2018 was the climax of a decade long crescendo in my decades long effort to network with rationalists, scientists and science communicators, in what I fancied was our communal struggle to confront the nonsense that corporate funded science contrarians and select politicians were so successfully peddling to an under-informed and mostly disinterested public - and since New Year's Eve is upon us, I feel like collecting some of my favorite posts in another effort to summarize my perspective.
This is the flip-side of my flier for the Democratic State Convention, it's a list of various important aspects of climate science communication along with key pit-falls and observations, in 14 verses.
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1) Uncertainties vs. known Physical Certainties
It is a disservice to constantly allow trivial uncertainties to become the focal point of the public discussion.
In real life when we get mired or overwhelmed by increasingly complex situations, we stop, back off a little, get reoriented with the big picture, reacquaint ourselves with what we do know for certain, then move forward again.
I’m not saying ignore uncertainties! I’m saying keep reminding us of the overriding fundamental certainties! Thus putting contrarian trivial pursuits into real world perspective.
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2) Map vs. Territory Problem
Scientists are Cartographers mapping out the geophysical realities of our planet, the Territory if you will. They do the best they can with the data they have available.
Too often we get trapped into assuming that until our scientists can define all aspects with statistical certainty, we should assume it's okay to ignore.
That's getting lost on the Map and forgetting we exist within the Territory.
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3) Sloppy usage of “Natural Variability”
Every component and aspect of our Global Heat and Moisture Distribution Engine is warming and energizing. All of Earth’s historic Natural Variabilities are embedded within this global warming matrix.
Too often ‘natural variability’ gets used as a sort of defense against acknowledging the obvious. Weather systems are not caused by manmade global warming, but you can bet every last one of them is certainly impacted by it.
The geophysical reality of a 400 PPM atmosphere is that we have left our historic climate regime. Comparisons to yesteryears offer little guidance for understanding this brave new 400 PPM CO2++ world we have created for ourselves and children.
It's the atmospheric insulation!
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4) “Seepage”
Allowing dishonest shrill voices to force scientists into following the contrarian script rather than focusing on conveying our physical reality to the public.
As Prof. Stephen Lewandowsky put it: “...even when scientists are rebutting contrarian talking points, they often do so within a framing and within a linguistic landscape created by denial, and often in a manner that reinforces the contrarian claim. This ‘‘seepage’’ has arguably contributed to a widespread tendency to understate the severity of the climate problem.”
Check out his paper:
1 the scientific community has adopted assumptions or language from discourse that originated outside the scientific community or from a small set of dissenting scientific voices.
2 those assumptions depart from those commonly held by the scientific community.
Also see:
Seepage: Climate change denial and its effect on the scientific community -
Greg Laden - May 15, 2015
On Seeps and SCAMS Part I: Lessons for Climate Scientists - May 14, 2015
On Seeps and SCAMS Part II: Pat'n Chip'n David Fake a Debate.
Seeps and SCAMS Part III: Richard Betts misunderstands (and misrepresents) a paper
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5) “Global Warming” vs “Climate Change”
Give credit where credit is due.
It’s the atmospheric insulation driving these changes!
Be clear Anthropogenic Global Warming is the cause and driver of the increasingly intense cascading Climate Changes we are witnessing.
Cascading Consequences?
More greenhouse gases in the atmosphere;
more molecules catching and releasing infrared radiation;
more infrared radiation bouncing around within the atmosphere;
more heat and energy accumulating within that atmosphere;
more moisture that atmosphere holds;
more heat, moisture and energy being moved around by weather systems;
more intense and destructive weather events.
One thing leads to another.
It's deniable, but unavoidable, physics.
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6) Responsibilities of Scientists vs
Responsibilities of Citizens and Students
Scientists are dedicated to their work, given their education and accumulated knowledge, their time is very precious and we need them focusing on their respective tasks.
They are not the ones to fight for the recognition that their work is rational, objective, factually, and morally authoritative. They’ve done the difficult task of accumulating, digesting, reporting, and filing the substantive evidence.
Who’s to defend them and the knowledge they share with society?
A HEALTHY DEMOCRACY DEMANDS AN INFORMED AND ENGAGED CITIZENRY.
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7) Define the Debate, A to Z
A Constructive Argument based on real facts,
with the ultimate goal being a collective better understanding of the issue at hand.
Such as a Scientific Debate where honestly representing your opponent’s position is required. Striving to understand your opponent’s position well enough to reject or modify it with the merits of your own facts and reasoning.
If one fail to convince it means something, and its our challenge to honestly figure out why. It may hurt, but it’s a learning experience for the intellectually honest. Mistakes have always been necessary learning opportunities for the stout.
Z Lawyerly Debate, winning is all that matters, facts are irrelevant obstacles to hurdle. Being skilled in rhetorical trickery is a prerequisite. Objective learning is not the object.
Amorality, misdirection and theatre are its hallmarks.
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8) Intellectual Confrontation
The fact is, climate science awareness is being actively stifled by ruthless individuals with bottomless bank accounts and octopus news outlets and a growing army of passionate politically active recruits of the two pronged Koch/Bannon brainwashing efforts. They have sold a lazy public a pack of lies that have become the comfort zone of all too many today.
How can the misinformation this juggernaut force feeds the public be neutralized without direct intellectual confrontation by masses of informed, concerned, engaged students, and citizens, everywhere it pops up?
{Do an experiment, go to YouTube search some climate science term, then see how much malicious garbage you need to wade through before the serious honest videos start showing up. Public input is what controls those things, our apathy is allowing their astroturfing on YouTube a free playing field. Plenty of other examples of the same.}
{Do an experiment, go to YouTube search some climate science term, then see how much malicious garbage you need to wade through before the serious honest videos start showing up. Public input is what controls those things, our apathy is allowing their astroturfing on YouTube a free playing field. Plenty of other examples of the same.}
It’s not about attacking people, it’s about attacking the maliciously deceptive words, the lies and stupidity they’re spewing. It’s about teaching them how our physical planet operates!
Focus. Expose the dishonesty in their words and educate them.
A good resource for factual jump starts:
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9) Call out False Claims & Lies
When someone makes a malicious false claim, relentlessly demand evidence for said attack(s) - expose those who refuse to produce evidence for their malicious claims. Examine and expose the props they substituted for substance.
Dissect and confront their tactics rather than being played by them!
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10) Better than Skepticism ===> Critical Thinking Skills
The term “Skeptics” has been poisoned by theatre and the grotesque double standard of the GOP.
Critical Thinking Skills is a clear descriptive that explains our process.
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11) Confront Trash Talk with Rhetorical Jujutsu
Contrarians depend on personal attacks to distract the discussion from their bankrupt “science”. Learn to recognize the game, turn it to your favor, be prepared to point out the juvenility of the tactic, while forcing the discussion back to the real world facts your contrarian opponent won’t have.
fyi, studies in the contrarian mindscape:
LandscapesAndCycles, Jim Steele’s malicious deception.
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A contrarian shouts: “Science, science, science.”
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google “Jujutsu” ~ Food for Thought, turn the conversation into an exploration of the GOP's tactics of avoidance, evasion and lying.
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Where appropriate, why not point out Calumny in action?
Be ready to define it: https://dictionary.thelaw.com/calumny/
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12) Faith-based Thinking - God or EGO?
Possessing the hubris to fancy that we petty, jealous, fearful, prideful humans can access and understand the real God of Light and Time, Life and Love, leads to a profound disconnect from our planet’s physical reality, and an immoral absolutism.
It's one thing to believe in an unknowable god, quite another to mistake one’s own hyper-inflated EGO for God.
for explanation see:
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13) The pain of our brave new world
Face it, or not, we are like children being inextricably torn from our mother for all time. Our brave new world is arriving, it will be traumatic, and it won't be wished away. Our existence is transitioning into an ever more deadly game of Russian Weather Roulette and cascading consequences.
Delusional thinking and disregard for scientific understanding and rational constructive dialogue will only make the coming decades that much worse.
Why are we all still allowing it?
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14) WE THE PEOPLE,
have the right to demand honesty when hearing what real experts are trying to convey, without being flooded with the constant deceptive and fraudulent cross-screaming of the propaganda machine of unhinged self-obsessed oligarchs and their astro-turfing thugs.
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About me and why this flier
By nature, I’ve always been fascinated by, and actively learning, about our Earth in all her marvelous aspects - along with the humans she created and the evolving society Earth enabled and nurtured.
Shared science has enriched me and made me feel a member of this world and this moment in the time that I find myself experiencing. It’s this feeling of connectedness that drives me to share these thoughts in return.
Best wishes,
CitizensChallenge at gmail
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