I am always amazed at how many people are quick to report cause and effect when a couple of variables show a correlation.
I was emailed this image, with a note that it represents proof the world is getting warmer!
What can we conclude from this information?
And I am reminded of something evolutionary biologist, Michael Ghiselin, wrote in 1974, that I read in about 1994:
“Man’s brain, like the rest of him, may be looked upon as a bundle of adaptations. But what it is adapted to has never been self-evident. We are anything but a mechanism set up to perceive the truth for its own sake.
Rather, we have evolved a nervous system that acts in the interest of our gonads, and one attuned to the demands of reproductive competition. If fools are more prolific than wise men, then to that degree folly will be favored by selection. And if ignorance aids in obtaining a mate, then men and women will tend to be ignorant.
In order for so imperfect an instrument as a human brain to perceive the world as it really is, a great deal of self discipline must be imposed.”
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD has worked in industry and government. She is currently researching a novel technique for long-range weather forecasting funded by the B. Macfie Family Foundation.