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Sure, there is some uncertainty. But in reality, we have a pretty complete model of physics, chemistry, geology and biology. Generally, the predictions we made
by ArnoVW 3y ago
Sure, there is some uncertainty. But in reality, we have a pretty complete model of physics, chemistry, geology and biology. Generally, the predictions we made 10 or 20 years ago match with what we're seeing.
So of course "science does not deal in certainties" but most of the questions are really at the second or third decimal point.
There is an excellent video by David Louapre (of Science Etonnante fame) that explains for example how our greenhouse model works. It's in French, but subtitles should do the tricks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewc8FBtEKPs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewc8FBtEKPs
- sueneizhs 3y ago[flagged]
- paganel 3y ago[flagged]
- naiv 3y agoYour opinion is unpopular but the most reasonable. Scientists are not philanthropists and always need justifications for their funding
- didibus 3y agoScientists don't really ask for policies. That's the job of politicians. I'm not sure why they'd apologize for it. Scientists just provide data and options. It's still true that the measures slowed down spread. That it didn't do it enough to justify putting the measures in place or not is more a matter of policy. Same thing applies to climate change. Scientists provide the data that the climate is warming up. That it appears correlated with certain human activity, not all human activity, only some. And that the current prediction models show X, Y, Z effects in the coming future if the trend is not reversed. Then politicians need to take that into consideration, and decide what policies to apply or not. Ignore the data and predictions? And possibly gamble that the harsh consequences will come, or put measures in place, which will affect the short term, but possibly avoid the predicted outcomes, alas also possibly be inconsequential because it wasn't enough or it eas too much, or there were other unknown factors at play that the models had not realized were there. Etc.
- paganel 3y agoHow can politicians make science- and data-based decisions without being scientists themselves? They can’t, by definition, that’s why in those cases what ends up happening is the politicians just rubber-stamping policies set up by scientists/experts, as a matter of fact this past pandemic has just put that whole process in the spotlight.