A long delay between posts while I continued my recuperation from back surgery in Florida with assistance from both my immediate and extended family in a little ritual known as March break, a well-established adaptation to extended winter practiced by Canadians for generations. Today was my first day back to scan and read ecomyth related material and I wanted to post this link to Steve McIntyre's presentation at the 2009 Heartland Climate Conference.
Steve sets a great example for all by posting his talks, and the presentation is available as a PowerPoint, word and/or PDF file. Regular readers of Climate Audit will find this a good updated summary: newbies will find the presentation an excellent way to catch up without having to do quite so much homework for themselves.
Those operating with closed minds probably don't read my posts and will already have dismissed the link as soon as I attached Steve's name to the post header: why is it people fear what they do not understand? And why to people seek to marginalize, demonize and trivialize that which they fear?
These are not simply rhetorical questions. Ecomyths has now exceeded 80,000 readers in 156 countries. So pretty much, there's a reader of Ecomyths in every corner of the planet where there's internet access. In the coming months I can continue to post re-buttals and counter the most offensive ecomyths, but I am aware that I am in danger of re-cycling my own ideas and comments -- if I haven't already done so.
So, by way of personal and blog renewal, my focus in the coming year is not so much on the nature and evidence of ecomyths themselves as it will be on an extended exploration of the underpinnings of the ideology that supports their perpetuation long after their rational demise should have occurred. To some extent, this has been an implicit theme within the blog since its inception: my goal now is to make the links between ecomyths, the prevailing ideology and social construct formation, adoption and retention, more explicit.
What we understand, we do not fear. What we understand we utilize as knowledge for our individual and collective improvement. Knowledge used for the good of many is wisdom. The world is short on wisdom: it is not short on potential for wisdom.
