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Genetic Research And Legislative Needs
While writing Next, Michael concluded that laws covering genetic research desperately needed to be revised, and spoke to Congressional staff members about problems ahead.
A Talk to Legislative Staffers
Washington, D.C.
September 14, 2006
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"I don't believe our humanity is at risk, I don't think we are playing God, I don't think any of the fears are justified in terms of what is actually possible. For legislation, I identify four areas of concern: stop patenting genes, revise laws governing tissue collections, require reporting of therapy trials, and don't ban future research."
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Complexity Theory and Environmental Management
In previous speeches, Michael criticized environmental groups for failing to incorporate complexity theory. Here he explains in detail why complexity theory is essential to environmental management, using the history of Yellowstone Park as an example of what not to do.
Washington Center for Complexity and Public Policy
Washington, D.C.
November 6, 2005
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"Most people assume linearity in environmental processes, but the world is largely non-linear: it's a complex system. An important feature of complex systems is that we don’t know how they work. We don’t understand them except in a general way; we simply interact with them. Whenever we think we understand them, we learn we don’t. Sometimes spectacularly."
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Testimony before the United States Senate
Michael argued for independent verification of research used for public policy, and criticized the so-called "hockeystick" study, for reasons later confirmed by the Wegman Commission.
Committee on Environment and Public Works
Washington, D.C.
September 28, 2005
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"Science is nothing more than a method of inquiry. The method says an assertion is valid-and merits universal acceptance-only if it can be independently verified. The impersonal rigor of the method means it is utterly apolitical....Thus, when adhered to, the scientific method can transcend politics. And the converse may also be true."
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The Case for Skepticism on Global Warming
Michael's detailed explanation of why he criticizes global warming scenarios. Using published UN data, he reviews why claims for catastrophic warming arouse doubt; why reducing CO2 is vastly more difficult than we are being told; and why we are morally unjustified to spend vast sums on this speculative issue when around the world people are dying of starvation and disease.
National Press Club
Washington, D.C
January 25, 2005
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"Our approach to global warming exemplifies everything that is wrong with our approach to the environment. We are basing our decisions on speculation, not evidence. Proponents are pressing their views with more PR than scientific data. Indeed, we have allowed the whole issue to be politicized-red vs blue, Republican vs Democrat. This is absurd."
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Science Policy in the 21st Century
We need better mechanisms to determine science policy. Michael outlined several issues before a joint meeting of liberal and conservative think tanks.
Joint Session AEI-Brookings Institution
Washington, D.C.
January 25, 2005
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"We have not developed mechanisms for decision-making that we all agree are fact-based and judicious; so that the results of such processes will be generally perceived to be fair and equitable. As a result, we often resolve environmental disputes through litigation, which is neither good public policy nor a sound basis for administrative rule-making."
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Environmentalism as Religion
This was not the first discussion of environmentalism as a religion, but it caught on and was widely quoted. Michael explains why religious approaches to the environment are inappropriate and cause damage to the natural world they intend to protect.
Commonwealth Club
San Francisco, CA
September 15, 2003
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"Increasingly it seems facts aren't necessary, because the tenets of environmentalism are all about belief. It's about whether you are going to be a sinner, or saved. Whether you are going to be one of the people on the side of salvation, or on the side of doom. Whether you are going to be one of us, or one of them."
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Aliens Cause Global Warming
An historical approach detailing how over the last thirty years scientists have begun to intermingle scientific and political claims.
The Michelin Lecture
California Institute of Technology
Pasadena, CA
January 17, 2003
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"I have no desire to discourage anyone from believing in either extraterrestrials or global warming. That would be quite impossible to do. Rather, I want to discuss the history of several widely-publicized beliefs and to point to what I consider an emerging crisis in the whole enterprise of science-namely the increasingly uneasy relationship between hard science and public policy."
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Why Speculate?
In recent years, media has increasingly turned away from reporting what has happened to focus on speculation about what may happen in the future. Paying attention to modern media is thus a waste of time.
International Leadership Forum
La Jolla, CA
April 26, 2002
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"When it comes to media, no matter how many people are speculating, no matter how familiar their faces, how good their makeup and how well they are lit, no matter how many weeks they appear before us in person or in columns, it still remains true that none of them knows what the future holds. "
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"Scientists often complain to me that the media misunderstands their work. But I would suggest that in fact, the reality is just the opposite, and that it is science which misunderstands media. I will talk about why popular fiction about science must necessarily be sensationalistic, inaccurate, and negative. I'll explain why it is impossible for the scientific method to be accurately portrayed in film, and why I think traditional concerns about media are misplaced."
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Mediasaurus: The Decline of Conventional Media
A speech that was famous, fifteen years ago, for predicting the decline of mainstream media. Michael predicted it would happen faster than it did, but the thrust of the speech is clearly correct.
National Press Club
Washington D.C.
April 7, 1993
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"The American media produce a product of very poor quality. Its information is not reliable, it has too much chrome and glitz, its doors rattle, it breaks down almost immediately, and it's sold without warranty. It's flashy but it's basically junk. So people have begun to stop buying it."
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