How insane can some activist academics be? Honestly, I fear for the future of my children (and grandchildren should I ever have any) with the way the world is going – and the fact there are so many so-called “educated” people who obviously have little education in reality.
Today, we see this more and more in the activist progressive world of “environmentalism.” Whether you agree that climate change that we have observed (some warming over the past 150 years) is due to anthropogenic causes, or part of long term – multi-decadal and multi-centenary (or even longer as one recent paper has proposed) cycles, we really should be demanding that our academics and teachers stick to real science, and not some fantastical universe where you can make any kind of nonsense up.
Today, it seems activists, if they have some academic letters after their name can say pretty much whatever they want and are not questioned for their idiotic statements. As long as it is all in line with the ridiculous catastrophic prophecies that the progressive left-wing press is so fond of, you’re apparently “good to go” and won’t be questioned on any fantastical thing you claim.
Even so called “science” related periodicals and those journalists who claim an interest in science will let anything go. I am going to start documenting this as I come across them; I should have been doing this for the past 8 years, when I became interested in the study of “climate science.” Perhaps one of my posts will be about the very long list of prophecies that have been made, and that have never come close to coming true. When that happens, you know you are dealing with a pseudoscience that is more like a religion, then you are science.
So what’s the latest idiotic statement?
There’s a Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara, named Leah Stokes. On her Twitter profile, the professor has this to say about herself:
“Prof @UCSBpolisci. Alum @MIT @Columbia @UofT. Research on climate and energy politics, political behavior, public policy. Feminist.”
I came across Stokes while reading a National Geographic article online entitled, What can a Green New Deal learn from other countries?
Okay, well looking at some of the insanity contained in the recent document released by some American Congress members (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Edward Markey (D-MA)) about a “Green New Deal” can be examined at a later point; what’s interesting is that the National Geographic piece is so lame, it does not discuss any of the major and important criticisms of this “Deal.” You can go read the article for yourself (I’ll link to it shortly), but it contains the regular talking points about various energy alternatives – and countries that have implemented them. Such as Denmark – but of course, they fail to mention the “Anti-Wind” problem in Denmark and the fact this tiny country has actually been decommissioning wind turbines.
A recent Danish policy brief states,
“… Denmark’s transition to a more competitive market pricing scheme has resulted in projects becoming more investment intensive, that is, more turbines, more cost, and more risk. This policy change effectively abolished village-owned wind projects while enriching mega-corporations like Vestas and Siemens.
But who cares about all that, and reality, right? When you’re pushing a progressive leftist agenda (and please note, before you might project: No, I am not a “right-winger”).
So, now lets get to the real insanity we see in these types of articles. Let’s get back to Professor Stokes. In the National Geographic article, the author of the article, one Alejandra Borunda quotes Stokes:
“There’s carbon everywhere, and we have to get rid of it,” says Stokes. “But we have all the technology we need. This isn’t impossible.
Read that again. “There’s carbon everywhere, and we have to get rid of it.”
This is “shake your head” time at utter insanity. The first part of her sentence is in fact true, and it’s so dead on, it makes the second part absolutely irrational. But these activists today don’t really care about rationality or facts, it seems. Now, I don’t know about you, but when I went to school, we learned some basic biology and chemistry, and then in high school, we could take more advanced courses in those subjects. But it was pretty important for us to know at least, some very basics.
Let’s look at some chemical and biological facts about carbon:
Carbon is the FOURTH most abundant element in the Universe.
It is also the Second most abundant in the human body.
But fools like Stokes, who seem to think they know everything but don’t have a grasp of basic chemistry or biology (how the hell did they ever get into University in the first place and who were their professors??) wants to “get rid of (carbon).”
Carbon is an element that is common to ALL known life! Getting rid of it, means getting rid of life itself, and quite possibly the entire Universe.
We’d also have to get rid of planet earth as well, as carbon is the 15th most abundant element in the earth’s crust. Not sure how you could obliterate the earth though, and get rid of all that carbon. Perhaps Stokes has some weird Unicorn/Fairy story way of doing it – whatever it is, her ideas are certainly not based in any scientific reality, and if she is unable to recall some very simple lessons from school, then one might be tempted to think that much of what she teaches in political science is based on some crazy insane fantasies she holds.
The sad part is that people such as Stokes are seldom taken to task for their idiotic comments. Okay – a challenge to Professor Stokes:
Please gather together some geologists and biologists in the same room, and demand of them: “Come up with a plan to get rid of carbon.”
IF they realize you are not joking, they will realize you hold some insane ideas.
The link to the National Geographic magazine where you can read the signs of the insane thinking is here.