The Overton Window of Climate Change

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There's a new paper out by James Hansen, who has a lot of status within the climate community. He asserts that the long term sensitivity of a doubling of CO2 is much higher than previously thought. And he said by the year, I can't remember the exact details, but basically we're headed for 10 degrees Celsius in the long-term Earth system equilibrium. So do we have the moral right to say, oh, James Hansen, brilliant climate scientist, says it's already too late? What do you think about that?

On this episode, Dr. Erica Thompson joins Nate to unpack her recent book Escape From Model Land. Erica explores the pitfalls of conventional science models and the opportunities by which models can augment our imagination and collective understanding. What is a model, and how do our worldviews shape the way they’re made - and conversely, how do they shape our worldviews? How can we rethink and bring creativity into something as scientific as modeling to create maps of the future that are both more accurate and - most importantly - more helpful to planning responses?

About Eric Thompson:

Dr Erica Thompson is a Senior Policy Fellow at the LSE Data Science Institute, where she works on a broad programme of theoretical and practical research about mathematical models, their use, interpretation and social context. She recently authored Escape From Model Land (Basic Books, 2022) which explores the opportunities and challenges of augmenting our imagination about the future with mathematical tools.

For Show Notes and More visit https://www.thegreatsimplification.com/episode/55-erica-thompson