https://techsomogro.com/hate-nag-climate-change/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=hate-nag-climate-change Science, Technology and the Future Thu, 13 Mar 2014 10:17:59 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.1 https://techsomogro.com/hate-nag-climate-change/#comment-11266 Thu, 13 Mar 2014 10:17:59 +0000 http://www.21stcentech.com/?p=13334#comment-11266 Len, the pessimist in me knows that all your rational evidence will continue to be ignored. A good question is, why is it so easy to do so? I think it is as simple as this: climate manifests itself as weather, weather is by its nature highly variable, with the result that data relating to climate are highly noisy and difficult to derive incontrovertible conclusions from. So as long as it is relatively easy to mine such noisy data and come up with apparently contradictory conclusions, weather-based evidence for climate change will always be ineffective for proof beyond a reasonable doubt (or whatever other threshold is applicable for decision making).
However, the optimist in me has hope. Maybe the solution is as simple as mining data that are less variable, noisy and tainted with controversy. For example, (and I am no expert here) horticultural data such as blooming dates and entomological data such as patterns of expansion of insect populations are climate-linked and I expect much less noisy. At the level of individual experience, a new bug in the back yard is not nearly as motivating as our recent foot of snow in thinking about how climate change affects me, but that is probably a good thing since it subtracts much of the emotional impact and may enable rational argument to trump wilful ignorance.
Not that rational argument seems to have much impact at any level of government these days, but at least it is a start (the pessimist always seems to get the last word…).

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