Science Museum Declines To Show Climate Change Film

sciencehabit writes "A premier science museum in North Carolina has sparked controversy by refusing to show an hour long film about climate change and rising sea levels. The museum may be in a bit of a delicate position. It is part of a state agency, the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources. The state government has been perceived as hostile to action on climate change; last year, the legislature passed a bill forbidding the state coastal commission from defining rates of sea-level rise for regulation before 2016."

Comments

In the USA

[Anonymous Coward]

Climate change being real or not is completely irrevelant. We're NOT going to do anything about it. No way no how. Until it's a major serious problem that might impact someones cashflow. Until then. And it can be proven that it will cost some rich people some money... Until then. We're not going to do shit except scream 'it's not real i cant hear you'. So just stop with the storys about it. You're causing global warming with the wasted energy it took to type the story in.

Willful ignorance. We haz it. It's standard policy too.

Re:In the USA

[gmuslera]

In a complex system like the world, rising temperature just a few degrees won't be an isolated event. Extreme weather is becoming more prevalent, you seen the storms that happened over asia, europe and america in the last year.. Also, more moisture in air, so more rain, and more floods. Extreme weather and floods will make it difficult to succeed some "long term" investments like crops,

You are right in one thing, change is good, life adapts with time, or die. And you could end being in the second group, or at least not liking at all what adaptation will mean.

Re:In the USA

[geekoid]

Wow, that was a long way of saying you don't know what climate change is.
Let me try to boil it down for your simple mind.

Climate change is about trapped energy. That mean these event will have more energy in them; which we see.

That means more, and/or bigger and bigger wind speeds. All of which we are seeing. In short, the amount of energy these storms express through a year is trending upwards.

IN order to keep it simple for you and you ilk, I am going to use a number which is SOLELY used as in example. That actual numbers are far too big for you.

Lets say 100 unit of energy are spent through storms a year, 100 years ago.
no there is 110 until of energy spent through storms every year.
An it keep increasing. It is a fact that the amount of energy released in storms is increasing.

"Though attempts are made regularly to tie a particular weather-event to the evil human-caused climate change"
by the media, not the scientist. IN fact, this year is the first year where actual scientists who are experts in this field say 'yes, there are some indicators the amount of energy is caused by global warming.'

All you information seems to be coming from media headlines. Stop it. Media very seldom gets science information correct. Media is written for simpletons who want to feel informed with out actual spending the effort to be informed.

"None of the dire predictions made 40, 30, 20, or 10 years ago came to life. "
Yes, they are. the scientific one that is, not the media headline one. See above.

"ver the years, we moved from the threat of "Global Cooling" [wikipedia.org] (temperatures, supposedly, falling), to "Global Warming" (temperatures, supposedly, rising)
see there oyu go, showing the world you don't understand the science or the history.

There are two effect. You can keep track of things up to 2, right?
Particulate in the air blocking sunlight. This is happening, and in fact measurably less sunlight is hitting the earth now then 100 years ago. This has the effect of less energy hitting the surface, and thus less IR being created. This is happening, but its effect is dwarfed by global warming.

These thing are not opposite, they are two effects that aren't weight equally. Meaning more energy is trapped than sunlight blocked. And no, the don't cancel each other out, they make things worse. It's only simpleton who cant understand this.

Let me explain to you, at a high level, the science of gloabl warming. Let me know if you disagree wiht any of thise scienctific facts, then we can have an actual discussion.
1) The vast majority of visible light hitting the earth comes form our sun. disagree? please explain and show your work
2) Visible light passe through CO2. disagree? please explain and show your work
3) Visible light hits something and IR is expressed. disagree? please explain and show your work
4) CO2 absorbs IR. disagree? please explain and show your work

SO, the onerous is on YOU to explain where that energy is going if it isn't stating close to the Earth.

Complex topics?

[Sockatume]

The museum's statement reads, in part:

It would be a disservice to the people of North Carolina who generously funded the construction of the Museum, and who are joined by other visitors from all other US states and numerous other countries, if we were to maintain that showing one organization’s film constituted a comprehensive approach to an issue as significant and complex as sea level science.

Science cafe events are all about providing a quick, accessible, but by no means comprehensive view of an topic. Most of the ones I've been to have involved a single academic pontificating on their area of expertise and their own ideas for an hour. It seems rather odd to me that a Cafe Sci would restrict itself in this way. They can't have a very rich slate.

Re:Is it science?

[Sockatume]

That's why it's a Science Cafe - which is about outreach and discussion - and not a university lecture.

Tantrums, much?

[bradley13]

Poor baby, he didn't get his way.

The musuem director said that the "Science Cafe" was the wrong forum, but that they would consider showing the film as part of a larger project.

This film is an advocacy film for one particular viewpoint, being pushed by one particular organization. The musuem rightly sees that showing this film alone, with no context or alternative viewpoints, may not be the best way to present a balanced viewpoint on a difficult and controversion subject.

Re:Fixed summary for you

[thaylin]

Except the politicians are not paying for it, Me and other residents of NC are paying for it, so yes I do expect it to be covered by my taxes. It is better than the other stupid shit they waste our money on, such as stealing the airport from Charlotte, or the water plants from Asheville because they could unregulated it if it was in the right hands.