Well,
I'm hardly giving up my career as an environmental advocate and scientist just because, of all the many over many years I've educated, I've encountered my first hostile audience. I'm only giving up with that particular audience -- fans of Michael Jackson.
It's disappointing because I myself am an MJ fan. I was stunned and amazed when I learned this had become his primary global concern, and that this was a key message of TII. What a brilliant way to leave a focused legacy! With MJ fans inspired and united on this message, we'll take a MASSIVE leap forward...
I repeatedly asked mods to elevate this thread to the News forum, as it obviously deserves a little more attention than the makeup artist's latest Facebook post or whatever. But heard not a word. Yet I hear quickly from them when I PM on other subjects. So this lack of interest in MJ's message may be shared by the MJJC board.
Well, obviously this is not the proper forum for anyone with the time and resources to mount a serious global warming awareness campaign by enrolling MJ fans. I'm hoping those with resources and and are close to his family and colleagues are doing just that. Though it may be just too much like herding cats, I fear.
Clearly you and others here are concerned your own excellent agenda, which was shared by MJ, will be displaced by his concerns about global warming. But it's not an either-or proposition. We can't afford to think in such black/white terms. There are many of us, and we must work on many fronts.
It's great if you're work on children's welfare, social justice, and peace issues. Perhaps you're also including helping the world's children deal with the impacts of global warming. Cool.
But THIS this thread was about ACTION TO SLOW GLOBAL WARMING ITSELF. Please understand, this is a DIFFERENT AND BRAND NEW TOPIC at MJJC. Could it not have had one single thread to discuss this news about MJ and TII? There are many about these other topics.
It's disappointing that so many rushed in to hijack this thread for their own intentions, even though good ones.
Who are we to slow global warming, you ask? We made the mess... it is our responsibility to clean it up. We broke it, we should fix it. It's simple. And it will reduce suffering.
Most of all, I'm disappointed at the utterly stunning hostility to science here. This obviously wasn't shared by MJ.
Science is simply the tool created by humanity to organize its observations and ever-increasing store of knowledge. The scientific method is simple and brilliant, because it employs a common language and set of principles that TRANSCENDS cultural and personal preconceptions. It is constantly self-correcting in a way no other system has proven to be.
Science does not claim to be an ultimate truth ITSELF. It claims only to be BEST TOOL we've discovered, which produces the CLOSEST APPROXIMATION to truth we can have at any given time. It gets closer and closer all the time, but no, it will never "arrive." It is an approximation. But the fact that it will always be better tomorrow than it is today is no reason to ignore the lessons learned to date.
That's like saying that storm forecasts are never EXACTLY right, and are sometimes wrong, so why bother paying attention at all? Why? Because it's the best knowledge we have. Those who boat out into a predicted hurricane or fail to sandbag against a predicted flood are intentionally making themselves stupid... and perhaps dead. Storm forecasts are better now than they used to be, and will be better in the future than they are now, as the science gets better and better. But meanwhile, it's foolishness to dismiss it entirely.
Science makes mistakes, but it becomes progressively better. It makes no sense to say, "Well, science was wrong when it said Katrina would be a Class IV when it was only a Class III hurricane. So science is worthless."
It makes no sense to say "I'm not a scientist, I don't understand how storm forecasting is done, so I'm going to ignore their warnings. I'm going to study this caterpillar instead, which is just common sense..."
You don't need to be a scientist to listen to their warnings.
When science does observe a "fact," it says so. Science has observed how gravity works and tells us it is a fact... a truth. If you don't think it's a "truth," then step off a tall building. It's in elevators, on the space shuttle, in airplanes... even though common sense tells us otherwise. So common sense doesn't always work. As gravity proves, not all facts are this evident to those of us without data and instruments.
It used to be "common sense" that handicapped children were of the devil and should be killed. That old women who had property were witches. That the earth was flat. That the universe whirled around the earth... That women and blacks were less than human. That the plague could be solved by spells, not rodent control. The infectious theory of disease was only recently discovered by science. We need science.
Our fellow scientists are speaking to us again now. Are we listening?
"We shape our opinions not on what is scientifically "proven", but based on our preconcieved understanding of the world, our past experiences, who we respect, our educational level, and whatever our personal belief system is."
That's the old way. That's why we burnt witches, enslaved people of color...
Now we have a new way. It's called dedicating oneself to truth, wherever that leads you. Whether it contradicts something you believed in the past or not.
Action that is not based on truth is action that is either of less value or actually harmful. Those of us who believe in action should also feel obligated to dedicate ourselves to understanding what is true as best as possible.
We should also learn where to best direct our time and effort. For me, it will no longer be this site, but I'll still be working very hard on global warming and other issues. But the irony, that the worst reaction was with MJ FANS, is simply stunning...
