way. Critics are readily dismissed as covid deniers. They don't care about the planet or nana. And “Follow the Science” sounds better than “Follow the Party”. “Evidence-based” has a better ring than “Party Diktat”.
Academics have become very adept at tying their pet topics to climate change for grants. The smart ones will now be talking up what Queer Theory can teach about our covid response.
And don’t worry. Climate Change is getting dealt to. Lockdowns have crashed the world's economy better than the framers of the Paris Accord ever dare hope.
And the latest idiocy from the clowns running the country, is that gas barbeques will be banned in future.
Wow - that is really going to "save the planet". Forget about China's coal fired power stations.
We have barbeque ban !!
Pretty sure the Taxpayers Union have already exposed plenty of dosh going to 'creatives' for covid this, covid that...gender mashups, fat positivity, you name it. Another good piece Rodney Hide. Covid is just so...relateable.
Scientism as wielded by the new puritans sure lost its shine quickly. Being ordered about by lab coated nihilists was a once only magic trick to befuddle the masses. Snow falling in Summer at the moment in the Southern Alps, but. “Snowfalls are a thing of the past.” [Scientist]
Brian Leyland.
At Fort Denison Sydney Harbour, the BOM (Govt) have recorded official mean sea levels for over a century.
1914 - 1.11 mtrs
1924 - 0.98
1934 - 0.98
1944 - 0.97
1954 - 1.00
1964 - 1.09
1974 - 1.09
1984 - 1.02
1994 - 1.04
2004 - 1.08
2014 - 1.12
2019 - 1.05
There will always be normal climate fluctuations as our Earth is controlled by two major factors and the combination and timing thereof, solar and volcanic
For 50 years since "Earth Day 1970" not one single prediction by climate "scientists" has EVER come into fruition, laughable is Al Gore's Arctic melt in 5 years, but then he buys a beach side mansion....
The "97%…
Certainly as far as what's being reported in popular scientific media, the turnaround from climate to pandemic has been twice as fast as chicken fart.
Personally though, I believe (religiously perhaps and certainly optimistically) that in a few tens of years, the changing climate, whatever its cause, and indeed our energy needs, will start to become a distant memory with the emergence of fusion power and what it will enable, as one of those big advances of humankind, effectively creating and harnessing the massive and forever power of our own suns on earth.