Monday, 3 October 2011

Nah, Nah, Nah, I'm Not Listening

I read an article recently which said that 70% of American (it could have been any nationality) believe that climate scientists have fiddled the data to prove their point. It reminds me of a point my brother made, that we build our model of what we believe - it can be on any subject, politics, immigration, climate change, social subsidies - and then we select the facts to back up our beliefs. If the facts don't suit then we challenge or refute them rather than reconsidering our view point.

Even supposedly dispassionate scientists do it. Like Bohr holding to his model of the atom despite new findings which drove holes through it. So I am not saying that climate scientists fiddled the data - that would be worse than rejecting it - what I am saying is that if we don't like what they or anyone else are telling us then we ignore them. Not a great way towards discovering the truth but that is what we seem to do.

So in my bid to hear opposing viewpoints, I read the Daily Telegraph now and again. I do it for balance. But it's hard.

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