Talking with NaomiOreskes, the world’s preeminent chronicler of climate denial and disinformation
Naomi Oreskes. Illustration: Intelligencer. Photo: Getty Images On September 23, the United Nations opened its Climate Action Summit here in New York, three days after the Global Climate Strike, led by Greta Thunberg, swept through thousands of cities worldwide.
And then the other thing, of course, is why did it take so darn long for this to happen? A big part of my work has been showing that there was a scientific consensus on this issue already by the early 1990s, and of course, that’s also when we have the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change. So we should have taken action in 1992, but we didn’t.
Well, just to pull back to the big subject of your book, how do we know it’s true? At what point can we declare things, just, known? You have just published a paper with Michael Oppenheimer pointing out the pattern that, when it comes to climate projections, the real-world impacts continue to surpass even very recent projections.
I always tell people they need to read Antonio Damasio, who’s the most important scientist in America, because his work has shown that when you reason, the emotional centers of your brain are involved as well. And when people’s emotional centers are damaged, they make bad decisions. So this is why when I hear people say, you know, well, we have to calm down and be rational about this, we have to put emotions aside — for me, giant red flags.
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