Posted on 8 September 2024 by BaerbelW, Doug Bostrom, John Hartz

Story of the week

Our Story of the Week is about how people are not born stupid but can be fooled into appearing exactly so to the rest of us.

This week we posted a critique of Australian Queensland state senator Gerard Rennick  by journalist and author Peter Hadfield, sailing under his Potholer54 YouTube flag. The title "Could this be the stupidest politician in Australia?" is certainly not a flattering introduction to Rennick, but hearing the senator express his understanding of CO2's role in Earth's atmosphere in his own voice and words certainly gives us pause. Rennick really does sound stupid— obdurately so.

Is Senator Rennick unusually stupid? Doubtful. Rennick holds two post-graduate degrees, each from respectable institutions not prone to handing out sheepskin to all comers.  Given their knowledge domains and the typical adjacency  of commerce to laissez-faire philosophy, these degrees may however offer a clue as to how Rennick has come to be found spouting humiliatingly wrong comprehension of the interaction and behavior of energy and matter in Earth's atmosphere. 

How does somebody come to appear as stupid while actually being reasonably intellectually competent? Indicators from a lot of research on human psychology and cognition suggest that our beliefs are heavily influenced by our ideology. In supporting our principles, we selectively choose what to believe, as a largely unconscious process. Even when reality doesn't comport with supporting our principles, we may cling to beliefs that bolster our bedrock values.

Judging by his own words and stated policy concerns, Senator Rennick appears commited to the principle that government is overly invasive. This poses a cognitive problem in connection with human-caused climate change, given that without goverment interventions we can't solve the problem we've created by our changing Earth's climate. To resolve this uncomfortable logical collision, Rennick has apparently has sought and found explanations that avoid this dilemma by simply rearranging our perception of reality to fit his principles. Unfortunately, repeating these faulty rationalizations makes Rennick appear to be very stupid when clearly he is not genuinely unintelligent. 

How did Senator Rennick come up with the ideas he's embarrassingly reciting into the permanent historical record of Queensland's parliament? A generous reading of this situation is that Rennick is vulnerable and has  been victimized.  In all probability the claptrap he's repeating is not original but rather is regurgitation of disinformation, bunk he's found outside the space between his own two ears. Because what he hears supports his principles, Rennick is a gullible mark.

The perpetrators of the deceit Rennick has found and adopted are surely congratulating themselves for finding a parrot with such a high profile.  

Sadly it's the case that victims like Rennick are exposed to a postive firehose of rubbish delivered by social networks. We can expect worse to come, given that so-called "AI" is being used to increase proliferation of lies such as those repeated by Senator Rennick. A paper just published in Communications Earth & Environment by Skeptical Science founder Dr. John Cook and colleagues explores how this is happening on the social media service formerly known as Twitter. 

We wish Senator Rennick would take better care of his own reputation and our collective future. He might well start by reading the review paper Science Denial, which could help by arming him for some self-reflection.  

Stories we promoted this week, by publication date:

Before September 1

• South Korean court says government must do more to fight climate change, NBC News World News, Reuters. Climate advocacy groups said it was the first high court ruling on a government’s climate action in Asia, potentially setting a precedent in a region where similar lawsuits have been filed in Taiwan and Japan.
• Air Conditioning Poses a Climate Conundrum, State of the Planet, Renée Cho. Air conditioning is leaving the realm of luxury and becoming vital to health, yet more air conditioning makes our climate problem harder.
• Business Group Sues Texas Officials Over Law That Shields Oil Industry, Climate, New York Times, Karen Zraick. "The suit challenges a measure that prohibits state entities like retirement funds from doing business with firms that 'boycott energy companies.' "
• The World’s Largest Wetland Is Burning, and Rare Animals Are Dying, World, New York Times, Ana Ionova. "In Brazil, wildfires have roared across the Pantanal, a maze of rivers, forests and marshlands that sprawl over an area 20 times the size of the Everglades."
• The Quantum Mechanics of the Greenhouse Effect, Science, Quanta/Wired, Joseph Howlett. "Carbon dioxide’s powerful heat-trapping effect has been traced to a quirk of its quantum structure. The finding may explain climate change better than any computer model."
• Harris and Trump offer starkly different visions on climate change and energy, AP News, Matthew Daley.
• Could this be the stupidest politician in Australia?, potholer54 on Youtube, Peter Hadfield.
• Labor Day weekend will start out restful for the Hurricane Hunters. Then what?, Eye on the Storm, Yale Climate Connections, Jeff Masters & Bob Henson. "The intrepid aviators may get called into duty as soon as Sunday as an Atlantic disturbance slowly organizes."
• Guest post: Just 15 countries account for 98% of new coal-power development, Energy, Carbon Brief, Lucy Hummer, Jeanette Lim, Jelena Babajeva, Claire Pitre & Xing Zhang .

September 1

• 2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #35, Skeptical Science, Bärbel Winkler, Doug Bostrom & John Hartz. A listing of 34 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, August 25, 2024 thru Sat, August 31, 2024.

September 2

• New paper about detecting climate misinformation on Twitter/X, Skeptical Science, John Cook.
• Africa faces disproportionate burden from climate change and adaptation costs, WMO Press Release, Staff.
• Hailstones may get bigger as the climate warms — bringing higher insurance costs, Science, NBC News, Evan Bush. "Hail has caused higher damage costs in the U.S. this year than hurricanes and floods put together. Research suggests climate change will make hailstones larger."
• The race to replace the powerful greenhouse gas that underpins the power grid, Climate Change & Energy, MIT Technology Review , Casey Crownhart. "Sulfur hexafluoride is crucial for high-voltage equipment, but it can trap heat in the atmosphere for 1,000 years or more. And emissions are on the rise."

September 3

• Japan swelters through hottest summer while parts of China log warmest August on record, Environment, Justin McCurry in Osaka, Helen Davidson & agencies. "Climate scientists have already predicted that 2024 will be the hottest year ever"
• Webinar: Carbon Brief joins scientists live at the UK`s Arctic Research Station, Carbon Brief, Daisy Dunne. The northernmost human settlement in the world, Ny-Ålesund, has for more than 30 years hosted the UK’s Arctic Research Station – the nation’s only permanent infrastructure near the Earth’s northern pole.
• Re-emergence of Greece’s sunken village shows extent of rainfall crisis, World, The Guardian, Helena Smith. "Heatwaves and lack of rainfall have led to receding water levels in the Mornos reservoir, which submerged Kallio in the 1970s"
• A placid Atlantic continues to perplex seasonal hurricane forecasters, Eye on the Storm, Jeff Masters & Bob Henson, Jeff Masters & Bob Henson. "It’s been almost a month since the last named storm was born."
• South Carolina Is Considered a Model for ‘Managed Retreat’ From Coastal Areas Threatened by Climate Change, Justice & Health, Inside Climate News, Daniel Shailer. "The state has identified hundreds of thousands of homes that will need to be abandoned. But at one flagship buyout, only one in 10 eligible homeowners signed up."
• The thermodynamics of electric vs. internal combustion cars, The Climate Brink, Andrew Dessler. efficiency is good, until you want to heat your car
• Climate scientist: Broken temperature records are alarming, but it is not too late to limit global warming, The Conversation, Alex Crawford.

September 4

• Is ‘Climate Change’ or ‘Global Warming’ the Better Term to Inspire Action?, Climate, Sentient , Julieta Cardenas. Lede: "A majority of people surveyed expressed willingness to eat less meat to curb climate pollution."
• The UK is building an alarm system for climate tipping points, Climate Change & Energy, MIT Technology Review, James Temple. "The Advanced Research and Invention Agency is providing £81 million to get scientific teams looking for telltale signs of spiraling climate shifts."

September 5

• Oil and gas communities are a blind spot in America`s climate and economic policies, The Conversation, Noah Kaufman.
• A brief guide to the greenhouse gases driving climate change, Climate Change & Energy, MIT Technology Review, Casey Crownhart. "There’s more to global warming than just carbon dioxide."
• The planet endures its hottest summer on record — for the second straight year, Climate, CNN, Laura Paddison.

September 6

• Strongest typhoon in a decade hits 'China's Hawaii', BBC News, Kelly Ng & Joel Guinto.
• Fossil Fuel Funding Is `Embedded` Across Academia. What Does That Mean for Climate Research?, Inside Climate News, Kiley Price. Oil and gas companies often help fund climate research on campuses. But these ties could pose major—and often underreported—conflicts of interest, new research finds.
• A pioneering mission into a mysterious and violent world may reveal ‘speed bumps’ on the way to global coastal inundation, Environment, The Guardian, Damian Carrington. "A pioneering mission into a mysterious and violent world may reveal ‘speed bumps’ on the way to global coastal inundation"
• Heatwave across US west breaks records for highest temperatures, US News, The Guardian, Dani Anguiano. "Hottest summer on record continues, with millions from Phoenix to Los Angeles to Seattle under heat alerts"
• Did lawmakers know role of fossil fuels in climate change during Clean Air Act era?, Phys.org, Christy DeSmith.
• Atlantic Hurricane Lull Puzzles Scientists, Scientific American , Meghan Bartels. "Meteorologists predicted a busy Atlantic hurricane season—and a recent lull in activity doesn’t negate that"
• The Most Personal Climate Case in the World, The Atlantic, Zoë Schlanger. Did Austria’s rising temperatures violate this man’s human rights?
• How to change people’s minds about climate change: what the science says   "Telling people about the consensus among scientists can help, study finds, but experts think that personal conversations are needed, too." by Alix Soliman, Nature, Sep 6, 2024