Environmental
journalists and advocates have in recent weeks made a number of
apocalyptic predictions about the impact of climate change.
Bill McKibben suggested climate-driven fires in Australia had made koalas “functionally extinct.”
Extinction Rebellion said: “Billions will die” and “Life on Earth is dying.” Vice claimed the “collapse of civilization may have already begun.”
Few
have underscored the threat more than student climate activist Greta
Thunberg and Green New Deal sponsor Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
The latter said, “The world is going to end in 12 years if we don’t address climate change.” Says
Thunberg in her new book, “Around 2030 we will be in a position to set
off an irreversible chain reaction beyond human control that will lead
to the end of our civilization as we know it.”
Sometimes,
scientists themselves make apocalyptic claims. “It’s difficult to see
how we could accommodate a billion people or even half of that,” if
Earth warms four degrees, said one earlier this year.
“The potential for multi-breadbasket failure is increasing,” said another. If sea levels rise as much as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts, another scientist said, “It will be an unmanageable problem.”
Apocalyptic statements like these have real-world impacts. In September, a group of British psychologists said children are increasingly suffering from anxiety from the frightening discourse around climate change.
In
October, an activist with Extinction Rebellion (”XR”) — an
environmental group founded in 2018 to commit civil disobedience to draw
awareness to the threat its founders and supporters say climate change
poses to human existence — and a videographer, were kicked and beaten in a London Tube station by angry commuters.
And last week, an XR co-founder said a genocide like the Holocaust was “happening again, on a far greater scale, and in plain sight” from climate change.
Climate
change is an issue I care passionately about and have dedicated a
significant portion of my life to addressing. I have been politically active on the issue for over 20 years and have researched and written about it for 17 years.
Over
the last four years, my organization, Environmental Progress, has
worked with some of the world’s leading climate scientists to prevent
carbon emissions from rising. So far, we’ve helped prevent emissions
from increasing the equivalent of adding 24 million cars to the road.
I
also care about getting the facts and science right and have in recent
months corrected inaccurate and apocalyptic news media coverage of fires in the Amazon and fires in California, both of which have been improperly presented as resulting primarily from climate change.
Journalists
and activists alike have an obligation to describe environmental
problems honestly and accurately, even if they fear doing so will reduce
their news value or salience with the public.
There is good evidence that the catastrophist framing of climate change is self-defeating because it alienates and polarizes many people.
And
exaggerating climate change risks is distracting us from other
important issues including ones we might have more near-term control
over.
I feel the need to say this up-front because I want the
issues I’m about to raise to be taken seriously and not dismissed by
those who label anyone as “climate deniers” or “climate delayers” who
push back against exaggeration.
With that out of the way, let’s look at whether the science supports what’s being said.
First,
no credible scientific body has ever said climate change threatens the
collapse of civilization much less the extinction of the human species.
“‘Our children are going to die in the next 10 to 20 years.’
What’s the scientific basis for these claims?” BBC’s Andrew Neil asked a visibly uncomfortable XR spokesperson last month.
“These
claims have been disputed, admittedly,” she said. “There are some
scientists who are agreeing and some who are saying it’s not true. But
the overall issue is that these deaths are going to happen.”
“But
most scientists don’t agree with this,” said Neil. “I looked through
IPCC reports and see no reference to billions of people going to die, or
children in 20 years. How would they die?”
“Mass
migration around the world already taking place due to prolonged drought
in countries, particularly in South Asia. There are wildfires in
Indonesia, the Amazon rainforest, Siberia, the Arctic,” she said.
But
in saying so, the XR spokesperson had grossly misrepresented the
science. “There is robust evidence of disasters displacing people
worldwide,” notes IPCC, “but limited evidence that climate change or sea-level rise is the direct cause.”
What about “mass migration”? “The majority of resultant population movements tend to occur within the borders of affected countries,” says IPCC.
It’s not like climate doesn’t matter. It’s that climate change is outweighed by other factors.
Earlier this year, researchers found
that climate “has affected organized armed conflict within countries.
However, other drivers, such as low socioeconomic development and low
capabilities of the state, are judged to be substantially more
influential.”
Last January, after climate scientists criticized
Rep. Ocasio-Cortez for saying the world would end in 12 years, her
spokesperson said:
“We can quibble about the phraseology, whether it’s existential or
cataclysmic.” He added, “We’re seeing lots of [climate change-related]
problems that are already impacting lives.”
That last part may be
true, but it’s also true that economic development has made us less
vulnerable, which is why there was a 99.7% decline in the death toll from natural disasters since its peak in 1931.
In 1931, 3.7 million people died from natural disasters. In 2018, just 11,000 did. And that decline occurred over a period when the global population quadrupled.
What
about sea-level rise? IPCC estimates sea level could rise two feet (0.6
meters) by 2100. Does that sound apocalyptic or even “unmanageable”?
Consider that one-third of the Netherlands is below sea level, and some areas are seven meters below sea level. You might object that the Netherlands is rich while Bangladesh is poor.
But the Netherlands adapted to living below sea level 400 years ago. Technology has improved a bit since then.
What
about claims of crop failure, famine, and mass death? That’s science
fiction, not science. Humans today produce enough food for 10 billion
people or 25% more than we need, and scientific bodies predict increases
in that share, not declines.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) forecasts
crop yields increasing by 30% by 2050. And the poorest parts of the
world, like sub-Saharan Africa, are expected to see increases of 80 to
90%.
Nobody is suggesting climate change won’t negatively impact
crop yields. It could. But such declines should be put in perspective.
Wheat yields increased 100 to 300% around the world since the 1960s, while a study of 30 models found that yields would decline by 6% for every one degree Celsius increase in temperature.
Rates
of future yield growth depend far more on whether poor nations get
access to tractors, irrigation, and fertilizer than on climate change,
says FAO.
All of this helps explain why IPCC anticipates climate
change will have a modest impact on economic growth. By 2100, IPCC
projects the global economy will be 300 to 500% larger than it is today.
Both IPCC and the Nobel-winning Yale economist, William Nordhaus, predict that warming of 2.5°C and 4°C would reduce gross domestic product (GDP) by 2% and 5% over that same period.
Does this mean we shouldn’t worry about climate change? Not at all.
One of the reasons I work on climate change is because I worry about the impact it could have on endangered species.
Climate change may threaten one million species globally and half
of all mammals, reptiles, and amphibians in diverse places like the
Albertine Rift in central Africa, home to the endangered mountain
gorilla.
But it’s not the case that “we’re putting our own survival in danger” through extinctions, as Elizabeth Kolbert claimed in her book, Sixth Extinction. As tragic as animal extinctions are, they do not threaten human civilization.
If
we want to save endangered species, we need to do so because we care
about wildlife for spiritual, ethical, or aesthetic reasons, not
survival ones.
And exaggerating the risk and suggesting climate
change is more important than things like habitat destruction is
counterproductive.
For example, Australia’s fires are not driving koalas ‘extinct,’ as Bill McKibben suggested.
The main scientific body that tracks the species, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, or IUCN, labels
the koala “vulnerable,” which is one level less threatened than
“endangered,” two levels less than “critically endangered,” and three
less than “extinct” in the wild.
Should we worry about koalas?
Absolutely! They are amazing animals and their numbers have declined to
around 300,000. But they face far bigger threats such as the destruction of habitat, disease, bushfires, and invasive species.
Think
of it this way. The climate could change dramatically — and we could
still save koalas. Conversely, the climate could change only modestly —
and koalas could still go extinct.
The monomaniacal focus on
climate distracts our attention from other threats to koalas and
opportunities for protecting them, like protecting and expanding their
habitat.
As for fire, one of Australia’s leading scientists on the issue says,
“Bushfire losses can be explained by the increasing exposure of dwellings to fire-prone bushlands. No other influences need to be invoked. So even if climate change had played some small role in modulating recent bushfires, and we cannot rule this out, any such effects on risk to the property are clearly swamped by the changes in exposure.”
Nor
are the fires solely due to drought, which is common in Australia, and
exceptional this year. “Climate change is playing its role here,” said
Richard Thornton of the Bushfire and Natural Hazards Cooperative
Research Centre in Australia, “but it’s not the cause of these fires.”
The same is true for fires in the United States. In 2017, scientists modeled 37 different regions and found “humans may not only influence fire regimes but their presence can actually override, or swamp out, the effects of climate.”
Of
the 10 variables that influence fire, “none were as significant… as the
anthropogenic variables,” such as building homes near, and managing
fires and wood fuel growth within, forests.
Climate scientists are starting to push back against exaggerations by activists, journalists, and other scientists.
“While many species are threatened with extinction,” said
Stanford’s Ken Caldeira, “climate change does not threaten human
extinction… I would not like to see us motivating people to do the right
thing by making them believe something that is false.”
I asked
the Australian climate scientist Tom Wigley what he thought of the claim
that climate change threatens civilization. “It really does bother me
because it’s wrong,” he said. “All these young people have been
misinformed. And partly it’s Greta Thunberg’s fault. Not deliberately.
But she’s wrong.”
But don’t scientists and activists need to exaggerate in order to get the public’s attention?
“I’m
reminded of what [late Stanford University climate scientist] Steve
Schneider used to say,” Wigley replied. “He used to say that as a
scientist, we shouldn’t really be concerned about the way we slant
things in communicating with people out on the street who might need a
little push in a certain direction to realize that this is a serious
problem. Steve didn’t have any qualms about speaking in that biased way.
I don’t quite agree with that.”
Wigley started working on climate
science full-time in 1975 and created one of the first climate models
(MAGICC) in 1987. It remains one of the main climate models in use
today.
“When I talk to the general public,” he said, “I point out some of the things that might make projections of warming less and the things that might make them more. I always try to present both sides.”
Part
of what bothers me about the apocalyptic rhetoric by climate activists
is that it is often accompanied by demands that poor nations be denied
the cheap sources of energy they need to develop. I have found that many
scientists share my concerns.
“If you want to minimize carbon
dioxide in the atmosphere in 2070 you might want to accelerate the
burning of coal in India today,” MIT climate scientist Kerry Emanuel
said.
“It doesn’t sound like it makes sense. Coal is terrible for
carbon. But it’s by burning a lot of coal that they make themselves
wealthier, and by making themselves wealthier they have fewer children,
and you don’t have as many people burning carbon, you might be better
off in 2070.”
Emanuel and Wigley say the extreme rhetoric is making any political agreement on climate change harder.
“You’ve
got to come up with some kind of middle ground where you do reasonable
things to mitigate the risk and try at the same time to lift people out
of poverty and make them more resilient,” said Emanuel. “We shouldn’t be
forced to choose between lifting people out of poverty and doing
something for the climate.”
Happily, there is plenty of middle ground between climate apocalypse and climate denial.
Michael Shellenberger was Time Magazine’s “Hero of the Environment,” Green Book Award Winner, and President of Environmental Progress, a research and policy organization. He is also the author of several bestselling books.
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