There are people who could watch a hurricane like Sandy blow out of the Atlantic every other day and blame it on anything but human activity. They are like those who, having been diagnosed with diabetes, eat donuts for breakfast. There's not much to do about them.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the denial of human impact on environmental issues, implying that some people ignore clear evidence and consequences of their actions.
Michael Specter uses the metaphor of a hurricane to illustrate how some individuals refuse to acknowledge the effects of human activity on climate change. He compares these individuals to those diagnosed with diabetes who still indulge in unhealthy eating habits, emphasizing the futility of trying to change their perspective. Specter points out that despite overwhelming evidence, some people remain in denial, making it difficult to address critical issues like climate change effectively.
In practice
During an environmental awareness seminar, this quote can underscore the need for responsibility in climate action.
If there is anything more frightening than the threat of global nuclear war, it is the certainty that humans not only stand on the verge of producing new life forms but may soon be able to tinker with them as if they were vintage convertibles or bonsai trees.
The Maldives, a string of islands off the coast of India whose highest point above sea level is eight feet, may be the first nation to drown. In Alaska, entire towns have begun to shift in the loosening permafrost.
Humanity has nearly suffocated the globe with carbon dioxide, yet nuclear power plants that produce no such emissions are so mired in objections and obstruction that, despite renewed interest on every continent, it is unlikely another will be built in the United States.
Be sceptical, ask questions, demand proof. Demand evidence. Don't take anything for granted. But here's the thing: When you get proof, you need to accept the proof. And we're not that good at doing that.
Why do people refuse to vaccinate their children against measles or whooping cough? In many cases, because they have never seen measles and have no idea what it might do.
The same things that lead to disparities in health in this country on a day-to-day basis led to disparities in the impact of Hurricane Katrina.
My ambition was to bring to bear on medicine a chemical approach. I did that by chemical manipulation of viruses and chemical ways of thinking in biomedical research.
Science can lift people out of poverty and cure disease. That, in turn, will reduce civil unrest.
When the first humans reached Australia about 45,000 years ago, they quickly drove to extinction 90% of its large animals. This was the first significant impact that Homo sapiens had on the planet's ecosystem. It was not the last.
Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose.
There are many things that you can't measure. But the great fun of what I do for a living is figuring out ways to measure things that people previously considered intangible.
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