At wits' end

Warning: longer than usual read

There are a lot of things that can drive someone to utter desperation. Of these things, perhaps the most certain way to find yourself at your wits’ end is to see everything you’ve worked for tirelessly fall apart in front of your eyes.

Desperation is one of the most devastating emotions one can experience. What’s worse, it’s not just devastating for the experiencer. Because it can drive that experiencer to extremes.

This is what we are currently witnessing in the transition crusade army. And chances are it’s going to get worse as COP28 approaches, with calls for censorship, increased use of scare tactics, and alarmism growing louder and more intense.

Take this recent piece of research from the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, which screams that this year is “virtually certain” to be the hottest for the last, wait for it, 125,000 years. The “virtually certain” part is adorable, of course, but it’s not the only adorable part of the story.

The most adorable part is the conviction that "By rapidly reducing greenhouse gas emissions over the next decade, we can halve the rate of warming," per one climate scientist who commented on the information for Reuters.

The CCCS, whose data only goes back to 1940, used data from the IPCC to arrive at its horrifying conclusion about the hottest year in 125,000. Of course, that makes the conclusion perfectly legitimate and free of any bias because questioning the IPCC’s data is strongly discouraged, I mean impossible because the data is always accurate.

But here’s something even more interesting from the CCCS. Last month — while no doubt panting with the extreme October heat — the same entity issued a report that basically said the same — that 2023 is shaping up to be the hottest year ever (per the headline)… or at least since 1940 (per the report itself).

The report features a graph. The graph shows “temperature anomalies” from 1940 to 2023. Up until 2001, these anomalies are in negative territory, meaning temperatures were lower than some average or other. Then, suddenly, beginning in the early 2000s, it’s all up, up and, from 2023, away at a massive anomaly of close to 1 degree Celsius.

It’s almost as if someone somewhere decided what the data must show and then made it so. What’s more, this someone was quite likely in a hurry and didn’t think that the graph might suggest that global warming began in the early 2000s, which makes it rather suspiciously sudden.

(Note: A reader pointed out that the impression of suddenness comes from the reference point the authors have used, which was based on a very short period of time. I still think this confirms my suggestion they started with the conclusion and made the data confirm it.)

This is what desperation does to you. It also makes you say things like "The record was broken by 0.4 degrees Celsius, which is a huge margin," which is what the deputy head of the CCCS said in comments on the entity’s latest revelation.

Anyone remember reports of floods, wildfires, and heat strokes last month? Anywhere? Oh, and speaking of extreme weather, did I miss the news of many devastating hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico this season or was it a lot less active than usual? It’s so very sad when nature refuses to co-operate in the fearmongering. It could drive a lot of people with certain interests to desperation.