As the United Nations COP27 climate conference starts, we are faced with yet more predictions of doom, such as the recent UN threat published in The Guardian: UN chief warns ‘we will be doomed’ without historic climate pact.” This claim is false, as were the numerous similar claims made repeatedly in the past.
According to the Guardian:
“For the simple reason that we are approaching tipping points, and tipping points will make [climate breakdown] irreversible,” he said. “That damage would not allow us to recover, and to contain temperature rises. And as we are approaching those tipping points, we need to increase the urgency, we need to increase the ambition, and we need to rebuild trust, mainly trust between north and south.”
Tipping points are thresholds within the climate system that lead to cascading impacts when tripped. They include the melting of permafrost, which releases methane, a powerful greenhouse gas that fuels further heating, and the point at which the drying Amazon rainforest switches from being an absorber to being a source of carbon, which scientists fear is fast approaching.
“We are getting close to tipping points that will create irreversible impacts, some of them difficult even to imagine,” he warned.
Where have we heard that before?
It is useful to note there is some factual news that once again, predictions of climate driven catastrophe have not occurred. A 1995 article in the New York Times (NYT), for instance cited an “expert,” who claimed east coast beaches would be wiped out by 2020; the forecasts were based on climate models.
The NYT story and the models it was based upon were wrong, as the evidence of anyone’s senses who checks will show.
Despite being wrong, rapid acceleration climate model scenarios are still used today.
Those making predictions based on such models, and the reporters hyping their claims, have clearly learned nothing from their history of past failed predictions.