Magnificent article. Magnificent comments as well. I especially connect with the comments that Just Plain Bill made about the Corona Virus. I was actually banned from the web site of the economist John Quiggin for my criticisms of the dominate Corona Virus Narrative.
I think a lot of the “anti-science” attitude trailing in the wake of COVID is not coming exclusively from the crowd that has never trusted science. Now we have a new group--of which I am one--who have never been skeptical of science in and of itself; in fact, quite the opposite. These are those who have lost much of their formerly considerable trust in our institutions of science and those who turned out to be nothing more than a self-styled scientific priesthood handing the tablets down from on high.
I'm referring to the journalists, censors, and government bureaucrats, and a number of incompetent or 'bent' scientists who were so wrong about so much, sometimes by accident, but often by design. And it is mostly the latter that will not be forgiven.
I need not go into detail about the various ways in which this was done--this ground is already well-covered by others. Suffice it to say that all of this malfeasance is now becoming obvious even to many who didn't want to see it before. As a result, one of the biggest legacies of COVID is going to be a massive weakening in the public’s trust in science. And this is a pity.
I was a young adult in the early 70s, not tapped in to issues of the day that didn’t affect me immediately and directly, too immature to care much about such stuff. I never saw reporting or heard talk about “The Limits to Growth” or the controversies that came along later, and I didn’t read the book until just a few years ago. (I was impressed, and have followed up by reading updates and more, including a couple of your books.) In retrospect, it's pretty strange that I never heard a peep about a book that reportedly sold over a million copies. What is also strange is how hard it is to find a hard copy nowadays. They are relatively rare and expensive.
It IS a good question to wonder what you should say when you appear on TV. Given your own answer, I think you'd find a lot to agree with in the recent book by Dougald Hine, “At Work in the Ruins”, which I can highly recommend. Hine is a committed climate change activist, but he has decided that he will no longer focus on trying to persuade people about what they should do to combat climate change. His book is a magnificent piece of work in my opinion, not least because the reader doesn't have to agree with all his views on climate change (I don’t) to find it compelling. (There is a good review at https://www.resilience.org/stories/2023-03-13/we-are-all-modern-now/.
I’ve been following you on Seneca Effect for some time, but Substack works better for me. Thanks for the great work, and I look forward to your future posts.
"We believe that the roots of these crises lie in the stories we have been telling ourselves. We intend to challenge the stories which underpin our civilisation: the myth of progress, the myth of human centrality, and the myth of our separation from ‘nature’. These myths are more dangerous for the fact that we have forgotten they are myths."
I would also recommend the Earthseed serie by Octavia E. Butler https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthseed I have only read the first one yet, waiting for the second to be delivered. A quote of the first book I like very much "People have changed the climate of the world. Now they're waiting for the old days to come back."
Sorry to hear of your nasty experience. An ambush is an extreme challenge the best theorists routinely fail in practise. The smuggest rationalist can't ever escape zer emotional nature. It's only in theory there is no difference between theory and practice 🤷
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⏹️ Tech note. Why not try substack's smart features when transferring posts from blogger platform? Footnotes readable inline are a doozy! 🙂
Those four steps seem pretty accurate to me! I admire your courage in doing that interview, but yeah, it's so hard to have a meaningful conversation in that kind of situation.
Magnificent article. Magnificent comments as well. I especially connect with the comments that Just Plain Bill made about the Corona Virus. I was actually banned from the web site of the economist John Quiggin for my criticisms of the dominate Corona Virus Narrative.
Thanks!
Crap I accidently put a like on my own comment. It should say 2 likes not 3. But I do not know how to get rid of it.
I think a lot of the “anti-science” attitude trailing in the wake of COVID is not coming exclusively from the crowd that has never trusted science. Now we have a new group--of which I am one--who have never been skeptical of science in and of itself; in fact, quite the opposite. These are those who have lost much of their formerly considerable trust in our institutions of science and those who turned out to be nothing more than a self-styled scientific priesthood handing the tablets down from on high.
I'm referring to the journalists, censors, and government bureaucrats, and a number of incompetent or 'bent' scientists who were so wrong about so much, sometimes by accident, but often by design. And it is mostly the latter that will not be forgiven.
I need not go into detail about the various ways in which this was done--this ground is already well-covered by others. Suffice it to say that all of this malfeasance is now becoming obvious even to many who didn't want to see it before. As a result, one of the biggest legacies of COVID is going to be a massive weakening in the public’s trust in science. And this is a pity.
I was a young adult in the early 70s, not tapped in to issues of the day that didn’t affect me immediately and directly, too immature to care much about such stuff. I never saw reporting or heard talk about “The Limits to Growth” or the controversies that came along later, and I didn’t read the book until just a few years ago. (I was impressed, and have followed up by reading updates and more, including a couple of your books.) In retrospect, it's pretty strange that I never heard a peep about a book that reportedly sold over a million copies. What is also strange is how hard it is to find a hard copy nowadays. They are relatively rare and expensive.
It IS a good question to wonder what you should say when you appear on TV. Given your own answer, I think you'd find a lot to agree with in the recent book by Dougald Hine, “At Work in the Ruins”, which I can highly recommend. Hine is a committed climate change activist, but he has decided that he will no longer focus on trying to persuade people about what they should do to combat climate change. His book is a magnificent piece of work in my opinion, not least because the reader doesn't have to agree with all his views on climate change (I don’t) to find it compelling. (There is a good review at https://www.resilience.org/stories/2023-03-13/we-are-all-modern-now/.
I’ve been following you on Seneca Effect for some time, but Substack works better for me. Thanks for the great work, and I look forward to your future posts.
Interesting. I'll see to read the book you recommend, and thanks for the comment
Thanks for the link. The https://dark-mountain.net/about/manifesto/ link also deseves to be shared. It is directly found at the beginning of the linked page.
I like very much their 3rd principle :
"We believe that the roots of these crises lie in the stories we have been telling ourselves. We intend to challenge the stories which underpin our civilisation: the myth of progress, the myth of human centrality, and the myth of our separation from ‘nature’. These myths are more dangerous for the fact that we have forgotten they are myths."
I would also recommend the Earthseed serie by Octavia E. Butler https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthseed I have only read the first one yet, waiting for the second to be delivered. A quote of the first book I like very much "People have changed the climate of the world. Now they're waiting for the old days to come back."
Regards,
Etienne
Sorry to hear of your nasty experience. An ambush is an extreme challenge the best theorists routinely fail in practise. The smuggest rationalist can't ever escape zer emotional nature. It's only in theory there is no difference between theory and practice 🤷
--
⏹️ Tech note. Why not try substack's smart features when transferring posts from blogger platform? Footnotes readable inline are a doozy! 🙂
Yep.... Substack has several good tricks. As long as it survives....
I appreciate your thinking and writing very much. However, please could you briefly explain the following line, with regard to the Covid pandemic?
“1b. people become scared and do things that worsen the problem”
As an older person who was (and remains) scared…what were those things? I would like to avoid doing them.
Come on, Kate, if you read my posts you know my position on the pandemic.... I am an older person, too, but I am not scared anymore.
Those four steps seem pretty accurate to me! I admire your courage in doing that interview, but yeah, it's so hard to have a meaningful conversation in that kind of situation.
The vast majority of people are unaware of the multiple climate change impacts around the world. Today's smorgasbord of climate chaos:
https://climateandeconomy.com/2023/04/08/8th-april-2023-todays-round-up-of-climate-news/