Friday, December 18, 2009

From the Humanist - Uncertainty in Science: It’s a Feature, Not a Bug

Here's a great article from The Humanist - a magazine of critical inquiry and social concern about why climate change deniers have such an easy time doing their dirty work. As I've noted time and again (and again, and again), those who seek to deny the existence of, and impacts from Anthropogenic Global Warming are not actually debating from a scientific perspective. They're doing it from an emotional and political perspective, which is why we have such a hard time as scientists defeating them.


H/T to Mike for the Humanist link
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UPDATE:
IN the comments section, jg notes:

As seen in spectator sports, there are a lot of people who want to be on a winning side and pick accordingly. For them, choosing the other side it too scary.

He, or rather he, interpreting his wife, is spot on. That so many in the scientific community fail to see this fundamental truth is why they deal with deniers so poorly.

4 comments:

jg said...

I don't know if this comparison has been made, but my wife commented this morning on the similarity of football fans to taking sides in the global warming debate. As seen in spectator sports, there are a lot of people who want to be on a winning side and pick accordingly. For them, choosing the other side it too scary.

Philip H. said...

JG,
You have hit the proverbial nail on the head. Great Analogy. Clearly you have an intelligent wife. I'd keep her, if I were you!

jg said...

I spend years studying the literature, craft numerous letters and illustrations, debate the psychology, then she thinks about it a little and knocks the ball out of the park.

jg said...

...I should add, the question is "whether she keeps me".

jg