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A conversation with my neighbor that made me think about the climate debate
We were talking over the fence last week and he said, 'You know, I've read a lot of the old data and I'm not sold that we're the main cause.' He's a retired engineer from Boeing. He wasn't angry, just matter-of-fact, and laid out three specific papers from the 90s he said get ignored. It's the kind of talk you can't really have at work anymore without getting labeled. Has anyone else had a calm, normal chat about this stuff that just wouldn't fly in public now?
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taylor6681mo ago
Your neighbor's Boeing background is key. Engineers from that era were trained on closed systems with clear cause and effect. Climate science deals with chaotic, open systems where you model probabilities, not certainties. That foundational training clash explains why smart people can look at the same data and reach totally different conclusions about cause.
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danielb431mo ago
Understand that mindset completely from my own family. My dad worked on jet engines his whole career and views the world through that same lens of fixed equations. Watching him try to make sense of climate reports is like watching someone try to use a ruler to measure water. The training sticks with you for life, making messy systems feel wrong or unscientific. It really does create two separate languages for talking about the same problem.
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