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I would argue for pre-registration of studies. Good call. And I would also argue for free access to all studies. > corporations are in competition with each

I would argue for pre-registration of studies. Good call. And I would also argue for free access to all studies. > corporations are in competition with each other I don't think there's as much competition as you might think! Are Apple and Google competitors? Have you seen who their shareholders are? https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/AAPL/holders https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/AAPL/holders Vanguard Group, Inc. (The) - 8.33% Blackrock Inc. - 6.58% State Street Corporation - 3.66% https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/GOOG/holders/ https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/GOOG/holders/ Vanguard Group, Inc. (The) - 7.14% Blackrock Inc. - 6.23% State Street Corporation - 3.27% Meta? Vanguard Group, Inc. (The) - 8.18% Blackrock Inc. - 6.91% State Street Corporation - 3.93% https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/META/holders https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/META/holders erm.. Amazon? Vanguard Group, Inc. (The) - 7.05% Blackrock Inc. - 5.92% State Street Corporation - 3.23% https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/AMZN/holders https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/AMZN/holders > Consider, there has been a hell of a lot of oil money poured into science funding, but the consensus has settled on "fossil fuels are heating up the planet". Ok - have you personally noticed anything at all? I have not. For example, I have been to the same beaches for years and there has been no change. Can you forests be mis-managed with the result that there are huge fires? Yes - this is a man-made crisis though. Can you remove trees and build in flood plains to make floods more severe? Yes, and again - man-made. Can the media make it seem that the world is burning up? Yes again - but this is just perception management - using alarming graphics and allocating large slots to whatever. On the other hand, I do see the control value of climate change. Everyone will willingly move to smart metering of water, electricity, etc though. This allows for the governance structure to exercise fine grained control over individuals.

anonymous_sorry 3y ago
> Ok - have you personally noticed anything at all? As it happens, yes I have. Summers where I am seem way hotter than when I was a kid 30 years ago. But to be honest, what an unreliable way to judge! Better to measure and analyse the data methodologically. Tracking sucks, but do you really think people need global heating to convince them to put data-sniffing smart devices in their homes? And what about the trillions in the oil industry? We've fought wars over the stuff, but now the oil lobby has been defeated or paid off because enough powerful people want to know when I make a coffee? It would be strangely comforting if our chaotic world could be explained by a grand conspiracy. It's too easy an explanation for me. It feels like religion. By the way, not sure if you're aware that Vanguard operates index funds. Those shares are owned by very many different investors, many of them with small holdings. I only know this because I'm one of them, so this may be the case for some of the other big hitters in those lists too. As far as I know they don't get actively involved in corporate strategy. They are passive funds with very low management fees.
- verisimi 3y ago
  > Better to measure and analyse the data methodologically. Have you? Or do you mean you trust the data provided? Do you recollect the climategate email, where historical data was "updated"? https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamestaylor/2011/11/23/climategate-2-0-new-e-mails-rock-the-global-warming-debate/?sh=5e24854f27ba https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamestaylor/2011/11/23/climateg... “I’ve discussed this with the main funder (U.S. Dept of Energy) in the past and they are happy about not releasing the original station data.” > Tracking sucks, but do you really think people need global heating to convince them to put data-sniffing smart devices in their homes? Yes - to accept pervasive monitoring and control, you need a good reason. > Those shares are owned by very many different investors, many of them with small holdings. I only know this because I'm one of them, so this may be the case for some of the other big hitters in those lists too. AFAIK, you don't get to choose where and how they invest. And these funds are somewhat larger than the corporate strategy level. They would be more at international legislation level, no?
  - anonymous_sorry 3y ago
    >AFAIK, you don't get to choose where and how they invest. Fair point, but neither does Vanguard really. Index funds are automatically allocated to all the stocks in an index proportionally to market cap. > Do you mean you trust the data provided? I'm a software engineer. It is not feasible for me to sufficiently collect or analyse data outside my limited areas of expertise. As I said at the beginning, I must provisionally accept and make personal decisions based on the consensus view of experts. In theory that leaves me open to manipulation by shadowy, powerful forces capable of exerting influence over an entire field of scientists. In practice I observe enough skepticism amongst scientists to give me confidence. I'm not talking about acting on every story of the form "study indicates link between x and y". Talk to me when it's been replicated, and confounders controlled. Talk to me about reviews and meta-analyses. I remember reading about climategate emails at the time. I see a few out-of-context quotes cherry-picked from thousands of emails. I could link articles defending the scientists [0], but ultimately the grand conspiracy hypothesis is unfalsifiable - you can keep expanding the conspiracy to include anyone who denies the conspiracy. Conspiracies can exist, but the wider you have to go to make them work, the less plausible they become as an explanation. And on climate specifically, it's especially implausible when there are huge, wealthy vested interests who stand to lose money if we burn less fossil fuels. [0] https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2019/nov/09/climategate-10-years-on-what-lessons-have-we-learned https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2019/nov/09/climateg...

anonymous_sorry 3y ago

> Ok - have you personally noticed anything at all? As it happens, yes I have. Summers where I am seem way hotter than when I was a kid 30 years ago. But to be honest, what an unreliable way to judge! Better to measure and analyse the data methodologically. Tracking sucks, but do you really think people need global heating to convince them to put data-sniffing smart devices in their homes? And what about the trillions in the oil industry? We've fought wars over the stuff, but now the oil lobby has been defeated or paid off because enough powerful people want to know when I make a coffee? It would be strangely comforting if our chaotic world could be explained by a grand conspiracy. It's too easy an explanation for me. It feels like religion. By the way, not sure if you're aware that Vanguard operates index funds. Those shares are owned by very many different investors, many of them with small holdings. I only know this because I'm one of them, so this may be the case for some of the other big hitters in those lists too. As far as I know they don't get actively involved in corporate strategy. They are passive funds with very low management fees.

verisimi 3y ago
> Better to measure and analyse the data methodologically. Have you? Or do you mean you trust the data provided? Do you recollect the climategate email, where historical data was "updated"? https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamestaylor/2011/11/23/climategate-2-0-new-e-mails-rock-the-global-warming-debate/?sh=5e24854f27ba https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamestaylor/2011/11/23/climateg... “I’ve discussed this with the main funder (U.S. Dept of Energy) in the past and they are happy about not releasing the original station data.” > Tracking sucks, but do you really think people need global heating to convince them to put data-sniffing smart devices in their homes? Yes - to accept pervasive monitoring and control, you need a good reason. > Those shares are owned by very many different investors, many of them with small holdings. I only know this because I'm one of them, so this may be the case for some of the other big hitters in those lists too. AFAIK, you don't get to choose where and how they invest. And these funds are somewhat larger than the corporate strategy level. They would be more at international legislation level, no?
- anonymous_sorry 3y ago
  >AFAIK, you don't get to choose where and how they invest. Fair point, but neither does Vanguard really. Index funds are automatically allocated to all the stocks in an index proportionally to market cap. > Do you mean you trust the data provided? I'm a software engineer. It is not feasible for me to sufficiently collect or analyse data outside my limited areas of expertise. As I said at the beginning, I must provisionally accept and make personal decisions based on the consensus view of experts. In theory that leaves me open to manipulation by shadowy, powerful forces capable of exerting influence over an entire field of scientists. In practice I observe enough skepticism amongst scientists to give me confidence. I'm not talking about acting on every story of the form "study indicates link between x and y". Talk to me when it's been replicated, and confounders controlled. Talk to me about reviews and meta-analyses. I remember reading about climategate emails at the time. I see a few out-of-context quotes cherry-picked from thousands of emails. I could link articles defending the scientists [0], but ultimately the grand conspiracy hypothesis is unfalsifiable - you can keep expanding the conspiracy to include anyone who denies the conspiracy. Conspiracies can exist, but the wider you have to go to make them work, the less plausible they become as an explanation. And on climate specifically, it's especially implausible when there are huge, wealthy vested interests who stand to lose money if we burn less fossil fuels. [0] https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2019/nov/09/climategate-10-years-on-what-lessons-have-we-learned https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2019/nov/09/climateg...