Every week, the editorial team of Freedom Research compiles a round-up of news that caught our eye, or what felt like under-reported aspects of news deserving more attention.
"Research: the more you know about the environment, the less anxious you are about climate change"
Thank you for putting the reference in. I did look at the full paper, and although the conclusion is mathematically correct, there is an association of knowledge with less anxiety, in practice, it is meaningless. The scattergram of the graph of knowledge against anxiety is essentially random. There is a weak correlation line that can be drawn mathematically, but in practice, there is no meaningful relationship. There is an implled conclusion, that better knowledge means less anxiety, that everything is therefore all right, nothing to worry about.
Thank you for your comment, Ian! Discussion is most welcome here. I think it makes sense that understanding complex systems reduces your anxiety about them and it seemed interesting to point out that researchers are trying to determine if it is true. But I can see that you are interested in climate discussion. I recommend an article by Kaarel Ots that we published some time ago: https://freedomresearch.substack.com/p/green-deal-modern-society-changing You are welcome to comment there as well and start a discussion.
Great news summary (the summary is great I mean, not the news...). Thank you!
Thank you, Amber!
"Research: the more you know about the environment, the less anxious you are about climate change"
Thank you for putting the reference in. I did look at the full paper, and although the conclusion is mathematically correct, there is an association of knowledge with less anxiety, in practice, it is meaningless. The scattergram of the graph of knowledge against anxiety is essentially random. There is a weak correlation line that can be drawn mathematically, but in practice, there is no meaningful relationship. There is an implled conclusion, that better knowledge means less anxiety, that everything is therefore all right, nothing to worry about.
Thank you for your comment, Ian! Discussion is most welcome here. I think it makes sense that understanding complex systems reduces your anxiety about them and it seemed interesting to point out that researchers are trying to determine if it is true. But I can see that you are interested in climate discussion. I recommend an article by Kaarel Ots that we published some time ago: https://freedomresearch.substack.com/p/green-deal-modern-society-changing You are welcome to comment there as well and start a discussion.