A major theme here at the Daily Sceptic is the politicisation of the world’s ‘top’ scientific journals, Nature and Science. Over the last few years, both of these publications have handed over an increasing amount of editorial space to woke activism.
In the summer of 2022, Science ran a piece about how astrophysics helped the author embrace her “non-binary” gender identity. Meanwhile, Nature published an article claiming that fat people contribute to “diversity”.
Science has now run a piece on “systemic racism”, which has very much the same flavour. The author is Agustin Fuentes, who in 2021 wrote an article on Darwin’s The Descent of Man, which described Darwin as “an English man with injurious and unfounded prejudices”. Lest you doubted his credentials, Fuentes’s latest piece comes under the heading ‘Expert Voices’.
He begins by referring to “massive amounts of data” and “countless analyses” which “demonstrate unequivocally” that racism persists in the United States, including in higher education. Yet he laments that “six of the nine justices on the US Supreme Court recently chose to disregard these facts and argue for a “race neutral” approach in college admissions.”
Where to start with this one? Even if racism does persist in the United States, why would that imply colleges shouldn’t follow a race neutral approach to admissions?
After all, affirmative action is pretty much the definition of a racist policy. It says that two students with the same grades and test scores should be treated differently because of their races. For Fuentes, however, it’s being neutral with respect to race that is racist – or at least tantamount to ignoring racism.
He seems to think that because some black people face discrimination, Harvard is justified in discriminating against whites and Asians – none of whom had anything to do with the discrimination faced by black people. Which makes absolutely no sense. Has Fuentes never heard of the concept that two wrongs don’t make a right?
He goes on to say that “this same ideological approach” of “denying such massive evidence” is also present “among a not insignificant cluster of scientists”, before citing many studies which supposedly show there is “systemic racism” in science.
I’m sceptical, to say the least. This isn’t Fox News or NASCAR we’re talking about – academia leans overwhelmingly left. So what Fuentes is saying is that all these left-leaning scientists are going around engaging in “systemic racism”. I don’t buy it.
There’s also the small matter of Asian scientific success. According to Pew Research, Asians comprise 6% of all workers and 13% of STEM workers – so they’re overrepresented by 117%. By contrast, whites comprise 63% of all workers but 67% of STEM workers – so they’re overrepresented by only 6%. In short, Asians are far more overrepresented than whites.
It’s unclear how “systemic racism” can explain this pattern, unless it’s “systemic racism” against non-Asians. (Unsurprisingly, the word ‘Asian’ doesn’t appear in Fuentes’s article – presumably because it would undermine his narrative.)
Fuentes’s pièce de resistance comes in the final paragraph: “Some will decry this essay as “woke” and use it as an example of how the journal Science has fallen off the path of “true” science.” Err, yes I will do that. He continues:
If being “woke” means actively considering the available data and analyses and responding to them by considering the social contexts, histories, and processes that facilitated and created them, then being woke is just doing good 21st-century science
And if my grandmother had wheels she would have been a bike. That’s clearly not what “woke” means. It’s also incredibly vague: how do I “respond” to data by “considering the social contexts” that created them?
We all know what “woke” means: blaming group disparities on “systemic racism” and then refusing to explain why Asians come out on top. It’s the very opposite of doing good 21st-century science.
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I adopted my cognomen as an ex RAF VC10 navigator in the 70s. Addu Atoll in the Indian Ocean was home to RAF Gan, (in the days when we had overseas bases, and aircraft–come to that). The airfield, 41 nm South of the Equator and 73d 10m E was, back then, 6ft AMSL (above mean sea level). Today, Gan, a holiday destination is 6ft AMSL.
“But why let facts get in the way of a good disaster narrative that justifies lots of Government intervention and control?”
Not just national governments, but global bodies like the UN.
“Guterres said…developing new international laws to protect those made homeless – and even stateless – were … needed. …People’s human rights do not disappear because their homes do,” he said. “Yes, this means international refugee law.”
I wonder in which general direction these “refugees” will be moving.
“international refugee law.”
Via just the one “International government” I presume.
I don’t think it will be towards the Himalayas. I strongly suspect that many will be leaving that area for fear of drowning.
It won’t be towards Africa.
It is a hallmark of catastrophist cults that when the catastrophe fails to emerge (as has happened with the sea level rises), they have to change the date and to overcome the psychological hit and keep the members on board, double down and multiply the claimed damage that will result.
To higher ground – gotta get to higher ground!
Shorthand:
If we don’t burn, we drown.
For crying out loud.
“You’ll drown; you’ll drown. You must panic …. panic.”
(And give us yer money and yer freedom).
“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed, and hence clamorous to be led to safety, by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”
H. L. Mencken
These “people” are truly EVIL and the (MSM brain washed) NPC majority let them get away with it.
These Corporate Globalist people stand at podiums and make pronouncements of absolute certainty where there is NONE. Then the Corporate Globalist media repeat all their pronouncements parrot fashion and question NONE of it. Why would they? They are not Investigative journalists, they are activists. The idea, like everything else in the Sustainable Development eco socialist agenda that sea level will engulf us all is based on modelling. Modelling is NOT science and it isn’t evidence of anything. Climate models full of assumptions, speculations and guesses that always project worse case scenario’s that never seem to occur are being used to brainwash an unsuspecting public who mostly think all of this is genuinely about saving the planet. Most people don’t have the time to investigate every issue and rely on Mainstream News programs to do that for them. ———–I am sorry but in that regard, the mainstream media have FAILED. —-You can go to UN and WEF websites and see exactly what it is these people are saying. It is no secret. It is no conspiracy theory to question their motives because those motives are all laid out clear as day. This is NOT about the climate. It is about control of the world’s wealth and resources, and totalitarian world governance, that wants rid of Nation States and a world run by technocrats controlling all human activity. ——The idea that CO2 controls the climate is a bureaucrat’s dream, because everything humans do involves the release of some CO2. What better way then to control all the people than by controlling the CO2? ——–PS Sea level is currently 7 inches per century, and there is no evidence that the rate of sea level rise is increasing.
I don’t suppose for one minute, Isostatic rebound has even been considered. London is sinking into the sea, Scotland and Scandinavia are rising, and the only thing climate wise which has caused this, is because the glaciers have disappeared. What a bunch of onanists.
So build dams and sea walls. Start exploring the solar system.
They’re actually talking about letting the current sea walls fall into disrepair because it’s hopeless, so we get flooded cities and farmland even if the level stays the same.
But I’m sure they’re right … any day now, the catastrophic rise in sea level will start. We’re very near the tipping point. Really, very near. Indeed.
Self fulfilling prophecy
In 1989, the UN predicted that by 2000 nations would be wiped off the map by rising seas.
https://tallahasseereports.com/2019/03/09/a-1989-ap-report-nations-wiped-off-face-of-the-earth-by-2000/
UN leaders can no longer remember their own lies.
I can cite well over a dozen forecasts, by the world’s most august climate bodies, since 1970, telling us that the science was settled, and that the world would be in a state of complete devastation long before now. The earliest ones tell us that, without doubt, a new ice age was to arrive before 1980.
I’d be happy to post them all here, but you’d quickly get bored with their ‘end of the World’ content.
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How do they get away with constantly recycling the same old crap?
“Wiping the UNITED Nations off the face of the earth is the correct solution”
Actually, I’ve just come across the original report by AP News, in my records.
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Entire nations could be wiped off the face of the Earth by rising sea levels if the global warming trend is not reversed by the year 2000.
Noel Brown, Director, U.N. Environment Program, June 1989
https://apnews.com/bd45c372caf118ec99964ea547880cd0
Apparently, on the first earth day 1970, the claim was that the human race would be extinct by 1985! It beggers belief, are they trying to will it to happen or something?
Let’s see how a well informed, wealthy individual, who proclaims this rising sea propaganda actually behaves.
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Obama Moves To Protect Against Flooding From Rising Sea Levels
Huffpost, 31 January 2015
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/obama-sea-level-rise_n_6581980
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Yet, within just five years…
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Sea Level Rise? President Obama Just Bought a Beachside Property
WhatsUpWithThat?, 24 August 2019
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/08/24/sea-level-rise-president-obama-just-bought-a-beachside-property/
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That ‘Property’ is a $15m estate, and if you look at the picture of the house in the article, you’ll see it’s not very much above sea level.
So, are you convinced, that that they’re convinced, that they really believe it all? ‘Coz I most certainly am not.
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“The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false face for the urge to rule it. Power is what all messiahs really seek: not the chance to serve.”
H.L. Mencken
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UN secretary general warns that something could happen? In other words, UN secretary general has no more clue what will happen than anybody else. That’s obviously an incredibly good reason to take immediate and drastic action. Like putting someone in the chair of the UN top bureaucrat who understands that he has no general political mandate for anything and should thus stick to his job instead of trying to push particular policies.
Meanwhile, woke billionaires and celebrities are buying one beach house after the other, and their prices are rising much more and faster than those sea levels ever will.
Is he (or the Grauniad) just recycling an archive story? In the real world, there are many other issues to do with flooding, not the tide level itself, in the main. And a lot has been done in many places, such as the London Thames Barrier. That said, a lot of work done has taken the form of reacting to problems, rather than the other way round – e.g. what happened between Exeter & Teignmouth back in 2014. If he’s smart, he’ll have shares in various contractors.
A climate change related article about a natural cycle of which I had no knowledge. Certainly helped me to understand the cyclical nature of Arctic sea ice & puts climate changes into a long timeline context.
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/world-news/climate/why-climate-change-is-a-fraud/
One of the Pharaohs in Egypt was deposed in about 1500 BC because of rapid climate change.
The sudden failure of the rains in East Africa which provide the water for the annual Nile flood meant no crops and starvation in the Nile valley. And it also meant that the Pharaoh was clearly out of favour with the gods.
Is it that time of the decade again. These scare stories about sea level rise crop up regularly.
The question that we should be asking is ‘where is all the extra water coming from?’
As the average temperature of say Antarctica, even on the coastal margins is -10c, then a 1.5c rise would mean all that ice, would remain as ice. It doesn’t melt until temperatures get above freezing, but as the centre of Antarctica is at -50c, the overwhelming majority would never become water again. The Arctic has a similar profile, made more complex by it being sea ice.
António Guterres is complete tit!
A scare mongering money maker who cares not a jot about climate, he just cares about his bank balance, power and being in the limelight, does he realise his stupid unproven opinions frighten millions of children around the world for absolutely no fecking reason?!
The man is a total idiot, but then you’d expect that of the UN Sec Gen, a most unpleasant and useless organisation.
Consistent lies that never come true perpetuated by our own King. In 1990 we were told that Britain would be over 50% under water, which hasn’t even started to happen.
Despite this some many believe this evil nonsense.
Stand in the Park Make friends & keep sane
Sundays 10.30am to 11.30am
Elms Field
near Everyman Cinema & play area
Wokingham RG40 2FE
Suppose there was a small island of only 250 sq. kms. and its very highest point was only 95metres above sea level. Suppose there were 18,000 people living there, most of whom had homes just a few metres above sea level.
If you knew that global warming was raising sea levels sufficiently that almost all your island was going to be under water, and you were the citizen of a huge continent right next door, wouldn’t you be doing all you could to move?
And if all your fellow residents also believed that threat to be real, wouldn’t they be moving, too? And if you were all moving for that reason, even if you paid $12m for your house, wouldn’t it be worthless?
So explain this to me:-
Galavante, 30 June 2021
Celebs on Martha’s Vineyard
https://galavante.com/destinations/celebrity-travel/celebs-on-marthas-vineyard/
Come on! Who do you shysters think you’re kidding?
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Its very strange that Resident Biden, Obama & Al Gore have beachfront mansions?
Are the Uber rich green luvvies selling their Martha’s Vinyard estates yet?
Thank goodness. So glad I caught the UN Chief’s warning.
I’m fortunate enough to live at the top of a hill, elevation 100 feet, not far from the Somerset levels (another recognised flood plain)…! I am getting on a bit now and nowhere near as productive for the hive as a professional thrusting young Grauniad reader.
I could, as a kindness and personal sacrifice to my fellow at risk humans, offer my safe (ish) haven to them.
I reckon that If I advertise my property for sale in the Grauniad I could probably bump the price up by 20% or 30% maybe? I’m guessing that cos Grauniad readers are made up of the intellectual elite, they’d be happy to stump up the extra cash for the safety of their families from this looming catastrophe of “biblical scale”.
All hilltop dwellers with charitable souls need to start marketing their poperties in the Grauniad forthwith.
They continually make apocalyptic predictions but no proof that they are true.
When we got married in 1988 I wanted to go to the Maldives for our honeymoon. However, as I was three months pregnant we decided against it. It was very much ‘no news-no shoes’ back then. I was upset because of the statements at the time were the Maldives would be under water in a few years time. Finally got there four years ago, and well, they were still there.