Climate of Complete Certainty

GURPS

INGSOC
PREMO Member
Climate of Complete Certainty



As Andrew Revkin wrote last year about his storied career as an environmental reporter at The Times, “I saw a widening gap between what scientists had been learning about global warming and what advocates were claiming as they pushed ever harder to pass climate legislation.” The science was generally scrupulous. The boosters who claimed its authority weren’t.

Anyone who has read the 2014 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change knows that, while the modest (0.85 degrees Celsius, or about 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit) warming of the Northern Hemisphere since 1880 is indisputable, as is the human influence on that warming, much else that passes as accepted fact is really a matter of probabilities. That’s especially true of the sophisticated but fallible models and simulations by which scientists attempt to peer into the climate future. To say this isn’t to deny science. It’s to acknowledge it honestly.

By now I can almost hear the heads exploding. They shouldn’t, because there’s another lesson here — this one for anyone who wants to advance the cause of good climate policy. As Revkin wisely noted, hyperbole about climate “not only didn’t fit the science at the time but could even be counterproductive if the hope was to engage a distracted public.”

Let me put it another way. Claiming total certainty about the science traduces the spirit of science and creates openings for doubt whenever a climate claim proves wrong. Demanding abrupt and expensive changes in public policy raises fair questions about ideological intentions. Censoriously asserting one’s moral superiority and treating skeptics as imbeciles and deplorables wins few converts.


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the editorial that has Progressives :jameo: :cds:
 

Larry Gude

Strung Out
The climate debate can be summed up in fairy tales; the deniers who hear no, see no and speak no evil. The alarmists who are chicken little, the sky is falling and Peter and the Wolf; cry fake wolf enough no one will come when the real one comes and it will be too late.

The climate IS changing and we are impacting. How and how much are the questions as well as what, IF ANYTHING, we can or should do about it.

There is reason for concern but not hysterics.

There are all sorts of environmental wolves out there. False alarms do FAR more harm than good.
 

This_person

Well-Known Member
The climate debate can be summed up in fairy tales; the deniers who hear no, see no and speak no evil. The alarmists who are chicken little, the sky is falling and Peter and the Wolf; cry fake wolf enough no one will come when the real one comes and it will be too late.

The climate IS changing and we are impacting. How and how much are the questions as well as what, IF ANYTHING, we can or should do about it.

There is reason for concern but not hysterics.

There are all sorts of environmental wolves out there. False alarms do FAR more harm than good.

You had me up to "there is reason for concern..." None of the honest data to date suggest there is any reason for concern.

Do we influence? Of course. Just like we influence the rate of speed the earth is spinning every time we hit the brakes on our car, pushing it through the reactive forces. There's no reason to expect it is any more influence than that.
 

Wishbone

New Member
Just like we influence the rate of speed the earth is spinning every time we hit the brakes on our car, pushing it through the reactive forces. There's no reason to expect it is any more influence than that.

That's why I drive the way I do.... Don't want to make my day any longer.
 
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