[Coral-List] Confirmation bias

Douglas Fenner douglasfennertassi at gmail.com
Tue Jun 23 15:48:24 EDT 2015


     Well said, Steve, I agree!  As the leader of one of the world's
largest religious groups, with 1.3 billion members, it is fantastic to see
the Pope put out such a detailed document, both very supportive of
stewardship of the environment, and science-based.  He is surely the first
Pope with a Master's degree in Chemistry.  He clearly listened to the
Vatican Academy of Sciences, which I've read is small but prestigious, with
several Nobel prizewinners (yes, the Roman Catholic Church has an Academy
of Sciences!).  Note, I would be very supportive of this even if he had
never mentioned climate change or global warming once.  (I also don't think
we should hold it to the standards of a peer-reviewed science paper.
That's not what this is intended to be.)  I also have the impression that
the Pope is not the only religious leader around the world that supports
stewardship of the environment and listening to science, there are others
as well (the Dali Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, comes to mind).  The way to make
progress is to emphasize the positive and work cooperatively to benefit the
environment (which provides us with so many ecosystem services).

     Cheers,  Doug

On Mon, Jun 22, 2015 at 7:11 AM, Steve Mussman <sealab at earthlink.net> wrote:

> The irony here is that Pope Francis is embracing science as the basis of
> his argument just as Galileo did. In today's world science is still being
> challenged by some on the basis of religious dogma. But here we have the
> pope putting this encyclical out there risking a theistic (and agnostic)
> onslaught from all those whose orthodoxy takes issue with his science-based
> perspective.. Got to admire his courage and conviction as he knowingly
> steps into the fray. His views on the human drivers behind climate change
> may be controversial, but it seems to me that his observations on the state
> of the world's oceans and coral reefs is spot on and beyond dispute.
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> > On Jun 22, 2015, at 10:23 AM, Eugene Shinn <eugeneshinn at mail.usf.edu>
> wrote:
> >
> > Climate change has become a religion and everyone knows arguing religion
> > is a waste of time. Now the Pope has provided confirmation. As someone
> > pointed out recently he represents the institution that forced Galileo
> > to recant. Guess its time for me to  recant before I get burned at the
> > stake. So I will stop now. Gene
> >
> > --
> >
> >
> > No Rocks, No Water, No Ecosystem (EAS)
> > ------------------------------------ -----------------------------------
> > E. A. Shinn, Courtesy Professor
> > University of South Florida
> > College of Marine Science Room 221A
> > 140 Seventh Avenue South
> > St. Petersburg, FL 33701
> > <eugeneshinn at mail.usf.edu>
> > Tel 727 553-1158
> > ---------------------------------- -----------------------------------
> >
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-- 
Douglas Fenner
Contractor with Ocean Associates, Inc.
PO Box 7390
Pago Pago, American Samoa 96799  USA

phone 1 684 622-7084

Join the International Society for Reef Studies
www.fit.edu/isrs/

"belief in climate change is optional, participation is not."

website:  http://independent.academia.edu/DouglasFenner

blog: http://ocean.si.edu/blog/reefs-american-samoa-story-hope


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