Just started (00:30GMT, Oct 25) on BBC World Radio: “Letter from…Clive James reflects on the importance of scepticism in every walk of life”
UPDATE: The programme lasted around 8 minutes.
UPDATE #2: Thanks to Alex for pointing to the programme transcript.
Very quick summary of the relevant points:
- It is notable that on the issue of man made climate change the language used is hard to distinguish from the language used centuries ago against heresy
- Whoever shows skepticism is called a “denialist” – a nasty word that suggests equivalence to denying the holocaust
- In Australia somebody suggested that climate change skeptics are worse than Holocaust denialists, as this time it’s the whole human race that is at risk
- But the Holocaust has actually happened, the destruction of the Earth by man made climate change hasn’t
- The number of skeptical scientists in on the increase. But Mr James claims he knows next to nothing about the subjects
- The one thing he knows is that many of the commentators don’t know much either, since they keep saying that the science is settled. And it is not.
- Now fewer are repeating that assertion. and their voices are raising harder, as if protecting their faith
- Skeptics are accused not to care about the future human race. That is the opposite of the truth. Modern medicine for example raised from skepticism
- At the end of the day, no matter what effort is put in protecting a conjecture, a theory must suit the facts