NASA chief scientist weighs in
Americans are "under siege" from disinformation designed to confuse the public about the threat of climate change, Nasa's former chief scientist has said.
Speaking to the Guardian, Ellen Stofan, who left the US space agency in December, said that a constant barrage of half-truths had left many Americans oblivious to the potentially dire consequences of continued carbon emissions, despite the science being unequivocal.
"We are under siege by fake information that's being put forward by people who have a profit motive," she said, citing oil and coal companies as culprits. "Fake news is so harmful because once people take on a concept it's very hard to dislodge it."
During the past six months, the US science community has woken up to this threat, according to Stofan, and responded by ratcheting up efforts to communicate with the public at the grassroots level as well as in the mainstream press.
"The harder part is this active disinformation campaign," she said before her appearance at Cheltenham Science Festival this week. "I'm always wondering if these people honestly believe the nonsense they put forward. When they say 'It could be volcanoes' or 'the climate always changes'... to obfuscate and to confuse people, it frankly makes me angry."
Stofan added that while "fake news" is frequently characterised as a problem in the right-leaning media, she saw evidence of an "erosion of people's ability to scrutinise information" across the political spectrum. "All of us have a responsibility," she said. "There's this attitude of 'I read it on the internet therefore it must be true'."
No editorial comment included.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Aiwendil on Sunday June 11 2017, @08:28PM (2 children)
Quick: Hillary or Trump which do you want to vote for?
If either then I can see why you are trying that argument, but if neither the vote is de facto already lost.
I did it US-centric above but I have the same issue here in sweden - out of the seven or eight big parties I don't want any of them to be in power and I consider all of them to be directly harmful to the country - and since we don't assign seats to blank votes I currently have de facto lost my vote due to the sheeple.
Just pointing out that unless you agree with the mainstream your vote is already lost and your argument is a wash.
(As an aside - I wouldn't mind losing my vote if we instead replaced the system with either meritocracy* or by demanding that people had to be educated in relevant areas to vote - at worst it would be more effecient as now and at best we would at least get rid of all the political spam.
* = however, have a meritocracy for the nominations for the seats in a party and I'd be interested in voting)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 11 2017, @09:16PM
There's a lot of parties in Sweden that too few people vote for:
To eliminate ignorant votes. One could have three questions on the ballot with multiple tick boxes which is then OCR scanned. Only correctly answered questions will make the ballot valid.
The Schweitzer constitution with citizens initiative to vote in specific matters at anytime is also quite interesting. Maybe something to follow? but then powers that are will not like that. After all the current system is electing a dictator for 4 years. And parties only needs to delude voters for some weeks ahead of the election. After that they can give a shit.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 11 2017, @10:39PM
Find similiar voiced people, and rather than trying to fight the system in a country full of idiots, go found your own country somewhere else.
We are at a point in human history that, while all land anywhere on the planet, is claimed, we have the technological means to recruit people and found nations in places never before accessable. Do that and gather mindshare for your newfound country, and you help influence your father or motherland by showing them a more successful way to live or govern.
If you aren't willing to do that, then now is the time to sit down, shut up, and act like a good little cog in the system you've chosen to enslave yourself within.