When my childhood friends came to learn that I’d become an author of materials of environmental sustainability, they sometimes asked for my opinions on climate change. I explain that because climate change is a science, it’s inappropriate to apply the term “opinion” or “belief” to the subject. We have opinions on things like politics, art, sports figures, justice, literature, and philosophy–but not chemistry, physics, or math.
When someone says that he doesn’t believe in AGW (anthropogenic global warming, aka climate change), all he’s really saying is that he doesn’t understand the science. And that’s fine; there are huge swaths of science that lie far outside my knowledge base. But we need to keep in mind that one of the good things about science, as Neil deGrasse Tyson likes to say, is that “it’s true whether you believe in it or not.”
I got the meme here from a neighbor, but I wonder who actually wrote it. There is a ton of propaganda on social media suggesting that we need to normalize the sociopathic criminality of the U.S. president.
It’s true that not every election is an apocalypse, but 2024 was disastrous for the U.S. democracy.
Yes, the country did not end. But it took a giant leap towards authoritarianism.
Even that’s not the end of the world. Democracies fail with great frequency on this planet. I just never thought I’d be living in the biggest socio-political collapse in the last 2000 years.
In an average week, I meet quite a few travelers here from lands all around this planet. Their most common thoughts on what’s happening here: “We simply feel sorry for you.”
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What Rosie Learned in Europe’s Wind Turbine Test Labs
Rosie returns from Denmark and shares her experiences seeing DTU blade testing, a lightning lab, and a 15 MW Vestas test turbine.
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In a recent post, I argued that our brains are wired in a certain way, and that we have little in any control over our values and beliefs.
German philosopher Johann Gottlieb Fichte seem to be saying something similar here. To take me as an example, I’m no more capable of being a Trump supporter than I am in believing in the tooth fairy or Santa Claus.
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