“Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception.”

— Carl Sagan

Ostriches don’t really bury their heads in the sand to escape danger, though it can seem that way sometimes to those humans who think they see something, and then get it wrong.

Earlier this year the Intergovernmental Science-Policy (Panel) on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (ISPBES) warned that the world faces one million extinctions — give or take a rare species of ostrich — in the coming decades, due to human activity.

ISPBES — even the acronym is unnecessarily convoluted — is actually a relatively straightforward NGO, with a simple, easy-to-understand mission. It’s an independent body of scientists, established in 2012 by more than 100 national governments around the world, tasked with monitoring the state of our planet’s biodiversity and ecosystems, and the essential value they provide to people, whether that value be social, economic or philosophical.

It’s a tall order, but no sooner was the report issued — this past summer — than a US Congressional committee hearing on natural resources admitted testimony from a pair of expert witnesses, invited by Republican members of the committee, arguing that extinction is not all that it’s cracked up to be.

Don’t listen to those alarmist limp-wristed liberals and Commie pinko scaremongers, Patrick Moore, a director of the curiously named pro-oil lobby group CO2 Coalition — who almost always identifies himself as the cofounder of Greenpeace, the green website The Revelator pointed out — told committee members.

Moore, who’s funded in part by the Koch brothers — or, more accurately at this moment in time, Koch brother, singular — is a frequent guest of Fox News, where he rails away against the injustices perpetuated by the climate action movement, which he characterizes as being strictly in it for the money.

“Fewer than 900 extinctions have been documented in the 500 years since 1500 AD,” Moore testified — but who’s counting? Today’s advances in technology and monitoring by satellite have nothing on 17th century bioscience. Today, we’re all at the mercy of a giant Chinese hoax, the argument goes, cynically and craftily designed to wreck Western economies. Climate scientists had it better in the 17th century, when they didn’t have to deal with bad agents from the Far East, and science was relatively straightforward in the eyes of the Church, who had yet to deal with annoying irritants like Charles Darwin.

So the dodo bird went extinct in 1681 — so what? That’s just one bird.

“As with the manufactured ‘climate crisis’” — feel free to interject your own sneer here — “they are using the spectre of mass extinction as a fear tactic to scare the public into compliance,” Moore insisted. “The ISBPES itself is an existential threat to sensible policy on biodiversity conservation.”

Ah, yes, of course. The real threat to biodiversity and conservation are those very same people who say there’s a threat to biodiversity and conservation.

Consider this, from the CO2 Coalition’s website (“Clearing the PR pollution that clouds climate science”), under the heading ‘CO2 Fundamentals,’ “The debate about global warming and climate change has shifted from genuine scientific exploration to a campaign demonizing CO2. The use of energy, the primary source of C)2 emission, have [sic] played an existential role in the economic progress and improved standard of living that has been experience in many nations since the Industrial Revolution.”

The CO2 Coalition’s stated aim is to “demonstrate with science based facts” the idea that CO2 is a nutrient that is essential to life. “CO2 at current levels and higher enables plants, trees and crops to grow faster and more efficiently. It is essential for life.

“Just as we require oxygen for life, our economy requires energy, often described as the oxygen or lifeblood of the economy. Energy must be abundant, reliable, and reasonably priced for an economy to achieve robust and sustained growth.”

Not to be outdone, the — erm, how to put this politely — right-leaning website Breitbart weighed in with its own contribution: “The two biggest human threats to wildlife in the last century have been a) Communists and b) Environmentalists.”

Wind farms kill birds!

Not ostriches, though, as they don’t fly.

“Obviously, just as with climate denial,” Revelator editor John R. Platt posted at the time, “the more you deny that extinctions happen or that they’re a problem, the more you can drill, blast, pave, extract or eliminate — all so you can remove any barriers to your ‘freedom’ and make as much money as you want.”

Never mind the real extinction crisis that’s already affecting species around the globe, everything from polar bears to Sumatran tigers, that type of mindset is what really needs to go extinct.

Meanwhile, on the subject of climate change and Chinese hoaxes, Italy is about to declare a state of emergency in Venice after the city was engulfed by 1.87m (6ft) high water levels, flooding its historic basilica and cutting power to homes, in just the past 36 hours. More than 80% of the city, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, was under water when the tides were at their highest.

That’s some hoax.

This latest acqua alta (high water) tide is the second highest since official records began in 1923. The highest, 1.94m, happened in 1966, more than 40 years ago. Climate scientists tend to look at patterns over a period of time, though, rather than one-off events. Of the 10 highest tides recorded since 1923, five have occurred in the past 20 years, and the most recent before this week was just last year. The increasing frequency of unusually high tides is of obvious concern, whether you assume the ostrich position or not.

Sea levels are rising — that fact is undeniable — and coastal cities are particularly vulnerable to their effects. Even in China. Hoax or no hoax.