On killing the messenger

Plenty of Hatred Remains

Guy McPherson

Nature Bats Last,

12 June, 2016

“I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.”

~ James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time

So much for “only loves remains.” Abundant evidence indicates some people prefer hatred all the way to their own personal deaths. This space would largely lack comments if not for the ones characterized as abusiveness and disrespectful. 

Personal attacks are common. Empathy is profoundly lacking. A trip to the shopping mall would be pleasant by comparison. Not surprisingly, I contemplate terminating comments, the reading of which used to brighten my day. Now I dread reading them. Only principle and masochism keep them coming.

Herein I present, from this space and beyond, a few pitiful examples of mean-spirited responses to the evidence underlying my overall message. As with a trip to the shopping mall accompanied by a few minutes of observation, the following examples indicate why near-term human extinction is locked in.

But first, a brief written overview of my message, the long version of which can be found in a recent presentation. Several self-absorbed members of the commentariat can’t be bothered with the long version. Ergo, the paragraphs nearly brief enough to tweet. Note that I rely upon very conservative sources for this analysis.

The Great Dying wiped out at least 90% of the species on Earth due to an abrupt rise in global-average temperature about 252 million years ago. The vast majority of complex life became extinct. Earth is headed for a similar global-average temperature in the very near future. The recent and near-future rises in temperature are occurring and will occur at least three orders of magnitude faster than the worst of all prior Mass Extinctions. Habitat for human animals is disappearing throughout the world, and abrupt climate change has barely begun. In the near future, habitat for Homo sapienswill be gone. Shortly thereafter, all humans will die.

I’m not quitting, despite frequent comments to the contrary (and by comments, I mean lies from cowards). Rather, unafflicted by the arrogance of humanism, I’m a fan of life on Earth. As a result, I’m not a fan of civilization. Few have taken action as substantive as mine. Talk is cheap, and cheap speakers abound.

Only a fool would believe we will survive. A few examples of foolishness follow, from among thousands in plain view.

I subscribe to Jay Hanson’s America 2.0 email list. It succeeds his popular website, Die-off. On 22 May 2016 Nathan John (“Nate”) Hagens launched one of his customary hit pieces to the list.

After making a fortune on Wall Street, Hagens now teaches a class titled Reality 101 at the University of Minnesota. He disparages my work regularly, citing his colleagues who believe climate change will become a problem we’ll need to address in a century or two. Citing authority over evidence is a classic example of patriarchy, exemplified by religious organizations throughout world history. Unimpaired by evidence and unaware that abrupt climate change is under way, Hagens regularly writes nonsense such as the following:

“… a great many people in the blogosphere (including but not limited to Guy McPherson) go off on their own non-science based fantasys -both benign and doomy. This is expected of our deluded-ape-brains but does not mean the underlying science of human impact is faulty”
“No one on this list (correct me if Im wrong) is a trained climate scientist. The way humans work is we look at our in-group (and list serv etc) on what people think and believe strongly – science is secondary to what our tribe believes. If we are a group of born again christians we are unlikely to believe god could allow climate change be due to humans, If we watch Fox news, we will have a built in skepticism to Portlands decision. If our group of closest internet ‘experts’ says that climate change is a hoax, ditto, if we frequent Nature Bats Last, we’ll have a different opinion entirely. All of us, including me, perceive a virtual reality that is distinct from the physical truth. If we imagine switching in-groups for a day, and reading/hearing what those others hear, we might empathize with how the Guy McPherson and Alexander Carpenters can both be utterly confident, diametrically opposed, and completely wrong.”

I have no idea who Alexander Carpenter is. Apparently he’s about as famous as I am.

Hagens is obviously unfamiliar with the concept of abrupt climate change, even though we’re in the midst of such an event right now. Consistent with the culture of make believe, I’ve no doubt he’ll deny his own death, and the extinction of Homo sapiens, until he draws his final breath.

It’s no surprise Hagens is paid by taxpayers to teach impressionable people that I’m an extremist. Promoting the dominant culture is the only approach tolerated by the dominant culture, including its educational exemplars. I observed numerous examples, and provided a few, when I spent every day on the campus of the University of Arizona. Hagens has used video from one of my presentations in his Reality 101 course, and I suspect he uses the subsequent discussion to paint me with the same brush of crazy my former colleagues use. Like them, I doubt he’s seen much of my work. I doubt he knows that I quote the work of others as the entire basis for my connect-the-dots approach.

This is what passes for contemporary higher hire education in the land of the me and the home of the crave. Meanwhile, one of the papers published under my name more than 15 years ago continues to receive favorable attention. My positive influence at the nexus of scholarship and teaching persists more than seven years after I willingly left active service at the university.

I’m routinely attacked for what I don’t say, too. I promote the notion of saving life on Earth by contributing to the collapse of the death cult known as civilization. For its initial few years, this blog focused on that topic. Apparently the new-comers in this space can’t be bothered to check the archives. Attacking the messenger is considerably more fun than checking the facts.

Also in the category of disparagement for what I don’t say: human overpopulation. As if any sentient adult on the planet isn’t aware of this ongoing predicament. I taught college courses for more than twenty years and I talked about human overpopulation in each course I taught. I served as a selfless, childless example. I wrote books and articles. Meanwhile, the overshoot became worse every day, a process that continues. As it turns out, in a stunning surprise to those ignorant of biology, overcoming behaviors selected by evolution through natural selection is no simple task. The draconian strategies employed by China during its one-child “revolution” weren’t up to the task. But, as with abrupt climate change, I’m said to be responsible for human population overshoot.

Also in the category of attacking me for what I don’t say: virtually every recent comment from Bud Nye. After viciously attacking others with abusive, disrespectful, unnecessary language — while carefully avoiding mentioning the names of those he attacks — Nye states, “I would just like to understand Guy’s motives for allowing and thus encouraging the frequent abusive, bullying, disrespectful, unnecessary, and easily eliminated personal attacking that so often occurs here.” Although Nye doesn’t include names of those he disparages, except mine, his targets are nonetheless obvious. Painting with his insanely broad brush, Nye absurdly implicates anarchism within some of his hostile comments. After Nye’s abusive language, he asks me to censor abusive language. By others. Toward him. Pots, kettles, and the “color” black come to mind. If I were prone to censorship, I could do worse than starting with Bud Nye’s inflammatory comments.

Even Gerald Spezio, who often comments in this space, has gone on the offensive again. After briefly coming to grips with near-term human extinction, Spezio now gets worked up in a lather about my small ecological footprint. Apparently my footprint is too big for a privileged white man living at the apex of civilization, one of the largest cities in the world: Phoenix, Arizona. Rather than making a statement with actions, Spezio prefers the standard approach of denigrating others.

My footprint when I travel to deliver presentations is extremely small. I stay in the homes of my hosts, eat at their tables, and rely upon local transportation between venues. I use these tactics for several reasons, including attention to personal consumption.

Many who comment on this space, and perhaps most, prefer hate over love. They want to blame others, notably including those who transmit messages with which they disagree. To many, evidence is irrelevant relative to ill-founded notions rooted in motion.

I’ll readily admit that if you’re on an ocean liner and you see an iceberg a mile away, a one-degree change in direction will allow the vessel to miss the iceberg by a wide margin. If you wait until you’re 30 feet away and change direction by one degree, the ocean liner hits the iceberg. We hit the iceberg. It’s not my fault, at least not entirely. It’s not your fault, either. We were born into captivity, as my friend Tim Bennett likes to say. There is no escape.

And don’t even get me started on klondike444 and RE (and the willfully ignorant acolytes of the latter, notably at the Doomstead Diner). Whoops, too late. These cowardly, anonymous trolls occasionally check my long essay, watch my presentations online, and spend much of their time launching insults in the comments section. They lie about my intentions and my actions, which is standard practice for clueless minions blinded by patriarchy. These are the kind of unthinking people who continue to accuse me of causing the suicide of my friend Michael C. Ruppert. These nonsensical idiots believe I have the ability to kill people with my writing, and also that I use this power to kill my friends. Unlike these trolls, Ruppert was capable of thinking for himself. If these people are not being paid to deny abrupt climate change leading to human extinction, then they’re missing a fine opportunity.

You’d think I’d be accustomed to the shit storm raging around me, considering the frequency with which I’m exposed to it. You’d be mistaken. As it turns out, I’m as fragile as a typical human.

Those who prefer comfortable lies over inconvenient truths may want to look beyond this blog. Perhaps signing up for Reality 101 at the University of Minnesota would be a good place to start.