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sapinker's profile
Steven Pinker
Steven Pinker
Steven Pinker
Verified account
@sapinker

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Steven PinkerVerified account

@sapinker

Cognitive scientist at Harvard.

Boston, MA
pinker.wjh.harvard.edu
Joined January 2010

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    Steven Pinker‏Verified account @sapinker 7 Dec 2017

    Does hope inspire more action on climate change than fear? We don’t know. https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2017/12/5/16732772/emotion-climate-change-communication?utm_campaign=vox&utm_content=entry&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter … via @voxdotcom

    5:35 PM - 7 Dec 2017
    • 22 Retweets
    • 67 Likes
    • huan wang Bobby Duffy Suzanne 🐬 davo_twi julio cesar arcila v Max Beilby Tequehead David Owen RB
    14 replies 22 retweets 67 likes
      1. New conversation
      2. Stephen McIntyre‏ @ClimateAudit 7 Dec 2017
        Replying to @sapinker @voxdotcom

        since "climate action" is almost entirely virtue signalling, I suspect that it's mostly fear - fear of not being one of the group of the virtuous.

        1 reply 0 retweets 4 likes
      3. 1 more reply
      1. New conversation
      2. Nicholas Kadar‏ @N_kadar 7 Dec 2017
        Replying to @sapinker @voxdotcom

        "There's something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns in conjecture for such trifling investment of fact." Mark Twain.

        1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
      3. Aim2Reason‏ @Aim2Reason 8 Dec 2017
        Replying to @N_kadar @sapinker @voxdotcom

        I dragged myself through the article, perhaps because I felt it missed the point from the beginning —facts are facts and scientific disclosure needn't be massaged or manipulated. But, this is an amazingly apt quote for the subject/article...just an outstanding quote to use here!

        0 replies 0 retweets 1 like
      4. End of conversation
      1. New conversation
      2. Non-Toxic Avenger 🗽 🍕‏ @Bugs_Meany 7 Dec 2017
        Replying to @sapinker @voxdotcom

        What does "action on climate change" even mean when 99% of the problem is in the future developing world? Unless someone has some magic plan to force China to stop its industrial+economic development, the collective impact of Western govt policies are mostly symbolic.

        1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
      3. Aim2Reason‏ @Aim2Reason 8 Dec 2017
        Replying to @Bugs_Meany @sapinker @voxdotcom

        Recovering from your aggrandized '99%' figure, you are right to bring attention to the West's absolvitory addiction towards China—feckless at best. But, I do think you ignore China's self-interest. They're swimming in smog and are just as desperate to find a solution as we are.

        1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
      4. Non-Toxic Avenger 🗽 🍕‏ @Bugs_Meany 8 Dec 2017
        Replying to @Aim2Reason @sapinker @voxdotcom

        ""your aggrandized '99%' figure"" How would you even know? (see: article on the margin of error in Chinese emissions data being larger than Europe's total carbon output)https://www.reuters.com/article/china-climatechange/insight-the-unbearable-lightness-of-chinese-emissions-data-idUSL3N13023O20151109 …

        1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
      5. Aim2Reason‏ @Aim2Reason 8 Dec 2017
        Replying to @Bugs_Meany @sapinker @voxdotcom

        Please...you can dispense with the posturing. I don't (and you don't either), as a matter of fact; which is why I didn't suggest a ridiculous (even for hyperbole) number. China is a world renowned bully, strutting around with a hall pass...but who just pulled out of Paris?

        1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
      6. Non-Toxic Avenger 🗽 🍕‏ @Bugs_Meany 8 Dec 2017
        Replying to @Aim2Reason @sapinker @voxdotcom

        "A ridiculous number". You don't seem to have any basis at all for saying what's ridiculous and what's not. Western world emissions-growth rates are already negative. China is not just largest emitter, but largest growing. https://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2011/2/10/1297340671284/Carbon-graphic-001.jpg …

        1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
      7. Aim2Reason‏ @Aim2Reason 8 Dec 2017
        Replying to @Bugs_Meany @sapinker @voxdotcom

        Again with the prevericates? Negative growth rates don't speak to the nominal proportion you are purporting. Placing the West into the *hundredth percentile* is ludicrous, especially when scale rightly configures to historical contributions.

        1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
      8. Non-Toxic Avenger 🗽 🍕‏ @Bugs_Meany 8 Dec 2017
        Replying to @Aim2Reason @sapinker @voxdotcom

        The "problem" is future emissions *growth*. As a share of future growth, the West isn't a significant contributor. Whether 1% or other #, its tiny. Meanwhile the west thinks overpriced electric cars and hemp shopping bags are 'addressing climate change'. Its a delusion.

        1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
      9. Aim2Reason‏ @Aim2Reason 8 Dec 2017
        Replying to @Bugs_Meany @sapinker @voxdotcom

        Quite right. I could have avoided the disconnect by reading your tweet closer...missed 'future' entirely—a local problem that I seemed to have forced on you. Your loose prediction is much more reasonable. Sincere apologies for wasting time.

        0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
      10. End of conversation
      1. Marianne MarpLondon‏ @MarpLondon 8 Dec 2017
        Replying to @sapinker @voxdotcom

        How about reality - we don’t need fear or hope when we got reality. It just needs to be explained in plain English to people. Practical plans. Nothing abstract. Show the chain, of how it would affect the personal.

        0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
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      1. Geoff D TREMEL‏ @Jethro__12 7 Dec 2017
        Replying to @sapinker @voxdotcom

        Great piece Quite long, probably too long for many to finish, but it was fair, nuanced and compassionate. Well worth a read

        0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
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      1. Robert Nugent‏ @RandR10 7 Dec 2017
        Replying to @sapinker @voxdotcom

        I think the fear-based communications that present only worst-case scenarios don't work long term when people live through the prediction time periods and see something much more moderate IRL. This generates resentment and mistrust towards the messengers and the science itself.

        0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
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      1. Darcy Paterson‏ @darcypaterson 7 Dec 2017
        Replying to @sapinker @voxdotcom

        End of the world narratives that don’t come to fruition erode the credibility of scientists who support them.

        0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
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      1. Igor Pesun‏ @ipesun 7 Dec 2017
        Replying to @sapinker @voxdotcom

        Hope kills action. Once you lose hope, you act.

        0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
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      1. Alison Emily‏ @aalexis1234 7 Dec 2017
        Replying to @sapinker @voxdotcom

        No

        0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
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      1. Dr. Silva, J.P. 🦆‏ @ertwro 7 Dec 2017
        Replying to @sapinker @voxdotcom

        One thing is for sure. Anything with religion in it only worsens it. So I will go with fear inspires more action. Just look at BTC miners and their Ponzi burning electricity.

        0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
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      1. Chewybunny‏ @Chewybunny 7 Dec 2017
        Replying to @sapinker @voxdotcom

        A better question is does more government action have better results on climate change? Seems to me, the biggest push in solving climate issues has actually been private institutions, driving the price of solar down 70% in a few years. Embracing electric truckings...etc.

        0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
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