Posted on 03/24/2015 12:19:41 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Popular astrophysicist and anointed spokesperson for science Neil deGrasse Tyson is not impressed by the recent antics of Republican leaders, from Sen. Ted Cruz’s directive that NASA stop focusing on Earth to Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s reported ban on the term “climate change.”
“I don’t know if our country has any precedent for emergent scientific truths to be debated on political grounds,” he said during a live appearance in Sarasota, Florida, referring to the aforementioned censorship. “I’m astonished by that. Astonished and disappointed. I thought as a nation we were above this.”
Tyson, who is the director of the Hayden Planetarium and, as a side gig, host of the hit series Cosmos, also stood up for NASA’s work studying climate change, which Cruz, as chairman of the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Space, is actively discouraging.
“If you’re going to ignore Earth — and no one else is paying attention to Earth the way NASA is — you could be planting the seeds of your own destruction,” he argued, adding, “It’d be different if most of [NASA’s budget] was spent on Earth, but that’s not the case.”
It’s easy to shake our heads at politicians who seem to be actively steering us toward destruction, but in what’s sure to be his most inflammatory statement, Tyson maintained that the real people to blame are the ones who put climate deniers in office in the first place. “I don’t blame the politicians for a damn thing because we vote for the politicians,” he told his audience. “I blame the electorate.”
With our understanding of the imminent threat of climate change arguably greater than it’s ever been before, there’s reason to hope that the electorate might take that message to heart: taking a stance that directly opposes the scientific evidence on climate change could be becoming a political liability. Still, polling data shows that Americans have some catching up to do when it comes to understanding the dangers of global warming — perhaps those living in Miami, California and other places already experiencing the impacts of our changing climate could lead the way for the rest of us.
Race and social justice[edit]
In an undated interview at Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Tyson talked about being black and one of the most visible and well known scientists in the world. He told a story about being interviewed about a plasma burst from the sun on a local Fox affiliate in 1989. “I’d never before in my life seen an interview with a black person on television for expertise that had nothing to do with being black. And at that point, I realized that one of the last stereotypes that prevailed among people who carry stereotypes is that, sort of, black people are somehow dumb. I wondered, maybe ... that’s a way to undermine this sort of, this stereotype that prevailed about who’s smart and who’s dumb. I said to myself, ‘I just have to be visible, or others like me, in that situation.’ That would have a greater force on society than anything else I could imagine.”[62][63]
In 2005, at a conference at the National Academy of Sciences, Tyson responded to a question about whether genetic differences might keep women from working as scientists. He said that his goal to become an astrophysicist was “hands down the path of most resistance through the forces ... of society.” He continued: “My life experience tells me, when you don’t find blacks in the sciences, when you don’t find women in the sciences, I know these forces are real and I had to survive them in order to get where I am today. So before we start talking about genetic differences, you gotta come up with a system where there’s equal opportunity. Then we can start having that conversation.”[64]
Source; Wikipedia
Didn’t that idiot used to play on Barney Miller?
Time Magazine Monday, June 24, 1974
“Another Ice Age?”
“In Africa, drought continues for the sixth consecutive year, adding terribly to the toll of famine victims. During 1972 record rains in parts of the U.S., Pakistan and Japan caused some of the worst flooding in centuries. In Canada’s wheat belt, a particularly chilly and rainy spring has delayed planting and may well bring a disappointingly small harvest. Rainy Britain, on the other hand, has suffered from uncharacteristic dry spells the past few springs. A series of unusually cold winters has gripped the American Far West, while New England and northern Europe have recently experienced the mildest winters within anyone’s recollection.
“As they review the bizarre and unpredictable weather pattern of the past several years, a growing number of scientists are beginning to suspect that many seemingly contradictory meteorological fluctuations are actually part of a global climatic upheaval. However widely the weather varies from place to place and time to time, when meteorologists take an average of temperatures around the globe they find that the atmosphere has been growing gradually cooler for the past three decades. The trend shows no indication of reversing. Climatological Cassandras are becoming increasingly apprehensive, for the weather aberrations they are studying may be the harbinger of another ice age....
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1663607/posts
A pile is the proper term.
lol!
“Sometimes smart people can be dumb. Remember how scientists used to think the earth was flat....?”
I tend to think that this idea is a conceit of modern times. Ancient men watched ships sail away from the coast from the time that sailing began. And they all were able to see that the top of the mast was the last part of the boat to vanish from sight.
http://thefederalist.com/2014/03/13/five-things-neil-degrasse-tysons-cosmos-gets-wrong/
“Five Things Neil deGrasse Tyson’s “Cosmos” Gets Wrong
Science is cool. Should we care if it’s accurate?”
Good catch, Pelham!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.