I Am a Mad Scientist. By Kate Marvel
NB: An excellent, forthright and timely article. Battalions of political time-servers and sneering post-truthists need to think about what this person is saying - maybe expecting them to think is already asking too much. But the rest of us can wake up, if we wish to live and want succeeding generations not to curse us. Thank you, Dr Kate Marvel. DS
...at the core of all useful models lies something true: the inescapable facts that mass and energy are conserved, that greenhouse gas traps heat, that a virus can turn a host cell into a factory for self-replication. Misinformation, rumors & hatred may go viral, but nothing is better at spreading than a virus itself. Politicians are powerful, but science is real...
I’ve heard it a couple
times already, from a journalist, a family friend, a neighbor: You must be
happy about all of this. The implication is that because I’m a climate
scientist, I must be excited about this time of reduced economic activity and
greenhouse emissions. The Earth is healing, they say. Nature is returning. Why
wouldn’t I be glad about it?
Friends, I’m
definitely not happy. I’m not even sad. What I am, more than anything, is
angry. I’m angry at the very
idea that there might be a silver lining in all this. There is not. Carbon
dioxide is so long-lived in the atmosphere that a small decrease in emissions
will not register against the overwhelming increase since the start of the
Industrial Revolution. All this suffering will not make the planet any cooler.
If the air quality is better now, if fewer people die from breathing in
pollution, this is not a welcome development so much as an indictment of the
way things were before.
I’m angry at the
politicians for creating that status quo. I’m angry they ignored the scientists
and put their own careers or pocketbooks ahead of the survival of their
citizens. It’s infuriating to see the willful, cynical ignorance: bashing
models (as if there existed any science not built on models, simple or complex)
and weaponizing uncertainty. An epidemiological model, like a model of the
climate system, is a way to explore different futures and the impacts of
different choices. It’s a tool, not a crystal ball. But at the core of all
useful models lies something true: the inescapable facts that mass and energy
are conserved, that a greenhouse gas traps heat, that a virus can turn a host
cell into a factory for self-replication. Misinformation, rumors, and hatred
may go viral, but nothing is better at spreading than a virus itself.
Politicians are powerful, but science is real.I’m angry at the scientists, too, or at least at the institutions that employ them. I’m angry at a culture of precarity and fear that makes scientists timid, compliant, and reluctant to speak truth to power. I’m angry that speaking truth to anyone, powerful or not, is discouraged unless it results in a publication, grant, or other resume-boosting reward. How can scientists be listened to if we’re too frightened to raise our voices? But more than anything else, I’m angry at the implication that “we” are at fault.... read more:
see also
Delilah Friedler: Capitalism Is
America’s Religion. The Virus Makes That Clear
American capitalism has dropped the mask — and its face is cruel and selfish
American capitalism has dropped the mask — and its face is cruel and selfish
Could the Free World start cleaning up its act - from the bottom up?
Restoring forests could capture two-thirds of the carbon humans have added to the atmosphere
