Hot topic alert!
This episode the Dawdlers pull focus on planet Earth. They talk about Earth processes, especially climate. I guess one could say this is the climate change episode. Yaaay! Earth gets the bullet too!
BUT they spend much of their time on the science and much less on the politics. So if you came in wanting to hear the familiar repetition in the echo chamber, y’ain’t gonna find it! Well, maybe you will, but with much less emotional emphasis, fear mongering, and triggered sobbing.
Buckle your chin straps, folks. It’s about to get technical.
2 Comments
Adam · January 24, 2019 at 12:36 pm
Wonderful episode! I’ve always wished I could find a climate scientist who could tolerate several minutes of philosophically styled questions. I didn’t realize until this episode that Ryan was a climate scientist.
My two cents: fundamentally since we can’t all be scientists, we just have to trust that scientists are acting in good faith. People without adequate scientific skills and tools just aren’t equipped to analyze the evidence and arguments independently.
So then the question is should we trust scientists? For a lot of us the answer is obvious, especially if we’ve been to college, because our professors might have been scientists. Even if not, our professors probably regularly rubbed elbows with scientists at least a little. And we rubbed elbows with our professors maybe. We’ve kind of been in or close enough to that circle to know they’re not these evil manipulators and conspirators. We’ve come to be a little bit on their side and trust them.
Studies have found that people who go to college are much more likely to believe in climate change, and people who take science courses are even much more likely than that to believe, and people who take hard sciences are even much more likely than that, and so on. Usually this is interpreted to mean that smart and scientific people understand the topic better. But I never hear anyone consider the possibility that these students, even after completing an undergraduate degree in climate science, still aren’t scientists are couldn’t really evaluate all the relevant evidence. Only when you’re a graduate and then a professor have you really gained that level of expertise.
So I tend to think, going to college, studying sciences, and taking hard science courses, really just exposes you to that community and makes you trust them and almost kind of feel like you’re a part of them–that’s why belief increases with exposure. Not because of an increase in knowledge but an increase in trust.
So how can the wider public come to trust in scientists, if they can’t all go to college? … I don’t know. Well, I hope Ryan’s presence in the podcast, being a climate scientist and seeming quite trust-worthy, does some good!
… Anyway, one day I hope to deeply understand the science of climate change. Currently studying (the very very very basics of) Thermodynamics, so we’ll see how it goes.
thedawdler · January 28, 2019 at 2:42 pm
I have a strong (deep?) familiarity with climate based on my Earth Science education. I am much more of a paleontology/ecology/evolution guy. The stuff in the episode I hope is as much the basics as one will find in a textbook in that the science behind it is supported really well and scientists are in good agreement.
-Ryan