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These headlines convey the troubles with society& #39;s relationship to science these days. On one hand there are clearly strong interests to covertly censor and discredit factual data in an effort to manipulate the public. On the other "Science" cannot be trusted at face value. 1/11
Scientism (arguments/conclusions which have only the cosmetic appearance of "Science") is widespread in the media and is unfortunately used by many to inform their opinions (many a pop article whose headline starts with "Study shows ..."). 2/11
Real science is hard. Getting a computer to produce meaningful numbers is close to an art form. At the same time, rigorously falsified, reproducible scientific results do exist. They have enabled the wonderful technological capabilities humanity has harnessed. 3/11
How can the public supposed to digest such a potentially gargantuan policy mistake spurned by very subpar computer modelling? How is the public to trust policy informed by science? Especially when it has short-term deleterious effect on their quality of life and employment? 4/11
Systemic societal risk must be minimized first-and-foremost. A poorly understood viral pathogen represents a systemic risk to millions of people due to its exponential contagious spread. Locking down was appropriate regardless of how countries like Sweden fare the disease. 5/11
Similarly, climate change is a systemic risk to the social fabric the human species depends on. Will the world certainly spiral into heat hell if we don& #39;t change our ways? Absolutely not. Will climate change negatively impact every geographic region? Nobody knows for sure. 6/11
Some arid regions might even find themselves wetter due to unconsidered tertiary effects for all we know. Can computer projections be trusted? They backtest very well and have tracked critical values (CO2, surface temps). Are we destroying & #39;Mother Earth’? She’d laugh at you. 7/11
The systemic risk of climate change is that it would impact the way of life of billions of people in an uncertain way. This could collapse our social structures and trigger certain global unrest the likes of which has never been seen. 8/11
Just imagine. If a couple million illegal immigrants (or asylum seekers) can fuel political turmoil in first world countries, what do you think billions (with a & #39;B& #39;) of people relocating could potentially do to the world as we know it? 9/11
People need to wrap their minds around RISK. People taking contained risks is what allows progress. Systemic risks however limit human liberty and inflate the scale of adversity. 10/11
Public policy should avoid systemic risks at all costs. Even if that cost results in being terribly mistaken about the progress of a pandemic or the accuracy of climate projections. 11/11
