There is a massive problem with orchestrated climate crisis denial on Twitter since @elonmusk took over. Any climate tweet, about science, which gets a lot of views is now subject to attack by an orchestrated swarm of deniers.
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You cannot usefully engage with these accounts, as they are resistant to reason, and who just assert nonsense, like climate change is a hoax, or who are abusive.
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Climate crisis denial, is not a legitimate viewpoint or opinion. There is no evidence based legitimate viewpoint, that anthropogenic climate change is not happening or real. Climate crisis denial is ideological, crank conspiracy theory nonsense, i.e. baseless.
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Every scientific organization in the world, the type that represents their field of science at national or international level, in every field of science, broadly supports the @IPCC_CH's summary of climate science. I'm not aware of any exceptions.
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I've repeatedly challenged climate crisis deniers, to name an exception to my above statement, and not one has ever succeeded. Most scientific organizations have a statement or web page devoted to it, saying they support the consensus on climate science.
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What this demonstrates, is that in any member led scientific organization, the vast majority of scientists in all fields of science, fully accept the climate crisis as fact. There is no legitimate alternative view, where the climate crisis is not real.
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Yes, there are a small minority of contrarian scientists who dispute the climate crisis for ideological reasons, or because they get funding from the fossil fuel industry etc. In other words, they all have a vested interest that motivates their denial.
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The main point is, that none of this minority of scientific contrarians, has ever been able to put together a coherent scientific account, alternative to anthropogenic climate change. All their papers have been found to be riddled with basic errors. theguardian.com/environment/cl…
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This is why climate crisis denial, is not a legitimate alternative viewpoint, and it's just irrational denial of reality, akin to a flat Earth view. All climate crisis deniers, tiresomely use the same false arguments, which have been debunked thousands of times before.
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Their method is to just try and overwhelm you with false assertions. You can assert someone in just a few words, like "climate change is a hoax". Yet to refute this in a comprehensive way, would require a massive long explanation.
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This is why in science, the onus has always been on the person making the assertion, to support their proposition with extraordinary evidence. Not for people to debunk the assertion, which may entail explaining almost the whole of science.
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A common ploy of scientifically ignorant climate crisis deniers, is to demand you produce a paper or reference saying anthropogenic climate change is real. That is not how the scientific literature works. Most scientific concepts, are supported by myriad references.
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So it's very unusual, to the point of I don't know of any example, where there's a single reference, which says this scientific concept is genuine, here is all the evidence. This evidence is spread across many fields of science, so cannot be summarized into a single paper.
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In other words, to prove a scientific concept, by convincing people, would entail giving them a full scientific education, akin to doing a degree. Of course, the person would have to have the inclination to want to follow such a long argument.
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Most deniers have no such inclination, and normally respond, with something like rubbish, the moment you cite any evidence contradicting their baseless assertion.
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Climate crisis denial, is akin to a cult religious viewpoint, based on the faith of the people denying reality. Therefore, it is legitimate, to see climate crisis denial, as a delusion, not a genuine viewpoint. Because there are no genuine opinions contrary to evidence.
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I use the term "climate crisis denier", rather than "climate change denier", because deniers have got clever, and say, they are not denying climate change, only denying that is as serious problem.
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"Climate crisis denier" is much clearer, because it encompasses all forms of denial. The science is very clear, that by any definition, anthropogenic climate change, constitutes a genuine crisis.
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Therefore, I recommend all people start using "climate crisis denial" for this irrational, ignorant and delusional, phenomenon of the denial of reality. Climate crisis denial has less credibility than claiming that the Earth is flat. It is a crank viewpoint, end of story.
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The aim of climate crisis deniers, and it is a quasi-religious agenda, is to build up situation, where the majority deny the climate crisis, and claim this legitimizes their viewpoint. Which is basically how most religions worked in the past.
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This is total nonsense. Science, reality, is not a democracy, where just because a lot of people believe something, that makes it real. Often complex scientific viewpoints are only really understood in depth, by a relatively small number of advanced scientists.
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It's not that people should accept something because scientists say they should. Science is an imperfect method, but with a strong correcting mechanism built into it. Science is challenged by other scientists on a daily basis, and this is how science self corrects.
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In other words, mistaken science is eventually exposed by other scientists challenging it with evidence, trying to replicate it, and coming up with innovative methods to test it. Climate science, has had more challenges, than any other field of science, in history.
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Climate crisis denial, is backed by the immensely rich fossil fuel industry and billionaires. If there were any legitimate flaws in the science behind anthropogenic climate change, it would have been exposed a long time ago. Many have tried and all have failed.
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In fact, every attempt to challenge the scientific consensus on anthropogenic climate change, has just confirmed the consensus, not raised any legitimate questions about it. This is why any genuine contrarianism, is long dead. nature.com/articles/ngeo1…
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@NTGates@HollifieldOwen@BBCSpringwatch@RSPBScience@_BTO@RoyEntSoc I've been reporting massive declines in insect numbers for some time. I have more than 50 years experience looking for insects, and a lot of experience as a macro photographer. I will give a short example in a mini thread, to prove that this is not just anecdotal.
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@NTGates@HollifieldOwen@BBCSpringwatch@RSPBScience@_BTO@RoyEntSoc I developed methods for photographing pollinators feeding in wildflowers, which was pretty unique at the times. I often used Common Hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium), as it is widespread and attractive to a wide variety of insects. It's also shoulder height. 2/
@NTGates@HollifieldOwen@BBCSpringwatch@RSPBScience@_BTO@RoyEntSoc Wild Angelica (Angelica sylvestris) is also good and often grows alongside Common Hogweed and is similar in structure and height. I would look for umbels with the maximum amount of insects in, because most attempts at getting this close fail.
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We're seeing a worrying trend around the developed world, where governments who used to bang on about human rights, are using authoritarian police state tactics, to try and limit peaceful climate activism. What is worrying about this, is that it is various political regimes.
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This seems semi-coordinated. Because how else can you explain, why in so many countries, with regimes across the political spectrum, who have always seen protest as an important democratic right, are using authoritarian measures to crack down on peaceful protestors.
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It is hardly as if protest, including disruptive protests are new. Think of the Suffragette movement, civil rights, trade union action, peace marches, protests against nuclear weapons. Some of these things go back centuries.
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The @IPCC_CH who collate scientific evidence on anthropogenic climate change, say we have to half global emissions by 2030, to give a 50:50 chance of averting dangerous climate change. ipcc.ch/2022/04/04/ipc…
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This was the UN Secretary General @antonioguterres speech in response to this report.
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@AutumnMandrake I think the dangerous part of climate change to our civilization, is what I call the leading edge. This is because this has a much greater potential to disrupt our societies, than is envisaged. Most of the focus has mistakenly been on the big physical effects.
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@AutumnMandrake Of course the big physical effects, like substantial sea level rise, extreme temperatures would be devastating to our societies, our civilization. Unfortunately, there has been a complete failure to understand the potential impacts of much lower levels of warming on us.
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@AutumnMandrake Ecological impacts, often do not need major changes in system parameters, to produce major impacts on the whole system. Quite subtle changes, can produce major system change.
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@Shivviness Having studied ecology and survey methods in depth, I can say with great certainty, that monitoring insect numbers i.e. populations, is hugely difficult, with great practical difficulties, and most are little more than guesses.
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@Shivviness The practical difficulties, are things like short lifecycles, where they can reproduce very fast. Then there's the fact that a lot of insects will only fly in certain conditions, for instance butterflies and dragonflies, in direct sun.
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@Shivviness Take insects that only fly and are visible when there is direct sun, it makes counting them very difficult, because is a lack of them due to the weather not being quite right, or them being less of them.
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Target warming levels, such as 2C or 1.5 C have been a massive tactical error. Politicians always mistakenly saw these as safe levels of warming we could work up to, then a bit more. 1/
No, there have never been any safe levels of warming we could work up to. Systems don't work like that. You cannot force a complex system outside its normal parameters, and expect it to remain stable.
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The more you force a self-correcting system away from its normal range of functioning, the more you risk it shifting to an adverse state you have no control over.
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