Remember when Brontosaurus went extinct? No, not way back when temperature suddenly dipped between the Jurassic and Cretaceous for reasons unrelated to CO2. When the dumb swamp-dwelling lizard of my distant youth was hustled off the stage for impersonating an Apatosaurus. Only to be resurrected very recently partly thanks to Robert T. Bakker, this time referring to an intelligent, land-based warm-blooded marvel of evolution. Which we bring up not to give relief from “the stark backdrop of intensifying climate change” but because recently in National Geographic their “Kids and Family Editor in Chief”, Rachel Buchholz, worried “What if Everything I Told My Kids About Dinos Is Wrong?” And, she says, “It’s a good lesson for parents—and for children—that what we think we know isn’t always true. That’s why it’s important to teach kids to question everything and keep their minds open to new evidence.” Ah. So are we to question everything and keep our minds open on climate? Ods fish no!
See, in National Geographic a certain Rachel Buchholz, their “Kids and Family Editor in Chief” offers some advice on how to talk to kids about the increase in extreme weather. And you guessed it. You tell them the science is settled, all these hurricanes and fires and what-all are due to man-made climate change and we must all repent or the wrath of the Goddess will descend upon us. (Thus for instance she offers a link to a book by, well, National Geographic billed on Amazon in this manner: “Record heat. Record storms. Record drought, snow, rain, and ocean levels. What's going on? In a world of crazy weather exacerbated by climate change, knowing about tornadoes, hurricanes, droughts, derachos, blizzards, and storms is more important than ever. This book, based on cutting-edge science and first-hand accounts, helps kids learn about what's going on and what to do about it.”)
So next time someone tells you dinosaurs were fast, agile, warm-blooded and some had feathers, don’t listen. Everybody knows they were scaly and atavistic failures of evolution that looked like this:
Image courtesy of C.G.P. Grey.
And man-made climate change is going to kill us all.
Birds did NOT evolve from dinosaurs. They are a sister class to us mammals. Anyone who believes this is a anti-reptilian racist (this is not hyperbole) who makes creationism look believable.