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James Wong @Botanygeek
, 3 tweets, 1 min read Read on Twitter
Important to remember is that this was not a scientific decision or conclusion.

But the opinion of a jury of lay people.

If you asked a bunch of random people their views on climate change or vaccines their response may well be worriesome.
bbc.com/news/world-us-…
Despite it being 2018, we need to remember that ‘opinion’ and ‘facts’ are not the same.

Even when the opinion is so popular and widely shouted about* that it can intuitively seem like common sense.

(*See inevitable shouty responses to this thread.)
In 2012 an Italian jury convinced a team of seismologists of manslaughter for not predicting an earthquake. (Since overturned)

Herein lies the problem with the opinions of lay people being considered more reliable measures of science than -well- science.
nature.com/news/italian-c…
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Thinking of starting a ‘detox’ or ‘cleanse’ this January?

While there is absolutely no science behind the idea, it does offer us an interesting insight into how our brains are wired up.
The idea behind a detox is that our bodies are constantly accumulating toxins. Ultimately these toxins are the cause of all ill health.

This is an idea that appears cross culturally, and has been recorded in some of the earliest texts on health.
Interestingly, what these toxins actually are is never identified, but we *are* told what causes them to build up: Basically anything fun / tasty.

The solution? To purge these from you body. How? By doing something really not very fun: Laxatives, fasting, enemas, blood letting.
Read 5 tweets
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I see this image is doing the rounds again...

Apparently putting a warning label on daffodils is ‘health and safety gone mad’.

Or, worse, sign people are stupid & deserve to get very ill if they eat them. #darwinawards

But here’s how a botanist sees this...
Three of these are popular vegetables, eaten all over the world & also sold in Britain.

BUT one shows daffodil buds, which are pretty horrendously toxic.

Non plant geeks, can you spot the difference?
In fact, daffodils are one of the most common causes of plant poisoning in the U.K.

Made worse as they were (until extremely recently) often sold & stored alongside fruit and veg.

Spot the difference between their bulbs & shallots.
Read 5 tweets
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When I was a kid, the Singapore river verged on being an open sewer. And otters were thought extinct on the island.

Here’s what effective green policies can do! #Inspirational #conservation #otters #urbangreening
How do you help critically-endangered pangolins cross the road?

Build a eco-link!

These wildlife bridges (not open to people) connect rainforest reserves in Singapore.

At a cost of $12M each, they are still thought worth it. #urbangreening #gardencity
On the subject of greening motorways...

This is Singapore’s equivalent of the M1.

The transformational power of urban planting is pretty magical. #horticulture #urbangreening
Read 11 tweets

Related threads

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Thank you to @MeetThePress for doing a Sunday show on climate change — at last.

Usually these Sunday shows are televised gossip columns, and climate change and other key issues are never discussed.
Good for you, @chucktodd.

At this stage, #climate denial is fraud, and it has been for a long time — particularly as practiced by the fossil fuel industry and its armada of phony front groups. thehill.com/homenews/sunda…
Precisely... axios.com/climate-change…
Read 3 tweets
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Just returned from Bangkok, where nations made little progress towards finalising the Paris agreement on climate change that aims to limit global temperature rises over the next 80 years.

It was my first @UN #climate change rodeo and there were a few things I wasn't aware of
Under Paris, countries agreed to a fairly detailed set of promises to keep global temperature rises under 2C by 2100.

It was the first time all nations - both developed and developing economies - signed up to the same set of climate rules. But they weren't binding
Parties gave themselves in effect 3 years to come up with a text agreed by everyone, ratified, and translated into national law on a state-by-state basis. The idea is the accord isn't legally binding, but the rulebook it provides could be on a national level
Read 23 tweets
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1. The arguments in this @newrepublic article by @emorwee that #climate is siloed in the press, that the press should tie every extreme weather/disaster event to #climate simply don't match up to the data. #envcomm #scicomm newrepublic.com/article/150124…
2. Staffers working at @mediamatters + @climateprogress (where @emorwee got her start) have long manufactured this claim + driving a self-serving narrative on the Left that the news media is failing in its coverage of climate change.
3. But this narrative & its embrace by those on the Left reflects a classic hostile media effect. As @lfeldman17 reviews the most partisan on an issue see news coverage as biased to their position even when it may actually be favorable. oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/o… #scicomm #envcomm
Read 21 tweets
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Late last night veteran #climate journalist @Revkin asked some sharp questions about @Sierra_Magazine’s “The Case for Climate Reparations,” spurred by an appreciative post from NYC Chief Resilience Officer @dzarrilli. Here’s my response …
My essay is only concerned with climate change-related damages in the US spurred, as I argue, by US actors like the oil majors. I could’ve written about Peruvian villagers suing a German energy giant & melting glaciers in the Andes, but that’s beyond the scope of my article.
So I had to identify extreme weather events in the US. As NOAA has reported, 2017 was the most destructive year on record for “natural” disasters. See this tracker ncdc.noaa.gov/billions/summa…
Read 21 tweets
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Good questions @RedsforNamesake. If confronting #climate change is your priority, it is imperative to ramp up carbon-free energy asap.

1. NJ will now ramp up renewable energy from 13% in 2017 and 20% by 2020 under old RPS to 35% by 2025 & 50% by 2030. Impressive leadership.
2. To ensure that this new clean energy replaces fossil fuels and contributes to #climate mitigation goals, NJ's new laws also make payments to ensure the continued operation of 3 South Jersey nuclear reactors that currently supply 31% of the state's electricity consumption.
2. Cont.: That measure is essential and ensures that nearly all of the new clean energy growth over the next 12 years builds on top of the fossil-free foundation provided by the state's existing nuclear plants.
Read 14 tweets
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Short thread.
1. I didn't realize how badly Trump has eviscerated access to federal #climate data, so I went and looked at the USGS site.
2. In December, there were 5,932 climate science items linked there (9 were just pictures). Today there are 416 and 292 are just pictures.
3. In December 2016, 320 of those items were links to #climate data. Today, 0 links to data. 5,271 were web links. Now, 0 web links.
Read 7 tweets

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