I was vaguely acquainted with Tim Flannery in his uni days. I even accompanied him on a fossil dig. What was noticeable, even then, is that while he’s a nice enough fellow, he’s also prone to, shall we say, wacky ideas. Back then, Flannery was all hot for the Gaia hypothesis: James Lovelock’s claim that the Earth itself could be considered analogous to a living organism. But what was odd was that Flannery seemed, with almost religious fervour, to regard the analogy as literal.
Lovelock himself has pooh-poohed those who want to take his analogy literally. Even worse for Flannery, Lovelock has also repudiated climate alarmism – specifically naming Flannery as an “example of ‘alarmist’ forecasts of the future”. Ouch: it’s gotta hurt when one of your heroes personally and publicly disses you.
But Flannery is nothing if not persistent. Shameless, even. As even an ABC journalist notes, Flannery has a habit of flatly denying things he is on record saying. He’ll almost certainly be all over the place, waving his arms and screeching about imminent climate doom, as the world’s media work themselves into a frenzy over the forthcoming Glasgow climate summit.
(That the summit is being held in manky old Glasgy, rather than the usual swanky resorts, is perhaps a sign of how low the regard for climate alarmism has become.)
It might be worth revisiting The Great Predicto’s dismal record of false climate predictions, before he gets in our faces again.
In 2004, he claimed there was “a fair chance Perth will be the 21st century’s first ghost metropolis”.
In 2005, he told the SMH he was “personally more worried about Sydney than Perth”, because Sydney had “only two years’ water supply” and “if computer models are right then drought conditions will become permanent”.
But computer models have not been right. They’ve consistently predicted more warmings and more disasters than we’ve seen.
Flannery used to say we’d get more cyclones. We haven’t.
He used to say the Arctic could melt away by 2009. It didn’t.
He used to say Pacific Islands like the Maldives, Kiribati and Tuvalu would drown. Instead, they’ve grown […]
Here’s one last example. Two years ago, Flannery claimed “global hunger has increased for the past three years because of extreme weather events”.
In fact, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation has just reported another world record for harvests of cereal crops like wheat and rice.
But, like a dodgy “psychic” with a talk-show audience, Professor Predicto can always rely on a gullible audience on the left-ward side of the media.
As a paleontologist, Flannery ought to place more faith in the geologic record of climates past, rather than dodgy computer models that even some modellers admit are “useless junk” for predicting the real world. The geologic record in fact shows that past warm periods have been paradisaical Edens of green, lush abundance.
So far, the mild warming of the 20th century is living up to the example of the past. The world has grown measurably greener over the past few decades – and farmers are reaping the bounty.
Comically, the ABC accidentally exposed its con earlier this week by reporting the truth: “Australia’s farmers on track for record-breaking season easily surpassing $7bn worth of produce”.
Yes, the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences says farmers are on track to break the record – again – for growing crops and raising animals.
If this is global warming, it’s good for us.
Herald-Sun
Indeed, even the UNIPCC’s own forecasts – unreliable as they are – indicate that climate change will be a net positive for the world for at least the next 100 years.
As geologist Prof Ian Plimer has said, we must be the first humans in history to be afraid of a warm climate.
Please share this article so that others can discover The BFD
