The keynote speaker at the opening general session this morning was Michael Shermer, Skeptic Magazine. It was important to hear how pseudo science can so easily affect public opinion. It was also entertaining to hear and see some of his examples.
After the session I spoke with Michael and asked him to summarize a key point he made in his comments about the danger of making governmental decisions that will profoundly impact our economy when it comes to things like climate change and carbon footprinting. He says that we can know that the Earth is getting warmer and that sea levels have risen but after that the data gets so fuzzy and the “error bars” get so wide it’s not practical to make political decisions. As he puts it, “It’s reasonable to be skeptical.”
You can listen to my interview with Michael here: [audio:http://www.zimmcomm.biz/nbb/nbc-11-shermer.mp3]