Michael Mann – “Doom-mongering has replaced denial as both a threat and a tactic. … They are being led down a path of disengagement. They are inadvertently satisfying the demands of fossil fuel interests by giving up.
Doomsdayist or realist? Meet the scientist who says climate breakdown has already begun
By Nick O'Malley August 23, 2024 – 5am
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Before the age of 40, he was appointed full professor. He has published papers in prestigious journals and both of his books have received critical acclaim.
“I lived in a beautiful part of the world, the Lake District in England,” he recalls from his new home in Bali, as he prepares to travel to Sydney for this weekend’s Dangerous Ideas Festival. Then, in preparation for his inaugural professorial lecture, Bender dug into the scientific literature to understand how quickly the climate is warming and how our efforts to reduce emissions to slow the rate of habitat and biodiversity loss are progressing.
What he read broke his heart. “I've always thought, you know, we have the rest of the century to change or we're going to be in trouble.” He began stuffing a folder with the scientific papers and new stories that bothered him most. These are stories that many people will remember. Stories about ancient frozen gases spewing from the Arctic tundra decades before scientists predicted what might happen with strange heat spikes in the Pacific Ocean. These were stories about events that he had read about, but that he did not expect the world to see during his lifetime.
He came to believe that scientific data were downplayed, minimized, or misinterpreted.
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Learn more (paid): https://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/doomist-or-realist-meet-the-scientist-who-says-the-climate-collapse-has-already -start-20240820-p5k3wj.html
A fascinating narrative battle appears to be heating up between those who believe the climate apocalypse is unstoppable and those who want governments to prevent it.
Michael Mann firmly foresees doom. From 2021;
… Another new front in the new climate war is so-called “doomsday”. What do you mean?
Doom-mongering has replaced denial as both a threat and a tactic. Negativists know that if people think there is nothing you can do, they will go down the path of disengagement. They are inadvertently satisfying the demands of fossil fuel interests by giving up.What’s harmful about this is that it attempts to weaponize environmental progressives who would otherwise be on the front lines demanding change. These are people with good intentions and good intentions who become disillusioned or depressed and fall into despair. But the “it’s too late” narrative is always based on a misunderstanding of science. Many famous apocalyptic narratives— [Jonathan] Franzen, David Wallace Wells The deep adaptation movement can be traced to the mistaken belief that Arctic methane bombs would cause runaway warming and wipe out all life on Earth within a decade. This is completely wrong. There is no science to support this. …
Learn more: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/feb/27/climatographer-michael-e-mann-doomism-climate-crisis-interview
Jem probably made millions from sales of his climate apocalypse books, although to his credit he offers a free e-book version of his latest work, so it's hard to tell if there are any sales or downloads registered on Amazon How much is the free version. His current efforts appear to be focused on translating his climate-apocalyptic book into as many European languages as possible.
According to Jem Bendell's Wikipedia article, he currently lives in the tropical island tourist paradise of Bali, which in my opinion is an odd place to spend time in the catastrophe of global warming. One of my favorite books, Snow in Bali, details how South American cocaine traffickers turned Bali into a drug-crazy party town and transshipment point for drugs imported to Australia and other parts of Asia, sort of like in the Western Pacific Acapulco.
Jem's Wiki entry claims he's trying to build a school for regenerative farmers in Bali, so perhaps he sees his new life in Bali as a way to help the world's most vulnerable people survive on the frontlines of climate disaster.
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