The current climate debate switches between Cold War and 'war on terror' rhetoric; indeed, reconciliation needed! One leitmotif of the Lisbon workshop was the implementation of 'non-violent conflict resolution'. Bishop Hill got the Valentine spirit of the message and sent it to Lisbon. Judith suggests to replace old war terminology through a more religious one: What about the "convinced" versus the "unconvinced"? My inner Bodhisattva reminds me that climate is not a 'versus' thing but that climate means shared unity: Om mani padme hum - we all should take a deep breath from time to time (and then go back to the blogoshpere)!
If climate isn't a "vs" thing, why have alarmist scientists been acting like it for years? See Steve Mc today on Bradley's e-mail a decade ago about hiding key info from the "antis". "Anti" sounds like an us vs. them construction.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, let's give it a try and see it from a Freudian perspective. Of course, it is deeply humiliating that we neither can predict nor control climate. Even worse, we are completely dependent on it. We are not the bosses in our very own climate house!
ReplyDeleteSo what to do? As a sublimation to this humiliation we engage in ritualistic power plays; big men pretend to have powerful models which are of course more powerful than those from the other climate tribe. Both parties develop strong opinions about climate, and the followers have to share these beliefs, or else they get excommunicated.
You cannot argue with the climate, but you can insult the scientist from the neighboring department. That's called sublimation.
I am not anti- science, not at all. But I really think it is necessary to get those feelings under control which are so virulent in parts of the climate science community. Envy, superstition, depression, narcissism, conspiracy, and many other strong emotions are freely floating and disturbing the exchange of knowledge. This is indeed a big problem, because climate science has an important role to play.
I suggest to practice some trust and generosity; indeed, we breathe the same air and share the same atmosphere. Climate is not about 'versus'; quite the contrary.
I really hope that religious terminology is NOT used. The climate argument already looks too much like Europe during the Reformation.
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