On today’s podcast, I look at why conservative white males are ignorant, how Wall Street scammed America, why capitalism is doomed, and why religion in Australia is in decline.
Links:
Conservative White Male Effect on Climate Change Measured
How Wall Street Aristocracy Got $1.2 Trillion in Loans from Fed
Smokers and the obese cheaper to care for, study shows.
Religion becoming extinct in NZ & Australia
Is the SEC Covering Up Wall Street Crimes?
The American Christian Pastor Who Wants To Start An Atheist Register
Photo by mel!nka.
Music by D-funk (featuring Snoop Dogg).
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part 1
Listened to my first episode. Found you on stitcher,link from Skepitcallity. I am dyslexic, so the grammer will be imperfect, try to get past it.
I think your piece on CWM’s and Global warming was very unfair. Most surprising were the multiple times you took poll results that asked questions about anthropogenic global warming APG and said CWMs don’t believe in global warming. There is a big difference between a person that says the planet is not warming and a person that says it is not warming b/c of us. If you want to be better than main stream you must stop having the wrong conversations when you know better. I don’t mean to sound like a jerk, this is just a problem for me. I don’t believe in APG.
I am a skeptic, I am a Humanist, I am an APG denier, (I am not a CWM but I hope you won’t be racist and treat me like one anyway, :>). Like any good skeptic I want to be wrong, it makes me happy and it makes me smarter. So I will lay out my evidence and hopefully you can provide me with some clarity. My level of debate on this topic is relatively low b/c I don’t discuss it much. Mainly b/c I don’t think it is as important as the coming economic/energy crisis, Our dirty energy problem will check itself sooner than we could get China to stop burning coal. Also b/c I believe it is extremely important for us to develop alternative energy as soon as possible, so I don’t mind a boogey man to motivate us.
part 2
Here is why I don’t buy APG. I am not going to provide refs b/c you probably have the counters ready for my the lack of depth on this topic, so here we go. I believe our climate is changing, but I am not convinced we are the cause. Some of my argument comes from the “great global warming swindle.” The ice core data: co2 levels trail temps and increases in co2 can be accounted for by the changes in the oceans absorption rate of co2 for a given temp. The current warming trend can be blamed on, take your pick: increased solar activity, decreased cloud cover, changes in the magnetic field, whatever, it doesn’t matter, it just isn’t necessarily us. The Ice core data is the…core of the APG theory, at least I think it is.
–Plausible? The main stream media is all over manmade the global warming model and they are never really having the right conversation, you wouldn’t have a show if they knew what was really going on. Climate scientists, like all of us are rational actors of their own self interest. The argument that we should take their word for it is similar to the argument made by U.S. conservatives about the military. You can’t question them b/c what they are doing is so noble/selfless/specialized/widely popular. Lastly, the idea of manmade climate change fits our arrogant human attitude. To think that we can grasp something that large with such certainty is concerning. Every time there is a drought everyone goes, “look, its that global warming better buy a hybrid,” no, that is weather. I will stop here an see where this goes.
Bob, here’s how I think about the subject.
1. We need a rational, reliable method for determining how the world works (scientifically speaking). It’s not good enough for you and I to have personal opinions when it comes to important scientific issues. We need an objective method that allows us to be as certain as possible about what’s happening.
2. The scientific method is the best method we have. If you know of a better one, please let me hear it. It’s been working for hundreds of years to expand our knowledge about how the universe works.
3. Part of the scientific method is CONSENSUS. Scientists review each other’s data and experiments and then decide whether or not they agree with the findings.
4. In the case of AGW, something like 80% of the scientists active in the field of climate science agree that humans are THE major cause of AGW.
So – the best system we have has given us this result. Is it necessarily 100% correct? No, of course not, these are humans we’re talking about.
But until we have a SUPERIOR method for determining consensus, I suggest we stick with the one that’s been working pretty well for 400 years.
Cameron.