John Oliver has a message for those who are skeptical of scientists’ overwhelming consensus that humans are speeding up climate change: “Who gives a shit?”
“You don’t need people’s opinions on a fact,” Oliver said Sunday on HBO’s “Last Week Tonight.” “You might as well have a poll asking which number is bigger, 15 or 5? Or, do owls exist?”
The science behind climate change shouldn’t be up for debate, Oliver said, but since televised debates on climate science are often presented as “Bill Nye the Science Guy versus some dude” — or versus S.E. Cupp — viewers are misled into thinking the issue could go either way.
So if there must be a debate on climate science, Oliver said there’s only one mathematically fair way to go about it — packing three climate skeptics, Bill Nye and 96 other scientists into a room and then seeing which group drowns out the other.
Watch below, courtesy of HBO:
It’s worse than Oliver indicates. Cable news finds a variety of people (I wouldn’t call them scientists) who deny climate change, and had a kiddie show host supporting it.
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry; this is such an accurate reflection of the consensus, that it makes a laughing stock of any of the “debates” being held in the corporate media. On the other hand, it is sobering that, indeed, this is the scientific consensus and that we are doing absolutely nothing.
The nature of the “debate” may be depressing, but it’s not a surprise. The “skeptics” all belong to the political party that is controlled by men and women who believe the Bible is the literal word of God, that evolution is a Satanic fraud, and that the science of embryology is “from the pit of Hell.” The Republican Party has now become the de facto anti-science/anti-education party because it’s a theocratic party.
I would like some input here. My supposition is that adults who regularly watch FOX (other than those on reconnaisance) are permanently converted to Reactionary, Right Wing Ideology.
I mean Permanently.
I base this on having read thousands of posts, having discussions (if you call it that) with hundreds of people and, finally, noting the age of those who usually watch FOX news.
If my supposition is correct, a change in strategy is in order. If, in fact, these people are impossible to sway, then talking to them (electronically or out loud) is more devil’s advocate fun than anything else. If my supposition is correct, we need to concentrate on what WE can do to combat these people at the voting booth. [because, if we do not, the same brain-dead people who deny Climate Change will always hold political sway and effect disastrous policies].
So I will ask…“Is FOX impossible to escape from, once one has accepted the propaganda?”
Why does it take years for a correct analysis of the media’s distortion of this issue to finally appear on the tube. Thank you Mr. Oliver. Well done.