Apocalyptic messaging ‘paralyses’ the public and stops them from getting a grip on crisis, warns Professor Jim Skea
Doom-mongers do more harm than good, the United Nations’ new climate change chief has said.
Professor Jim Skea, the newly elected head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), warned that apocalyptic messaging merely “paralyses” the public and fails to motivate them to protect the planet.
It comes amid a growing backlash to activists such as Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil, who have disrupted events from Wimbledon to Pride parades.
The Scottish physicist also said that the world warming 1.5C (34.7F) above pre-industrial levels, to which the 2015 Paris Agreement pledged to limit global temperature rises, was “not an existential threat to humanity”.