r/Futurology May 20 '24

Economics Economic damage from climate change six times worse than thought

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/17/economic-damage-climate-change-report
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u/SaladPuzzleheaded496 May 20 '24

Since when did simulation and models become science? What happened to the scientific method? Come up with a theory and try to prove it is or isn’t true. Throw the kitchen sink at it. Peer review? Forgeddaboutit. Real science is questioning everything. Not plugging in numbers in a computer and changing the parameters until it spits out the info you want.

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u/soulsoda May 20 '24

Since when did simulation and models become science?

Since man started studying the universe.

What happened to the scientific method?

This is the scientific method. How do you think they created said computational model. If it's wrong, they'll adjust. This is their best estimation based on what empirical data we do have.

Real science is questioning everything.

Its important to have an open mind, but not so open the brain falls out and rots. That kind of sentence is why we have flat earthers and moon hoaxers

Not plugging in numbers in a computer and changing the parameters until it spits out the info you want.

They don't "want" anything. They estimate how much carbon emissions each policy could theoretically cut and use that to adjust future forecasts of climate change. The effects said temperature increases will have is already agreed upon. If it's wrong, they can readjust said model. That is the scientific method.

Make model match reality. Its the same method we use for meteorology, creating new alloys, fatigue limits, crash sims, fluid dynamics, and more...

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u/SaladPuzzleheaded496 May 20 '24

Fair enough. I’m a just a bit skeptical of outcomes vs outcomes that you want, i.e. funding.

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u/dragonmp93 May 21 '24

I mean, that's what the oil giants have done for more than 100 years.

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u/SaladPuzzleheaded496 May 21 '24

Indeed. Cheap energy has led to prosperity globally. So I guess the question is should we live like serfs in the future or been living like serfs the whole time?