Climate cultism on the march

Today another activist student protest will march across the surface of our unique blue/green planet. Will mother earth (Gaia as James Lovelock frames it) be impressed? Preliminary warmup rally calls of "Or should we become climate rebels?"  from" gurus", such as Tim Flannery this week, do not bode well.

Social activity and expression of ideas is to be commended Despite the claim that "97% of scientists" concur with the IPCC, the media and activists are perhaps uninformed that this oft quoted figure is based on 1500 partisan, politically appointed members of the IPCC.

It is a truly inconvenient fact that the silent majority of professional scientists, work on the frontline of solving environmental problems that are real and actually threaten both human and environmental existence. We strive to improve living standards, provide safe drinking water and sanitation, manage forests, assist farmers in feeding the world, improving energy efficiency across all aspects of life, develop recycling technologies to reduce waste and further environmental damage, protect fisheries and endangered species……get the picture.

These 'silent' frontline scientists don't want to be persecuted and harassed in these days of social media activism. I, for one, have worked at measuring and understanding the climate since 1980, and have sought not to offend the sensitive climate cult I have worked with and managed for 4 decades. Any criticism of the climate change cult is professional suicide in Australia and around the world and carries the public slur of being called a denier, luddite, or 'flat-earther'.

Today this worm is turning, and proud of it! And I thought the best way to do this was not to cover the alternative facts but examine the behaviour and predictions of the Australian media's favourite "climate expert", Tim Flannery. After several books, thousands of media pieces, numerous predictions, positions on Boards, organisation and many paid speaking tours, who am I to cast a light on his performance?

Greta Thunberg is the most recent and youngest 'pin-up' for the cc cultist. That highlights the total shamelessness of the cult in its willingness to exploit an innocent to promote the next phase of their campaign, namely, youth activism.

Returning to Tim Flannery (purely as an example), he has been promoting himself in several "self-flagellation' opinion pieces leading up to today (The Conversation, Guardian, ABC media). He has no training, field experience or professional affiliations to a recognised climate orientated professional group. Yet he made significant impact and money from his Weather Makers paperback, and the subsequent scientist spokesperson for many organisations. Over the past 20 colourful years, Tim Flannery has said:

• 2004, climate change would be so quick we would not have time to build desalination plants (Melbourne, Sydney…..?)
• 2004 Perth would be the first ghost Metropolis!
• 2005/6/7 Eastern coastal suburbs of Sydney would be under water
• 2006 Predicted that dams would never fill again during the 2003-2006 millennial drought
• 2007 Brisbane and Adelaide would run
• 2013, The Arctic would be ice free by 2018
• 2015, hurricanes would be more frequent (they aren't)

The failed predictions above are a few of many more that he and others have made over the last 60 years, when CO2 was first suggested as a planet killing "greenhouse gas". Al Gore has made a fortune doing this. The Victorian Water Minister has just this week predicted no dam would fill by 2064, and so no new dams would be supported (she will of course be dead by then. And I note that in his recent opinion piece this week Tim Flannery has learnt by making his latest prediction of 4°C temperature rise for 2100!

In his latest 'opinion', Tim Flannery opens with a 'factual' proclamation about "melting glaciers, terrifying megafires, even more puissant hurricanes, acidifying and rising oceans". It would take more than one article to highlight the misleading nature on each of these items. If you want to understand this, there is repudiation by scientists on each of these "terrifying calamities." No wonder children need medication to sleep when their teachers, parents and so-called media "experts" utter such words.

Climate change cultism is not science. It is a political, economic and social movement that aims to effect fundamental global social change. The science elements it uses are super-massive computer models (an implementation of theories) and massaged datasets to make unverifiable predictions. As one among millions of real-world scientists who strive to solve environmental and resource problems, I can state that the science is not settled. Science by its very nature is advanced by scepticism, criticism, rigorous debate and repeated verification. That's why we no longer believe the Sun moves round the earth, that the earth is not flat, and that the earth was not necessarily literally created in 6 days!

The question each of us must ask ourselves today is 'Does the media and education we receive seem open, fair, independent and balanced?' Science tends not to be financially rewarding, but it can be a very satisfying career, so if you want to save the planet, wipe away your tear, go back to school and work hard on solving the environmental problems we face now. Science is the opposite of cultism, and long may it remain so.

Climate change cultism is now a multibillion dollar business. Flannery and the likes of Al Gore have profited from their catastrophic and ill-founded predictions and I am sure will continue to do so with Climate Change cultism, or whatever opportunity they next exploit. WE, the population of this "blue marble in space" need to check what they have served up over the last 20 years is good for US, or just good for THEM.

We all have an obligation to ensure children and students receive an open, wide and balanced education if they are to be prepared to meet the inevitable and complex challenges of our unique blue and green planet. They and their activist parents could benefit from spending less time believing the utterances of media "star" scientists and start asking questions. It's a better, more sustainable way to get sleep at night, compared to mummy's tranquilizers!