Noel Cass: More Climate Emotionalism (and vulgarity)

“The climate profession needs a serious reboot.”

The above fronted my repost of Michael Shellenberger’s article, “Caught Pushing an Apocalyptic Scenario They Knew Couldn’t Occur, Climate Scientists Are Now Claiming Their Policies Prevented It.” His article came with the subtitle, “Clique of stealth activists, including the former head of the National Academies of Science, claimed a high-emissions future was possible long after it had been falsified.”

Noel Cass

Attracting more than a thousand impressions, my repost led to 50 comments, several belonging to Noel Cass, a research fellow at University of Leeds. Cass describes his work here:

I am a researcher focussing on the social and political aspects of energy systems and everyday life. I have researched areas including environmental audits of organisations, tourism and travel, everyday life and travel practices, public engagement with renewable energy technologies, the ethical implications of nuclear power and options for radioactive waste management, the social exclusion implications of transport policies on congestion and climate change, climate change policy in local authorities in the UK, the energy demands of the built environment, later focussing on office building designs, and the implications of changing office work practices.

Environmental Priorities vs. ‘Climate Change’

Classic articles are worth remembering. One in the environmental field was a prioritization of environmental issues back in 2020 by Bjorn Lomborg, “Welfare in the 21st century: Increasing development, reducing inequality, the impact of climate change, and the cost of climate policies“

“What is the world’s deadliest environmental problem?,” asks Bjorn Lomborg. The answer:

Not climate. Outdoor and indoor air pollution. Let’s not get so scared about climate that we forget the much bigger problems. Read more in my peer-reviewed article: https://sciencedirect.com/…/article/pii/S0040162520304157.

This result explains why today, climate alarm is just not resonating with the public to the chagrin of the alarmists. Bill McKibben faults the New York Times and Democrats for throwing in the political towel. “I’m saddened to see how little our representatives in DC seem to really care, even the Democratic ones,” he begins:

Too many Democratic leaders are feeling comfortable waving off climate concerns, because of a feeling that it might be a political problem for them.

Are Climate Psychedelics ‘Cultists’?

My post, Psychedelics for Climate Action, struck a nerve. The head of the tripping group, Marissa Feinberg, considered the parenthetical statement “12,000 cultists” was defamatory. I have received three warnings and a threat of legal action (see the end of the post below).

Hallucinates … Hallucinations … How strange. I quoted Feinberg: “Our psychedelic-climate leaders are active today, creating change and doing compelling transformational work in this space.”

A definition of “cult” includes different meanings:

• “a relatively small group of people having beliefs or practices, especially relating to religion, that are regarded by others as strange or sinister or as imposing excessive control over members” (here)
• “a misplaced or excessive admiration for a particular thing” (here)
• “a system of religious veneration and devotion directed towards a particular figure or object” (here)

Similar terms are identified as “sect, denomination, church, faith, belief, persuasion, affiliation, movement, group, body, faction, clique.”…

UK Energy Schizophrenia (all pain, no gain)

Energy Labor-saving Day

Taxpayer Subsidies for Chinese Batteries? Just Say No!

Betsy “Code Green” Rosenberg: Emotional Climatism

Climate Majority Project: Scientists “Freaking Out”

Adapt, Europe (stop whining)

“We Don’t Have Time” (climate pity party)