A controversial proponent of “abrupt climate change” will be speaking in Sechelt on Monday, Aug. 15. Guy McPherson, a retired University of Arizona professor, has been described by the New York Times as “an apocalyptic ecologist … who has built something of an ‘End of Days’ following through his prediction that the human race will be gone by 2030.”
McPherson’s Sechelt visit is one of only two Canadian stops during his Cascadia Tour this summer, with the other appearance in Vancouver at Spartacus Books on Aug. 16. The news release for the event calls McPherson “the leading expert on the risk of near-term human extinction due to habitat loss from abrupt climate change.” He will speak in Sechelt “about our collective response to Earth’s newest phase of accelerated warming. Local support groups will be formed following the event for further discussions.”
McPherson gained exposure when he appeared on “Bill Nye’s Global Meltdown,” an episode of National Geographic, in November 2015.
He will be hosted in Sechelt by resident Deb Ozarko, who is also MCing the event. Ozarko said she heard about McPherson after a three-part blog post of hers – Letting Go of a World in Collapse: The Conversation We’re Too Afraid to Have – “went viral” this spring (www.debozarko.com/
letting-go/). “Our messages align, so when I found out about his Cascadia tour, I reached out to the tour organizer to invite Dr. McPherson to Sechelt.”
Many people on the Sunshine Coast, she said, “are no longer willing to look the other way and carry on with ‘business as usual’ as the world burns, floods, shakes, and collapses around us. Dr. McPherson’s message is one we are ready to hear.”
On his website, Nature Bats Last (www.guymcpherson.com), McPherson said the tour “will focus on the politics and science of abrupt climate change. I’ll tell a few stories about the politics underlying the scientific endeavour and then focus on Sam Carana’s recent analysis … in which Carana ponders a global-average temperature rise of more than 10 C above baseline within a decade.”
McPherson’s views have been roundly dismissed by other scientists – see, for instance, http://planet3.org/2014/03/13/mcphersons-evidence-
that-doom-doom-doom – but on his website, McPherson argues that “no mainstream scientist could talk about near-term human extinction and remain supported in his or her job.”
Monday’s presentation and Q&A will be held at Pebbles Restaurant, 5454 Trail Ave., from 6:30 to 9 p.m. The event is free to the public and funded by donation.
