[FRIAM] Climate Change

Fri Dec 29 12:49:23 EST 2017

Tom writes:

"I think, too, it is a fundamental issue of education, or lack of it, in the U.S."

Over the holidays, I ran into an individual who had the benefit of educated relatives all through their childhood and nonetheless has persisted with the same reactionary views for the last 30 years.  An argument with him, observed with another party this time, goes about how it would have when he was 15.  (It is not an argument.)  He did not go to college, but it would have been wasted on him anyway.  Remarkably, his son has figured out how to get accepted at a university and how to pay for it all while the father has pooh-poohed the whole thing.   I knew a lot of people like the father growing up.   It is not just that they are uneducated, it is that they are incurious, kind of mean, and stupid.  Get a group of them together and they reinforce each other.   But I also know individuals who have had modest means their entire life and are not this way at all.   The best thing to do IMO is to put the incurious ones on an exhausting physical job like coal mining or construction so they can't cause trouble, then augmented by easy access to their worst vice at the end of the day.   I think what we have here is a personality disorder shared by some especially dull individuals.   It must be a universal problem, but perhaps the relative wealth of the U.S. midwest vs. its population density has enabled it to proliferate more than in other countries.

Marcus

________________________________
From: Friam <friam-bounces at redfish.com> on behalf of Tom Johnson <tom at jtjohnson.com>
Sent: Friday, December 29, 2017 9:50:30 AM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Climate Change

I think, too, it is a fundamental issue of education, or lack of it, in the U.S.  For example, scientists say, "Well, yes, the global or ocean temperatures are expected to increase 1.8 degrees Centigrade."  First, Americas don't understand this centigrade stuff.  Second, they think, " Well, if the weatherman says the low tonight will be 46 degrees and it goes up 1.8 degrees and is close to 48, that's no big deal.  I can just wear the same sweater or jacket. So what's the problem?"

We need to communicate the holistic understanding of the planet and ecosystem.  Pictures from space are not, in themselves, sufficient.

TJ

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Tom Johnson
Institute for Analytic Journalism   --     Santa Fe, NM USA
505.577.6482(c)                                    505.473.9646(h)
Society of Professional Journalists<http://www.spj.org>
Check out It's The People's Data<https://www.facebook.com/pages/Its-The-Peoples-Data/1599854626919671>
http://www.jtjohnson.com<http://www.jtjohnson.com/>                   tom at jtjohnson.com<mailto:tom at jtjohnson.com>
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On Fri, Dec 29, 2017 at 11:18 AM, Merle Lefkoff <merlelefkoff at gmail.com<mailto:merlelefkoff at gmail.com>> wrote:
Nick is right.  The uneducated (who also vote) do not understand, for example, that climate events will continue to be more intense, if not more frequent.  And the ambiguity necessary to nonlinear models causes great confusion.  People need certainly and prediction and have been led to believe science will get them there.

On Fri, Dec 29, 2017 at 8:13 AM, Nick Thompson <nickthompson at earthlink.net<mailto:nickthompson at earthlink.net>> wrote:

This is “our” fault.  We have failed to articulate and distribute a language that adequately relates changes in probabilities of events with changes in particular events.  We say that “harvey” was caused by global warming, but then we bridle when senators carry snowballs into congress.  Yes, this is “our” fault.

Nick

Nicholas S. Thompson

Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology

Clark University

http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/

From: Friam [mailto:friam-bounces at redfish.com<mailto:friam-bounces at redfish.com>] On Behalf Of Jochen Fromm
Sent: Friday, December 29, 2017 1:23 AM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <friam at redfish.com<mailto:friam at redfish.com>>
Subject: [FRIAM] Climate Change

This is what Donald wrote on Twitter tonight:

"In the East, it could be the COLDEST New Year’s Eve on record. Perhaps we could use a little bit of that good old Global Warming that our Country, but not other countries, was going to pay TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS to protect against. Bundle up!"

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/946531657229701120

Only an idiot would ignore climate change. Is he really this stupid? My god..

-J.

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Merle Lefkoff, Ph.D.
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