Why Should We Worry About Climate Change?

3min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

I don't see why it would cause international relations problems if it's an accident. I think the scientific community, especially the academic part of it, is very highly trusted. Certainly more so than other professions, certainly more so than business executives. So I contest what you say, because it was bad for science. The fact that vaccines were developed within a year when we don't after 40 years have one for HIV was a remarkable achievement.

Shermer and Rees discuss: existential threats • overpopulation • biodiversity loss • climate change • AI and self-driving cars, robots, and unemployment • his bet with Steven Pinker • his disagreement with Richard Dawkins • how science works as a communal activity • scientific creativity • science communication • science education • why there aren’t more women and people of color in STEM fields • verification vs. falsification • Bayesian reasoning and scientific progress • Model Dependent Realism and the nature of reality Fermi’s Paradox • why he’s an atheist but wants to be buried in the Presbyterian church in which he was raised • mysterian mysteries.

Martin Rees is Astronomer Royal, former President of the Royal Society, Fellow (and former Master) of Trinity College, Cambridge, and Emeritus Professor of Cosmology and Astrophysics at the University of Cambridge. He sits as a member of the UK House of Lords. He is the author of many bestselling popular science books, including: On the Future; Just Six Numbers; Before the Beginning; and Our Final Hour. His newest book is If Science is to Save Us.