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Posted on March 16, 2020 by ...and Then There's Physics Most of the focus at the moment is rightly on the coronavirus. Since I have no relevant expertise whatsoever, all I’ll say is that I hope everyone is doing their best to stay safe, and listening to the advice that’s being given. Instead, I thought I would post this short video by Andrew Dessler, in which he rebuts a recent presentation by Roy Spencer. What I found interesting was how often Roy Spencer would say things that sounded like they were directly supported by the scientific evidence, but were really just his opinion about the significance of the evidence. For example, “there’s no climate crisis”. People are perfectly entitled to believe this, but scientific evidence alone doesn’t determine if something is a crisis, or not; that’s a judgement that we make, based on the evidence available.
Of course, many will claim that this is, or is not, a “climate crisis” without always being clear that this is their judgement/opinion. When it comes to activists, and others who advocate for specific policies, I tend to think that this is fine. They’re obviously presenting their opinions/judgements; I don’t think they need to make this explicit. Scientists, on the other hand, are speaking from a position of authority and really should distinguish between what they can conclude directly from the evidence (adding greenhouse gases to the atmosphere will lead to global warming) and what judgements they might make, given the evidence (it’s a climate crisis).
