Surprise: COVID Continues To Fall In Open Florida

By William Teach March 13, 2021 – 10:30 am

Florida and Governor Ron DeSantis have taken a lot of grief from Democrats for the way they’ve handled things during COVID. They were one of the least strict states. They never had a statewide mandate for masks, and DeSantis suspended all fines and penalties associated with not adhering to COVID-19-related restrictions on Sept. 25, hindering local leaders from enforcing their mandates. They’ve kept as much of the state open as possible. They really didn’t stop spring breakers last year, and you can bet if there had been big outbreaks it would have made the news. Same with this year. So, obviously, doom, right?

COVID cases continue to fall in Florida despite variants, hinting that America could avoid a ‘4th wave’

Ever since U.S. COVID-19 cases started their precipitous post-holiday decline, Americans have been anxious about the threat of yet another hurdle on the long road to recovery: a possible “fourth wave” of infections driven by the newer, more contagious U.K. variant known as B.1.1.7. Experts, meanwhile, have been watching Florida as a bellwether — the place where a fourth wave would probably crash first.

After all, Florida has more documented B.1.1.7 cases than any other state. It’s also rolled back precautions more quickly than most. If a spike is coming, the thinking went, Florida is where it would start.

Except … it hasn’t started yet.

Quite the opposite, in fact. After peaking on Jan. 8 at just under 18,000, Florida’s average daily case count has fallen by nearly 75 percent; today it’s down to 4,800. Hospitalizations have declined by half over the same period, as has Florida’s positivity rate (which now stands at 5.9 percent). And while other states such as New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee and Idaho are starting to see cases plateau — or even inch upward — as residents relax and restrictions are loosened, Florida’s case and hospitalization numbers have continued to fall by about 10 percent each week.

“We have a bellwether to know if the B.1.1.7 strain will hit the US — Florida,” Dr. Eric Topol of Scripps Research wrote earlier this week. “And there’s no sign of any increase in cases. All good so far.”

It’s probably helpful if the Blue staters stay in their own blue cities, rather than escaping and traveling and bringing COVID with them, as happened early on in the first few months of 2020. But, Florida haters (because it’s a Republican state) really, really want Florida to tank (which would mean people getting sick and dying) for political purposes

The key phrase, as always during this unpredictable pandemic, is “so far.” Just because a variant-driven fourth wave hasn’t yet struck Florida (or the U.S. as a whole) doesn’t necessarily mean it won’t, and nothing heightens the risk of another surge more than reckless, maskless indoor gatherings — at full-capacity restaurants; at crowded bars; at private parties — with lots of unvaccinated people. Events such as this week’s 300,000-person motorcycle rally in Daytona Beach are still risky. Like all Americans, Floridians should proceed with caution.

First, if people want to take that risk, that’s on them. It’s not government’s place to restrict freedom, even if it’s people making poor choices. Me, I wouldn’t go there. I’m fine with social distancing, no touching, washing hands a lot, don’t touch face (which is why I’m OK with a mask, because I’ll touch my face a lot during the day). That’s me. If you want to do different, OK with me, just don’t get in my space. I’ll avoid those situations.

But, what happens when there is no big spread? You won’t hear a peep out of the news.

Of course, Floridians have for months enjoyed more “freedom” to crowd indoors (without masks) than many of their fellow Americans, a fact that Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis takes pride in. But that only strengthens the case for fourth-wave optimism. If a state with a lot of B.1.1.7 and not a lot of restrictions is still doing OK, shouldn’t the rest of the country take that as a sign of hope?

The tentative answer is yes. America’s overall immunity numbers are almost identical to Florida’s: 30 percent infected, 19 percent vaccinated, about 40 percent protected to some degree. Spring is 10 days away; the weather will only get warmer. And cases and hospitalizations continue to fall nationwide by 10 to 15 percent a week.

So, perhaps lockdown didn’t work, and DeSantis was right.

Read: Surprise: COVID Continues To Fall In Open Florida »

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Surprise: Whistle Blowers Say US Should Move Money Out Of Green Climate Fund

By William Teach March 13, 2021 – 7:35 am

Gee, who would have thought that a United Nations program/fund would have such a problem, especially when it involves climate cultists?

Green Climate Fund whistleblowers urge US to take its money elsewhere – until ‘toxic’ workplace is fixed

John Kerry is promising the US will “make good” on its contribution to the Green Climate Fund.

The presidential climate envoy is seeking to rebuild bridges with the rest of the world after Donald Trump reneged on US climate commitments.

Delivering a $2 billion outstanding pledge to the UN-backed climate fund, for distribution to projects in developing countries, is widely seen as a good place to start.

Campaigners are calling on the Biden administration to commit a further $6bn to the fund. Yannick Glemarec, executive director of the fund, says US reengagement “will send an extraordinarily positive signal” and allow it to accelerate support for the green recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

Or, we could spend that money on American citizens who are suffering during a global pandemic. We could spend it on fixing lots of the infrastructure. We could spend it on research and development for renewables, making them more effective. We could spend it on the homeless. We could send every single American a Kindle Paperwhite and a years worth of Kindle Unlimited. At least those are real issues.

But the latest staff survey results, presented internally last month and seen by Climate Home News, show faith in the fund’s leadership is at rock bottom. Views of the senior management team were 24% favourable, 40% unfavourable.

Unless there is urgent reform, whistleblowers tell Climate Home News, the money would be better directed elsewhere. 

Three employees of the GCF secretariat who quit in 2019 and 2020 cite concerns about a lack of integrity in vetting projects and abuses of power creating a hostile working environment. This, they say, affects the quality of projects on the ground.

“Sincerely, I don’t think that the GCF, the way it is managed today, is a good channel for climate finance,” says Pierre-Daniel Telep, a German national with Cameroonian heritage who worked on renewable energy projects at the fund for two and a half years.

The UN isn’t particularly known for their integrity when it comes to projects and spending. Especially when it comes to money given from nations where there are no strings attached, since it is deemed that the 1st World nations owe it to the developing nations

Some of the most problematic bids came from countries hosting GCF board meetings and expecting to secure multi-million-dollar investments in return. 

Bahrain put in a bid for $32 million ahead of hosting one such meeting in October 2018. Despite oil export wealth putting it in the World Bank’s “high income” bracket, it is classed as a developing country under the UN climate convention – and therefore eligible for international climate finance. 

And they ended up getting money. Not $32 million, but, about $3 million. No need.

Then there are concerns about the workplace culture. 

In August 2020, the Financial Times reported on a wave of misconduct allegations at the fund. It cited the Re-Green Initiative – a network claiming to represent staff – and interviews with 17 current and former employees who remained anonymous. 

Complaints to the fund’s Independent Integrity Unit (IIU) nearly doubled to 40 in 2019, with 24 categorised as staff misconduct. Subsequent analysis by the IIU found that while the overall complaint rate was within range of similar institutions, the rate of misconduct allegations was significantly higher: 7.5 per 100 staff, compared to 1.8 at the World Bank and 2.8 at the Asian Development Bank. 

In fairness, most of these people are hardcore leftists who whine about everything, conflate minor things into mountains. “Triggered”. Offended. So, I’d take that with a grain of salt.

The 2020 staff survey included new questions designed to “probe pain points” identified through a series of “safe space” meetings. It showed there was a long way to go to regain staff trust: only one in three respondents (31%) said they believed action would be taken to address the problems identified.

If you need safe spaces, you perhaps should go work elsewhere. And the worker bees are not in charge, no matter what they think.

For the whistleblowers, fixing the “toxic” workplace culture needs to come first. 

“Personally, I think if the US really cares about climate and not the political angle… a better investment could be something more effective, more nimble, more professionally managed,” says Telep. 

Personally, I think the US should use it’s money on it’s own people.

Read: Surprise: Whistle Blowers Say US Should Move Money Out Of Green Climate Fund »

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Former State Department Investigator Claims COVID Could Have Come From Chinese Bioweapon Research Accident

By William Teach March 13, 2021 – 7:11 am

Something? Not something? It wouldn’t be the first time a virus was released unintentionally from the Wuhan facility. The whole “someone ate a bat or pangolin or something and created a whole new virus” was always a little sketchy, especially when it targeted the elderly and people with pre-existing conditions, but not the very young. And spread around the world very quickly. And one that has quickly created multiple variants in short order. The WHO and the China lovers keep searching for clues to avoid blaming China. Of course, in fairness, it could just be some bad circumstances. But

Former top State Dept investigator says COVID-19 outbreak may have resulted from bioweapons research accident

As top U.S. officials prepare to meet their Chinese counterparts for their first face-to-face meeting during the Biden administration, the State Department’s former lead investigator who oversaw the Task Force into the COVID-19 virus origin tells Fox News that he not only believes the virus escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, but that it may have been the result of research that the Chinese military, or People’s Liberation Army, was doing on a bioweapon.

“The Wuhan Institute of Virology is not the National Institute of Health,” David Asher, now a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute told Fox News in an exclusive interview. “It was operating a secret, classified program. In my view, and I’m just one person, my view is it was a biological weapons program.”

Asher has long been a “follow the money” guy who has worked on some of the most classified intelligence investigations for the State Department and Treasury under both Democratic and Republican administrations. He led the team that uncovered the international nuclear procurement network run by the father of Pakistan’s nuclear program, AQ Khan, and uncovered key parts of North Korea’s secret uranium enrichment. He believes the Chinese Communist Party has been involved in a massive cover-up during the past 14 months.

“And if you believe, as I do, that this might have been a weapons vector gone awry, not deliberately released, but in development and then somehow leaked, this has turned out to be the greatest weapon in history,” Asher said during a panel discussion at the Hudson Institute: The Origins of the COVID-10: Policy Implications and Lessons for the Future. “You’ve taken out 15 to 20 percent of global GDP. You’ve killed millions of people. The Chinese population has been barely affected. Their economies roared back to being number one in the entire G20.”

There is that one thing, that, supposedly, Chinese were barely effected. Which could be mule fritters, China could be hiding the numbers. Or, did they have vaccines ready after a leak? Was it designed to not effect Chinese? COVID barely touched Vietnam, Cambodia, South Korea, Mongolia, and Taiwan, nations with people’s closest genetically to Chinese. Again, it could just be happenstance.

At first, China said the COVID19 virus originated in the Wuhan Seafood Market – but the problem with China’s theory: the first case had no connection to the market. Last fall the US obtained intelligence that indicates there was an outbreak among several Wuhan lab scientists with flu-like symptoms that left them hospitalized in November of 2019 – before China reported its first case. Asher and the other Hudson Institute panel experts said that in 2007, China announced it would begin work on genetic bioweapons using controversial “gain of function” research to make the viruses more lethal.

Realistically, we may never know. But, remember, sometimes the most simple explanation is the correct one.

Read: Former State Department Investigator Claims COVID Could Have Come From Chinese Bioweapon Research Accident »

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Your Fault: Climate Crisis (scam) Could Lengthen Hottest Temps By 6 Months

By William Teach March 12, 2021 – 3:00 pm

We could have endless summer (which also causes massive cold spells and Bad Weather snow), all because you like your burgers

Endless Summer? Climate Crisis Could Lengthen Hottest Temperatures by Six Months

Six months of summer may sound like a school child’s fantasy, but it could be a very real, and very serious, impact of the climate crisis.

A study published in Geophysical Research Letters last month found that summer in the Northern Hemisphere could last nearly six months by 2100 if nothing is done to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. And this could spell “increased risks to humanity,” the study authors warned.

“A hotter and longer summer will suffer more frequent and intensified high-temperature events – heatwaves and wildfires,” Congwen Zhu of the State Key Laboratory of Severe Weather and Institute of Climate System at the Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences, who was not involved with the study, said in an American Geophysical Union (AGU) press release.

The research was based on the observation that summers are already getting longer in the Northern Hemisphere.

Zoinks! Who would think that summers are getting longer during a typical Holocene warm period? Like previous ones.

So Guan’s team looked at climate data from 1952 to 2011 in the Northern Hemisphere. They defined summer as when temperatures began to be 25 percent hotter than during the rest of the year, and winter as when temperatures were in the coldest 25 percent of the year. What they discovered is that seasons are already shifting:

The new study found that, on average, summer grew from 78 to 95 days between 1952 to 2011, while winter shrank from 76 to 73 days. Spring and autumn also contracted from 124 to 115 days, and 87 to 82 days, respectively. Accordingly, spring and summer began earlier, while autumn and winter started later. The Mediterranean region and the Tibetan Plateau experienced the greatest changes to their seasonal cycles.

Consider that from 1952 to about 1978 the Earth was going through a slight cooling period (to the point some where fearmongering about a coming ice age, if you recall), so, it’s not hard to see how it increased. But, especially since they simply set the terms of how they wanted the study to come out in support of the climate cult.

The researchers then used climate models to predict how the length of seasons would change in the future based on how swiftly we act to reduce emissions. They found that, in a business-as-usual scenario, summers would extend nearly six months while winters would last fewer than two.

So, they looked into their crystal ball to make prognostications. Science!

Read: Your Fault: Climate Crisis (scam) Could Lengthen Hottest Temps By 6 Months »

Posted in AGW Scaremongering, Global Warming | 1 Comment | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach March 12, 2021 – 1:00 pm

…is horrible heat snow due to Other People refusing to accept a carbon tax, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Creeping Sharia, with a post on a top Biden economic policy advisor being linked to Kashmiri extremists.

Read: If All You See… »

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USA Today Gaslights With Claim Cops Kill One Black Woman A Day

By William Teach March 12, 2021 – 10:30 am

And they’re all like Breonna Taylor. Which is an interesting hot take, since Taylor had a long relationship with a big time drug dealer with plenty of violence in his background and Breonna was the one who was handling all the drug money

Black women like Breonna Taylor die every day at the hands of police. It’s time we said their names.

No one sets out to be a Black Lives Matter martyr. But somewhere along the way last year, as masked marchers from Louisville to Las Vegas chanted her name, Breonna Taylor became a symbol of change.

Using a criminal as your martyr is probably not the best, eh?

Taylor’s fate was sealed in the wee hours of March 13, 2020, when three Louisville Metro Police officers burst into the 26-year-old’s apartment on a no-knock warrant, firing 32 bullet rounds and killing the emergency room technician as she stood in her hallway with her boyfriend, who survived.

Now her death is bringing new life to the stories of other Black women who have died at the hands of police or in police custody, those whose names and identities have largely gone unknown and unacknowledged.

While the names of too many Black men and boys killed by police – Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Philando Castile, Freddie Gray, Tamir Rice – are widely known, Black women’s cases have rarely garnered national attention.

Probably because there aren’t that many. And a lot of the men were criminals attacking the police

There’s not a lot of data on the police-involved deaths of Black women; no national registry exists. But The Washington Post has noted nearly 250 women, including 48 Black women, have been shot and killed by police since the newspaper began tracking police-involved shootings in 2015.

So, according to the article the headline is 100% a lie. 48 in 6 years is rather below the threshold of one a day, right? And nowhere in the rest of the screed, which is less an article and more a propping up of the #SayHerName movement, along with the normal hatred for police, is the headline backed up. 48 in 6 years is not many. And, most of them were involved in criminal activity and/or attacking police officers. This is the height of journalistic malpractice.

Read: USA Today Gaslights With Claim Cops Kill One Black Woman A Day »

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Bummer: It’s Mostly White Men Talking About Climate Apocalypse On TV

By William Teach March 12, 2021 – 7:36 am

Obvioiusly, climate change is raaaaacist and seeeeexist

Who’s talking about climate change on TV? Mostly white men.

If you watched news about climate change on TV last year, chances are you saw a white man on-screen.

According to an analysis published this week by Media Matters For America, a nonprofit media watchdog, people of color made up just 8 percent of guests interviewed or featured in the major broadcast networks’ climate coverage in 2020 — we’re looking at you, ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox Broadcasting Company. Women were also less likely to be in front of the camera, comprising 28 percent of guests.

Could it be that “people of color”, by which Media Matters means black people, really just do not care about the climate scam? That it’s not something they’re interested in? That, perhaps, especially in 2020, they were more interested in other issues, like police reform? Why are all these white people, especially white males, always trying to force others to be a part of their cult?

The total amount of time that these broadcast networks spent on the climate crisis was down 53 percent compared to 2019. Climate-related segments claimed 112 minutes of airtime over the course of the year, less than your average movie. That’s not because there weren’t worthy stories — wildfires blazed, the Arctic lost historic amounts of ice, and 2020 was tied for the warmest year on record — but likely because the pandemic consumed our lives. The study found that broadcast coverage rarely mentioned the connections between coronavirus and climate change, such as how both disasters disproportionately impact people of color and lower-income communities.

Well, gee, the pandemic was just so inconvenient for the Cult of Climastrology, what with all the people getting sick, people dying, people losing their jobs and businesses.

The underwhelming representation of people of color isn’t new. 2020 marks the fourth consecutive year — as long as Media Matters has been tracking the numbers — that less than 10 percent of network television’s climate guests were people of color. Only six women of color were featured out of the total 89 guests the report identified.

“This lopsided representation flatly ignores the reality that, due to historical and current injustices, climate change disproportionately affects communities of color,” the report’s authors write.

White people telling black people they should care, and black people continuing to not care. Rather white privilege of these climate cultists, eh?

Why, then, have people of color and women repeatedly been underrepresented in broadcast television? Allison Fisher, the director of Media Matters’ climate and energy program, suggested that television news outlets often don’t make the effort to speak to frontline communities, relying on climate scientists and politicians instead. In 2020, a presidential election year, politicians were the most common guests for climate change segments. While climate activists were more commonly featured in prior years, broadcast TV only featured one activist guest this past year — Greta Thunberg, the small but mighty Swedish activist.

Wow, that was patronizing. They totally discount what POC want to think for themselves, that they are not allowed to make their own decisions, that they must think in a certain way, if only the Credentialed Media would talk to them more.

The problem runs deeper than television — it’s partly a reflection of diversity issues in climate science, advocacy, journalism, and politics. Although numbers have ticked up in recent years, people of color still make up a very small percentage, sometimes less than 10 percent, of top environmental groups’ staff, according to Green 2.0, a nonprofit watchdog. If the people leading the most well-known organizations are consistently white men, Fisher said, they’re going to be the ones featured on television.

Did anyone consider that POC might not want to be involved? That they don’t care about those subjects or want to work in those industries? That, perhaps, they care about other things?

Read: Bummer: It’s Mostly White Men Talking About Climate Apocalypse On TV »

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China Joe: If You’re Good, Compliant Comrades, We Might Be Able To Have Small Gatherings For July 4th

By William Teach March 12, 2021 – 7:18 am

Is there anyone who can prove that China Joe’s Big Primetime Speech was doing live? No way he got through the whole thing, unless they pumped him full of meds. Anyhow, dude not wearing a mask in violation of his own Executive Order has proclamations

From the Daily Caller

(Not My) President Joe Biden said Thursday night that there is a “good chance” people can have small gatherings for the Fourth of July, but warned that Americans need to listen to Dr. Anthony Fauci and get vaccinated.

“I need you to get vaccinated when it’s your turn, and when you can find an opportunity,” Biden said during his Thursday night presidential address. “And to help your family, your friends, your neighbors get vaccinated as well.”

Would this be the same vaccine (actually, several different types) which Joe and so many Dems would never happen for years, but, was accomplished around election day?

“Because here’s the point – if we do all of this, if we do our part, if we do this together, by July the 4th, there’s a good chance you, your families and friends, will be able to get together in your backyard or in your neighborhood and have a cookout and a barbecue and celebrate Independence Day,” Biden added.

The president said that celebrating Independence Day doesn’t mean people can gather in large groups, “but it does mean small groups will be able to get together after this long, hard year.”

Biden then told Americans that the “goal” is to be able to celebrate the Fourth of July, but that they need to listen to Fauci and take the vaccine, which Biden says he knows is safe. Many Americans have said that they will not take the coronavirus vaccine, including 47% of supporters of former President Donald Trump.

As the vaccine has become more available, I’ve heard more and more come forth saying they are not going to take it, especially now that it is available for those in my profession, since we were deemed “essential” during the lockdown months (I got my Pfizer shot yesterday, scheduled for 2nd in April). Some just refuse to take a shot, some have objections over how fast developed, waiting to see about how it works out, and they are a smattering of conservatives and Trump haters.

These are things many are already doing. Heck, these are things we are already doing at places of business, albeit with masks on in most states. China Joe is just reading lines someone else wrote for him, with no comprehension as to what it means.

Read: China Joe: If You’re Good, Compliant Comrades, We Might Be Able To Have Small Gatherings For July 4th »

Posted in Bat Soup Virus, Joe Biden | 45 Comments | Trackback URL

Surprise: California AG won’t Share “Gun Violence” Data

By William Teach March 11, 2021 – 6:48 pm

Over in the House today, they passed two bills on guns. One, which I’ve mentioned before, simply extends background checks to almost every private transfer. No biggie there, but, hey, I’m sure criminals will comply, right? The other extends the waiting period up to 10 days for the the FBI to have to return the background check, which could be problematic. Regardless of how tame these are, and they were passed mostly on party line, they are simply steps to the real gun grabbing they want. Rather than the One Big Bill, gun grabbing by a 1,000 papercuts, with them saying, in short order (providing they even make it through the Senate), that they didn’t work, so, Something Else needs to be done. But, how do we know when data is being blocked?

California attorney general cuts off researchers’ access to gun violence data

For decades, America’s gun violence researchers fought an uphill battle against the National Rifle Association to obtain the data and funding they need to study the effects of US gun laws. But researchers in California say they are now facing a different, unexpected hurdle: the state’s outgoing Democratic attorney general.

Under Xavier Becerra, who has been nominated to serve as Joe Biden’s health secretary, California’s department of justice started to deny researchers access to firearms data used to evaluate a wide range of gun laws and policies.

The new data restrictions have put key projects at California’s state-funded gun violence research center in limbo, and locked Becerra into a bitter, bizarre public standoff with one of America’s most respected gun violence researchers.

California, which has much stricter gun laws than most American states, also has more detailed government data available, including records of individual handgun purchasers going back decades and statewide records about the restraining orders filed to temporarily bar at-risk people from owning or buying guns.

That’s interesting. I wonder why it’s being blocked?

But it’s precisely this more detailed personal information, including about gun purchasers, and subjects of gun violence restraining orders, that Becerra’s justice department is telling some researchers that it will not provide. The department is also attempting to formalize some of these policies, including in a proposed rulemaking under discussion this week that would limit researcher’s access to personal information about the subjects of gun violence restraining orders across the state.

The justice department has cited privacy concerns as a justification for the data restrictions, and has said it believes current California law does not permit the agency to release certain kinds of data to researchers.

Could that be it? Because giving up people’s private files seems like a big invasion of privacy

But Garen Wintemute, a professor at the University of California, Davis, and the director of California’s firearms violence research center, said some of the data the justice department is now denying researchers had been previously shared with them for decades, and other data is specifically mandated to be shared with the gun violence research center under California law.

So, why block it now? What is being hidden? Some are wondering if it will show that Becerra’s policies have not been successful, or California’s, for that matter. We can all speculate (I think it would show a failure of California gun restrictions and just who is shooting whom the most), but, you may see hardcore lefty gun grabbing groups, such as Brady United Against Gun Violence, Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, and the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, sue California and Becerra.

BTW

Read: Surprise: California AG won’t Share “Gun Violence” Data »

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Climahysteria Has Now Spread To TikTok Or Something

By William Teach March 11, 2021 – 3:00 pm

TikTok used to be a place where idiots could go to be obsessed, outrage, freaking out, etc (I’m not going to search for examples, which I usually find on the front page of Yahoo, because then I’ll be here all day linking Crazy), along with posting their narcissism and dumb stuff. Apparently to amuse people in China who are harvesting people’s information. Now?

Meet the Climate Change Activists of TikTok

When Louis Levanti woke up one morning last September, climate change wasn’t on his mind. “I was never huge into researching climate change, but I was aware that it is real.” So when the 24-year-old TikTok creator, who lives with his parents on Long Island, opened his phone and saw something about a clock being unveiled, he wasn’t initially interested. “I rolled my eyes thinking it had something to do with the stock market.”

The Climate Clock, in Union Square in New York City, counts down how much time we have left to act before climate change is irreversible. Levanti, who normally posts videos with topics like “weird food that celebrities like to eat” or “annoying things people do at the gym,” was distressed, and he immediately decided to make a TikTok video about it. “It’s a problem that can’t be ignored,” he said. “Why not responsibly use my big platform to educate people and wake some people up the way I was?”

In the TikTok video, Levanti, superimposed over an image of Earth on fire, says, “Hey, stop scrolling. Our planet is fucking dying.” It’s gotten over 314,000 views and been shared nearly 14,000 times. There are over 5,000 comments, some of which are heartbreaking: “I am 13, does that mean my future children will suffer.” “It’s sad that younger people have to suffer because of this.”

Well, that’s interesting (nutbaggery), since other cultists claim that all this social media contributes to ‘climate change’.

The world is facing a climate change problem, and climate change is facing a communication problem. The complexities and hypotheticals of climate science do not translate well to an audience who just wants to know whether the dress was blue or white. And yet, on TikTok, one of the world’s most active communication platforms, climate change is a rapidly growing topic. The hashtag #ForClimate has over 533 million views. A video showing a girl singing, “We’re killing the earth and that’s really fun, nobody believes us because we are young,” has over 6.4 million likes. Every day, thousands of mostly Gen Z content creators post videos about climate change and their personal relationship to it. In the span of five minutes, you can get tips on the zero waste movement, watch a teenager cry while looking at starving polar bears, learn about environmental racism, and see scientists working in Antarctica.

Of course, this is mostly being done in a “look at me” manner, attempting to become some sort of “influencer” and get free stuff. The question they should all be asked is “what are you doing in your life other than posting Doomy Scaremongering videos?”

But one of the challenges of having thousands of eager “knowledge brokers” telling their stories about climate change is exactly that: For the sake of good engagement and a good story, they say (and do) whatever they want. Discussion of global warming on TikTok is often simplified to “doom and gloom” commentary, or the misguided idea that at this point there’s nothing we can do to stop climate change, something that Cameron Brick, a professor of social psychology at the University of Amsterdam, says is actually dangerous. “If you paint it as a terrible tragedy, people either turn away from it or internalize it and feel despair and then disengage.” A study published in 2019 in the journal Frontiers in Communication revealed that dire climate change content can lead to fatalism and inaction.

Of course, doom and gloom is pretty much all the Cult of Climastrology has.

Another result of unvetted climate change information is a misguided focus on individual actions, such as using lower-wattage light bulbs or metal straws. “One of the dangers of this kind of unvetted information is that people can be led into low-impact behaviors that are not going to move the needle enough,” said Brick. Leah Thomas, the creator of Intersectional Environmentalist, disagrees. “There’s too much gatekeeping of activism and what it could look like. Let the kids pop lock and drop it for the planet on TikTok.” She says she’s seen firsthand the impact of bringing attention to climate change. “Awareness leads to empowerment and knowledge, which leads to real action.”

And, of course, the CoC is not happy when people take individual actions, that they practice what they preach, because this isn’t about science, but implementing authoritarian governmental control.

Read: Climahysteria Has Now Spread To TikTok Or Something »

Posted in AGW Idiocy, AGW Scaremongering, Global Warming | 3 Comments | Trackback URL
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