Thread by @SteB777

Thread.

I'm house sitting and I don't normally watch TV. But I just momentarily switched on BBC 2 Politics live where 4 talking heads were discussing Prince William's comments that billionaires should focus on our planet, not space flight.

I've no idea who this panel of talking heads were, but the inanity, ignorance and absolutely stupidity about the climate and ecological crisis, sustainability etc, defied belief. What the hell is the BBC doing putting out such ignorance and giving it a platform?

One talking head justified this "space innovation" on the grounds it might facilitate secondary technology, which could allow us to "defeat climate change".

Let's get this very clear, the climate crisis is caused by the mass burning of fossil fuels, industrial farming, particularly livestock etc. "Climate change" is not some remote threat from elsewhere to be defeated, it is caused by our current economic processes and model.

Then another ignoramus opined that we need to focus on people and not the planet, because if all these doomers talking about cutting back on economic activity got their way, it would put people off, and they wouldn't allow change.

Radical change is coming whether we like it or not. Either we radically alter our economic model to make it sustainable, or physical reality and the laws of nature will radically alter our civilization, probably resulting in its collapse.

Presumably by planet this ignoramus meant the biosphere, as the planet itself is not threatened. That someone is allowed to express opinions on TV, who doesn't understand the connection between human life and natural systems, is jaw dropping.

An academic wolf expert once told me when I talked to him after a talk, about how everyone has got an opinion on nature, despite having zero knowledge. How people with no knowledge at all would lecture him about things they knew nothing about at all after his talks.

In no other sphere of knowledge would this level of ignorance be tolerated in a TV panel discussion. It is only tolerated, because the presenter/chair was as ignorant as the panellists. So are the vast majority of editors, producers, journalists, media executives and politicians.

Ecology, environmental science, climate science, biodiversity etc, study something far more complex than any other field of human academia. We only know a tiny fraction of what could be known.

The shocking thing is that in our society, only a tiny proportion of educated people, academics etc, have got any grasp at all of just how complex natural systems and life are. I mean most are completely ignorant to the point of total illiteracy.

There is more awareness now of the Dunning-Kruger effect, where the less someone knows, the more certain they are that they are expert. This is because they lack the basic knowledge to be aware of their own ignorance.

We have a society, where a broad understanding of natural systems is very rare indeed. An almost 99.9% lack of insight. Where even the expert in many subjects within this field, often only know about their own field of knowledge, and not the rest.

Knowing what you don't know is probably the best definition of wisdom. Not knowing anything about a subject is not a problem if you are aware of your ignorance. No one can know everything. The huge problem is when you think you're knowledgeable, when you're totally ignorant.

I interact with the public a fair bit over the natural world, taking walks, doing talks, but most importantly, just chatting to people I meet out in natural or semi-natural habitat and pointing things out to people. Anyone who has met me knows I don't exaggerate.

One of my talents is being able to read other people, to see what they know, what they don't know, and to tailor what I say, to what they want to know. So I can speak to expert and those without any knowledge, and not patronize either, and inform them.

Lots of people mistakenly think I'm an expert naturalist. Yet I really am ashamed by my lack of knowledge, and I suffer from extreme imposter syndrome. I shudder to think that I'm seen as an expert, with my lack of knowledge.

However, having explored the whole territory, having read loads, thought about more, but most importantly having spent so much time out in nature observing it, I am appalled by the lack of general insight.

To cap it off, one of the panellists was talking from the Green New Deal perspective, and talking about creating a better world, with green growth and prosperity. This is a much bigger problem, when the supposedly informed are ignorant of their ignorance.

The reality is that a sustainable society would involve everyone leading much simpler lives (most do anyway), far less extravagant in consumption. I don't have any beliefs about this on moral or ideological grounds, it is purely on the basis of efficacy and practicality.

I often use technology, not just as a photographer. I keep up with innovation. I have no beliefs that technology is evil and we must abandon it. What I say again is based purely on efficacy, and practical understanding.

You cannot have infinite growth in a finite world. With such huge population, there's no room for extravagance. It's straight forward maths, physics, the laws of nature and the planetary boundaries, which determine what is possible.
stockholmresilience.org/research/plane…

I highlight the consumption and influence of the wealthiest, not on ideological grounds, but on sustainability grounds, on systems grounds as to how the whole system works. What I want or believe in does not even come into it.

We must divest ourselves of leadership and influence by those totally unaware of their own ignorance in such a dangerous times. Ideally the way to deal with it would just to be to turn away from them, to recognise their ignorance, and to only look to the insightful.

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@GeorgeMonbiot @GretaThunberg @ClimateHuman