Perception of Science as Inaccessibility
Science is often imagined as apathetic scientists methodically mixing different colored liquids in expensive labs with extensive procedures and regulations. Science is the epitome of method, and often held in high regard. Yet with all this regulation much of the public still doubts scientific findings. The debates over the validity of climate change continue, despite the massive amount of verification and confirmation on the subject. The public sometimes doubts hard scientific findings in favor of misconceptions, lacking the resources needed to understand the seemingly complex scientific conclusions.
Historically, science has often been doubted by the public. When Galileo argued the world was round, he was doubted by many and even persecuted by the Catholic Church, despite the fact that Eratosthenes, a Greek mathematician, had not only proved the spherical nature of the Earth, but even calculated its circumference hundreds of years before Galileo …show more content…
She made a common mistake by “relying on personal experience and anecdotes, on stories rather than statistics” (Achenbach). She failed to realize that climate and weather are not the same thing. Climate is the general trend of weather over a long period of time, not the weather on a short local scale. By denying the problem, no progress towards a solution can be made.
One reason for denial, Keith B. Miller says, is that the scientific concession on climate change “is often rejected because of a perception that the majority is driven by social, political, or religious motives” (220). Because the social world is driven by these factors many believe that the scientific world is as well. While scientists are human and are not immune to ulterior motives, the intense verification process that studies go through insure accurate unbiased
Science is often imagined as apathetic scientists methodically mixing different colored liquids in expensive labs with extensive procedures and regulations. Science is the epitome of method, and often held in high regard. Yet with all this regulation much of the public still doubts scientific findings. The debates over the validity of climate change continue, despite the massive amount of verification and confirmation on the subject. The public sometimes doubts hard scientific findings in favor of misconceptions, lacking the resources needed to understand the seemingly complex scientific conclusions.
Historically, science has often been doubted by the public. When Galileo argued the world was round, he was doubted by many and even persecuted by the Catholic Church, despite the fact that Eratosthenes, a Greek mathematician, had not only proved the spherical nature of the Earth, but even calculated its circumference hundreds of years before Galileo …show more content…
She made a common mistake by “relying on personal experience and anecdotes, on stories rather than statistics” (Achenbach). She failed to realize that climate and weather are not the same thing. Climate is the general trend of weather over a long period of time, not the weather on a short local scale. By denying the problem, no progress towards a solution can be made.
One reason for denial, Keith B. Miller says, is that the scientific concession on climate change “is often rejected because of a perception that the majority is driven by social, political, or religious motives” (220). Because the social world is driven by these factors many believe that the scientific world is as well. While scientists are human and are not immune to ulterior motives, the intense verification process that studies go through insure accurate unbiased