My online life as a climate scientist ⬇️ - ThreadSky

katharinehayhoe.com • 335 days ago

My online life as a climate scientist ⬇️

Reposted from Ellen Kushner

Comments

davidbflower.bsky.social•335 days ago

Many 'experts' after watching a single YouTube video too.

casuallychaotic.bsky.social•335 days ago

The existence of "lies to kids" as a teaching method has a lot to answer for.

Then again, trying to explain exactly how gravity works as part of subatomic energy displacement, quantum mechanics and celestial string theory is a lot more difficult than just saying "things fall down."

jowilliams.bsky.social•335 days ago

You can't really grasp any of the hard stuff till you've got the hang of "things fall down" though. I guess it's more about teaching the concept of modelling really early, about how models and stories are used to explain and understand. All the long words are *also* just models, just a wider scope.

casuallychaotic.bsky.social•334 days ago

Exactly right.

The idea of "lies to kids" is that you teach something simple but fundamentally wrong so that more difficult concepts can be built off of those basics later.

The problems come when most people never get to learn the complex concepts, and the "lies" get in the way of explaining them.

drklassen.bsky.social•20 hours ago

To be fair, LOTS of things are "fundamentally wrong" but just a better model than the ones before it. I think society needs to do a better job of noting that science is about "make a better model" and not "truth" from the start.

chrisagilbert.bsky.social•335 days ago

I once sat through a convo about the "safety" of nuclear energy and how "meltdowns weren't so bad" held entirely by unqualified people on Twitch who had watched some dude on YouTube, who also had, as far as I know, no relative expertise in the matter. I am not an expert on atomic energy but still.

downix.bsky.social•335 days ago

The nuclear engineers I know who do work in the field would agree with them. Compared to other forms of power generation, nuclear is one of the safest per kWh.

chrisagilbert.bsky.social•335 days ago

Would your friends have non-paywalled information pointing to this? Because I've never read anything, except stuff that, ya know "my friend says" that points to anyone arguing meltdowns, or the risk of meltdowns, are somehow not so bad.
I'll gladly read anything they have.

downix.bsky.social•335 days ago

The foundation for nuclear meltdown risk can be found with IAEA: https://www.iaea.org/sites/default/files/publications/magazines/bulletin/bull16-1/161_202007277.pdf

downix.bsky.social•335 days ago

And the follow up after Fukushima showing the real world application of that foundation:
https://deliverypdf.ssrn.com/delivery.php?ID=577095118088025081071094092071101099035036062037000048094076109117119090081123106086045012028058107057125109121005098001070022106071061017042013112119121081114073103058034041009013000066109005103010118081066095005095079096065016120119077123097067066004&EXT=pdf&INDEX=TRUE

downix.bsky.social•335 days ago

More detail on the Fukushima disaster causes being more man made than nature;
https://carnegieendowment.org/2012/03/06/why-fukushima-was-preventable-pub-47361

chrisagilbert.bsky.social•335 days ago

This concludes with the idea, "[t]his statement introduces an unjustified feeling of security . . . that the GENIII reactor have increased safety . . . in no way justifies the claim that a core meltdown is excluded . . . the CDF value provided . . .

fantango.bsky.social•335 days ago

There's also that Big Issue affecting entire planet rn, making nuclear a preferable poison, atleast for a while

ekierklo.bsky.social•335 days ago

There is a cult of ignorance in the United States... The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.
Isaac Asimov

godhatesyeast.bsky.social•22 hours ago

epidemiology postdoc 🤜🤛

uweundmehr.bsky.social•335 days ago

Stupids turn up their volume, thinking, this gives them expertise.

megablandfox.bsky.social•335 days ago

And you were experiencing that with literal corporations.

"How can there be global warming when the last three months were colder than ever."

"The last three months were November, December, and January."

casuallychaotic.bsky.social•335 days ago

"They were also the warmest November, December and January recorded in over 120 years. And now February too."

robertootarola.bsky.social•22 hours ago

otthouse.bsky.social•335 days ago

I dunno about all that global warming stuff. It's like 40 and windy outside today!!

neprospector.bsky.social•335 days ago

I worked in Earth Systems and Planetary Sciences. Even achieving a Post Doc at JPL. I am retired now, and for the first time in decades, I can speak freely.

thehoustonwade.bsky.social•335 days ago

Had a high school dropout confidently tell me yesterday that CO2 only goes up as a result of rising temps and doesn't cause them. I have just accepted the fact that we're doomed.

francisekwunife.bsky.social•334 days ago

But the weather on the internet comes from scientists like you.

mapperwocky.bsky.social•335 days ago

Seems true for almost every scientist online ever. Re-arguing truths we’ve known from decades to millennia.

I feel like there was a brief period in time (early 2000s?) where the ability to hear science experts reply online to a question was accepted with awe and thanks.

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