(Image Source: Wikicommons)
Branko Malić
21st Century Wire
Much water has passed under the bridge since we first heard the cry “We must act now!!!” [to save the world, combat global warming/climate change, etc.] Actually, if we are talking specifically about “catastrophic global warming”, this rallying cry to humanity first bellowed out in 1988.
The impending catastrophe of anthropogenic global warming – together with infamous “ozone holes” as an appetizer – was presented to humanity by visibly perspiring astrophysicist James Hansen in his address to Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on a hot day of June, 28. 1988.
Perspiration, however, was caused not so much by fear and urgency but by the fact that chairman of the hearing, Colorado Senator Tim Wirth, arranged for windows of the venue to be left open in order to let the heat in and provide 15 TV cameras with an image of sweaty scientist talking about the coming incineration of the world.
Yet this was only a culmination of little less than two decades of efforts to invent a “continuous critical problem” – an image or model of a global threat that will unite the “world system” and provide it with mechanism of “global governance”.
Global warming was for a long time just one of exotic dishes on the doomsday menu, originally outlined in the Club of Rome foundational document Predicament of Mankind from 1970. For twenty-eight years it’s been the first among equals, together with “resources scarcity”, “ecological (dis)balance”, “overpopulation”, “pollution” and, believe it or not, a 21st century addition named “global terrorism” – judging from mainstream media focus in the years following 9/11, a rather hip addition poised to take the lead in the years to follow.
Now, however, global warming seems to be on it’s way out as the passage of time has a rather eroding effect on all bodies, including the bodies of lies. But, not to worry, there’s more where that came from. The quest for “enemy image” to unite mankind is not over and it is closely tied to quest of ever branching modern sciences to find the common ground of unified knowledge. In this respect imminent collapse of climate scare bears devastating implications for science in general.
The M.I.T. based meteorologist Richard Lindzen‘s question: “Is climate science currently designed to answer questions?” will in the future slowly but surely goad more and more people to reformulate it into:
“Is any modern science currently designed to answer questions?”
The answer could very well be a firm: no.
It would seem outrageous to claim that erosion of climate scare should signal the downfall of modern science as we know it. Yet if we recognize that the advent of “scientism” is in fact an attempt to build an ersatz religion which by it’s very nature has to eliminate a real one, as well as all other traditional modes of human knowledge expressed in classical metaphysics, aesthetics, ethics and theology, then we may just give this gloomy thesis a chance.
And precisely the exposition of genealogy of climate scare, from it’s inception in application of early systems theory to “continuous critical problem” proposed by the Club of Rome, to Climategate affair and discoveries about flimsy credentials of Nobel prize winning Inter Governmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC), provides us with just the right tools to test it.
To learn more about genealogy of climate scare and the devastating impact it will have on credibility of modern science, listen to this two-part podcast or read the transcript (part1, part2) with all relevant references …
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Author Branko Malić is a Croatian author and owner of Kali Tribune, with the background in classical philosophy. He’s focused on philosophy, media, culture and deep politics analysis.
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