I was reading a piece in the New York Post, Leo vs. science: vanishing evidence for climate change in which it highlighted the poor science in Leo DiCaprio’s campaign to persuade the world of the “carbon monster”, when I read this:
DiCaprio is an actor, not a scientist; it’s no real surprise that his film is sensationalistic and error-riddled. Other climate-change fantasists, who do have a scientific background, have far less excuse.
And yes! Isn’t it great being a sceptic. As we all know by now sceptics are almost all well trained engineers and scientists. Very experienced, very knowledgeable, well versed with the realities of: “in theory it works … but in practice it doesn’t”.
So, yes, when some actor who really hasn’t a clue about what they are talking about stands up, you’ve got to feel sorry for them. They just aren’t sceptics. They haven’t had our training our experience our cautious careful analytical approach that means we more often than not are right. (That’s being modest – particularly with people like Steve McIntyre!)
And now I’m researching outside climate again, I am beginning to see how the skills we sceptics have are so transferable and how the “sceptic” or perhaps “engineering” method of careful rigorous analysis pays dividends in all kinds of areas.
Sceptics are the unsung heroes of society and far too few of us blow our own trumpets because we are the engineers, the scientists you can trust. We are the accountants. We are really the backbone of society.
However, let’s not be too arrogant. A body is not all backbone and if the world were full of sceptics, imagine a world where the only TV were thoroughly researched documentaries full of caveats and statements of how little is actually known!!
Imagine Steve McIntyre and Anthony Watts in tight hose playing Hamlet.
To be or not to be that is the question?
Would be about as far as the play got before we started a detailed discourse about the evidence packed full of graphs explaining how this was not the question.
However, then again, imagine a world built by actors and academics. Bridges that are delights to the eye perfect examples of the latest research ideas – which cost a fortune, fail to do the basic job intended, and are so impossible to maintain, that they rust to pieces and fall down in a few years.
