Monthly Climate Science and Energy Engineering Dinner

On Tuesday, June 10th, at 7:00pm the and will be hosting our monthly Climate Science and Energy Engineering Dinner, which will usually occur on the 2nd Tuesday of every month.

The event will be at the , by 9th Ave & 34th St in Manhattan, within easy reach of the A/C/E & 7 subways, and one block from Penn / Moynihan station. The diner has a large menu with affordable prices, generous portions, and is willing to do separate checks for a large group, with everybody using their own credit card.

The topics of conversation will be

• Climate Science: you have to be able to debate climate science in order to reach out to conservatives, and also, even if you don't talk with conservatives, there is a lot of controversy over just how bad things will get, and how fast.
• Energy Engineering: We have to decarbonize the economy, but there are many unresolved / controversial issues to discuss -- which zero carbon sources of energy are preferable, how to decarbonize transportation, particularly aviation. To get public cooperation, we have to figure out a path to decarbonize that won't involve too much negative impact on per capita GDP, or too much disruption to our way of life.

Tribalism: the Mortal Enemy of Reason

80-90% of people who discuss public policy do it as a "team sport" -- they say:

• I'll be a liberal, so I will agree with liberal opinions, and nothing else, or
• I'll be a conservative, so I will agree with conservative opinions, and nothing else

Typically, they can't really justify their opinions with facts or logic, and they aren't persuaded by facts or logic, because facts and logic aren't how they got where they are. Information that supports the viewpoint of their tribe they will focus on and remember, while information that rebuts it they will dismiss and forget.

If interaction between the tribes gets hostile enough, as in the current day, people start automatically thinking the opposite of what the other tribe does. People are pleased when something happens that makes their opposing tribe unhappy. So when a party comes to power, it sometimes starts deliberately doing things that are not very constructive, just to deliberately offend the opposition. Both ends of the spectrum do this.

In addition, we lack any source of facts that is respected by both ends of the spectrum. In fact, most media are biased one way or the other. One has to consume media from both ends of the spectrum -- if you consume only one end, everything you hear from the other end through the end that you listen to will be the stupidest voices on the other end. And within the climate movement we do have a lot of people saying stupid, scientifically inaccurate thigs, and conservatives hear all about them.

Social media seems to exacerbate the situation -- the conversation gets dominated by the most extreme elements of either tribe, neither of whom are being terribly constructive, while the more reasonable people in the middle, who shun tribalism and who want to work out compromises and solve problems, can't get noticed.

People "doing their own research" on social media is a complete disaster, because social media is not a truth engine, it is an outrage engine.

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