Trust in science falls—due to global warming?

Greta Thunberg made a statement to the U.S. Congress the other day that, like most of what she says, was simple, profound and obvious at the same time. Simple (only four words), profound (it holds the key to dealing with humanity's greatest challenge) and obvious (ask advice from those who have the answers).

After charming Congress with a speech, she was asked by one member what advice she had for them. She replied, "I don’t want you to listen to me, I want you to listen to the scientists."

Unfortunately, many of our leaders are not listening. Nor are a great many of us. We are not taking Greta's obvious advice; we are not listening to the scientists. Indeed, a recent survey indicates that Canadians' trust in science is falling. The survey, conducted by Ipsos Group S.A., found that 32 per cent of respondents were skeptical about science, up from 25 per cent the year before, a huge increase.

A lack of trust in science is a strange thing. The only way we can know the truth is through science, i.e. through "a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe." Everything else is conjecture. Why would anyone not want to know the truth?

Scientists make mistakes of course. And we can never know the absolute truth, but science gets us closest to it. Unfortunately, often people don't want to get too close. The truth can be, as Al Gore put it, inconvenient. Or worse. It can shatter your worldview. Such was the case when Copernicus suggested that we weren't the centre of the universe after all, or when Darwin pointed out that we are not all that different from other animals, just one species in a long evolutionary line from pond scum to apes. Those discoveries shook up people's sense of where they stood in the world.

Climate change is one of those big ideas. And if that's not enough to absorb, there is species extinction and the exhaustion of the Earth's resources. We are not just mucking up our civilization, we are mucking up life on this planet. For many perhaps it's just too much, too much guilt, too much sacrifice required to deal with it, so they reject it and retreat to a prettier picture.

The timing is particularly unfortunate. Never before in all our history has it been as important to deal with reality, to follow Greta's advice. Never before has rejecting the truth threatened such tragic consequences, for us and for our fellow species.