Tim Flannery

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Tim Flanney in 2014
Poetry of reality
Science
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We must know.
We will know.
A view from the
shoulders of giants.

Dr. Tim Flannery (1956–) is an Australian mammalogist, paleontologist, science popularizer, author of nineteen books, global warming activist and the former leader of the now defunct Australian Climate Commission.

According to many cranks, he is also an agent of the New World Order working to advance the New World Order's hard green socialist agenda in Australia![1] However, since the appointment of Tony Abbott as the new Australian prime minister, the Climate Commission has been scrapped, and Flannery now runs the privately funded Australian Climate Council.[2][3]

Mammalogical and paleontological work[edit]

Putting the nonsense aside, Flannery has been arguably one of Australia's most prominent scientists. Some of his scientific achievements include the discovery of sixteen species of mammal in Melanesia in the 1990s, the earlier discovery of dinosaur fossils in Victoria in 1980 and the later discovery of Cretaceous fossils in 1985, thus extending the Australian mammal fossil record back eighty million years.

Flannery's 1994 book, The Future Eaters: an Ecological History of the Australasian Lands and People, provides a sweeping glimpse of land, flora, fauna and people throughout history. In this book, he advocates the global protection of natural heritage and gives solemn warnings about the implications of species overpopulation.

Flannery has also published more than one hundred peer reviewed papers. According to writer Redmond O'Hallon, his total number of discoveries outnumber those of Charles Darwin.[4]

Climate activism[edit]

Flannery's 2005 book, The Weather Makers, won a series of awards. In this book, he outlines the dangers of anthropogenic global warming and argues that action to combat climate change must be imminent. This publication led to him winning the NSW Australian Of The Year 2006 and Australian Of The Year 2007. In 2011, he was made Chief Commissioner of the Climate Commission by the Australian Government. This duty involves increasing the public awareness of the subject of global warming and its dangers, and according to denialists, indoctrination of the hard green commie New World Order.

Flannery currently resides in a lakeside property in northern Sydney, Australia. Some kooks claim that global warming must be a hoax because Australia's largest climate "propagandist" is living by the waterside, while claiming that water levels could potentially rise several meters in a few years if there is no action on climate change.

As climate commissioner, Flannery gave regular public talks on global warming in an attempt to further educate the public and to answer whatever questions they may have. A public forum he chaired in 2012 was interrupted by a rather loud conspiracy theorist dressed as a penguin (no kidding) claiming global warming was a hoax.[5]

Religious views[edit]

Unfortunately, Flannery has stated that he is a proponent of the Gaia hypothesis.[6] He also considers being an atheist an "arrogant" stance, "[...] because we know so little about the world."[7] It's too bad that his definition of atheism is a little off.

References[edit]