Brane Space: Can A Former Hopkins Immunologist (& Intertel Member) Also Be A Climate Expert & Climate Change Denier? Not Really!

Tipping point transitions governed by a potential V(x,c)

Gunther Weller - A real climate scientist - and expert!

In the March issue of the Intertel journal Integra , Part 2 of my article on climate change: Can We Finally Agree There is No Leftist Hoax or Green Conspiracy) appeared. Therein I showed clearly how critical climate tipping points can occur - based on the extensive research of climate scientist Gunther Weller. By March, even before Part 2 had appeared, Intertel member Carolyn Simon took a first shot at my arguments, i.e. to the effect too many in the high I.Q. societies (Mensa, Intertel) fancied themselves expert climate critics because of I.Q.s in the upper 1-2%. But this was really because they were hostage to the Dunning -Kruger Effect. As psychologist David Dunning (the discoverer of the Effect) once explained to Errol Morris, writing in an essay series, e.g.

The Anosognosic's Dilemma: Something's Wrong but You'll Never Know What It Is (Part 1) - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

“If you’re incompetent, you can’t know you’re incompetent … [T]he skills you need to produce a right answer are exactly the skills you need to recognize what a right answer is.”

Nonetheless Ms. Simon felt amped up enough to challenge my contentions in a letter e.g.

Believing firmly that citing Bjorn Lomborg was the 'slam dunk' response to quash my citation of a genuine climatologist (Dr. Weller). This resulted in my forceful response in the March issue, to wit:

"Contrary to Ms. Simon's claims for Lomborg's climate science bona fides, his Ph.D. is in political science, not climate science. Hence, he is emphatically no expert in climatology, more like a sophisticated quack. A Wikipedia article on his background also notes:

"After the publication of The Skeptical Environmentalist, Lomborg was formally accused of scientific dishonesty by a group of environmental scientists, who brought a total of three complaints against him to the Danish Committees on Scientific Dishonesty (DCSD),"

Adding for good measure:

"Lomborg’s hollow climate games were also exposed as long ago as July 19, 2016 in FORBES (‘Bjorn Lomborg's Climate Analysis Is A Hot Mess’) "

The sole response to this takedown appeared to be just a small (one paragraph) book review in the following issue. Not very impressive, nor a compelling case. After this minor burp I was wondering how long it might be before a full-throated attack (even if misplaced) emerged to my articles. It took less than 6 months to produce Alana Sullivan’s in the June issue – and my gosh! – we learned she was actually something of a former expert when she proclaimed:

“Having worked in the research labs in the department of Immunology of Johns Hopkins University I will not be bullshitted” or “snow jobbed”!”

Basically, asserting I was trying to "snow" her under with a barrage of high falutin' climate and thermal physics terms - which could only be "bullshit" if her (former) immunologist brain couldn't grasp most of it. Indeed, the current cover art artist for the Integra actually claimed my words in Part 2 were like:

"Words smothering truth like snow smothering my car."

But how could she KNOW that if she too is hostage to the Dunning -Kruger Effect? As I wrote in my reply (yet to be published after 3 months):

Pardon me, Alana, but no one was attempting a ”snow job”, “a bullshit job”, verbal tsunami or anything of the kind. I was merely trying to fill in what I presumed to be science gaps (for the more scientifically educated Ilians like you profess to be) but who may have had large gaps in their college thermal physics background. Oh, and for whom adequate words would not be a barrier or snow job but an avenue to understanding.

Can I ask: Have you taken a level 3 (junior) or higher thermal physics course – say at any university? How about a semester of thermodynamics in a calculus -based General Physics course ? Do you even know the difference between heat and temperature, or what temperature is? Do you know the meaning of thermal equilibrium? Do you know what entropy is and how it enters climate physics?

If not, then I daresay you do not know what the hell you are talking – or complaining – about. In which case you can’t say I am "smothering truth like snow smothering your car" because you haven't the foggiest notion of what any truth pertaining to climate is. Nor do you have any remote clue how thermal physics applies to the climate conditions Prof. Gunther Weller associated with tipping points.

Indeed, you lack the sufficient physics background to criticize - or even recognize - that some ‘x’ quantum of information is excessive or irrelevant. If you don't know a Btu from an erg, or a tipping point from the troposphere, how could you?

Further, given the Dunning -Kruger bias represents a metacognitive inability of the unskilled to recognize their ineptitude, then clearly Ms. Sullivan would not even be aware it was she spouting bullshit.

As I went on to point out:

"My claim made here is that you are incompetent in thermal physics and by extension climate physics. (Also evident by your failure to criticize the climate fraud Bjorn Lomborg). You may have been perfectly competent as a former Hopkins immunologist, but that ain’t physics and thermal physics is what’s needed to grasp the extent and ramifications of global warming. And since “more words, citations, etc.” will not make a difference to you – because clearly you lack the skills and background to know what a right answer is here,- then there is no point continuing this climate debate with you.

You have your mind made up, convinced you know as much or more about climate physics as you do immunology.- but even here suspicious defects emerge in the latter, given your takes on Dr. Fauci and masking. I would even guess that you dispute the running totals of COVID-deaths the Hopkins website reported during the pandemic. I may be assuming too much, but would not be at all surprised.

I ended the retort by writing:

"I recommend – on the off chance you believe you may need some background in climate matters - i.e. to contribute more serious follow up responses - to get hold of the superb small monograph:

This is Climate Science: A Visual Guide To The Facts

By David Nelles And Christian Serrer

If not, and you’re convinced you know all you need to, then no harm, no foul. Stay within the Dunning-Kruger orbit. You do have excellent skills in producing the Integra cover art!

By the way, I m writing this on what has been reported as the hottest day ever recorded for the planet:"

The planet saw its hottest day on record this week. It’s a record that will be broken again and again

But for Alana and other Intertel members of her ilk (like Carolyn Simon) none of threat may matter, as they will always regard themselves as "climate experts" based on simply being part of a high I.Q. society. Never mind that whatever a former Hopkins immunologist like Alana did in the past has no bearing on whether that person now can even distinguish a tipping point from the troposphere.

See Also:

Climate Justice