Comments on: Reality Bites: How the Reality Based Community Has Shifted Left http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/intersection/2011/06/14/reality-bites-how-the-reality-based-community-has-shifted-left/ Where science collides with life, slams into culture, crashes with politics, and gets totaled. Tue, 27 Sep 2011 17:28:30 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Hugo Schmidt http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/intersection/2011/06/14/reality-bites-how-the-reality-based-community-has-shifted-left/#comment-105227 Hugo Schmidt Fri, 17 Jun 2011 09:04:36 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/intersection/?p=18763#comment-105227 You are very much pushing at an open door with me if you say that American conservatives have a very bad record vis a viz science, but the notion of advertising a "reality based community" with a magazine whose cover proclaims "the road to a Palestinian state" is an irony I have some time grappling with. You are very much pushing at an open door with me if you say that American conservatives have a very bad record vis a viz science, but the notion of advertising a “reality based community” with a magazine whose cover proclaims “the road to a Palestinian state” is an irony I have some time grappling with.

]]> By: Bob Koss http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/intersection/2011/06/14/reality-bites-how-the-reality-based-community-has-shifted-left/#comment-104887 Bob Koss Tue, 14 Jun 2011 22:45:11 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/intersection/?p=18763#comment-104887 Jacoby points to Newsweek as promoting environmental fear-mongering. I agree what he quoted from Newsweek fits that description. Also as an example of fear-mongering about environmental disasters Jacoby quotes Al Gore saying in 1992 “... evidence of an ecological Kristallnacht is as clear as the sound of glass shattering in Berlin; ...’’. No one has provided such evidence in the 20 years since. Jacoby's example is once again on the mark. Emanuel bizarrely tries to change Jacoby's meaning by attempting to tie the recent run of disasters into Jacoby's point re fear-mongering. Yet even Emanuel doesn't claim the disasters are out of the range of natural variability, only that they are appalling. I don't think anyone disagrees with that. Emanuel points out "Assessing and dealing with climate risk in an environment of highly uncertain science and expensive options is challenging ..." If the science is highly uncertain any future outcome can be considered unknown. Why go for expensive mitigation options when those funds can be used with the certainty of quality of life improvements for those alive today? So, what did Emanuel debunk? Nothing that I see. Jacoby points to Newsweek as promoting environmental fear-mongering. I agree what he quoted from Newsweek fits that description.

Also as an example of fear-mongering about environmental disasters Jacoby quotes Al Gore saying in 1992 “… evidence of an ecological Kristallnacht is as clear as the sound of glass shattering in Berlin; …’’. No one has provided such evidence in the 20 years since. Jacoby’s example is once again on the mark.

Emanuel bizarrely tries to change Jacoby’s meaning by attempting to tie the recent run of disasters into Jacoby’s point re fear-mongering. Yet even Emanuel doesn’t claim the disasters are out of the range of natural variability, only that they are appalling. I don’t think anyone disagrees with that.

Emanuel points out “Assessing and dealing with climate risk in an environment of highly uncertain science and expensive options is challenging …”

If the science is highly uncertain any future outcome can be considered unknown. Why go for expensive mitigation options when those funds can be used with the certainty of quality of life improvements for those alive today?

So, what did Emanuel debunk? Nothing that I see.

]]>