<
https://time.com/7317436/science-threat-climate-change-public-health-rfk-jr/>
"Humanity now faces the existential threat of a leviathan with three heads: a
steadily worsening climate crisis, increasingly deadly pandemics, and an
unprecedented weaponization of antiscience that renders us helpless in our
collective efforts to address any of the great challenges we face.
The ideologically-motivated assault on science threatens us all. Climate change
is generating devastating heatwaves, wildfires, droughts, floods and
superstorms. Last month, Philadelphia had code orange air quality alerts thanks
to wildfires burning out of control in Canada. A month earlier, Texas
experienced the deadliest floods in a generation thanks in substantial part to
human-caused warming. And these were just two examples of the devastating
weather extremes that are being made more extreme by human-caused climate
change.
Then there’s the pandemics. Looking beyond COVID-19, we remain at imminent risk
for catastrophic respiratory infections caused by avian or other zoonotic
influenza viruses, Nipah and Hendra viruses, or new coronaviruses currently
emerging in Asia. Lesser known is a significant expansion in South America of
mosquito-transmitted viruses such as dengue and yellow fever, and what occurs
in countries such as Brazil often winds up in Texas and Florida.
Another force is lurking: a massive wave of social media weaponized by bots and
troll armies, books, articles, podcasts, and cable news broadcasts which
downplay or dismiss the warnings, portray the scientists as enemies or
villains, harass them, and even make death threats. We know this because we’ve
both been at the receiving end of threats against us and our families.
An entire ecosystem of antiscience has taken hold and turned deadly. COVID-19
killed an estimated 21 million people, many needlessly because they refused
life-saving vaccines, while climate impacts are killing millions.
Too often, pandemic and climate denialism are ascribed to random misinformation
or an “infodemic,” as though it arose by unforeseen or accidental
circumstances. But it is far more pernicious."
Via Violet Blue’s
Threat Model - Covid: September 18, 2025
https://www.patreon.com/posts/covid-september-139158191
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
