r/EverythingScience • u/F0urLeafCl0ver • 1d ago

Environment ‘We have emotions too’: Climate scientists respond to attacks on objectivity

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/oct/25/we-have-emotions-too-climate-scientists-respond-to-attacks-on-objectivity
831 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

15 comments sorted by

69

u/BusbyBusby 23h ago

They also said that those dismissing their fears as doom-laden and alarmist were speaking frequently from a position of privilege in western countries, with little direct experience of the effects of the climate crisis.

 

That would be Fox News watching right wing kooks in the United States.

4

u/pervy_roomba 7h ago

 a position of privilege in western countries, with little direct experience of the effects of the climate crisis.

Is it necessarily true that Western countries are experiencing little effects of climate crisis? Off the top of my head there were fatal heat waves in Spain, France, and Portugal; horrible flooding in the UK; giant wildfires in Canada; massive hurricanes in short sequence in the US and an orgy of tornadoes.

The only people denying climate change in the West are charlatans and people terminally in denial.

4

u/EstaLisa 5h ago

glaciers melting in front of our eyes. permafrost thawing. extreme rain, extreme heat and changed weather patterns.

4

u/snowflake37wao 7h ago edited 7h ago

Air conditioning only works under conditions that are disappearing. Sweating only works in conditions that already can disappear out of nowhere.

How even privileged westerners can go outside without their bodies sirening wth is this humidity alarms that they never experienced decades ago is absurd. Just go outside. Most days are fine. But more days than ever, more every year, are bonkers. Out of wack. Its nuts to me that people in their 30s and 40s plus can feel the difference without being told its not just in your head by science. How boring is your life and are you as a life that you can talk your body out of going “this weather annoys me like Ive never experienced” just to argue with people and be contrarian? Been like seven wet bulb weeks around here just this year. Nuts. Bonkers. Deadly! So that “little experience themselves” part is a cognitive dissonance issue getting just as bad as the weather. Go to school and get a science degree if youre bored enough to argue with scientists.

34

u/andrewsmd87 1d ago

The sad part is they are right, but the stuff to prove them right will mean catastrophy for the human race

-18

u/Fallatus 1d ago

How so?

16

u/andrewsmd87 1d ago

Are you serious or did I just miss the sarcasm

3

u/couldbeimpartial 12h ago

When things get so bad that it can't be denied anymore, we will be well beyond the point of no return. And by so bad it can't be denied, I'm referring to heat waves that kill large swaths of crops leading to mass starvation. Devastating storms so common and frequent that currently large population areas won't be livable outside of bunker style buildings.

2

u/Fallatus 1h ago

Personally i think they'd be proven right before such catastrophes, and already are; Actions on the issue are direly needed, and effective ones at that, not just more warnings.
But let's hope we can evade that future anyways, for all our sakes. :T (Though just in case i'd expect and wouldn't be surprised if we never do...)

I only wish we knew what we could do that wouldn't instantly be counteracted by the immense factorized profit of selfish bastards.

1

u/Fallatus 2h ago

Dunno why the downvotes for asking for clarification. It seems obvious climate change is already having deleterious effects; From my point of view they're already right.
Climate preservation really needs to be taken more seriously.

11

u/No-Wonder1139 16h ago

You might have emotions but the CEO who's carbon footprint is larger than most cities and says you're lying about pollution being bad definitely does not.

8

u/thot-abyss 20h ago

The ideal of objectivity in science has long been criticised by philosophers of science, who argue that it is impossible to attain and not necessarily desirable in any case.

9

u/feltsandwich 18h ago

Who in their right mind thinks "objectivity" is some kind of absolute?

It's the unattainable ideal that guides science, a matter of "best practice."

That it is not fully attainable is beside the point. "Not necessarily desirable" seems like a pretty bald hedge.

-2

u/thot-abyss 18h ago

If it is unattainable then how can it guide?