The other thing was the "shifting baselines idea", i.e. measuring what is normal in ecological terms. This is no big deal either as it says look the long term not the short term. Saying here fish numbers are 95% of the level they were 10 years ago. When in reality they are 90% down on the level 200 years ago.
Actually Disappointing Programme - Sorry BUT maybe there is a difference with culture outside the North American scene. - Creationism isn't a big issue in other countries - Global warming isn't taken as an "of course skeptics believe that Catastrophe is coming issue either" - so I found the interview attitude quite irritating
I could hear you guys were really excited about the issues, but Creationism isn't a big issue in other countries like it is in the US where the figures seem almost unbelieveable, most of the Christians I have met around the world don't believe in it. So I kept waiting for that segment to end and to move onto something else, but it never did
The other issue mentioned Global Warming or more accurately "Man-Made Global catastrophe theory".. Again I think this plays differently in other parts of the world. The presenters seem to take it as read the Skeptics are on the "believers" side. Wheras I would say in the UK and Australia it's more split. Certainly in Skeptic circles the "don't jump to conclusions" and "don't say 'of course'" camps are quite strong. I just listened to Oz Skeptics podcast featuring Top Oz Skeptic Prof Ian Plimer (top geologist) who argued strongly and logically the opposite of Olson's points ..almost saying "look at all these "silly" people who are jumping on the bandwagon".
Even among the public skeptism on this issue is quite popular I think largely cos governemnt and Big energy companies are saying they are believers, so a lot of the public say "the authorities are using it as an excuse to increase taxes and prices" , so they deliberately take the opposite view. Of course you can swing opinion poll questions to get whatever stats you like. But people's action show that they have compassion fatigue. Even amongst believers there's no real action except to buy more green stuff which of course means more energy is consumed.
I thought is was unwise of the presenter to twice say publicly creationists are "silly" and then also to imply people skeptical of "Man-Made Global catastrophe theory" are quote, "God, how do we get through to these people". I thought being a skeptic was about making decisions on the facts and numbers not just taking a position and pooh poohing the other side.
I also strongly disagree with most Dr. Randy Olson's points and attitude "you can't educate people with a film"and a passion like Michael Moore for dumbing down. In adopting the rightwing style "tabloid journalism" damages the left's credibility. Moore's TV programmes were great (more popular in the UK than US), but reading, watching his later work one is forever saying "hey Mike that's not quite true, you're spinning the issue" Keep up the good work - bye stew