THE GWPF CHRISTMAS LECTURE

 

This lecture raises some interesting and important ideas about the way our society views the fears in our modern world. The speaker, Frank Furedi, mentions the role of scientists and how they have become crucial to policies to deal with any matter which has a fear element, such as global warming and covid. 

While these fears do have some things in common it is important to note that there are also differences. Covid is a real and present threat, while global warming is not a proven threat and its supposed effects will come in the distant future. However in both cases there are very costly policies advocated by some prominent scientists, while other equally well-qualified scientists claim that these policies are unnecessary or extreme.

Because science has become so specialised, politicians usually defer to the scientists, and it always seems to be the alarmist scientists whose advice is chosen. The reason for this is simple, no political leader wants to be blamed for not doing enough, so the solution is to err on the side of caution and do (or appear to be doing) everything possible. That way they cannot be blamed for what happens. If it turns out to be bad, they are covered, and it isn't so bad they can claim credit for the policy they adopted, despite its high cost.