Liberty Vittert: End climate change zealotry – rancor prevents progress on the real issues

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Record number of wildfires scorch Brazil's Amazon rainforest

Experts fear the burning of the world's largest tropical forest could have a major impact on global warming.

The Royal Statistical Society announced the Statistic of the Decade as “8.4 million.” The estimated accumulated deforestation of the Amazon rainforest over the past decade is equivalent to around 8.4 million soccer fields (about 10.3 million football fields). That is the size of Connecticut, Hawaii, New Jersey and Massachusetts.

We – I’m a member of the judging panel – also decided to have a highly commended statistic of the decade of “19 percent.” The global death rate from air pollution fell by 19 percent over the past decade (and by over 42 percent since 1990).

While whether we are doing enough to curb pollution remains a fiercely contested topic, we decided that it was important to shine a light on the fact that there are certainly positive developments. While many may think that air quality is getting worse, the number of deaths caused by air pollution has actually fallen.

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And I think these two statistics chosen by the Royal Statistical Society actually highlight the crux of the issue with environmental concerns, pollution and climate change as a whole.

The deforestation of the Amazon is a very serious issue. Any short-term financial gain is absolutely blown out of the water by the long-term financial and environmental loss. But the environment and climate change are complicated issues and by only focusing on the impending doom (of which there is certainly truth), we tend to ignore, and in fact, brush off the positive developments.

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The level of religious fervor surrounding the environment, and specifically climate change, has made scientific discourse almost impossible. I wrote an article last summer simply asking for the calls of “death in 12 years” and “hottest month ever” to be halted in exchange for a less sensationalized view of the climate crisis (of which I firmly believe there is one). I was ridiculed by many of my scientific peers, my credentials were called into question, and I was actually called “disgusting” by a statistician I used to work with.  And I’m small fries!

Freeman Dyson, one of the most famous and well-respected physicists of his generation (with 21 honorary degrees from universities like Georgetown, Princeton and Oxford), was ostracized by his former community for simply questioning some of the climate change forecasts.  Are Dyson’s assertions correct? No idea, but I think he deserves to be listened to. And Dyson isn’t the only one.

By dogmatically ignoring any positive changes, and sensationalizing the negative ones, I don’t see how we can realistically move forward in addressing the actual issues that are and will be occurring due to climate change. I mean, come on, I recently read an article in the Atlantic saying that climate change deniers are the equivalent of racists.

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If we have any hope of stopping the very real and significant climate issues we face, we have to remove the political element, reduce the religious fervor, and come together over the issues instead of participating in the dismissal culture (on both sides).

The deforestation of the Amazon’s effect on the environment is the international statistic of the decade for a reason: it has terrible consequences. But, I believe the Royal Statistical Society was also correct to highlight the 19 percent drop in the death rate from air pollution. The rancor needs to end, and collaboration needs to happen if we have any chance of preventing and mitigating future destruction.

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