Mainstream climate science: the New Denialism?

[UndercoverElephant]

https://www.jonathonporritt.com/mainstr ... denialism/

This is a bit of a long one! So here’s my “Executive Summary” so you can decide whether to commit the time to the rest of it: mainstream climate scientists run the risk of becoming the new climate deniers. As in:

The speed with which the climate is now changing is faster than (almost) all scientists thought possible.
There is now zero prospect of holding the average temperature increase this century to below 1.5°C; even 2°C is beginning to slip out of reach. The vast majority of climate scientists know this, but rarely if ever give voice to this critically important reality.
At the same time, the vast majority of people still haven’t a clue about what’s going on – and what this means for them and everything they hold dear.
The current backlash against existing (already wholly inadequate) climate measures is also accelerating – and will cause considerable political damage in 2024. Those driving this backlash represent the same old climate denial that has been so damaging over so many years.
The science-based institutions on which we depend to address this crisis have comprehensively failed us. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is incapable of telling the whole truth about accelerating climate change; the Conference of the Parties (under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change) has been co-opted by the fossil fuel lobby to the point of total corruption.

By not calling out these incontrovertible realities, mainstream scientists are at risk of becoming the new climate deniers.

But hey, let's build some new gas-fired power stations.

[northernmonkey]

It just has to play out. At the largest scale, human activity will simply continue on the trajectory it is on until it is no longer able to continue due to hard limits. The best that can be hoped for is those limits start to bite very soon. Which, I think they will.

Personally, I am more concerned about the ongoing mass extinction event humans are causing with our industrial activity and sheer size of population than I am, per se, with the current climate perturbations that, no doubt, are at least in part caused by human activity. And yes, I understand that climate change adds its own pressures to an already stressed global eco system. But, it is secondary to all of the other stresses caused by humans. The climate has always changed and by a lot more than the current change that we are witnessing.

[BritDownUnder]

I got a 509 (new one for me) Bandwidth Limit Exceeded error when I tried to look for the article.

Maybe Jonny Boy should invest in a higher bandwidth website. I guess each website hit has a certain energy usage.

[clv101]

It's a great essay - he really hit the nail on the head with his comments on Hannah Ritchie.

[Forever_Winter]

I got a 509 (new one for me) Bandwidth Limit Exceeded error when I tried to look for the article.

Maybe Jonny Boy should invest in a higher bandwidth website. I guess each website hit has a certain energy usage.

I'm getting the same error.