Pagans at large

Aussie Warmist tossed under the bus

Thomas Lifson

Oops. Can't let the public know how wacko you really are.

Professor Tim Flannery is one of the world's most prominent global alarmists -- as Chairman of the Copenhagen Climate Council, and 2007 recipient of the Australian of the Year award in his native country, the most prestigious honor Down Under, endorsed by the Australian government. But Professor Flannery has suddenly become persona non grata in warmist circles. And not for his history of hysterical predictionsthat haven't come true.

No, the good professor (a mammologist, not an environmental scientist) let slip the wacky quasi-religious basis for his climate activism. Andrew Bolt, syndicated Australian journalist, has the story:

Alarmist of the Year and warmist guru Tim Flannery on the ABC's Science Show on January 1:

I think that within this century the concept of the strong Gaia will actually become physically manifest. I do think that the Gaia of the Ancient Greeks, where they believed the earth was effectively one whole and perfect living creature, that doesn't exist yet, but it will exist in future...

With our technology now, particularly computer based surveillance systems in agriculture and in the oceans and whatever else, we're developing a sort of nervous system that allows us to convey that message to the planet. We'll never be able to control the earth, there's no doubt about it. We can't control its systems. But we can nudge them and we can foresee danger. Once that occurs, then the Gaia of the Ancient Greeks really will exist.This planet, this Gaia, will have acquired a brain and a nervous system. That will make it act as a living animal, as a living organism, at some sort of level.

I live in Berkeley, so I am familiar with the Gaia worshippers, a preponderance of whom are female. Gaia is the earth goddess. Normally, gaia worshippers are not considered scientists. Whatever else you say about Gaia theorists, don't call them scientists, call them devotees of a religion.

It has long been apparent that global warming is more of a religious faith than a scientific theory. It's adherents are capable of rationalizing any data -- high temperatures, cold temperatures, lack of rain, too much rain, and on and on -- as proof of their faith.

But open talk of Gaia's brain and nervous system is just a little too embarrassing for the warmists down under, where the good professor's remarks have received publicity. Via a link from Andrew Bolt, Aussie warmists Roger M. Gifford, Will Steffen, and John Finnigan backtrack:

talk of the earth "growing a brain" trivialises the growing body of knowledge about the functioning of the whole-earth system.