It is not an accident that fascist philosophies and movements willfully ignore human-induced global warming leading to the Sixth mass extinction of species, the largest since 56 million years ago. The nature of denialists is manifest in their venting of hate on the 16 years-old Gerta Thunberg, the voice of a generation destined to face the global warming calamity perpetrated by sections of humanity.
There is nothing moral about the fundamentalists telling children they may be burning in hell if they sin on Earth, while ignoring the evidence of the inferno facing future generations as the atmosphere is heated by greenhouse gas emissions, plunging the planet into a hothouse Earth.
In their panic the denialists attribute the girl’s views, which are consistent with climate science, to her asperger syndrome or smear her as mentally ill, ignoring many with this syndrome are highly intelligent people. By extension they dismiss the basic laws of physics, climate science and the consensus on global warming, which the 16 years-old reiterates.
While the destruction of the habitability of Earth is in progress, rather than comprehend the extreme consequences of global warming the contrarians appear to be alarmed by the voice of a teenage girl, just in case this may deprive the industry of death from their enormous profits. Further, these people instinctively correlate attempts at defending life on Earth with “left” socialist ideas.
The history of H. sapiens is dominated by a conflict between life-enhancing forces and the life-destroying conduct, carnage and wars, the cycle symbolized in the Brahma-Vishnu-Shiva cycle in Hindu mythology. Climate change has not been invented by “conservatives” but once its fatal consequences have become manifest it fits well with the “survival of the fittest” ideology, denying science, nature and life.
Such conflicts originate in the natural world, however once a species has acquired a range of lethal techniques—chemical detonation, atom splitting, radiation, biological warfare—the survival of the fittest paradigm becomes a recipe for global suicide, compounded by the lunacy of seeking shelter on other planets.
Global governance and legal systems are not designed to cope with this ultimate danger. Elaborate legal systems exist to collect taxes or enforce traffic rules, but no courts exist to prevent the powers that be from changing the composition for the atmosphere, thereby leading to one of the greatest mass extinction of species the Earth has suffered.
Andrew Glikson ,Earth and Paleo-climate scientist
ANU Climate Change Institute ,ANU Planetary Science Institute
Andrew Glikson, Earth and paleoclimate scientist.
Comments
6 responses to “ANDREW GLIKSON. “The emperor’s new clothes: Greta Thunberg versus the climate contrarians””
Overlay population growth chart to a temperature chart and then, restate your position.
Scary thing is that the faith minded consider it God’s work and we in the image of God have no authority except to accept our fate in heaven… or hell for the non believ’n heathen.
Deniers are just one part of the problem and probably the smallest part. The real danger comes from those who accept the science but still believe we can continue on with growth while making a few superficial changes along the way.
Unfortunately there is a growing eco-fascist movement which wants to preserve the environment by exterminating other racial groups. Constant cries of “what about population growth?” are its most visible manifestations
Population growth is of course a problem, but not IN STEAD OF global warming.
Both issues need to be addressed, but there is little doubt in my mind that the climate emergency is by far the more critical.
Another valuable contribution Andrew. Your last paragraph is correct; this society is not capable of dealing with the mess it’s in. It is not even capable of understanding the nature of the predicament, which is the simple fact that there are limits to growth and we have gone through many of them. Yet the top priority of almost all governments, except Bhutan, is to grow the GDP. Our only hope is that after the coming global breakdown enough sensible people will be around to make sure we don’t go down the growth and affluence path again.