Climate Change Denial Threatens Our Planet and is Driving Us Crazy

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The Madhouse Effect: How Climate Change Denial Is Threatening Our Planet, Destroying Our Politics, and Driving Us Crazy is a great new book by climate scientist Michael Mann and cartoonist Tom Toles.

This book serves many purposes. It includes an overview of the basic science of climate change and human caused global warming. It has a compendium of many of the key science deniers, and a description of the well known taxonomy of science denial (“It’s Not Happening!”, “OK, It’s Happening but It’s Natural”, “It Will Take Care Of Itself”, “It Will Be Good For Us”, etc.). The authors discuss the war on climate science, and of special interest because it isn’t discussed enough, the prospects (which are poor) and the problems (which are very serious) of geoengineering as a means of addressing climate change.

And, everything is well documented with detailed notes and references at the end, including some to my own writing on the topic!

This is not like a cartoon guide to a topic (though those guides are great), but is mainly text richly illustrated with Tolees’ often ironic and biting cartoons. The text is well written and very accessible but at the same time authoritative.

And the book will prove its own need. Just visit the amazon reviews of this book and you’ll see, I suspect (give it a few weeks for the deniers to mass on the borders of reason and charge in).

I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in climate change and global warming. Teachers discussing this issue in class may want to have a copy of it handy, especially to prepare for denialist charges and complaints, but also, for the basic science. Activists will find the material on what to do about climate change, at several levels, interesting and helpful.

The book is available now for pre-order.

Have you read the breakthrough novel of the year? When you are done with that, try:

In Search of Sungudogo by Greg Laden, now in Kindle or Paperback
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13 thoughts on “Climate Change Denial Threatens Our Planet and is Driving Us Crazy

  1. From a complete other perspective, (namely science of parapsychology, SPR), I have done a study resulting in three manuscripts concerning the ‘apocalyps of the earth in five stages’.
    The study (in Dutch) is based upon 85 seances of Kees de Haar, medium, Alphen aan den Rijn, Netherlands, as of 1984 till 2005. I expect to hasve it published in three volumes in 2016. Book I, the main work, Book II Seances with lemmata, Book 3 evidence and rebuttal.
    Kees de Haar (now 78) was the only one who predicted the downfall of the USSR 1989/1990. He predictes Tsjernobil (1986), the explosion of the Challenger (1986), he predicted todays climate change as of 1984, the financial crisis of 2007 till now, twintowers (2001), the conflict between Muslim radicals and the west, the attacks on civilians, he prdicted thw disaster of the banks 2008 etc. the problems of the euro, etc., etc. On smaller topics, he regularly gave on forhand completely good weatherforcasts in the Neterlands for the coming twelve month’s.
    Based upon the predicaments he got from two guiding spirits of God, he received four thematic fields on which the Apocalyps is following its ruinating journey. Namely, (1) world financial and economical crises, (2) increasing wars and terrorism, (inter alia between former Christian States and new coming radical Islamitic States, (3) the world wide problems of refugees; (4) the over exploitation and pollution of earth, oceans and atmosphere, introducing change of both worldclimate as well as of planet earth, with the disappearing North Pole, with a main role for the Antarctic due to the partly collapse of Antarctic land ice (mainly in West Antarctic) which will introduce a change of world-shape.
    We are in the middle of these processes. If it goes completely wrong there is a big chance that most of us will experience this in our lifetime. Perhaps as early as the beginning of the 2020´s.
    The fifth stage – if it really goes wrong – one can read in the old books of various religions. The coming of God and Christ on earth etc. The coming of a shelter planet for temporary sheltter under the guidance of God and a human like but much higher, learned and wiser and much more intelligent civilisation. The transport to and frot his planet will be done by Ufo’s.
    The study was made under the principle of scepsis, and with respect for the laws of good science of Karl Popper.
    The fifth phase has only been described. No one is able to give a conclusive scientific examination of that phase. How much we people do not know?
    Based upon my analysis of the predicaments I developed a theory about the sharp turning points between interglacials and glacials, which has everyything to do with the upheating of earth, land waters, atmosphere, the collapse of huge landmasses of Ice in the Antarctic (hundreds of thousands of square kilometers with a layerthickness of 2 till 3 kilometers, the resulting giant tsunamis, and the accellerating turningspeed of earth around its axis, causing the crumbling of continents, the disappearance of countries, the birth of new continents and the death of billions of people.
    Watch todays increasing storms, floods, draughts, hurricanes, sea- and earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, melting North pole, melting Antarctic, melting glaciers, changing ocean currants.
    Predicted developments which we have presented to governments and meteoroklogical institutes of the main world States as of the nineteennineties and the first half of the first decade of the 21 century. For Dutch-English readers the three manuscripts are available in Dutch-English for free. Just write an e-mail to g.bogaers@g-bogaers.nl.
    I’m busy finding out how I will have these three manuscripts printed and published for the good of the multitude.
    Let us all appreciate and respect life, it is a precious gift. Carpe diem. Laren NH, Saturday 18th June 2016, 20:33 hours PM Dutch time.

  2. Uh, Gerrit. This is the Science Blogs, NOT the Seance Blogs. Predicting the future using out of mind experiences is an interesting idea, but it seems to require physical, metaphysical, or supernatural laws that have not yet been discovered, uncovered, postulated, or otherwise detected. If you can give out some statistics on successful vs unsuccessful predictions, and how to know when a prediction is likely to be right vs erroneous, then maybe you can evolve some sort of science-like endeavor that can be of value. If, on the other hand, your prediction tool depends on subjective interpretation of revealed knowledge, humans are probably not ready for it. Have a nice day.

  3. What SteveP said (and what he said elsewhere as well, thanks, good sense there). At least this one is better than the spam that sometimes appears, though not much.

    I ordered the book and am very much looking forward to its release (projected September 27, 2016).

    We all need more humor and more effective arguments.

  4. I’m pretty sure Nostradamus predicted Chernobyl and Challenger, too.
    Also, Nostradamus predicted the twin towers and rise of isis.
    Nostradamus also predicted last week’s fall in the Australia dollar.
    The science of parapsychology is pretty much the most reliable science on the planet.
    The only (very slight) hitch is that none of these predictions are actually made before the event.
    Oh well, …

  5. Thanks Greg Laden for placing my comment. Thanks Steve P, Susan Anderson and Craig Thomas for your responses.
    The comments on my comment till now are reasonable in line with what I expected.
    First and foremost it’s remarkable that the three respondents react without even having read the study, its table of contents, its structure and its contents, the cross references, the séances, the book evidence and rebuttal. Although there is a problem of language, there are enough Dutch reading scientists and others in the US who could offer assistance to interested scientists who – very understandably – don’t master the Dutch language, but who are willing to read and or examine the study of parapsychological research, (SPR). As I wrote every person who whishes to overcome the language gap and who wishes to receive the work can get a free copy of the three manuscripts.
    One has to overcome prejudice, anxiety and scientific shortcomings to take a few steps forward.
    For scientists it’s time to explore science in a not biased way.
    To answer Steve P. In Book I keep record of all hits and non-hits of the predictions Mr. Kees de Haar received. The fact that people supposedly do not possess as Steve puts the knowledge required of physical, metaphysical, or supernatural laws that have not yet been discovered, uncovered, postulated, or otherwise detected, may not be a sufficient reason not to study this work of SPR. Any other attitude would have us still in a state of non-knowledge. The problems of evidence are mentioned and commented in the study. Objectivity and subjectivity are nice sounding divisions, but in reality, in many or perhaps in all sciences there is a relation between these two. What matters is that the researcher is conscious of this fact, and that he or she is transparent in its inquiry, the material, sources and methods used and in its findings. This is all described and answered in the book.
    Susan Anderson, thank you for your compliments. My arguments one can find in the book. They have proven to be effective by their hits in diverse fields. I keep my humor, but in fact and regrettably there is not much to be jubilant of joy about. Also for this study goes: How Climate Change Denial Is Threatening Our Planet, Destroying Our Politics, and Driving Us Crazy . This is exactly the reason why above tries to intervene, according to the motivation expressed by the guiding spirits by whom Kees de Haar had been channeled. Yes I found completely wrong messages, but also a significant amount of important messages which have been confirmed by later developments in practice. Climate Change, or better Planet-Change is the most threatening of them. That’s why I did this study and I publish it. Fait ceque dois et advienne que pourra. If you wish you can get the transcripts free.
    Thank you Craig Thomas for having the work compared with the work of Nostradamus. It seems to me that you never have read Nostradamus. I did, and I can assure you Nostradamus did loose us in secrecies. He was not free to write. Fortunately that has changed in Western States. He never wrote about the things you named. Fact is that Kees de Haar received predictions in a transparent form, fulfilling the laws of science, namely verification and falsification (Karl Popper). Your remarks are what we in Holland call death-doers. One can find it in studies about discussion techniques. They are not-well understood words of power, aimed at not thinking and or at stopping the think-process. If that’s your choice for yourself I can only respect that but you cannot do this in a scientific debate. One cannot place a gate around what was given to mankind by ways today’s science not yet understands, i.a. thanks to bias and blind spots in ‘we humans’ and our everyday science.
    You all are a big help to me to establish and sledge barriers. I thank you for your honesty, the very basis of science.
    Time exists of a chain of moments, inter alia moments in which one can say, #@# the study got it right. Just allow that to yourself when it seems a proper thing to say so. It gives some relief and comfort.
    However the opposite is also possible. The un- and the righteousness of the study have partly been proven till now. Time is the teacher. Hopefully the heaviest – still pending – predictions fail.
    We all have to wait and see, and in the mean time we try to save together by international cooperation of States, organizations and peoples what hopefully can be rescued and safeguarded.
    Gerrit Bogaers Msc. Laren NH, Netherlands, Tuesday 21st June 2016, 11:05 AM Dutch Time.

  6. When I was growing up there was a great deal of interest in ESP and other facets of parapsychology. I shared it, and followed the career of Joseph Banks Rhine (though not closely.) I remember the story of Peter Hirkos (a Dutchman, IIRC) who reportedly gained precognition after a blow on the head. I also followed the many reports of UFOs as alien spacecraft, and even lusted after a Yashica Electro 35 (the first consumer auto-exposure camera) to carry in case I saw one.

    I’ve come ’round to the view that these and other things fall into the category of wonderful things for which there is no basis to justify belief. Dr. Rhine’s experiments were shown to be flawed; J. Allen Hynek produced no convincing evidence that UFOs were spacecraft. Rupert Sheldrake’s morphological fields remain unproven. And so on for a long list of claims.

    Regarding ESP in particular, I won’t rule it out completely. But the evidence is weak, to say the least, and I suspect that if anyone did have such an ability to the degree that it could be reliably demonstrated, he or she would carefully conceal the fact.

  7. @Christopher Winter. Thank you for your response.
    The basic attitude for all sciences, inclusive science with respect to the inquiry of alleged paranormal phenomena, is an open mind with skepticism, open to research all phenomena.
    The word ‘believe’ in itself can stand as a fuel or will behind the effort to research, but may not be the motivation for a conclusion that a fact has been established.
    Problem with ghosts is that they are entities without a body that can be seen by human eyes the way we normally see biological life. Still there is overwhelming evidence in religious and profane literature and is science, like proven visual and other testimonies that spiritual life exists, inclusive communication between people and ghosts, which cannot be explained by the category of craziness.
    Spirits and ghosts have their own specific individuality. They deserve respect, like all creatures deserve respect.
    They are no Circus monkeys who play tricks when a human asks them to do so. Don’t even try it, because the result will be none, or worse. Ever been spat by a lama by fooling him ?
    Double blind tests, and or the demand of reproductive evidence is not the method suitable for the science of the paranormal. It often degenerates in childish examinations.
    Evidence in this field must be gathered with respect for the phenomena being researched, by practicing with this in mind, the old handwork of journalists, lawyers, detectives in the field using the best practicable means of finding proof.
    In my study I give a detailed account of such communication, which contents can be verified of falsified by research. For instance medium Kees de Haar received from the guiding spirits on 26 Jun 2004, in séance 40, the message about the Antarctic that science has discovered a hot plate under the land ice of the Antarctic, which melts landice, and that a second plate has been discovered out of which lava will pour. Bear in mind that Kees de Haar nor his fellow séance-attendants, a.o. inclusive myself, have in their possession any written of other material which could have been a source of this message. On the contrary, we are laymen and we didn’t have any knowledge about this, nor the fantasy to come up with a message like this. Then 12 years later, when I was busy working on book III (evidence and rebuttal) and I read this above mentioned message in séance 40 of 26th. June 2004, which I had completely forgotten, I thought, this is crap, bur than, another incentive in my mind said look it up on the World Wide Web. So I did. I was very much amazed that this for me very unlikely massage proofed to be true. The channeled message from 26h. June 2004 about the hot plate under kilometers thick layers of landice, was made public by a scientific discovery from satellites in 2015. See:
    Daily mail.co.uk, Scientists create stunning map of what’s under the Antarctic – and reveal mysterious volcanic ‘hot zones’ are recently active, by Liberatore, Stacy, For Dailymail.com. Published: 18:31 GMT, 10 December 2015 | Updated: 22:41 GMT, 10 December 2015
    • Recordings of earthquake vibrations used to create maps of below valley
    • Giant blob of super heated rock beneath Mount Sidley seen on the map
    • Hot rock beneath Bentley Subglacial Trench, which recently became active
    • Line of volcanoes means there might be hidden mantle plumes
    • Reported heat flow in an area was 4 times higher than the global average

    There is a mysterious line of volcanoes that have formed in certain areas of Antarctica – and could hold the key to the area’s future. For years researchers have been trying to look below the ice sheets to find out why, but due to extreme cold their technology has not been able to gather any answers. Now with the assistance of ruggedized seismometers, geologists have been able to get the first look at the mantle below the ice, revealing areas of ‘hot rock’. On the map an arrow points at the West Antarctic Rift System. (..) A giant blob of super heated rock about 60 miles beneath Mount Sidley was seen on the map. This is the last chain of volcanic mountains in Mary Byrd Land at one end of the transect. (..) What surprised researchers the most was the hot rock beneath Bentley Subglacial Trench, a deep basin at the other end of the stransect. This means the rift system just recently became active. Mount Sidley, the highest volcano in Antarctica sits directly above a hot region in the mantle, Lloyd said. Mount Sidley is the southernmost mountain in a volcanic mountain range in Marie Byrd Land, a mountainous region dotted with volcanoes near the coast of West Antarctica. (..)”
    My book consists of hundreds of messages of this amazing outcome on several subjects.
    I’m not talking about belief, but about established facts.
    I’m not giving a subjective opinion, but an objective fact, ready to be thoroughly scrutinized by honest, learned and skilful scientists free of bias and beliefs that could corrupt their findings.
    Due to i.a. these facts I can only agree with well balanced and with Beta science scientifically well educated people who warn against the denial and or underestimation of climate change, read: planet change.
    Greg Laden says it well: Culture as science – science as culture, for me meaning: have an open not biased mind. I hope more people get interested in practicing science of the paranormal, and more important that people start to take warnings and messages ‘from the other side’ as serious and not for the kermis, Kermesse, a fancy fair. This is serious business. The messages are not from the street. On the contrary. Time will teach what is going on here.
    Laren NH, Wednesday June 22nd. 2016

  8. Gerrit, the existence of active volcanoes was already known, including the fact there was melting by volcanic activity on Antarctica. That the Daily Fail sensationalizes some recent scientific research, is no surprise, and no vindication. You also cannot know that Kees de Haar did not have access to any such information, especially since he has had some active interest in geological and meteorological events for decades.

    For example, that same Kees de Haar predicted temperatures down to -40 all across Europe, including the Netherlands, as reported on January 10th in the Leidse Courant…only to be shown wrong more or less the day after he made that prediction in the newspaper, with temperatures increasing to above(!) zero by January 20th (even Tmin was around zero those days).

  9. @Marco. Thank you for your response. I know 100 percent that Kees de Haar doesn’t study geological events and that he has no knowledge of the Antarctic except that it is our Southern ice continent, de Zuidpool, South Pole. You use an abstract denial as far as the Antarctic in the given example is concerned. You missed the point about the fire plate, which according to the mentioned prediction from 2004 had already been discovered by scientists, and which hot rock stand in connection with other tectonic hot spots, volcanoes. Years later the discovery of a hot plate hidden under thick layers of land ice has been published, together with a connection to other recently appeared active volcanism under land surface level. You cannot attack this with your knowledge that Mount Erebus exists. That volcano is not the subject of the mentioned prediction. Could you please stick to the subject predicted. Your remarks are bound to fail.
    Also interesting is your remark about the Leidsche Courant, without however a reference from your hand what year it concerned. I get the impression that you don’t know exactly what was predicted, when and where. The prediction you probably mean and all its details are being described in Book I. Also Book II goes in on that subject. The prediction was from May 1984 and concerned the indeed very severe proven Winter that struck Europe and Russia in January 1985.
    if you are interested in what has been predicted exactly, when and where, the miss’s and the hits you could send me an e-mail and ask me for the manuscripts. Then you could also verify that the manuscripts contain all known predictions of Kees de Haar, including the mentioned prediction about the very severe winter you probably mean, and for which he became known in the Netherlands, because he predicted in Spring 1984 that the coming winter would be very cold with temperatures in the Netherlands between 30 and 40 degrees minus Celsius at ter deepest, which came out next winter to the amazement of many. That was a prediction which was received by Kees de Haar. In that Winter Kees also got a message about temperatures in the USSR/Russia below 90 of 100 degrees Celsius at the deepest minimum, about which message however no written record is known from the then closed communist block. As long as there is no proof of such a low temperature of minus 90 degrees Celsius that Winter in the USSR-Russia I have to consider that prediction as not being proven and as a miss, at least as long as the contrary has not been proven, which deliverance of evidence I think is rather unlikely. But you never know. Former USSR-Russia is huge and offers lots of surprises. If you are interested in the accuracy of received weather forecasts received by Kees de Haar in séances over a twelve months period as off the day of receipt you can find stunning proof in Book III, evidence and rebuttal. I checked its contents with public data of our Dutch KNMI. If you are living in the neighborhood you are kindly welcome for a cup of tea or coffee. Don’t hesitate. If you appreciate that and if you have the possibility to do so, you may ring me to make an appointment for a meeting. Laren NH, Netherlands, Thursday 23 June 2016, 0:25 AM.

  10. @Marco. Thank you for your response. I know 100 percent that Kees de Haar doesn’t study geological events and that he has no knowledge of the Antarctic except that it is our Southern ice continent, de Zuidpool, South Pole. You use an abstract denial as far as the Antarctic in the given example is concerned. You missed the point about the fire plate, which according to the mentioned prediction from 2004 had already been discovered by scientists, and which hot rock stand in connection with other tectonic hot spots, volcanoes. Years later the discovery of a hot plate hidden under thick layers of land ice has been published, together with a connection to other recently appeared active volcanism under land surface level. You cannot attack this with your knowledge that Mount Erebus exists. That volcano is not the subject of the mentioned prediction. Could you please stick to the subject predicted. Your remarks are bound to fail.
    Also interesting is your remark about the Leidsche Courant, without however a reference from your hand what year it concerned. I get the impression that you don’t know exactly what was predicted, when and where. The prediction you probably mean and all its details are being described in Book I. Also Book II goes in on that subject. The prediction was from May 1984 and concerned the indeed very severe proven Winter that struck Europe and Russia in January 1985.
    if you are interested in what has been predicted exactly, when and where, the miss’s and the hits you could send me an e-mail and ask me for the manuscripts. Then you could also verify that the manuscripts contain all known predictions of Kees de Haar, including the mentioned prediction about the very severe winter you probably mean, and for which he became known in the Netherlands, because he predicted in Spring 1984 that the coming winter would be very cold with temperatures in the Netherlands between 30 and 40 degrees minus Celsius at ter deepest, which came out next winter to the amazement of many. That was a prediction which was received by Kees de Haar. In that Winter Kees also got a message about temperatures in the USSR/Russia below 90 of 100 degrees Celsius at the deepest minimum, about which message however no written record is known from the then closed communist block. As long as there is no proof of such a low temperature of minus 90 degrees Celsius that Winter in the USSR-Russia I have to consider that prediction as not being proven and as a miss, at least as long as the contrary has not been proven, which deliverance of evidence I think is rather unlikely. But you never know. Former USSR-Russia is huge and offers lots of surprises. If you are interested in the accuracy of received weather forecasts received by Kees de Haar in séances over a twelve months period as off the day of receipt you can find stunning proof in Book III, evidence and rebuttal. I checked its contents with public data of our Dutch KNMI. If you are living in the neighborhood you are kindly welcome for a cup of tea or coffee. Don’t hesitate. If you appreciate that and if you have the possibility to do so, you may ring me to make an appointment for a meeting. Laren NH, Netherlands, Thursday 23 June 2016, 0:25 AM

  11. Apologies, the year disappeared when I modified my comment. It was about 1985. January 10, 1985, Kees de Haar announced widely and proudly that temperatures would drop to -30 to -40. A few days later, even Tmin was above zero, and temperatures never got down to even -20.

    I have no intention to have a meeting with someone like you. I don’t think I would be able to discuss with you, because clearly for you facts are whatever you believe to be true.

  12. @Marco. Thank you for your response. You make it clear where you stand. Your statements are completely wrong and in the light of this discussion completely untrue.

    One of the well known daily Dutch newspapers Trouw published on Wednesday 9 January 1985 page 17 the comment of the countrywide known Dutch weatherman Hans de Jong, (quote:)
    “Losser min 28,5 (..) Nederland is a winterland and a real European-snow province. Very interesting have been the extreme low temperatures. Just above the snow a temperature has been established of minus 28,5 degrees Celsius in Losser. Furthermore a very interesting experiment has taken place by weather amateurs Leo Wouters in Duiven and Bert Grandia in Eerbeek. They placed professional equipment (thermometers) on the heather between Ede and Rheden. They provided very interesting data. On Mondaynight 10 centimeters above snow a temperature of minus 30.4 degrees Celsius has been measured, in the following hours a minimum of minus 32 degrees Celsius has been reached. Also a transportable thermometerhut was used, in which the mercury thermometer showed a temperature decreasing till minus 27.3 degrees Celsius on a height of one and a half meters above land level. Actually un-Dutch values one can say.”

    Next a survey from 2005, source Global Weather & Climate Extremes,12 August 2005 Global Weather & Climate Extremes http://wmo.asu.edu/, first edition 12-08-05 Last change: 15-12-13”, (quote:)
    “One of the coldest places in the Alps is La Brévine (1036 meter height), a little west of the Lac de Neûchatel in Switzerland. In January 1985 a temperature of minus 41,5 degrees Celsius has been measured. Two years later, on 12 January 1987 a record was established with a minimum of minus 41,8 degrees Celsius.”

    Your comment is clearly ill founded to say the least.
    Laren NH, Netherlands, Thursday 22nd June 2016, 10.50 AM Dutch time.

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