Guest essay by Eric Worrall
h/t Dr. Willie Soon; The Collegian, a Penn State University student publication, laments that there are still ageing contrarians and climate deniers who dispute the work of the great Michael Mann.
Penn State professor, climate scientist Michael Mann fights against climate denialism
Will Aguirre | The Daily Collegian
Apr 22, 2021As the world changes and climate changes with it, one thing has stayed the same for decades — Michael Mann’s commitment to fighting the climate war.
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Mann began studying quantum mechanics as an undergraduate at the University of California, Berkeley, with majors in physics and applied math. When he began work as a graduate student at Yale University, Mann said he was “lured away” from the physics department because there were still opportunities for young scientists to make “substantial contributions” at the forefront of climate studies.
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Mann said he doesn’t want to blame fossil fuel workers for engaging in the “climate war.” Instead, he said he believes there are just a few corporate CEOs who serve as “bad actors” and make “cynical decisions knowing the devastating impact” they would have on the climate.
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According to Nye, both him and Mann are frequently asked two common questions: “What can I do about climate change,” and “What can be done to convince someone who’s a climate denier?”
Nye calls these the $10 trillion questions, because climate deniers are so “dug in” to their beliefs, which only makes it harder to convince them of what the science suggests.
The only definitive way to see significant action to prevent climate change is to simply wait for deniers and contrarians to “age out,” according to Nye.
“There’s an old saying — ‘science proceeds one funeral at a time,’” Nye said, “but it’s not happening fast enough.”
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Read more: https://www.collegian.psu.edu/news/campus/penn-state-professor-climate-scientist-michael-mann-fights-against-climate-denialism/article_a7a6c7c6-a2f7-11eb-ab1c-5bca01044a1a.html
There have been occasions where scientists have persuaded their colleagues by providing evidence to back their theories, rather than waiting for their opponents to die.
My favourite example, Barry Marshall and Robin Warren overcame resistance to their theory stomach ulcers are caused by a bacterial infection, by providing evidence to back their claim – they cultured the slow growing previously unknown bacteria responsible for stomach ulcers, proving it existed, and successfully cured ulcers with antibiotics.
Einstein also had trouble convincing his peers that space and time are mutable, until the day Einstein famously received a telegram, from British scientists who had conducted an expedition to an island off the west coast of Africa, to view a total solar eclipse. The purpose of the expedition was to test Einstein’s prediction that stars which appeared close to the sun during the eclipse would be slightly out of position, because star light skimming close to the sun would be bent by the sun’s gravity.
Perhaps if Mann and Nye presented evidence that global warming is causing a significant problem, more people would accept their claim we are currently experiencing a climate crisis.
Einstein also had trouble convincing his peers that space and time are mutable, until the day Einstein famously received a telegram, from British scientists who had conducted an expedition to an island off the west coast of Africa, to view a total solar eclipse. The purpose of the expedition was to test Einstein’s prediction that stars which appeared close to the sun during the eclipse would be slightly out of position, because star light skimming close to the sun would be bent by the sun’s gravity.
———-
That must have being the day of the Einstein’s experimental result or conclusion.
With the very impressive outcome;
“Whole this schist is a big huge frackup,
no chance whatsoever,
all this guys fracked completely in their minds beyond any believe,
too stupid, for even their own comfort,
envious at the best, and full prone to ugliness of vanity,
not even able or capable of doing simple math and simple physics…
‘God help us all.”
Einstein. :u
cheers
OK Bill Nye, if we can’t burn fossil fuels anymore, you stop doing it first. Let us know in a couple of years how it’s going. And imagine the cynicism of a few CEOs who provide a product that people want to use at a price they’re willing to pay. What cynicism!
Good point. Nye should do the experiment. Get all the wind generators, solar panels and batteries to fully power his own house. Off the grid. It’ll be cheap and reliable, right? Bill?
Fixed it.
You’re welcome
> <i>The only definitive way to see significant action to prevent climate change is to simply wait for deniers and contrarians to “age out,” according to Nye.</i>
Prevent? King Canute of Nye reigns supreme!
Agreed the world would be a better place if both of them shuffled off the mortal coil
Not till they have been tried for treason to mankind.
Whatever. It just emphasizes their inability to persuade people who have lots of experience at life and can think for themselves. When I’m dead it won’t be my problem so unless they want to actively shorten my life heres a big ole Bill The Cat ‘ACK! Pftpftpftpft!’
Idiot. If anyone is the denier, that ie the possibility of other possibilities it is Bill Nye who does not follow science protocols.
Is he talking about Uncle Joe at this point?
I see Bill’s cerebral ischemia is still progressing. He really needs to loosen that bowtie.
Barry Marshall actually gave himself an ulcer by swallowing a testtubeful of h. pylori, and then proceeded to cure it with antibiotics.
Now THAT’S dedication to science!
Nye has spent most of his years as a comedian. It helps when one is born with funny (odd) looks. Why would anyone take this comedian serious? What? You are part of the crowd who gets their “News” from Late Night comedians?
Bill Nye the Science Lie…er.
I wouldn’t be too hard on Bill Nye. I don’t think he’s smart enough to understand what he’s saying.
Prof. Fritz Haber did not wait for them to die off naturally. He carried campus consensus to a pathological degree as Einstein said.
What does this smarmy, smug wannabe not get about being a tropical creature stuck in an Ice Age!? I thought he was Canadian; where the Great White North tests the very limits of human ability to survive harsh environments!
He and Mickey Mann should prove how well adapted they are for temperate climates by hiking along the US/Canada border this winter in their knickers! To test the null hypothesis, I am looking for a grant to tour the Caribbean at the same time with the Swedish Bikini Team. Many of it’s members have just as much right to call themselves scientists as Billy and the Mickster!
I foresee many long evenings of Texas Hold’em!
The Collegian: Go to the showers boys.
The sooner the Climate Liars die, the better off humanity will be.
Persuading more people they are wrong will be enough.
It is very difficult to get someone to admit they were wrong. Especially when their ego and income depends on it. It is far better to convince them that warmer is a better choice than colder. Not that warmer is right and colder is wrong but simply a better choice. Letting them change their position by choice allows them to save face and gives them an out from their incorrect position.
Tom, better to convince them that the West can shut down all fossil fuel burning and destroy our economies and our health and we still will be seeing CO2 rise apace with hundreds of new coal fired plants coming on stream in China, India, the rest of Asia and Africa, which together make up ~6/7ths of world population and they are just beginning the march to prosperity. Include quadrupling cement, steel, aluminum, mining, manufacturing, construction…. we are going to know to several decimal places the climate sensitivity of a doubling of CO2 with this huge experiment.
They won’t be convinced by facts. You don’t sell the steak, you sell the sizzle. So far the sizzle they have been selling is warming will kill us all. We need to change THAT narrative. You will convert more people with how good it is to be warmer. Once they are open to accepting that, then you can give them the facts as to why.
If the enemy hands you a weapon…
Semantic games. Em-pathetic appeals. Cultural appropriations… inheritance. Science practiced outside of limited frame of reference. Conflation of logical domains.
The original denial, in progress, with a forward-looking objective, is of life deemed unworthy of life, her profitable parts, her carbon pollutants, and its evolution to deny individual dignity and individual conscience in color blocs (e.g. racist designations), with color quotas, and affirmative discrimination.
That said, save the birds, the bats, whack a wind turbine. Clear he Green Blight of intermittent/renewables and sustainable environmental pollution. Follow the pride parade with unplanned cubs, and frosted, sometimes foundering pups.
The end is Nye (sic). Donate to World Walrus Foundation.
It was the young who suffered under the consensus enforcement of the aether theory in physics.
That is not an “old saying” it was comment made by Max Planck to the effect that physicists circa 1910 or so would not accept modern physics — “Physics advances one funeral at a time.”
So does medicine. I am in the midst of a situation that could have cost me my life.
I was suspected to have RA. Although my RA factor is under ten, my anti-CCP markers are elevated. I had been taking Methotrexate for 6 years in the hope of warding off full blown RA. As the years went by my Rheumatologist suspected that it wasn’t RA but rather a chronic bacterial infection in my left wrist. I showed no other signs of RA anywhere else not even the joints adjacent to the wrist. He supported his new diagnosis with published papers and his own research. Unfortunately his diagnosis was against VA protocol and he was not able to start treatment before he retired. He did give me the medical journal papers on this subject and advised me to use them to convince his replacement to look at his diagnosis. When the new Rheumatologist came on board 7 months later she immediately insisted I start on Humira because I “had classic signs of RA”. I informed her that I had stopped taking my RA medicine 8 months prior and still showed no signs of RA anywhere other that the left wrist. She said I was uninformed. I did insist and she finally relented and allowed me to speak with an infectious disease doctor. This ID doctor knew my previous Rheumy and trusted his diagnosis. An MRI showed a large mass in the wrist. The ID doc sent me to a hand surgeon to schedule a debridement and culture of what ever was in my wrist. After the surgery the surgeon told me “it didn’t look good in there”, “the mass was not caused by RA” and he suspected cancer. Cancer was subsequently ruled out and it took 7 weeks for the culture to grow. The culture grew Bacterium Intracellure also known as MAC. MAC is a rather nasty set of bacteria that usually cause pulmonary infection and rarely, extremely rarely goes into a wrist joint. It is very difficult to kill. I now will start triple antibiotics for 8-12 months. Not looking forward to that and I hope I can tolerate the meds long enough for them to be successful.
Had I gone on Humira, the infection would have most likely spread over my entire body and I would be one of those whose funeral may have taught the new Rheumy a valuable lesson and advanced her knowledge but at my expense. Fortunately two experienced doctors went against standard protocols and actually treated me as an individual. I am eternally grateful to those two doctors for probably saving my life.
I find it cute how you think that doctor would have learned anything from your demise. As a matter of fact, the New Science (sciencery) would demand she immediately write a paper on how hard she worked to disabuse you of some unproven claptrap your old, useless, unmodern old-fart-doctor poured into your ingnorant head. “Unfortunatly,” she would add, “it was too late for patient (insert your bank account number here).”
A very sobering story. Thanks, and good luck.
TY.
Just an editing note, the bacteria is called Mycobacterium Intrascellure.
Yes, you have to be your own doctor.
I would be curious to know what the doctor who insisted you had RA now thinks about your condition. Has she learned a little humility?
In my experience, doctors who already don’t listen to their patients rarely learn much of anything.
And being this is the VA, I have learned to advocate for myself if I want to stay healthy.
This diagnosis was confirmed only two weeks ago. I have not communicated with the Rheumatologist but the ID doc will.
Tom. After a dosage of strong antibiotics, eat some yogurt. One effect of antibiotics is the killing off of good bacteria along with the bad. Thank God you ran into a good doctor for the real diagnosis. Take care.
Thanks. I am very aware of the consequences of long term use of antibiotics. In this case I will be taking Azithromycn 500 mg/day, Ethambutol 1600 mg/day and Rifampin 600 mg/day. I will also have to up my prebiotic regime in order to keep the good gut bacteria well feed.
Yeah, Nye’s metaphor makes no sense at all. I guess he just wanted a segue into wishing people dead.
The art of ‘word-rigging’ has been perfected to apply to all aspects of our lives. From Climate Denier to Anti-Vaxxer to White Privilege to Islamophobe to…. the list is long. The strategy of Terrify-Divide-Conquer is hard at work.
Bill Nye would have made a very good agent in the Matrix movie series, taking out “obsolete” programs.
He actually features in the latest version of “matrix”.
Oh well, that for libtards.
Is a 2020 scienca-aficionada movie specifically tailored for libtards, the very libtard version of matrix.
But for the best of me, can not even recall the title of that movie.
Leally thorry.
(side note… watch carefully, very carefully that spell checker in your smartyphone.)
👇✌😛
cheers
Bill Nye is too stupid to realize that the saying applies to people like him and his ilk. It took someone this mechanical engineer hates to see that the earth revolves around the sun, that the miasma theory was wrong, and that plate tectonics is a real thing. I could list more, but the point is made.
Has it occurred to Bill Nye that belief in CAGW could also diminish one funeral at a time?
The Science:
Anything the far-left have to say.
Neither Bill Nye nor Michael Mann merit the classification as “scientist” since neither has properly used the “scientific method”, which has as its core presenting objective data that supports any hypothesis.
The hockey stick (shtick) . . . good grief!
Of course, the above is only my humble opinion, so please both of you “acclaimed scientists” don’t sue me . . . which the Web documents you both have a propensity to do.