Is it a "global emergency"

I think most agree I have got my wires crossed here. I have emailed the author for clarification on what they actually said and actually meant.

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Nor me, because, like YouTube, itā€™s passed through someone elseā€™s filter.
The main thing is to try to avoid confirmation bias, i.e. just looking at evidence that supports what you already think. Unfortunately YouTube is designed to offer exactly the opposite often by cranks with an agenda.

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Genuine question; what are your news sources if you eschew what you say?

Other mainstream broadcasters, other than the beebā€¦?

Personally I look across a wide range to sources but unless I already know the credentials of a poster on YouTube, Instagram, X, Facebook etc. I have to get the salt ready until Iā€™ve checked them out (though often one can discount them straight away based on their style of presentation, naff graphics etc.).

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Bear in mind that weā€™re talking about doing research to understand an issue, not about following the news. Having seen the quality of media coverage on topics in which I have some expertise (often with glaring howlers) Iā€™ve come to be sceptical of the coverage of those areas where I donā€™t have expertise on the assumption that the accuracy will be just as bad.

I tend to pay attention to specific journalists, where I have confidence in their credibility (which I realise is open to debate), rather than a particular news source.

I also prefer to try to find the source of the story, assuming that it isnā€™t so specialist that it bamboozles me.

Edited to add: my particular bugbear is how the media deals with relative and absolute risk. The glaring headline that to even glance at a slice of bacon doubles your risk of cancer and then, when you find the actual figures, the risk actually rises from ā€œnext to nothingā€ to ā€œhardly anything at allā€.

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If itā€™s items like deaths, attacks like there was in Paris the other day, pure news items without any slant on it, I use the BBC mainly because of the lack of advertising, I hate linking to a site that has masses of adverts that you have to scroll through to get to the report.

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There may be a ā€œglobal emergencyā€ but there is also a HUGE ā€œglobal opportunityā€ for new skills, new ways of living. We are watching the old world going through its death throes and inevitably part of that process is the ā€œold guardā€ (in politics, in religion, in society) fighting for survival and being all the more brutal and intolerant.
Everywhere I look round Lot et Garonne I see change - organic farming, solar panels going up everywhere, better water management, better communications and all of these scenarios bring new jobs. And this is happening so fast. We have only been here 16 years and we can see the change happening before our eyes.

Global emergency and global opportunity are two sides of the same coin.

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This! With bells on.

The reactionary types might think that, if they scream and scream until theyā€™re sick, then progress will stop but theyā€™re in for an unpleasant surprise.

Regardless of whether one thinks thereā€™s a climate crisis or not, the idea of frittering away finite resources on moving stuff and people around is madness before we even talk about the pollution.

It surely makes more sense to use renewables to the greatest extent possible and save the precious stuff for things where there is no alternative.

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Thatā€™s Ivor Cummins in the YouTube video. Heā€™s a known antivaxer who distorted figures about Covid cases in Sweden and was called out over it by many epidemiologists at the time. History has proven he was wrong and the epidemiologists were rightā€¦ Who wouldā€™ve thunked it!?

For the last decade or so heā€™s been selling a high-fat diet. You might be familiar with its other name, keto. Cummins initially claimed keto cured cancer :person_facepalming: As well as not being an epidemiologist, heā€™s also not a nutritionist.

So excuse me if I donā€™t believe what this grifter says about climate change. Heā€™s not a climatologist. Real climatologists are pretty much unanimous in saying weā€™re on the brink of an emergency.

If anyone is interested in learning about Cummins, here are some interesting articles.

https://archive.is/V6wEA

PS - has anyone seen a Venn diagram of antivax Covid derniers and climate change deniersā€¦ Iā€™m pretty sure itā€™d be just one circle.

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Tell that to the people who have their house flooded twice in one year.

Tell that to the relatives of the people who have died before their time because of excessive temperatures

Tell that to the people who now have to ration water due to drought

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The breadth of subjects covered from various angles makes study possible although YT algorithms select around what you have viewed which could easily lead some to have confirmation bias.
I try hard to view opposing views on a subject as that is research and no one gets everything right all the time. Also whilst some presenters are pretty dynamic shall I say, it is more often the Dr or Proff being interviewed that is the source of information, the presenter is just the conduit.

Now Gareth, please do not take this the wrong way. Looking at your " heā€™s been selling a high fat diet" comment, you are wrong, he hasnā€™t been selling anything. So based on your rules and your logic, you got that wrong so I shouldnā€™t listen to another word you write? That is purely to demonstrate as humans we all make mistakes, well those if us that actually make things.

Keto can assist with killing cancer as it reduces the fuel cancers need, plenty of Drā€™s and Proffā€™s using this type of therapy. The problem is they cannot just go off piste and break with accepted therapies like Chemo, so both are used together but much smaller dosses of chemo drugs are needed which is much better for the patient. Again he is a conduit and the people he interviews are specialist in their subjects.

I grew up with GreenPeace and Dr Patrick Moore, I consider him very well read in the subject of climate but he disagrees about the climate emergency.

Well technically he has, he sell the idea, the books, makes money out of the videos, lectures, interviews.
He makes a lot of money out of it wether you agree with him or not, he isnā€™t doing it out of the goodness of his heart :wink:

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Of course he is, every grifter does, itā€™s just that itā€™s not always immediately evident.

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So what did you grift during your life?
If we breakdown everything in our world it comes down to some form of income. Not like the 11 food conglomerates that actually sell things that drive ill health. Quite possibly destroying the environments for their shareholders.

Iā€™m one of those sad sacks that does a 40 hour week, at least on quiet weeks.

Itā€™s simply naive to say that these people arenā€™t selling anything.

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So were you on a 40 hour week? Simply naive to say anything else.
Getting off the point though unless we burn all the books and move into a monastory.

Your arguing and diverting for the sake of it Iā€™m afraid, you said he isnā€™t selling anything and yet he is and does, maybe have a look at what you write.

I used to be quite mocking of the, at the time, new-fangled, drive towards Mickey Mouse qualifications like media studies.
Latterly , I realised that educating people to question who benefits from a piece of work and what might be their motivation was a concept that was arguably ahead of its time and has particular value in the age of social media. The concept of taking a sceptical and critical view of media and its sources is something that ought to be applied much more widely.

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No not really, I would much rather get back to why some, and these are not necessarily people without qualifications and experience like Patrick Moore would go out on a limb to explain why they think the way they do. I listen far more to the speakers and look for their sources than interviewers. Unfortunately some prefer to just attack the interviewers.