As IF Times

link Giant mass extinction may have been quicker than previously thought | e! Science News.

If the conclusions in this most recent study are to be believed, the mass extinction of most life forms on earth happened almost “instantaneously” in geological terms, a few millennia ago.  Hmm.

Instantaneously.

That sounds dramatic until you read further and discover that “instantaneously” in geological terms is plus or minus 60,000 years.  So the virtual annihilation of all of the earth’s life forms, took almost 60,000 years from the time of the postulated explosions of volcanoes.

For most, 60,000 years is a stretch of time that would allow someone possessed of even the slowest reflexes to take action in the event of a calamity, even for a cataclysmic one described in the article.  From the time that you observe the volcano begin to spew forth with fire and smoke, you knew that you probably only had 857 or so generations to warn your descendants; there is no time to waste.

This bit of information may be a revelation to those who have been inhaling the hot air of the global warming doomsters over the past few decades.  What it means is that the ‘imminent’ disaster of global warming is much more like when your wife tells you she’ll be ready in “5 minutes”.

As demonstrated by probably the richest fiction writer of our time, Al Gore, climate alarmists have the same conceit as an ant crawling up an elephant’s leg with the intention of bedding it.  By trotting out specious statistics over laughably short time lines, they extrapolate the “imminent” extinction of mankind.   While amusing at first, the persistent bleatings of the Gore goofs and climate nutters have become as irritating as a Justin Bieber story.  Reasoning with the indoctrinated is like trying to explain the flavor of the number 9.

Well now, we have an out for them.  Let’s just concede that man does have a cataclysmically detrimental effect on the earth’s climate because of  SUV’s and burning coal for electricity.  But let’s also agree that we do not have to live in caves, ride bicycles and wear hemp clothing.  After all, it looks as if we have some time to spare.  Heck, when Noah was told to build an ark to house all animals because of incoming high water, he had plenty of time to do so, especially impressive without the help of union labor.

“Imminent” is not as urgent as “instantaneous”.  Instantaneous is 60,000 years.  Maybe we can all hold off on selling the Escalade.

link Climate Scientists Warn Opportunity to Prevent Dangerous Warming Is Dwindling | PBS NewsHour | Sept. 27, 2013 | PBS.

And in other news, Harold Camping, the broadcast preacher who famously predicted the end of the world in 2011 has died.  From CNN:

“…When his May 21 prediction failed to pan out, Camping took the radio airwaves to say that he had misinterpreted the nature of the rapture but that the world would still end on October 21.  The following year, Camping admitted he was wrong and said he was getting out of the forecasting business.

“We humbly acknowledge we were wrong,” Camping and his staff members wrote in a letter to supporters posted on Family Radio’s website in March 2012.

“We must also openly acknowledge that we have no new evidence pointing to another date for the end of the world. Though many dates are circulating, Family Radio has no interest in even considering another date.”

Camping founded Family Radio, a nonprofit Christian radio network with about 65 stations across the country, in 1958. It received $80 million in contributions between 2005 and 2009.He first inaccurately predicted the world would end in 1994. Despite his poor track record, he had gathered many followers. Some gave up their homes, entire life savings and jobs because they believed the world was ending…”

Ironically, Camping attempted to predict the world’s end but could not pinpoint his own demise.  Business strategists will note some fatal flaws in his model.  While many elements of his prognostications were sound, including the ability to raise money off of gullible peoples’ irrational fears, a fatal flaw was that there was a specific date (actually 2 specific dates ) attached to his forecasts.  This instantly kiboshed the program once the date came and went.  The other fatal flaw was the inability to rope the government into supporting his cause.  It’s one thing to preach fear as an individual, it’s much more effective if it’s state sponsored.

The Climate Change, nee Global Warming crowd have been much shrewder in their campaign.  While at the beginning, the timeline for the end was stated as “about” 20 years, the more common technique is to now invoke the classic “time is running out” schedule.  They perhaps learned from Camping that predicting the world’s end is a somewhat imprecise science.  In fact, the very reality that global temperatures have not been warming, but apparently cooling have allowed the loonies to now spin this as Climate Change.   Whereas the fanatics try to fix the image of an hourglass with dwindling sand grains in the public’s eyes, the real model they work on is the infinite loop…there is never an end.  This is pure business gold.  Any scenario can be taken as proof of Climate Change.  Snow in Cairo? AH HA!

I have to say, the longevity of the perpetration of this obvious fraud is truly amazing.  Much has to do with the way that stories are presented to the naïve public.  In the linked article for example, it says “scientists” as if to imply solidarity within the scientific community, when actually it means 3 guys: Michael Oppenheimer, the guy interviewed in the article,  Professor Plum and Dr. Irwin Corey, he of the Cadbury caramilk bar secret fame.

It’s also common to refer to observed “changes” in ocean levels, to depletion of arctic ice, to bees counted, to penguins missing etc etc in support of their dire views.  Al Gore doesn’t even rely on those bits of spurious evidence.  He confidently states that global warming is like gravity, it just is.

A guy like Harold Camping passes and the hysteria dies with him.  Sadly this virus of stupidity will not die with the passing of Al Gore or any of his acolytes.  The infection as been spread throughout the education system so that at a very young age, the cult of Climate Change has already lodged itself into the psyches of the next generation.   Years from now, 4 sunny days in a row will cause massive weeping and moaning in schoolyards.  It will be a full generation at least before this sickness gets flushed from the system.