Report: Climate Change Skeptics Could Reach Catastrophic Levels By 2020 by AURaptor

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Report: Climate Change Skeptics Could Reach Catastrophic Levels By 2020

POSTED BY: AURAPTOR
UPDATED: Monday, July 28, 2014 07:03
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Saturday, July 26, 2014 3:42 PM

America loves a winner!

Scientists say it may be too late to effectively combat climate change deniers and that humanity may simply have to learn to live with their negative effects.

WASHINGTON—In a worrying development that could have dire implications for the health of the planet, a report published Wednesday by the Environmental Protection Agency suggests that the number of climate change skeptics could reach catastrophic levels by the year 2020.

According to the agency’s findings, the rising quantity and concentration of individuals who willfully deny or downplay the ruinous impact of the ongoing climate crisis will no longer be manageable by the end of the decade, leading to disastrous consequences for global ecosystems that may well prove irreversible.

“In recent decades, we have observed an alarming increase in people who refuse to acknowledge the reality of global warming, which has exceeded even our worst-case projections,” said EPA administrator Gina McCarthy, confirming a worldwide spike in the number of deniers who are actively seeking to discredit the scientific consensus that human activity is responsible for climate change. “If this trend continues at its current rate, we will pass a critical threshold of unfounded skepticism within the next six years that will have devastating repercussions on every continent and in every ocean, threatening the entire global population.”
“For the continued survival of Earth’s plant, animal, and, indeed, human life, that kind of runaway ignorance is a frightening prospect and one that we can no longer afford to discount,” she continued. “If we don’t contain climate change skeptics soon, we’re putting the very planet at risk.”

Since the latter half of the 20th century, the EPA noted that more and more regions, biomes, and even human commercial and industrial activities have suffered the harmful effects of individuals who refuse to accept that the ongoing rise in global surface temperatures is due to greenhouse gas emissions. Specifically, the report revealed an alarming upsurge in the number of authors of discredited scientific studies questioning the reality of climate change, adversarial cable news show guests who scoff at the notion that humans can affect Earth’s weather patterns, and politicians whose opinions are controlled by fossil fuel company lobbying groups, all of whose increased presence in the world jeopardizes the planet’s vulnerable biosphere.

Additionally, the report noted a shocking jump in the number of uninformed citizens among the public at large, whose widespread dissemination of misleading data, half-truths, and outright lies regarding climate trends has already facilitated the destruction of numerous natural resources and hundreds of species, while putting still others at imminent risk.

“The fact that the very existence of global warming somehow remains a topic of contention demonstrates that the density of these skeptics has spiraled out of control,” McCarthy said, citing data from the report showing that the concentration of the most ardent deniers recently reached a previously unheard-of 1,500 people per million. “While the U.S. remains the planet’s largest producer of climate change skeptics, countries halfway around the world are suffering environmental destruction from the actions of these people who refuse to acknowledge the threat of extreme weather conditions and rising sea levels. The effects of these outspoken deniers are truly global in scope.”

While the EPA report recognized that past efforts to reverse the proliferation of climate change deniers failed to stem the spread of their erroneous beliefs, it suggested that renewed education initiatives and well-informed public debate could at least limit the emergence of the most destructive and stubborn individuals who continue to dispute a conclusion supported by 97 percent of scientists.

However, with the rise of such individuals having only accelerated over time, the report’s authors conceded that it may no longer be possible to eliminate this devastating man-made phenomenon.

“The profusion of these skeptics was something that we as a nation should have made a better effort to get a handle on in the past,” said report co-author Gena Orlofsky, noting that the increase in private sector groups actively seeking to cast doubt on the reality of declining biodiversity and the melting of the polar ice caps was observable as early as the 1990s.

“At this point, so much pseudoscience and misinformation have been released into the world that we simply have to accept that those who refuse to ‘believe’ in objective scientific fact aren’t going away. All we can do is attempt to minimize their impact on our planet.”

“It’s a terrible shame. There was a time when I hoped we would be able to reverse this trend and return our understanding of the consequences of our actions to normal levels,” she continued. “But frankly, it appears to be far too late now.”

http://www.theonion.com/articl...-catastr,36521/

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Sunday, July 27, 2014 12:20 AM

JONGSSTRAW

Oh jeeez, I can't read all that. Just tell me ... is there climate change or not? It's always hot here in Florida, so it's hard to tell.

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Sunday, July 27, 2014 7:41 AM

KPO

Sometimes you own the libs. Sometimes, the libs own you.

Not very funny for an Onion article. However climate denialism is not funny.

It's not personal. It's just war.

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Sunday, July 27, 2014 7:57 AM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!

Quote:
Originally posted by kpo:
Not very funny for an Onion article. However climate denialism is not funny.

It's not personal. It's just war.

Sorry if I laughed at your religion too, KPO.

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Sunday, July 27, 2014 10:48 AM

JONGSSTRAW

Quote:
Originally posted by kpo:

"climate denialism"

Oh my, you pulled that peach right out of your arse!

Next time try "climate inequality". That's more in line with what libtards say.

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Sunday, July 27, 2014 11:57 AM

KPO

Sometimes you own the libs. Sometimes, the libs own you.

Quote:
Originally posted by AURaptor:
Quote:
Originally posted by kpo:
Not very funny for an Onion article. However climate denialism is not funny.

It's not personal. It's just war.

Sorry if I laughed at your religion too, KPO.

I wasn't aware that anyone was laughing. This article mocks climate science in your view?

It's not personal. It's just war.

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Sunday, July 27, 2014 11:59 AM

KPO

Sometimes you own the libs. Sometimes, the libs own you.

Quote:
Originally posted by Jongsstraw:
Quote:
Originally posted by kpo:

"climate denialism"

Oh my, you pulled that peach right out of your arse!

'Deniers' is the word the article uses. As far as I can tell Auraptor changed it in the title of this thread.

EDIT: Oh no, maybe not. The link was down for a while.

It's not personal. It's just war.

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Sunday, July 27, 2014 12:04 PM

THGRRI

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Sunday, July 27, 2014 12:18 PM

KPO

Sometimes you own the libs. Sometimes, the libs own you.

Quote:
Originally posted by THGRRI:

An excellent video. Let's see if these guys can absorb its simple message...

It's not personal. It's just war.

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Sunday, July 27, 2014 12:31 PM

THGRRI

Not a chance KPO not a chance. It is apparent they are not up to it.

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Sunday, July 27, 2014 6:38 PM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!

Quote:
Originally posted by kpo:
I wasn't aware that anyone was laughing. This article mocks climate science in your view?

It's not personal. It's just war.

Never heard of The Onion, have ya ?

Crassic.

And as for Neil's ' dog on a leash ' video ? All that c02 in the past 17 years, and the global warming just isn't happening.

Why is that ?

And if the oceans are getting warmer, why haven't we had a steady increase in the # and strengths of hurricanes ? Back when Katrina hit, 2005 , was it ? Gore and his buddies were telling us all that this was only the beginning, and to expect more such hurricane seasons.

Well ?

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Sunday, July 27, 2014 6:47 PM

THGRRI

Quote:
….Rappy
And as for Neil's ' dog on a leash ' video ? All that c02 in the past 17 years, and the global warming just isn't happening.
Why is that ?

98 percent of the world’s scientists are saying it is, and you call them wrong thats why.

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Sunday, July 27, 2014 9:28 PM

KPO

Sometimes you own the libs. Sometimes, the libs own you.

Quote:
Never heard of The Onion, have ya ?

Crassic.

Pay attention. What did I say earlier? "Not very funny for an Onion article."

Quote:
And as for Neil's ' dog on a leash ' video ? All that c02 in the past 17 years, and the global warming just isn't happening.

Why is that ?

Ah, you see a pause in the rise in temperatures at the moment? Well people have spotted pauses before...

Quote:
And if the oceans are getting warmer, why haven't we had a steady increase in the # and strengths of hurricanes ? Back when Katrina hit, 2005 , was it ?

You wouldn't expect a steady increase, just like you don't expect temperatures to rise smoothly. You expect an increase over time, and 9 years is not a very long time. This article says that the science isn't settled on whether hurricanes will increase or not, but the evidence points to them getting stronger: http://www.skepticalscience.com/hurricanes-global-warming-basic.htm

Also Katrina was not an exceedingly strong hurricane if I remember right, it just hit in a very vulnerable place and there was a bad president at the time.

It's not personal. It's just war.

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Sunday, July 27, 2014 11:12 PM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!

Quote:
Originally posted by THGRRI:
Quote:
….Rappy
And as for Neil's ' dog on a leash ' video ? All that c02 in the past 17 years, and the global warming just isn't happening.
Why is that ?

98 percent of the world’s scientists are saying it is, and you call them wrong thats why.

A complete and totally bogus statistic.

Thanks for playing.

btw - consensus is not science.

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Sunday, July 27, 2014 11:17 PM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!

Quote:
Originally posted by kpo:

I wasn't aware that anyone was laughing

Well, when the Onion makes a joke, it's pretty much assumed that folks are laughing. And as for AGW, I'm always going to laugh at the cult of the warm-mongers.

Quote:
Originally posted by kpo:

Also Katrina was not an exceedingly strong hurricane if I remember right, it just hit in a very vulnerable place and there was a bad president at the time. It was still a very powerful storm, far stronger than 'SUPER' storm Sandy.

No, your memory is wrong. Katrina had been a cat 5 storm, before losing strength, right before making landfall.

Bush actually had the national guard ready and willing to come in to NOLA, before the storm, but DEMOCRAT woman governor Blanco, either took bad advice or decided herself that she didn't want to be seen taking help from a MALE Republican President form Texas, chose to play politics and refused help.

And who could forget Ray 'chocolate city' Nagin, who flat out dropped the ball and left the city to fend for itself.

Despite all that, things were relatively manageable. Until all hell broke lose, and the levees broke.

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Sunday, July 27, 2014 11:44 PM

JONGSSTRAW

Quote:
Originally posted by AURaptor:

Bush actually had the national guard ready and willing to come in to NOLA, before the storm, but DEMOCRAT woman governor Blanco, either took bad advice or decided herself that she didn't want to be seen taking help from a MALE Republican President form Texas, chose to play politics and refused help.

Until all hell broke lose, and the levees broke.

You could tell that TRUE story a thousand times and the Bush-haters will always deny it. Looking back, it's really too bad that Bush didn't tell Governor Kathleen Blanco to go fuck herself and mobilize the Guard anyway.

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Monday, July 28, 2014 7:03 AM

KPO

Sometimes you own the libs. Sometimes, the libs own you.

Quote:
No, your memory is wrong. Katrina had been a cat 5 storm, before losing strength, right before making landfall.

Ah, it became a cat 3 when it made landfall, that's what I was remembering.

Quote:
Bush actually had the national guard ready and willing to come in to NOLA...

I just mentioned Bush to annoy you.

It's not personal. It's just war.

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