The “Tucson Weekly” Covers Climate Reality

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We live in a world of smoke, mirrors, paid deception, and total denial. In the article below it would be more accurate to say that the Tucson Weekly covered part of the climate reality (though they left out the largest single factor to the equation, climate engineering). As conditions get rapidly worse on countless fronts, the denial grows greater from so many directions. Such behavior is a human defense mechanism that paradoxically will lead us to certain extinction if this behavior is not overcome. Scientists like Guy McPherson only tell half truths, half the equation. When I met personally with Guy, his denial of the geoengineering elephant in the room was nothing short of fanatical and aggressive. With this in mind, no matter how dire predictions are under the current course of our species, the most major consideration of all is being completely omitted from the equation, what would occur if there was a complete cessation of the climate engineering juggernaut of destruction? To simply expose the geoengineering assault against the planet and all life would shatter the foundations of the global power structure. Populations around the world would take to the streets in a shock wave of justifiable outrage. Our military brothers and sisters would then be forced to awaken to the fact that they are being used as a mechanism of their own demise. We could then have a real chance to halt climate engineering and let the planet respond on its own to the damage done. We could then inhale air that is not laden with a toxic soup of heavy metals and chemicals which are raining down from the ongoing geoengineering atmospheric spraying. We would have a chance. The article below from the Tucson Weekly is an important read and contains dire data that is for the most part on target (the climate engineering factor is of course omitted by all parties quoted in the article including Rockefeller funded environmental group 350.org).  If we just go on about our lives without making the fight to expose geoangineering a priority, we will have no chance. If we face reality head-on, and make our voices heard, we may yet accomplish astounding good, even at this late hour.
Dane Wigington
geoengineeringwatch.org

 

Should We Fear Near-Term Human Extinction?

Source: Tucson Weekly, article by Ted Taylor

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Most of us have figured out by now that we are toast: Humanity will be wiped out by an asteroid, supernova, massive volcanic eruptions, global axis shift, some untreatable virus, nuclear war or climate change. Our sun is going supernova. We've seen the disaster movies, read the books and laughed at the cartoons. 

But how quickly?

University of Arizona emeritus natural resources professor Guy McPherson, author of Extinction Dialogs: How to Live with Death in Mind, which he co-authored with Carolyn Baker, recently spoke at a Unitarian Universalist Church in Eugene, Oregon, offering dire, even shocking predictions.

In his talk, McPherson figures the sixth extinction in Earth's geologic history is already under way. We could see massive die-offs of humans and other species in as little as 18 months, and humanity has at best 10 to 20 years. "I could be wrong," he admits.

McPherson accuses climate scientists of "malpractice" for not being candid with the public about "our 99 percent certainty of death."

"There is no expiration date stamped on us, but we have triggered events that will lead to our extinction in the not-too-distant future," he says. 

"Near-term human extinction" even has an acronym, NTHE, and McPherson is certainly not the first scientist or science writer to say we've damaged our ecosystem too much to fix it. The perfect storm of overpopulation, industrialization, pollution, deforestation, monocrops and pesticides, invasive species, urban sprawl, overfishing, warfare, reliance on fossil fuels, ignorance and corruption (and accompanying bad public policy) have had scientists waving distress flags for decades, even before Rachel Carson's Silent Spring of 1960.

The warnings have been ignored or ridiculed at the international, national, state and even local level, thanks in part to a well-funded, right-wing campaign representing the short-term interests of heavy industry, mining and fossil fuel corporations. A growing number of Americans, a record 40 percent, think the dangers of climate change are exaggerated, according to Gallup polling in recent years. 

President Obama has helped Democrats wake up to the seriousness of climate change, but 68 percent of Republicans believe the threat is non-existent or overblown. Science is playing second fiddle to politics.

McPherson is correct that few climate scientists are talking about imminent human extinction, but is it a matter of professional "malpractice" or is the scientific community simply less inclined to radical extrapolation for fear of losing credibility (and grants)? Although McPherson is a scientist, he's not a climate scientist doing field research.

Phil Mote, director of the Oregon Climate Change Research Institute at Oregon State University, is skeptical of McPherson's predictions: "I've been connected to national and international assessments of the state of the science of climate change, and although my colleagues and I are generally very concerned about what challenges climate change is bringing to humankind, no expert that I have read has used language like 'extinction of the human race.' I refer of course to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, U.S. National Climate Assessment and various U.S. National Academy of Sciences reports." 

Mote is involved with the IPCC, which won the Nobel Prize in 2007 along with Al Gore for their "efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change."

Elizabeth Kolbert, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Sixth Extinction, says, "What is clear, and what is beyond dispute, is that we are living in a time of very, very elevated extinction rates, on the order that you would see in a mass extinction, though a mass extinction might take many thousands of years to play out."

What do local climate change activists think about McPherson and his predictions? "I can appreciate the sledgehammer—especially when people with great influence do great harm," says Delaney Pearson of the 350 Eugene Leadership Team. "But his claim that we have no chance to change anything for the better—no matter what we do—feels like surrender."

Pearson continues: "I certainly don't think our work is a waste of time, and I'm more than happy to keep on talking and writing and, yes, tweeting about all the ways we might change the world for the better." She says, "For now, I choose Bill McKibben and all the people around me and around the world working so hard to turn this crisis into an amazing opportunity for good." 

McKibben is a leading voice for climate action, and he recognizes the threat of global climate catastrophe, but his optimistic book Hope, Human and Wild focuses on the many inventive solutions supporting sustainability that he has found around the world.

International journalist and author Dahr Jamail wrote on the nonprofit news site Truth-out.org in December 2014 that "coal will likely overtake oil as the dominant energy source by 2017, and without a major shift away from coal, average global temperatures could rise by 6 degrees Celsius by 2050, leading to devastating climate change. This is dramatically worse than even the dire predictions from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which predicts at least a 5-degree Celsius increase by 2100 as its worst-case scenario."

Jamail adds, "There is nothing to indicate in the political or corporate world that there will be anything like a major shift in policy aimed at dramatically mitigating runaway anthropogenic [human-caused] climate disruption."

Mary DeMocker of 350 Eugene was in the front row at McPherson's talk, and she says: "Until James Hansen or a lot of scientists of his caliber and expertise call it game over, I'm fighting to win and holding onto the thread of hope he offers that it's a closing window, but it's a window nonetheless, and it's still open."

DeMocker adds that McPherson "never mentioned that you can pull carbon out of the atmosphere and reduce the 400 ppm to a livable amount. And in that he's doing a profound disservice. It can be done, 7 percent yearly reduction."

The rationale for extinction

What does McPherson base his NTHE predictions on? In his lectures and on his blog Nature Bats Last (see guymcpherson.com), he says, "I've been accused of having no hope, and that's true." Environmental scientists tend to specialize, and McPherson has collected their published research from around the world. He cites and documents "irreversible, self-reinforcing feedback loops" from hundreds of scientific studies. 

He admits to "cherry picking" his data, but "no matter how dire the situation becomes, it only gets worse when I check the latest reports." He was so convinced by the evidence that he left his academic career behind and became a certified grief counselor to help people through their final days.

Even the relatively staid IPCC has warned of such a scenario: "The possibility of abrupt climate change and/or abrupt changes in the Earth system triggered by climate change, with potentially catastrophic consequences, cannot be ruled out. Positive feedback from warming may cause the release of carbon or methane from the terrestrial biosphere and oceans."

Here are a few of McPherson's conclusions. If this is all too depressing, skip to the "What We Can Do About It?" sidebar.

• The Arctic ice cap is breaking up for the first time in recorded history. "An ice-free Arctic could be this year, in September," McPherson says, "and this could lead to a burst of methane at any time" from the shallow Arctic seabed. An ice-free Arctic could also lead to large-scale drilling for oil and gas, which would exacerbate our overdependence on fossil fuels.

• Methane, a greenhouse gas, is also trapped in permafrost and peat bogs in boreal forests. Warming would release vast volumes of methane into the atmosphere. Giant "methane blowholes" are appearing in Siberia. Thawed peat can also catch fire and smolder for years, releasing carbon and covering ice fields with soot. The "dark ice" in turn absorbs sunlight and hastens melting.

• Earth's soils contain countless trillions of microorganisms that hold about half the sequestered carbon on the planet. Soil warming will release carbon dioxide.

• Rising atmospheric carbon dioxide gets a lot of attention (think Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth), but it's only one factor in rising temperatures. Ozone doesn't get as much attention, but atmospheric ozone is blamed for forest dieback, which in turn reduces carbon sequestration. 

• Heat by itself will not kill humanity, he says, but hot summers will lead to crop failures and mass migration. "We are clever but we cannot live without habitat, at least not for long." Countries closer to the poles, he says, don't have fertile soils and can't grow nearly enough food to feed billions of people.

• Lack of fresh water is already a huge problem worldwide, and it will get much, much worse. Water shortages will stifle agriculture (think dust bowls and desertification) and seriously hamper business, industry and drinking water supplies. Desalination is expensive and energy-intensive with our current technology.  

• The world's 443 nuclear power plants could melt down due to lack of cooling water, blanketing the planet with toxic radiation. It takes decades and many millions of dollars to decontaminate and decommission a single nuclear plant, and more than 60 new nuclear reactors are being built today.

• Rising sea levels will inundate cities and lowlands, displacing more than one billion people and flooding low-elevation farmland with saltwater. Coastal erosion will also destroy plant habitat and release carbon dioxide. A global hike in temperatures of just 1-2 degrees Celsius could raise sea levels by 20 feet, according to a study of the geologic record just released last week by OSU scholars Anders Carlson and Peter Clark.

• Our oceans and their prevailing currents are in flux for a variety of reasons, and jellyfish could take over, destroying the food chain for the rest of sea life. Billions of people rely on seafood and seaweed as diet staples.

• El Niño, a natural cycle of ocean warming, can exacerbate both flooding and drought, along with storm intensity, wildfires and other factors in the "vicious cycle" of climate change.

• Water vapor in the troposphere increases with warming and in turn "absorbs more heat and further raises the Earth's temperature," McPherson reports.

• Our planet in relationship to the sun is already at the "inner edge of the habitable zone, and lies within 1 percent of inhabitability," McPherson says. "A minor change in Earth's atmosphere removes human habitat." None of our neighboring planets can support human life on any significant scale.

Contrary perspectives

Noted Australian science writer Geoffrey Chia, M.D., writes in The Canadian Daily online, "I have learned a great deal from the writings and presentations of Dr. Guy McPherson. However, I do not agree with all of his conclusions or views." 

"Everyone gets things wrong," Chia says. "It is impossible to conceive of any credible scenario in which the mass die-off of billions of people will not occur in the century. Mass culling is guaranteed. … Is it, however, possible that a small number of humans may be able to survive the next couple of thousand years, given adequate preparations in certain geographical pockets, until the overall global climate becomes more conducive to humans?"

Chia figures planetary temperatures will "eventually cool in the long term in the absence of large numbers of humans," and biosequestration of carbon will resume.

Hydrologist and science writer Scott K. Johnson is more skeptical and writes on his Fractal Planet blog: "It takes careful examination of McPherson's references, and a familiarity with the present state of climate science, to uncover that his claims aren't scientific at all."

Johnson says McPherson "just latches onto anything that sounds scary," he is "especially fast and loose with timeframes," and "his argument fundamentally reduces to 'positive feedbacks exist, ergo extinction.'"

Some final thoughts on extinction

"After his talk I went home and read his book—whole—gobbled it up nearly," says Jungian psychoanalyst Jennifer Gordon of 350 Eugene. "I wanted to ask him to say more about 'It depends on the political will of the people,' the only hopeful thing I heard him say."

Delaney Pearson of 350 Eugene says, "To McPherson I would also argue that we (the privileged first world) have debts to pay, and it's not good enough to just give up and 'face the truth' while billions of people continue to experience the worst effects of climate change. This is about justice—on all levels. The animals and trees, rivers, oceans and skies, children and new babies everywhere need and deserve our attention."

Laurie Granger of the Raging Grannies and 350 Eugene says, "We're all living in this moment. In every forum we share our concerns and knowledge and passionately try to make a difference. As we're on this path, there's no room for doom and gloom." 

Laurie Ehlhardt of 350 Eugene says Pope Francis departs from McPherson's outlook concerning where we go from here. She quotes his recent encyclical: "Many things have to change course, but it is we human beings above all who need to change. A great cultural, spiritual and educational challenge stands before us, and it will demand that we set out on the long path of renewal."

What can we do about it?

Guy McPherson quotes Edward Abbey, saying, "Action is the antidote to despair," and encourages activists to go down fighting. Giving up and being depressed accomplishes nothing and is no way to die, or live for that matter. He advocates for "the simple life," echoing the idea that we should "live simply so that others may simply live."

"Do what you love to do and live life by striving for excellence every day," he says. "Treat people with dignity and compassion, and think about how you are going to live and not about how you are going to die."

He says to "not worry about the jerks in your life, the guy in the Hummer who just cut you off. He will die, too."

Knowing we are all going to die soon can also be liberating, McPherson says. No more worries about that retirement plan, that bucket list, how to pay for the grandkids' education, etc. Money, in fact, will be worthless when the world economy collapses. Even gold and silver will lose their value when they can no longer buy food, water and shelter.

Worried about your personal legacy? It takes about 10 million years to recover from mass extinction. The next evolution of Homo sapiens will have no knowledge of you, Beethoven, Donald Trump or Kim Kardashian's butt.

Groups of people who have accepted abrupt climate change (ABC, another new acronym) are forming, and a website is up at onlyloveremains.org. The website offers low-cost workshops and reads, "You've come to grips with near-term human extinction. It's a lonely conclusion, one that interferes with many relationships. You want somebody with whom to discuss the most important topic in the history of our species. It seems most of your friends and family are in denial. Now what?"

Source: Tuscon Weekly, article by Ted Taylor

17 Responses to The “Tucson Weekly” Covers Climate Reality

  1. Rick Sacks says:

    Having observed the skies over Tucson for thirty years, no one in that town should be a chem denier. For the past 17 years, the Davis monthan airbase has sprayed the early morning skies. I was a contractor and I saw the “clouds” as a good thing until a aware person gave me the facts. I started seeing the clear blue skies being sprayed. It really only stopped on windy days. Most days in Tucson are milky. The weekly is a good read, but not likely going to look up. So sad

  2. Dennie Mehocich says:

    There's a whole group of people on this planet who have a death wish.  They are suicidal and that means that they are also homicidal.  Unfortunately for most of us, it is the very people who we've allowed to be "in charge" here. 

    Now what does that say about us? 

    WHY do we still believe it is okay for these "people" to bully us out of what is rightfully ours (that would be: clean water, clean soil, clean food, and clean AIR!) ?  Are we so very spineless as not to be able to tell them in NO UNCERTAIN TERMS that they have mucked up here so very badly that they must now leave, and soon, and NOT BE ALLOWED TO RETURN, by manipulating our guilt? 

    You put yourself where you belong, ultimately.  Until then, you had better figure out just where that actually would be.

  3. Brian Charles says:

    Weather Modification NAILED.
    UPDATE: "I'm not sure why, but I can't see your pics of the Mexico storm. I have the IP address correctly, and reloaded with no success. Just an FYI. Thanks! Sam. My response: The pictures work. If they are not coming in, they are blocked. SO, if the pictures of all this do not load (scroll down for them) click here and maybe you will be able to see this. I would not be surprised if they want these images blocked.
    I was not able to get online today because I went out of town to nail the obvious weather modification going on AND SUCCEEDED.
    Actually, with the way the weather has been outside the city I expected this to happen as planned, and it did go as planned.
    Ever since the weather modification post pointed out that they are dumping hundreds of inches of rain on the desert regions in Mexico, an act I suspect is intended to reduce the overall moisture in the air to totally drought stricken America, the storms suddenly stopped in the city and the weather in the city is more normal. -However-
    You can still see massive storms in a ring around the city EVERY SINGLE DAY. So I decided to go outside the city for the day, and got a great insight into the weather show. As a result, I could not get online to post updates, but what I got was a doozie, a HUGE storm outside the city, just as I expected would happen because you can see them out there every day, all around the city, every direction you look (so it would be impossible to go the "wrong way" and miss it) and I got pictures of it, as I figured would happen.
    So the weather modification continues, I don't know how much impact this site has or how much they fear it, but I find it odd that after mentioning they were dropping tons of water here that it suddenly stopped ONLY IN THE CITY and nowhere else, the rest of central Mexico is still getting totally nailed, and the following photos show this clearly: 
    http://82.221.129.208/ab3index.html
    This, in my opinion does not bode well for America. I am confident they are attacking America by making it impossible or difficult for natural rain to develop there, the balance kept in check by intentional blockage of rain. The sky is so heavily chem trailed here it has turned purplish gray everywhere, including over the city, the beauty in the sky is gone. I asked a Mexican friend if the sky is normal, and the response was: No, when I was a kid, the sky was blue!
    I have tons and tons of pictures that show the ring of storms that are around this city constantly now, but not in it, as well as 360 degree video sweeps from good vantage points, I will post those later. It is like the city is smack dab in the eye of a continuous hurricane now, no rain here, but that does not mean we cannot see it!
    http://82.221.129.208/ab3index.html

    • Jamie says:

      Interesting observations… The gray ring around Tucson is much like the gray ring around the sun. Both fake and not to the benefit of life on this planet.

  4. Marc says:

    I used to live for many years in Tucson and I just texted 5 of my old buddies there to see if they saw the article. Some already read it, the rest said they will definitely check it out. I pointed out to all that the article neglects to mention geoengineering but that it is still a good read. Most of my friends there are already aware of geoengineering and how f**ked up the government/military's activities have become. Preaching to the choir, as they say, but the article is a good one, nonetheless. 

      The strange behavior of Guy McPherson toward Dane Wigington remains an anomaly. His (Guy's) denial of geoengineering in the climate equation, that it DOES EXIST, and is a driving force in the global meltdown, smacks of something disingenuous and suggests some kind of weird "complicity" in an effort to discredit the idea of geoengineering? How can it be explained? Is he just a garden variety asshole, with a chip on his shoulder and an axe to grind because he, given his academic standing and credentials, is not "free" to openly legitimize geoengineering as a topic of discussion?

    • Jamie says:

      I must have the wrong friends. After 35 years of Tucson living I can barely count five friends/acquittances who recognize that aerial spraying is occurring. How can everyone be so asleep…..

  5. Beta says:

    Malcolm Light, RECENTLY SAID:  I am writing to you about the new mean atmospheric methane content for 2014. Unfortunately it is dramatically higher than in 2013 and indicates that the rate of methane expulsion from the subsea Arctic methane hydrates has increased from 2.5 to 5 times. This has greatly speeded up the rate of global warming and we can expect planetary wide global extinction to occur between 8 and 16 years in the future (2023 – 2031). The poster (see below) summarises all the available information. The problem is the "All of the Above Energy Policy" put in place by President Obama and the United States administration is now producing giant pollution clouds that move north – east into the Atlantic, heating up the Gulf Stream, which had already increased its flow rate by three times since the 1940's. This hot Gulf Stream makes its way to the Arctic where it is destabilizing the subsea methane hydrates at exponentially increasing rates. Five Nations (United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, United States, Australia and Canada) hold the position of the most extreme carbon footprints per person on Earth, but the US also has a giant carbon dioxide emission rate making them the greatest waster of fossil fuels on Earth and the greatest threat to humanity’s future existence. I would be grateful if you would pass this information on to all scientists and administration officials dealing with climate prediction and to the government. The imminent and precipitous nature of this global warming catastrophe requires instant reaction at all levels of society or we will all be dead.

    Yours sincerely, Malcolm. P.R. Light (Dr)

    QUOTE: “Instant reaction at all levels of society or we will all be dead”?

    Thus, doesn’t it seem that many persons worldwide might be presently wanting to deliberately ‘engineer’ a very steep decline of the U.S. population in the very near future?  And, as for the notably lying Dr. Guy McPherson of NBL fame?   I have of late seemed to have lost any and  all respect for him!

    The above Macolm Light article can be in more detail discerned at:
     https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10155788969965161&set=a.10150592349770161.675455.655795160&type=1

    Or, at the August 7, 2015 edition of Arctic News.com

  6. Keith Whittington says:

    Species come and go, that is a given. Homo Arrogantus Arrogantus either dead ends or evolves. The question is when, not if. The surprise for me in this article is the 60 new nuclear reactors being built. OUCH! Out of the carbon kettle and into the atomic fire.   On The Home Front: we had scattered cumulus clouds the last two days, but when looking closely, streaks were being laid above them (easier to see with sunglasses). Also, I took five damaged leaves from five different species to a forest ranger pal in an attempt to identify the viral culprit. I asked if she thought aerial spraying played a part. She was unaware, but, having a curious nature, was receptive to the suggestion and there is no doubt that she visited this site yesterday.

  7. penny says:

    There is nothing more repugnant than hypocrisy, and GMP reaches the zenith of repugnance by hypocritically criticizing other scientists for not admitting to feedback loops and NTHE, when he doggedly denies ongoing geoengineering.  However, he is more reliable than McKibben and company, who seem interested only in protecting their current level of creature comforts.  But all this talk about legacy, the possibility of survival of the human species, and the like, is baffling to me.  Even if there is an afterlife, will it matter to you once you're there, what people on earth are saying about you?  Because if it will, then that afterlife cannot possibly be paradise.  What you do in this lifetime is what counts.  Why people choose to waste this one earthly existence living a lie is beyond my comprehension.  And yet, it is obviously the norm.  Who cares if we have a chance to save this miserable species?  If we aren't motivated to do the right thing for its own sake, then let us perish.  But if we are, then perhaps we can, and we (incidentally) make ourselves worth saving.  Personally, at this stage, I'm in this battle for the dolphins.

    Having been away from an internet connection for awhile makes me realize, the more things change, the more they remain the same.

  8. carol freiberg says:

    Yes Dane…What would happen if they stopped spraying? Have they gone too far now to simply quit? Are they like every other government entity that never knows when to stop digging their hole? Thanks for all the informative info and keep on beating this drum. We're with you all the way. 

    • Dane Wigington says:

      Hello Carol, when the spraying stops (and it will one way or another) double catastrophe scenario, link attached.  https://www.geoengineeringwatch.org/double-catastrophe-scenario-document-paints-bleak-picture/

  9. S. Amato says:

    Deception is always the footnote when it comes to government. Once the media was bought by the same people who bought the government, truth became increasingly and progressively silenced. Respectable independent journalists have been jailed, murdered, beheaded and suicided. Truth is inconvenient, uncomfortable and rarely make it to the front page. Today, the words truth and media are oxymorons. Expedience pays. Image sells. We have been living in the age of false idols for decades. If you want to find the truth, you need to search it out, and that takes work. Once you start to learn the truth, don't be surprised if you feel outraged or worse – enraged.

    There is a reason the government has been busy "secretly" building deep underground military bases (DUMB) throughout the country since Katrina. YOU should know since it's your tax dollars that have been paying for them. "They" know something and they're not telling. Like the brilliant comedian George Carlin said… "it's a great big club… and you're NOT IN IT."  FEMA, DHS, NASA, CIA, NSA… they're all preparing for SOMETHING BIG… and they're not telling.

    The lines in the sky. They're like the elephant in the room, the so called 800 lb gorilla. Everybody sees them, everybody notices they're blocking out the sun, everyone knows the weather is f'd up… but the people who created this mess are not telling. What will it take before the majority suddenly wake up? Maybe when they wake up one morning and see TWO SUN'S  in the sky. Perhaps then they'll understand, tomorrow may never come. By then it'll be too late.

     

    • carol freiberg says:

      Well said my friend. Keep on spreading the truth. You have a wonderful way of expressing your thoughts and will be able to reach the minds of many people who desperately need to wake up and help expose this cabal.

    • Jamie says:

      Well said. Yet no one hears. Lines in the sky and no one sees. The sun gets hotter but no one thinks.

  10. MJ Johnson says:

    Finally, a piece of journalism relative to the reality and urgency of our time.

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