Steven S

So what are you doing here?

You may not be able to solve the whole problem, but surely you can solve the one eight-billionth part over which you have control?

Yes?

Yes? You agree?

And who's this "we" you're talking about?

Post proof that everyone else in the world has appointed you their representative, and that you know what their values are.

We're all in it together and it's the only planet we've got! Even though there are a few dozen who think we can do as we like without repercussions. And need to all row together if we're to avoid allegorical Niagra falls of climate change we drift toward as we argue whether it's real or not!

People that cherry-pick their science, can't keep fooling all of the people. We all know how long the asbestos industry kept repeating the lie that theirs was a benign product that caused no harm! As did the tobacco industry, alongside the alcohol industry. To critique the latter, puts one in the wowser brigade.

I'm reliably informed that the scientists employed by the coal, gas and oil industry are telling the public one thing and their masters another. And fear the power of thorium, the most energy-dense material on the planet, to effectively put them and big nuclear, out of business? As well as put a huge dent into big pharma's massive profit margin and curve.

I wonder what Cumberland a co have against MSR thorium?

Add on real fair dinkum and rational tax reform, cooperative capitalism, then just let it rip. Add a bill of rights to stop the endless erosion of rights/being sold down the river by the few quislings in our midst!

And we all of us could be so much better off and again self-reliant masters of our destiny/economic sovereignty!

The above, all of it, could make it possible to drought-proof the nation and make rapid rail a possibility in our lifetime, along with true egalitarian equity alongside truly affordable housing!

Finally, eliminating the paper shuffling middleman and commission sales, could halve the cost of living and doing business here!! All very much doable with the right leadership!

Take off the blinders and remove the earplugs! Do all of the above and just let the climate take care of itself! As it will if we burn waste not our ever-shrinking forests.
Alan B.

After reading this article and most of the comments all I can do is donate to The Greens and even more to Extinction Rebellion and hope they eventually hold sway. The Green ascendency in Germany is a faint glimmer of hope, especially when combined with the push back in the Financial Times and Daily Telegraph.

>However, I'd be much closer to Mozart, than even the closest of our animal relatives is to the lowest performing human being.That's the distance between us and the rest of the animal kingdom, and it is so large that it obscures the fact that we are just another animal.

I kind of gave up taking this seriously when I read that nonsense, based on that a whale can dive more deeply then you so they must be way more sophisticated ? You can never out swim a seal, so they are must be better then all of humanity ?

Perhaps read some John Gray, start with Straw Dogs.

Back to the point of the article, I have long admonished David's nonsense documentaries displaying the natural word as though it hasn't been near completely destroyed by humans so its good that in the ninth decade he's starting to say what needs to be said and don't need to remain quiet just to be loved by all.

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Dear Graham,

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You wrote of David Attenborough : “he's not the only environmentalist to downgrade and misclassify homo sapiens, but it is a damaging mistake to pretend that, somehow, we are not members, albeit the most outstanding members, of nature”.

He does seem to have gotten a bit carried away there, Graham. That’s journalistic language – designed to shock. But though he is undoubtedly one of Britain’s most famous broadcasters (with the highly reputable BBC Natural History Unit), he does have a natural science degree from Clare College, Cambridge where he studied geology and zoology and also served as president of the British Royal Society for Nature Conservation.

You cited the Independent's headline : “Humans are intruders, and the natural world is better off without us”, but it’s the second part of his declaration that’s more indicative of his concerns and explains his outburst :

« the natural world, by-and-large, would do much better if we weren’t there at all », i.e., “if we weren’t part of it”.

Attenborough does not “downgrade” humanity, he admonishes it.

There is little doubt among reputable scientists that human activity has largely contributed to climate change, biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse, the global water crisis, and natural disasters.

According to Wikipedia, for example, “nearly all actively publishing climate scientists (97–98%) support the consensus on anthropogenic climate change, and the remaining 2% of contrarian studies either cannot be replicated or contain errors. A 2019 study found scientific consensus to be at 100%”.

Attenborough shows us reality. He travels the world over. He reports on every possible aspect of nature, seeking it out in even the most secluded and inaccessible nooks and crannies, and films it.

« That the attention of business and political leaders is now focusing on these issues and, critically, on the links and feedback among them, means there is a vital need for clear, unambiguous advice on the status and drivers of biodiversity and ecosystem degradation and, importantly, on options and solutions to address these challenges in an integrated way to achieve sustainable development. » :

http://www.ipbes.net/sites/default/files/ipbes-7-5_en_review.pdf

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There is a human trait that WANTS to believe that things are unravelling and we are on the brink of disaster. It goes back as far as we have records. The old testament would be half its size if you took out all the predictions of impending doom.

Back in the early 1970s we were told of impending doom. The then less than 4 billion souls were, we were assured, too many for the planet to hold. India and China would lose most of their population. There’d be widespread famine in the USA and Europe. Didn’t happen. But that didn’t and doesn’t deter those who so want it to be true. They just go on believing it will happen.

Remember when we were going to run out of oil? Didn’t happen. Copper? Didn’t happen. But still we are assured that we are going to run out of this or that any day now, and the usual dills continue to fervently believe it. That we’ve never run out of any resource, ever, seems to be a mere detail to these cultists.

Attenborough has long ago become the spruiker-in-chief for these people. He can lie about walrus deaths (http://alethonews.com/2020/11/19/new-footage-reveals-netflix-faked-walrus-climate-deaths/) and they neither know or care. He can make failed claims about the immanent extinction of polar bears and they nod in agreement. Ditto global warming. Ditto the great extinction event.

Humans are the pinnacle of evolution. But there is a subset who thinks that denying this makes them seem insightful and compassionate. It doesn’t. It makes them dupes in the hands of those like Attenborough. Although to be fair to the man, it’s not really him but those who write his scripts for him.

People who preen themselves at their insight that we can’t understand our own demise just as the dinosaurs couldn’t, utterly fail to understand humanity. We are the only species that even knows how to ponder our demise. Every other creature ponders nothing more than the next meal. Only the human brain is capable of understand the world, its past and future. More such brains are always good

One has to admire the sheer chutzpah of people like Attenborough. He'll happily tell those who want to hear it that humanity is detrimental to ‘nature’ (whatever that is) and that the natural world would be better if we were absent, but at the same time continues a career that is utterly dependent on he, and his handlers, intervening in ‘nature’ constantly.

He’ll fly around the world to tell us to not fly around that world. He’ll intrude into ‘nature’ to show us why we shouldn’t intrude into ‘nature’. He’ll lie in the service of ‘the cause’ and never be called out for it by those who hang on his pronouncements.

It’s just the way the world works in these times. In the past, humanity had real issues to be concerned about. Little more than 100 years ago, most of humanity was one bad seasons away from starvation. A virus could wipe out maybe two-thirds of humanity. Natural disasters were truly disastrous. Now, famine is all but defeated. Deaths from natural disasters have fallen by 99% in a century.

But the human need to believe in impending doom remains unsatiated. Even as the causes for fear recede, we need to create them anew. So we adhere to shamans who satisfy that need. The difference between Jim Jones and the likes of Attenborough is in degree, not intent.
Being such a shaman is of course lucrative. Gore became a billionaire telling us to do what he himself wouldn’t. Kerry likewise. Attenborough. Thunberg. Flannery.

Part of their shtick is that they convince their followers that they are sophisticated and insightful, when indeed, they are following the most primal of instincts – fear of the uknown.