A Chat on Climate Literacy With a Nobel-Winning Physicist

The physics Nobelist Murray Gell-Mann muses on why some people can't accept that climate is a mix of cycles, random noise and an underlying greenhouse warming trend.

For Dot Earth (recorded July 2010 in Aspen, Colo.): http://www.nytimes.com/dotearth

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• climate
• global warming
• science
• statistics
• energy
• nobel prize
• gell-mann
• physics

[mt78723]

Andy, you don't seem to hear what Gell-Mann is saying.

You seem to think there's single complex statement which must be taken on faith or rejected. But people do not understand a few basic facts. Whether people choose to believe them or not is a matter for social scientists to address ONLY AFTER PEOPLE KNOW WHAT THEY ARE.

I would have had a similar conversation about CUMULATIVE NATURE of the CO2 problem. People don't deny this nor accept it. They HAVEN'T HEARD IT YET!

[anrevk]

@mt78723 Google for "the greenhouse effect and the bathtub effect."

[TenneyNaumer]

Andy, if you had not spent the last 4 years doing your best to confuse Dot Earth readers, we might be in a better position to deal with this problem. The truth is that you don't feel it is your duty to educate the public. You are just going along for the ride. It can be seen from Dr. Gell-Mann's facial expressions and his sighs and his posture that he is not at all satisfied with the your response to his simple question. And it is simple. You had so many teaching moments that you wasted.

[anrevk]

@TenneyNaumer Not that I'm a fan of relying on authority for validation, but the National Academy of Sciences disagrees with you.

[rapauli]

No Andy, there is NOT agreement on energy innovation - because that would nudge a reduction in carbon combustion which amounts to reduced profits for carbon fuel industries. They completely bought congress, bought most of the media and swayed a few scientists of marginal ethics. Even your NYTimes likes to assign ANY climate warming as caused by ElNino or LaNiya or some statistical variance -- anything but human caused carbon combustion. Until we accept responsibility - nothing changes.

[mt78723]

Andy, once is not enough. The facts of the matter need to be as visible as they are salient. That is the job of the press. Here, you frankly show no sign of hearing or acknowledging Gell-Mann's question, just going back to the "information deficit" posture that y'all are so pleased with. It seems to excuse your profession from responsibility.

To the contrary, the more that effect matters, the greater your responsibility to convey the facts, diligently and persistently.

Follow up at Planet3.0 .

[TenneyNaumer]

@anrevk: if you start from the proposition that your work does not really make a difference in the scheme of things, as you stated upon acceptance of that journalism award, then for sure nothing will be accomplished. You act as if no one can be convinced of anything. Hardly true. Imagine if Martin Luther King, Jr., had had the same beliefs.