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Peterson claimed, in a series of waffling remarks that “climate” is not a thing. Peterson then mocked “climate types”, who he said tend to suggest that climate is all about everything.
“But your model isn’t based upon everything. Your models are built on a certain number of variables. That means you’ve reduced the variables that are all to that number. How do you choose which set of variables to include into the equation if there are so many variables?
Rogan’s podcast is available on Spotify. He did little to address the unsubstantiated comments.
Peterson’s remarks reveal a general ignorance of how scientific modeling works. Scientists use models or simulations to project specific aspects of climate change like the rise in global temperatures, changes of rainfall patterns, and the likelihood of drought.
Climate scientists are mocking Peterson’s claims.
CNN spoke with Michael E. Mann from Pennsylvania State University about the dangers of such seemingly-comic nihilism.
“Similar antiscience about COVID-19 spread by these two individuals likely has and will continue lead to fatalities. If we don’t act on climate crisis, more people will die from deadly and extremely dangerous weather extremes. The spread of misinformation about climate changes is, in some ways, even more dangerous.
Mann stated that Peterson’s claims are “nonsensical” and false. It seems that it boils down to the idea of climate science being so complex that scientists can never model it or understand.
“Such an absurd argument leads to a dismissal of physics, chemistry, biology, and every other field of science where one formulates (and tests—that’s the critical part Peterson seems to fail to understand) conceptual models that attempt to simplify the system and distill the key components and their interactions,” Mann said.
“This is the way that science has made great discoveries. This includes the physics behind electromagnetism, which allowed Peterson to record and broadcast this absurd and silly conversation.”
Spotify declined to comment. CNN reached out to “The Joe Rogan Show” for comment.
NASA climate scientist Gavin Schmidt shared similar views via Twitter, pointing out how Peterson doesn’t seem to understand how climate models work.
“For what it’s worthwhile, we have been projecting future heating since the early 1970s/late 1960s climate models. We can look back at how they have performed. He wrote, “It turns out our models generally did well.”
This story has been updated to include comments from Michael E. Mann, climate scientist.
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