For two weeks the whole world has been fretting about the petition “World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity: A Second Notice” with thousands of scientists stating that:
“To prevent widespread misery and catastrophic biodiversity loss, humanity must practice a more environmentally sustainable alternative to business as usual. This prescription was well articulated by the world’s leading scientists 25 years ago, but in most respects, we have not heeded their warning . Soon it will be too late to shift course away from our failing trajectory, and time is running out. We must recognize, in our day- to-day lives and in our governing institutions, that Earth with all its life is our only home.”
and boasting that:
“We have been overwhelmed with the support for our article and thank the more than 15,000 signatories from all ends of the Earth. As far as we know, this is the most scientists to ever co-sign and formally support a published journal article.”
There is only one slight problem: everybody can sign the petition, you, me, everybody. Where is the evidence? Well, simply go to their page and look for yourself: http://scientistswarning.forestry.oregonstate.edu/node/add/endorsers
Still not convinced? Here is a screen shot of their list of “endorsers”:
And right beside Adolf….Alfred.
As reported….by CNN….(and countless other media outlets)
http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/14/health/scientists-warn-humanity/index.html
These kinds of ‘consensus’ pronouncements are extremely influential on most people, as Robert Cialdini found in his work on ‘social proofs.’ The ‘social proof’ (bandwaggoning, group approval) is so very powerful as described in the book “Influence”. He also found that our general obedience to authority can be used against us by claiming ‘consensus’ of perceived authorities. Most people comply with authority in the right context in ‘good faith’ – in order to be helpful (such as obeying police who are clearing an accident scene). But as he noted, when compliance practitioners are exploiting your good faith in ‘authority’ and you find you have been tricked, you must fight back, vigorously.
“In short, we should be willing to use boycott, threat, confrontation, censure, tirade,
nearly anything, to retaliate.”
97% consensus? No. They’re fooling you.
______
IMPORTANT: Please donate $5.00 or more to help us continue our work. Become a member! We send out bimonthly updates on climate science and a world round-up of energy/climate change policy news.
Friends of Science Society is a non-profit, we do not have charitable tax status so our donor base is typically small. We operate on about $150K a year, would like to grow our organization and we would like to do more videos and billboards. Most of our content comes from our volunteer team with some contracted assistance. Videos and billboards require hard costs. Please help us with a small or large donation. And please share our commentaries, videos, reports and tweets. We work toward the establishment of thoughtful, common sense, evidence-based climate and energy policies. Informed citizens and policy-makers can make better choices. Please help us. Thank you.
Leave a Reply! Please be courteous and respectful; profanity will not be tolerated.