Schellnhuber: Hel en verdoemenis

De voorspellingen van Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, directeur van het ‘Potsdam Institut für Klimafolgenforschung’ (PIK), en raadgever van het Vaticaan bij de opstelling van de nieuwste encycliek Laudato Si, doen ernstige twijfels rijzen aan zijn verstandelijke vermogens.

Onder de titel, ‘Potsdam Institute Director Schellnhuber Presents 60,000 Year Predictions! … A Prophet, Or Just Stark Raving Mad?’ schreef de onvermoeibare Pierre Gosselin:

Rudolf Kipp of the Science Skeptical site has a post on the latest climate predictions of Hans-Joachim Schellnhuber, the Director of the alarmist Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). The institute is influential and is famous for being staffed with scientists who are homogenously alarmist and at times zealously intolerant of dissenting views.

Kipp refers to an article appearing at the NTV German public television website titled: “Man as a geological force – The next ice age is no longer coming.”

The NTV article writes that large parts of the earth are geologically scheduled to be covered by ice sheets in 60,000 years but that “man has succeeded in preventing this ice age. Already.” This, the NTV reports, was recently said by Schellnhuber at the opening of the climate conference in Munich.

NTV writes:

The next ice age won’t be taking place believes renowned climate scientist Hans Joachim Schellnhuber. The reason is man-caused global warming. Without the influence of man the next episode of ice sheets covering large parts of the earth would happen in about 60,000 years according to the laws of cosmic mechanics, said Schellnhuber …”

Schellnhuber said that the 500 billion tonnes of CO2 emitted by man into the atmosphere was “enough to prevent the onset of the next cold period.” Schellnhuber added, “Man has already become a powerful geological force that is even able to suppress ice ages.”

The Potsdam Professor does not shy away from mixing religious undertones to underscore his 60,000 year global visions. He claims, according to NTV, that unless we act politically and quickly, a 2°C warming will be surpassed soon and the earth will become beset by cataclysmic climate events. The NTV quotes Schellnhuber:
The sea level over the long-term would rise an estimated six meters and many ecosystems, such as the coral reefs, would be destroyed . ‘That is as certain as the Amen in Church.’” …

So just how should we judge Professor Schellnhuber and his most recent cataclysmic visions? Does science really have the ability to forecast natural events 1000 years ahead, let alone 60,000? Is there a single scientist out there who claims to have the profound knowledge needed to predict how a chaotic system, one involving thousands of random variables, will be in 60,000 years time? The answer of course is no. Already we see that the climate models couldn’t even get the first 20 years right! How can they be expected to get the next 59,980 years correct?

The only other explanation left to explain the visions is that Professor Schellnhuber is in fact a prophet. He did, after all, have an audience with the Pope and perhaps Mr. Schellnhuber shared his God-communicated visions to His Holiness himself. Now, with the Pope’s blessings, Schellnhuber has returned to tell us that our sins of today are in fact denying life to the creatures that are supposed to inhabit the ice sheets of the next ice ages. Indeed he claims to have seen profound visions of future worlds melting away. …

According to NTV, climate scientist Hans von Storch was asked to comment on Schellnhuber’s 60,000-year visions. NTV writes that his reaction was that “he views statements concerning time frames involving 60,000 years as daring“.

Von Storch obviously believes Schellnhuber neither has the scientific knowledge to make 60,000 year predictions, nor that he is a prophet bearing Visions of God.

It is truly incredible that today such wildly speculative visions are being marketed as valid scientific products, and are now being (mis)used as weapons of fear with the aim of ramming through an oppressive authoritarian climate policy. Recall that people who dare challenge this kind of extreme nonsense are today being threatened with legal prosecution! Where do we find ourselves when challenging obvious nonsense is now almost a crime?

Aldus Pierre Gosselin.

Lees verder hier.

Ik schreef het al eerder: de patiënten hebben de leiding van de psychiatrische kliniek overgenomen.

Een extra eredoctoraat zit er voor Schellnhuber waarschijnlijk niet in … alhoewel, je weet maar nooit in deze wereld in de ban van de klimaathysterie. Maar daarvoor verwijdert hij zich te ver van de mainstream. Maar een ere-kardinaalschap?

Maar alle gekheid op een stokje: zou Paus Franciscus zich nu niet achter de oren krabben dat hij deze fantast heeft ingehuurd als zijn belangrijkste raadgever inzake klimaat?

Voor mijn eerdere bijdragen over klimaat en aanverwante zaken zie hier, hier, hier, hier en hier.

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