Talks to Watch

Thomas Sowell: Global Warming Manufactured by Intellectuals?

667K views · Jan 25, 2010 · 3:28 · 0 HN recommenders · 3 mentions · discussed 2017–2020

A short clip in which Thomas Sowell argues that demand for intellectuals is manufactured by intellectuals, using global warming predictions as an example. It is an excerpt from a longer talk on his book Intellectuals and Society.

Why Hacker News points people here: Mostly debated or criticized; one commenter found his points fair, while others questioned his climate views.

What Hacker News said 3

Cites ittheicfireAug 2020

“The points he makes are quite fair.”

Short interview of Sowell's skepticism of climate science.

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Thomas Sowell is a critic of the climate change/environmental science initiatives, and it's one of the reasons I heavily question his other views. Here's a 3 min video of him talking about it: this video The points he makes are quite fair. The science isn't perfect, yes. Often, people try to hide that the science isn't perfect, too. But the impact is roughly the product of the magnitude of the impact and the probability of the event. In this case, the magnitude is enormous and the probability is less than 100% but seemingly quite large. Dr. Sowell seems to simply argue that climate reports suggest that the probability is higher than it truly is. But if a report suggest 95%, and Dr. Sowell thinks it's more like 40%, the core issue is still enormous. I would want him to talk about why he thinks the huge effects of anthropogenic climate change are such a vanishingly small probability to the point that we shouldn't do anything about it. Here's another article by him: link

Criticalthe_gastropodMar 2017

“do you find his take on climate to be logical and reasonable? I do not.”

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To be honest, I'd never heard of Thomas Sowell. So I looked him up. One of the first things I find is this interview: this video I'm sure he has some very compelling writings. But do you find his take on climate to be logical and reasonable? I do not.

in “Why Are the Highly Educated So Liberal? (2016)” · view on HN
CriticalseppinJun 2020

“Why are you encouraging people to listen to him?”

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I found this this video He calls climate science a "racket". Why are you encouraging people to listen to him?

in “For black CEOs in Silicon Valley, humiliation is a part of doing business” · view on HN