By Jo Nova
A rare opportunity: the wonderful Matt Ridley will be in Perth to speak on Tuesday. One of the few great science commentators across economics, biology, genes, climate and politics. Author of The Rational Optimist, Viral: The search for the origin of Covid-19 and for years a writer for The Times, WSJ, and also elected as a hereditary peer to membership in the House of Lords, UK.
Cures vs Consequences: How does Government navigate the science?
Matt Ridley
Join Matt Ridley in PERTH, Novotel Murray Street on Tuesday, November 21 or a thought-provoking discussion on the critical role of Government in shaping climate, health, and energy policies.
Scientists aren’t infallible authorities who universally override political disagreements, nor are they unscrupulous fraudsters with hidden political agendas. Somewhere between the two lies the truth: Science is a flawed and all too human affair, but it can generate timeless truths, and reliable practical guidance, in a way that other approaches cannot.
How can the average person make sense of the often-conflicting scientific opinions that have arisen during the COVID pandemic and in the discussions about climate and energy policies? Unfortunately, there’s no easy solution when it comes to scientific debate.
The only way to be sure that one scientific claim is solid while another is not, is to check out the evidence for yourself. Relying on the reputation of the scientist, or the reporter reporting it, is the way that many of us go, and is better than nothing, but it is not infallible. If in doubt, do your homework!
Matt Ridley is a British author, journalist, businessman and former member of the UK House of Lords known for his writings on science, the environment, and economics.
Ridley is a prolific writer and has authored several books, including The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves, The Evolution of Everything: How Ideas Emerge and, most recently, Viral: The search for the origin of Covid-19. In 2020, CIS published Innovation in Australia by Matt. His works often explore topics related to human evolution, genetics, and societal progress.
Peter Kurti is Director of the Culture, Prosperity & Civil Society program.
Apply the code CIS-PERTH for an exclusive buy one get one free offer!
Great to see a pro-science, pro-reason visitor to Australia.
Frankly, I’m surprised the Australian Government granted him a visa as he doesn’t conform to the Official Narrative.
(Donald Trump Jr was the most recent visitor that I’m aware of who was effectively banned. He was only given a visa one day before he was due to commence his speaking tour which meant it had to be cancelled. The visa was applied for months in advance.)
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I’m sure that Australia will be hosting many Hamas escapees.
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And not just Australia … several are said to be in the UK, living in council houses – presumably given to them to rent [and where does the rent money come from, I wonder] by a grateful nation …
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Scientists aren’t infallible authorities who universally override political disagreements, nor are they unscrupulous fraudsters with hidden political agendas. Somewhere between the two lies the truth …
But we can’t overlook the possible effect of government funding; or the possible effect of cancel culture, and, more importantly, the possible effect of the underlying threat of being cancelled or financially ruined; or that some people on one side of the political divide may be more prone to obsessiveness; or that some people have a grievance against society and, out of a desire for revenge, are more likely to ally themselves with causes and people whom they see as having a harmful effect on society; or that institutional political bias can lead to certain narratives becoming all-pervasive and treated as indisputable; or that some people who like to regard themselves as being better than others are drawn to narratives and causes that give them the satisfaction of looking down on those with opposing views, or …
In short, politics is about people. Understand the person and you will understand their politics.
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“Show me the incentive, and I will show you the outcome.” – Charlie Munger
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There once were two Davids. One was a scientist, the other was a self taught naturalist. Both worked for the BBC. The first disputed the hypothesis of man made warming based on his knowledge of the natural world and science. For his adherence to the scientific principle he was sacked by the BBC. The other decided that promoting the false hypothesis was very lucrative leading to having many resources which allowed him to pursue his love of nature documentaries and which he did very well so long as he always genuflected to the god of global warming. David Bellamy maintained his integrity and suffered for it whereas David Attenborough went on to make millions and to be feted by the rich and famous.
Yes. The incentive made one a hero in my eyes; the other sold his soul and integrity for fame and fortune. Unfortunately there are many climate scientists who have done the same and now we all pay for it in higher prices for our energy.
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Well written!
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About 20 years ago I watched a TV documentary about Australian camels, and how they were suffering from drought, and climate change. Camel bones were shown as proof of this (as if camels shouldn’t die of old age). But I was not yet into this climate lie; Al Gore was still a couple of years away from his infamous movie which made me google climate change and the ‘science’ behind it and realised that Al Gore and his cabal are a bunch of liars. But I digress. That camel documentary nearly brought tears to my eyes only to later discover that camels are actually increasing in numbers and destroying the nature of the outback so much so that camels had to be culled to control the increasing numbers and preserve the ecological balance of the Australian outback.
So much for TV documentaries. David Attenborough was caught faking a polar ice background, but he was of course given a pass. Imagine if it was David Bellamy?
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DD
Do you disagree that 97% of Climate Sciences getting funding agree about humans causing global warming?
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Matt Ridley is a great advocate for Science and reason and discovery.
He was the first prominent writer to highlight the recent GREENING of the Earth and caused a stink from the very scientists who had quietly started to talk about it.
I’m unable to travel at the moment but I hope Matt’s talk is available to watch online at a later date.
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Ridley nonetheless is a “lukewarmer” who thinks that anthropogenic contributions of CO2 are causing half the warming of the planet. Possibly but dubious as its effects are not discernable through the scrutinising of temperatures. my humble view is that aside from localised changes, ie UHI , deforestation and broad acre land practices,any perturbations are most likely due to natural factors beyond our control. Go CO2.
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Yes.
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The problem is not science, that’s a proven system. It’s the political/media system, that has conferred a level of moral authority on to the title ‘scientist’ that used to be given to priests. Science has become a defacto religion.
Throw in all the aspectes of human nature/character – ambition, ego, ect, and we end up with the problem we have today. The scientific system is self correcting (eventually) religion not so much.
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🙂 🙂 🙂
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The scientific method is working fine. Matt,and other sceptics, complain but have failed to provide evidence. Instead, Matt chooses to go on speaking tours, preaching to the converted and avoiding scientists.
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I’m a “scientist”; speak to me.
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Sorry for jumping in too quick. GlenM above says that Matt is a lukewarmer; so he wouldn’t be a real scientist.
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Matt,and other sceptics, complain ABOUT the lack evidence.
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The system may be at fault but it’s the WEF Oligarchs that control it and the MSM that foster it. All to our detriment and their enrichment
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Matt Ridley gets vilified in the UK by the likes of the Grauniad and warmists because he has open-cast coalmines on his estate. The left-wing and green nutters hate him.
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Here’s Matt’s talk to the GWPF at the Royal Society in 2016 where he covers a lot of the so called Science and it’s wonderful to watch a sane, knowledgeable person discuss the DATA and EVIDENCE in such a reasonable way.
He talks about the greening of the world at 3 minutes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5M1qtN62yk
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It would have been nice if he was also able to come to the Eastern states. Perhaps he can organise another tour.
I hope the Leftists/anti-energy-lobby don’t make trouble for him with their usual anti-science, anti-reason and often violent demonstrations.
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Like most speakers who travel to these shores they appear at venues far away from me. I accept that – living in a cultural/political desert where people are disinterested (mostly)in subjects that are impacting their lives. Ignorance is bliss they say.
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Actually he did speak in Sydney on Nov 9th, I’m sorry I was not aware. The CIS organized it. I’m more than happy to help promote brave and sane speakers, so if you hear of a tour, let me know so I can spread the word. I only know of this Perth event because Matt emailed me so we can catch up…
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The GWPF wouod have listened but the Royal Society, at least in its managerial echelons did not and suppressed counter opinions within and without its body – just like the GEol Soc to their eyernal shame
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The Scientific Revolution is usually regarded as having started in 1543 when Copernicus published De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres).
Now thanks to the usual suspects we are reverting to witchcraft.
And look at the Left’s war against knowledge.
Just Goolag “science math racist” without quotes to see how the Left regard such subjects as “racist” (sic).
Also see https://www.hoover.org/research/seattle-schools-propose-teach-math-education-racist-will-california-be-far-behindseattle
And an expectatipn of correct answers in mathematics is supposedly racist: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9717063/Educators-slam-math-workbook-claims-racist-ask-students-right-answer.html
Rationality and hard work is “racist”.
https://www.aei.org/op-eds/smithsonian-institution-explains-that-rationality-hard-work-are-racist/
Even correct use of language is regarded as racist:
https://splash.org/about-us/media-kit/written-style-guide/language-purity
I have even heard it claimed that an expectation of punctuality is racist.
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In the second century AD Ptolemy argued that the sun, planets, and moon move in circles around the Earth. The Ptolemaic system was accepted by the Church for more than 1,000 years, and anybody who queried it was a heretic. Islamic astronomers were puzzled by some problems, which was settled by Tycho Brahe who noted that observations Ptolemy claimed to have made in 141 AD weren’t genuine. Since then others have cast doubts on his claim to have measured the position of 600 stars
See, an obvious “Climate Scientist”.
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Maybe it was a good start.
Then others refined it.
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The Feral Guv’ment can only navigate lies.
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No. Soon the governments of Australia will be the only source of ‘truth’. Won’t that make life so much easier? One source of all truth. Science,logic, maths,stats and debate all outdated at the stroke of the official pen. Why didn’t we think of it before? But we did, didn’t we? China. Mianma, Pol Pot, Stalin, Hitler all knew this was the way to all truth. God, the West is really slow these days.
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I guess that the Government will legislate to make pi equal 3.
That’s that – no argument; no debate; no opposition.
Won’t that be grand!
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Mods – yes … … … a little tiny bit /s
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Matt Ridley’s books on evolution and genetics are excellent. He has the largest coal mine in the UK on his property and receives considerable rents from them. He was Chairman of Northern Rock Bank when it collapsed due to sub-prime lending so I think you can question his attitudes to risk.
[And given the GFC, the same could be said of all reserve bankers, national treasurers, large financial houses, most of Wall St. But you don’t want to attack them, so you just save the ad homs for people who question your religion. Is that how it works? – Jo]
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Not really a big fan of evolution, How do rocks randomly form Giraffes?
Mud randomly forms living things?
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Kevin, bless you, but if you were sincere in asking that question you would put in a little effort to learn something about how genetics works and look up some primordial chemistry. Science may never offer you a 100% complete line on your 600 part question, but it would fill in a lot of gaps and you would be able to ask more useful questions.
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Intelligent code cannot write it self randomly.
I am not aware of a random process that can write intelligent code “DNA”?
Great video no one will watch, sadly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFCvkkDSfIU
Drew Berry: Animations of unseeable biology
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You load the word “random” into your questions as if to shield yourself from seeing possibilities. Yet anyone who studies molecular biology can see that while mutations are random, the selection process is not. Why not learn something about genetics so you can ask better questions?
As I said to you before, what if God created the constants of physics and the structure of atoms and chemisty and set the whole process of evolution in motion from billions of years ago? Isn’t that far more visionary and magnificent being than one who does last minute tinkering?
IS there a law of physics that says pockets of greater order can never be produced as long as energy is consumed? Total entropy still grows.
After the big bang stupid rocks and particles organized themselves into planets, moons and solar systems with resonant orbits. Did God need to plan the path of each rock, or did the whole orchestra organize itself from the laws of physics?
Just because you cannot imagine what 2,000,000,000 years of mutations can achieve does not mean it is impossible.
As long as you refuse to study genetics you will never be aware of what a superficially random process, based on a non-random laws, can achieve.
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I took that as sarc Kevin; was that the intention?
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I was under the impression that ‘Science’ (hallowed be Its’ Name) taught us that there was a Big Bang.
Stuff began randomly crashing into other stuff that became rocks …
rocks crashed into other rocks …
began to swirl …
and after 14.7 billion years out pops Lady Gaga (All praises to Science).
But I’m told that that Settled Science has become a little less settled as of late.
Alas I am a peasant, sarcasm may be above my paygrade and as problematic as my grooming habits and health practices.
But as is proper, my Overlords are busy working to restrict my access to enlightened discourse, as not to impede social progress.
I think only those with accredited academic status should have Interweb access.
Amazon will survive as only those with sufficient status will have purchasing power.
Sarc?
Search me.
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Not sure what you are saying, sry?
No body here can tell me the law of Evolution.
May simple question to team evolution is how do random rocks form dna of a living cell?
Do we have an example of this happening or it just faith based?
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It’s not a simple question at all Kevin. It’s a global vague meaningless loaded question encompassing 600 points.
If you do want to talk about it, why not start using accurate, specific points instead. Show us you have even spent one minute thinking about which parts of the 4 billion year process you have doubts about. The rocks are not random. The process is not random. The laws of physics and chemistry are not random. But I’ve already mentioned that. Do you read my replies?
Disagreement is fine. Curious ignorance is fine. Timewasting is a crime.
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Government is the problem they are the main source of corruption of science academies and their ally the IPCC which is another governmental body producing bogus narrative over a trace gas with a trace effect at the 435 ppm level.
When you take the POLITICS out of science then the fog clears up and people becomes rational again with the truth.
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Why waste time and effort these days trying to prove a scientific theory when the empirical evidence conclusion is condemned and jeered at and the paid for outcome conclusion is heralded.
There is no respect for real science, it gets in the way of the one world govt jokers’ maniacal wet dreams.
The world has been dumbed down from kindergarten to university. The pathetic so-called leaders will have no trouble coercing the future citizens into “you will have nothing and you will be happy”.
I went to an Energy Forum talk by a naturalist/photographer who showed his photos of the scarring of virgin land for wind and solar farms and a politician who explained the safety etc of nuclear energy. Question time came at the end.
During question time, I bobbed up and said ‘I was very disappointed that they both believed in climate change. You wouldn’t be speaking about wind and solar farms only for climate change.” I asked them each to explain why they believe in climate change. The moderator (a politician) had to round up with her party’s weak reasoning for keeping climate change. My question was the only one that got clapped and clapped again. That was good to hear not everyone believes in the hoax.
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The parasites want you to give up…
Instead we need to keep talking about science because most people are not corrupt craven parasites, and honest answers matter to them.
If talking about real science opens one persons eyes to the level of corruption, or even the possibility that Industrial Science is not looking for the truth, then it was worthwhile.
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Jo,
I very much appreciate you and the commenters here.
Your blog these days is my primary news source.
(Since NPR became intolerable.)
My looming impression is we now are in unknown territory with regards to the interface of government, ‘Science’, academia and the media.
A direct result of the ‘Pandemic’ phenomenon.
Difficult to construct a concise outline, as the assault on rational discourse is so multi faceted.
(We would be in a much worse, perhaps terminal, place if Elon Musk had not purchased Twitter, and the Blitzkrieg on him is ramping up.)
The primary problem, I think, is that wanton political forces, via control of global media infrastructure, have constructed a Global Mass Formation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_psychogenic_illness
Moving the Overton Window to the point that ‘liberal’ and educated establishment factions across the Western World are taking steps to stop us from talking about ‘Science’ (after all it is settled and must be followed.)
I suppose all we can do is keep talking.
But it is looking like we may need Divine intervention.
Nature balances eternally, but sometimes there’s an asteroid.
The Climate Mass formed what, about 1988, thanks to the one day to be infamous James Hansen.
Resulting in the Inquisition Panel on Climate Change.
Likely at least a half century to undo the damage.
My own opinion is that, after the short window post the World Wars, we are simply returning to the predominate human superstition homeostasis.
This is my current mode of adjustment.
🙂
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Trouble is Jo, that if the WEF sycophants get their way talking and even thinking anything but the Government Line, it will be against the Law! But you’re right we must keep talking truth while we can. Or it’s Room 101 for us!
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🙂 🙂
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Aye, in our bright new world we’ve moved on from scientific fact to scientific concensus. If you want to prove anything just do a simple survey on social media or better still count the number of ‘likes’. There’s your proof. A billion flys cannot possibly be wrong … eat sh*t !
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Matt Ridley would have been cancelled if he was vulnerable . They always go for the soft targets with howls of outrage. The MSM is a weapon of choice and turns on its own if they step out of line . The truth is always the first casualty .
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We were told, not so long ago, that asymptomatic infections of SARS-CoV-2 had been proven during the pandemic if not in a number of peer reviewed studies claiming to show this.
So the story ran during the first days of panic that a German journalist caught COVID-19 from a Chinese passenger on a flight who, it was claimed, showed no symptoms of infection. The journalist won an award for this ‘asymptomatic infection’ story. Move the clock just a lttle way forward and the claim has been proven to be false since the Chinese passenger involved had been taking painkillers for ‘flu symptoms for at least some twenty four hours previous to the recorded journalist contact.
These are times where news is false even when proof is seemingly offered otherwise. These are times when no one is to be believed unless they show anger at being falsely informed by person or persons who should be trustworthy and honest since they have sworn to be so. That includes just about anyone in public service including teachers at all levels … Whatever happened to the good folk?
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I’ll take “unscrupulous fraudsters with hidden political agendas” in all too many cases unfortunately. Most of them could make very good livings selling used cars with far less damage to society.
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Hi Jo,
It was pleasure to meet you and Matt Ridley at the CIS event last night.
Hope CIS have more in Perth. Pity about the small crowd.
I only knew because of their email. Case of best kept secrets. Needs much more publicity / free invites to selected celebs?
It was interesting to hear you take on COVID which was similar to mine. I see another new vaccine has been approved for the new variation.
Having had 5 already and there are now reports of year-long side effects (none here) but still makes one wonder about No.6.
Note: On the secret virus labs: One reason the authorities would not want to go full public alert would be the fear of the public panicking about “a risk that no longer exists” but would still result many senior officials from said Govt agencies responsible for protecting us falling on their collective swords.
How’s this for a business plan, invent and release a new virus and then sell the cure at massive profits. Timing would be everything. Can’t let the virus out until you have the cure.
Wonder if the CCP have shares in Pfizer.
All baseless of course, a plot for a movie.
Regarding some of the above comments about evolution I like to think of it as the “theory of extinction”. There was a documentary called that some years ago and it makes sense.
For the Creationists, I like to point out that the Theory of Evolution is God’s operating system for never ending infinite creation and intelligent design is a human supremacist idea to cope with the idea descending from dare I say it, “lesser animals”.
I don’t want to be a labelled a specialist human supremacist myself, but Slime Mold although a delightfully interesting lifeform, I would not want to actually marry one. 😱
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Good to meet you too Graham. Yes we need larger Perth mailing lists to help spread the word when groups from the East do an event in Perth.
Sadly, there really is no good excuse for the silence on the labs. The risk almost certainly does still exist. What are the odds the CCP only had one naughty lab in the world and it was sheer bad luck we found it.
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