#Science/#Society: "This #bias is explicit for Sir John Houghton, a former #IPCC vice president who is not only an eminent climatologist but also a fervent catholic and zealous proselytiser. Houghton has made a great contribution to the #climate cause, and no-one could accuse ... 
... him of ignoring the magnitude of the challenge. Nevertheless, when he was asked one day if he was an #optimist or a #pessimist, he replied: ‘I am an optimist for three reasons; #scientists the world over are working hard and collaborating, the necessary #technologies are ...
... available, and #God takes care of His creation’. Taken to this extreme, his #optimism borders on recklessness. But this quote speaks volumes about the limited view of some #scientists, religious or not, who, between their ultra-specialised domain and 'human nature' ...
... (or God, the idealised representative thereof), fail to take into account the social milieu of which they form a part, while, this 'level of generality' plays a decisive role. What should be a real awareness? It would be #humanity's capacity to understand the relationships...
... at the heart of the social environment and the historically determined relationship of this social environment with nature. John Houghton's #optimism demonstrates that a #science of #ClimateChange which ignores the #responsibility of the #EconomicSystem easily becomes a ...
... false consciousness of reality, that is to say the opposite of science — an #ideology. But believers do not have the monopoly of this false consciousness. Indeed, if Almighty God is removed from Houghton's response, thought, which abhors a vacuum, will call upon an ...
... abstract #humanism, or upon a cynical contempt for 'human nature'. It cannot be otherwise, since the key to the #problem of #ClimateChange lies neither in #technology nor in divine intervention, ...
... nor in appeals to goodwill and to a sense of responsibility towards #future generations. It lies in the modification of social #relations.“
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