Food for thought

TheBrick(Tommy) I love it when people say, cow emit x many tones of C02 so lets get ride of cows, or people produce loads of c02 by breathing. Many people seem to struggle with the concept of the carbon cycle, a concept than most school children have no problem with.

Exactly. My sister is studying for her GCSEs and she understands global warming just as well as or better than the adults I work with.

Most people liek to go along with the crowd and not analise the arument which they are given, plus there is now a lack of trust in men in suites. There is a documentary on this week about hte rise in cults and odd spirituallity and how people are turning their back or science and reason.

It's called "Enemies of Reason" and is on at 8pm on Channel 4 tonight. It's by Richard Dawkins, who is, in my opinion, an amazing guy. His book "The God Delusion" is fantastic, as are his others on evolution. He's a genius.

There was another C4 documentary he did called "The Root of all Evil?" He didn't want to call it that by the way, as he doesn't think religion is the root of all evil. He compromised with the question mark. Was excellent, and I'm sure this one will be. You can download it online if you go the wikipedia page about it.

This brings up an important point. People, the public what ever you whish to call them, as a whole have lost faith in authority figures. Most of these figures are people like politicians, e.t.c. We rely on the information and judgement of these people to run our country, economy, foreign policy e.t.c. This lack have trust has shown it's self in terms of voter apathy, and in some areas the rise of fringe parties such as the BNP e.t.c. Another form of authority is of course the scintific community. The mistrust of authority figures, combined with lack of understanding of how the scientifc world works, add on the minipulation of the media and fianally the point that the course of action agaisnst golbal warming will requre personal sacifice, is it any wonder that the public are receptive to any kind of counter argument, no matter how weak?

Certainly. Fewer and fewer students are taking science and mathematics (and to an extent languages) A levels now in favour of easier subjects like media studies, film studies and art. Physics has dropped by half and chemistry by a third. As a whole the population has little scientific understanding and we're becoming a nation of people with useless degrees. The people I work with have media, film and art degrees, yet they're working in a record store doing exactly the same thing as me, but I'm only 18 and haven't even go my A level results yet!

People need to realise how science actually functions. I wish I could make it compulsory reading for every sixth form student in the country to read Thomas Kuhn's "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" - at the moment it seems that people think I scientist just goes "oh that's wrong, this is right, let me ring the newspaper..." Peer review is already weeding out the (failing) scientists who deny anthropegnic global warming. Instead, these scientists go straight to the people through dramatic and over-the-top documentaries via TV/Sun/Mail/Star/Internet.

As you ended, people just don't want to sacrifice anything. Companies only want to do things if it makes them more money. The joys of a capitalist society, eh?