Some Journalists’ Scientific Ignorance by Pius Kamau

Some Journalists’ Scientific Ignorance
Dr. Pius Kamau
Originally aired on KUNC March 1, 2010

Link to the Show / Show Notes

For some time now I have been thinking of how many conservative columnists’ have misinterpreted the information that’s out there on climate change. Scientific data has had little influence, and the ever changing picture on the ground means even less to them. In contrast, I have followed the science of climate change for years – and am now convinced that we have a dire problem. But I also believe we have a chance to reverse the change our civilization has wrought on the planet. And that we have a moral duty to leave a better world for our grandchildren.

It is unfortunate that a good many journalists reporting on the topic tend to have very little in the way of scientific training. Lacking the necessary objectivity they simply regurgitate what is said elsewhere, polluting the minds of their readers, helping shape a biased and uninformed public opinion. Man’s role in climate change is not a scientific issue for these writers and commentators. Rather, it is a matter of political conviction and convenience, grist to the writer’s stone. The country in general and American writers in particular have the luxury of wealth to shield them from the vagaries of an ever worsening climate picture. For most of us extreme climate changes are fleeting. The episodic climatic discomforts are merely an inconvenience.

Contrast that to the decades-old drought in central and southern Africa. Tribes people and their camels, cattle and other animals are starving, the death toll rising. Their lakes and rivers are drying up. It is something I’m personally connected to. The drought has hurt my mother’s coffee farm in my native Kenya. As I watch Africa die from afar, I viscerally sense the weather changes’ effects even as conservatives dismiss it all as the mad ravings of liberal thinkers.

I recently listened with sadness and amazement as several radio and TV talking heads declared Global warming dead. For them, the record snow fall along the East coast was proof that global warming was a lie. And a recent article by George Will in the Washington Post called assertions of climate change and our role in it “impervious to evidence”. To me this was clear evidence of how some Americans seem to want to celebrate scientific ignorance.

There is a preponderance of scientific data to support the contention that global warming and man’s role in it are intertwined. It is really a matter of commonsense. All one has to do is look at the smog and the polluted air over some of or America cities. The CO2 in our polluted air has to go somewhere and surely there is a consequence because of it.

The problem is, many scientifically challenged writers, commentators and politicians as messengers to the greater public – bring their ignorance and prejudice to these discussions. We who have a clearer vision of the dangers of institutional ignorance must end our silence. If we wait for some cataclysmic event to occur to prove to the skeptics that climate change is real, the world as we know it may be doomed.

Related posts:

1. Pius Kamau: A Few Steps to Assure Refugees’ Safety
2. Dr. Pius Kamau on “The Black Conundrum”
3. Pius Kamau: The Obama Campaign Brought Communities Together
4. Pius Kamau: A Duty to Heal