Saturday, March 31, 2012

Climate-change scepticism must be 'treated', says enviro-sociologist Kari Norgaard -- and she is right!

Scepticism regarding the need for immediate and massive action against carbon emissions is a sickness of societies and individuals which needs to be "treated", according to an Oregon-based professor of "sociology and environmental studies". Professor Kari Norgaard compares the struggle against climate scepticism to that against racism and slavery in the US South.


Prof Norgaard holds a B.S. in biology and a master's and PhD in sociology.

"Over the past ten years I have published and taught in the areas of environmental sociology, gender and environment, race and environment, climate change, sociology of culture, social movements and sociology of emotions," she says.

She was recently in London at the momnt for the "Planet Under Pressure" conference, where she presented a paper dealing with how best to do away with the evil of scepticism and get the human race to focus all its efforts on saving the planet.

The discussion, she said, is comparable to what happened with challenges to racism or slavery in the U.S. South.

Professor Norgaard considers that academics such as herself must stand shoulder to shoulder with the actual real climate scientists who know some math in an effort to change society and individuals for their own good. It's not a new idea: some in ye olde Blighty and the US have lately called for a "science of communicating science" rather reminiscent of Isaac Asimov's science-fictional "Psychohistory" discipline, able to predict and alter the behaviour of large populations*.

BRAVO Kari Norgaard!

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