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posted by cmn32480 on Sunday June 11 2017, @06:36PM   Printer-friendly
from the just-look-at-the-comments-below dept.

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.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 11 2017, @10:41PM (5 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 11 2017, @10:41PM (#523999)

    South America? Please! You think they can settle a European dispute the way the US does? And besides, South America, with all its corruption, certainly has no ideals to look up to. Sorry, for peace in Europe, the US is truly the indispensable nation. Nobody else comes close. The numbers speak for themselves.

  • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Sunday June 11 2017, @10:58PM (3 children)

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Sunday June 11 2017, @10:58PM (#524012) Journal

    Sorry, for peace in Europe, the US is truly the indispensable nation.

    European disputes? Whatever you are smoking, I don't want any of it.

    The single problem there is the access to Black/Mediterranean sea and "no man's land" Putin wants around Russia. For the latest, it has Moldavia and (de facto) has East Ukraine.

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 12 2017, @04:13AM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 12 2017, @04:13AM (#524115)

      See? Already you people forgot what had to be done less than 20 years ago (and who had to do it) in the old Yugoslavia to keep that from spreading. Without the USA Austria/Hungary would spring back to life. Europe has always been a powder keg, and the only thing keeping the lid on, and the Russians at bay is the USofA. This, and Asia (Japan is also occupied territory) is why the defense budget has to be so huge.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 12 2017, @09:01AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 12 2017, @09:01AM (#524217)

        Definitely, you are USian and stupid.

      • (Score: 3, Informative) by c0lo on Monday June 12 2017, @10:09AM

        by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Monday June 12 2017, @10:09AM (#524246) Journal

        See? Already you people forgot what had to be done less than 20 years ago (and who had to do it) in the old Yugoslavia to keep that from spreading

        Without the USA, Kosovo would not have happened [huffingtonpost.com]:

        Throughout most of the 1990s, the oppressed ethnic Albanian majority in Kosovo waged their struggle almost exclusively nonviolently, using strikes, boycotts, peaceful demonstrations, and alternative institutions. The Kosovar Albanians even set up a democratically elected parallel government to provide schooling and social services, and to press their cause to the outside world.

        Indeed, it was one of the most widespread, comprehensive, and sustained nonviolent campaigns since Gandhi’s struggle for Indian independence. This was the time for Western powers to have engaged in preventative diplomacy. However, the world chose to ignore the Kosovars’ nonviolent movement and resisted consistent pleas by the moderate Kosovar Albanian leadership to take action. It was only after a shadowy armed group known as the Kosovo Liberation Army emerged in 1998 that the international media, the Clinton administration and other Western governments finally took notice.

        By waiting for the emergence of guerrilla warfare before seeking a solution, the West gave Serbia’s autocratic president Slobodan Milosevic the opportunity to crack down with an even greater level of savagery than before
        ....
        It’s a tragedy that the West squandered a full eight years when preventative diplomacy could have worked. The United States rejected calls for expanding missions set up by the United Nations and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Kosovo, or to bring Kosovo constituencies together for negotiations. Waiting for a full-scale armed insurrection to break out before acting has also given oppressed people around the world a very bad message: Nonviolent methods will fail and, in order to get the West to pay attention to your plight, you need to take up arms.

        If it is something that US has done in Yugoslavia, it is creating a Putin unwilling to accept NATO close to Russia border [sldinfo.com] - this is why today's situation in East Ukraine.

        --
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by MostCynical on Sunday June 11 2017, @11:47PM

    by MostCynical (2589) on Sunday June 11 2017, @11:47PM (#524030) Journal

    So, who exactly is the US presence deterring?
    Turkey?
    Russia?

    What exactly did the US do when Russia moved on the Crimea?
    How is Erdogan going?

    --
    "I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex