This week, the paranoid insecurity and persecution complex frequently exhibited by deniers found the perfect excuse to express itself. Forum for the Future, a UK sustainability group, worked with Hewlett-Packard in 2008 on a report meant to provide business with five different scenarios for how civil society might react to climate change. In the most extreme scenario, the report imagines that climate denial has been made illegal and offenders are exiled to island penal colonies.
In the other scenarios in the report, all somewhat exaggerated extremes to illustrate a point, climate change is held in check only by constantly improving technology, or by an economic shift to a sharing, service-based economy or more sustainable form of capitalism where quality of life is prioritized over income. These are clearly the preferable scenarios, which required action sooner rather than later, and the full participation of businesses instead of a last-ditch reliance on government to force action.
To be perfectly clear: the Forum for the Future report is not climate modeling, or a set of organizing guidelines for activists, or any sort of literal description of the future. It is a depiction of vastly different possible ways in which society could react to climate change, from techno-futurism to stark draconian measures if action isn’t taken in time. Other dire futures the report posits include mass hunger crises, the prioritization of space travel as shipping becomes restricted, and Coca-Cola splitting into two rival companies battling over the profitable formula as resources and consumer cash become increasingly scarce. But grasping the larger context of a thought exercise is not deniers’ forte.
Denier panic began when conservative Australian magazine Quadrant decided to write on the ten year old report (perhaps a bit tongue-in-cheek) but then quickly spread to WUWT, the Australian Daily Telegraph, and Jo Nova’s blog, which was then linked by Climate Depot.
The point of the extreme scenario where civil liberties are revoked and police states arise is to warn that the longer we wait to take action, the more extreme our efforts will need to be to protect ourselves.
But Quadrant claims the report “cheerfully anticipates penal colonies for sceptics,” while WUWT’s headline blares that Forum for the Future “planned penal colonies for skeptics.” Meanwhile, Jo Nova describes to the scenario under the headline “Wet Dream of Climate Dictators” (um...gross) which even Climate Depot toned down to “Climate dictatorship wish:...” when linking to the post.
It’s understandable that they might be feeling a bit anxious about legal action from green groups, given the recent Exxon suits and New York City’s big announcement earlier this week that it would throw its weight behind yet another lawsuit against Big Oil.
But outside of obviously and intentionally fictional scenarios from a decade ago, literally no one is talking about exiling deniers to penal colonies.
Well, at least we weren’t, until now…
Top Climate and Clean Energy Stories: