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A comment on Climate threats now dominate long-term risks, survey of global leaders finds. Parent comment

Re:Climate threats now dominate long-term risks, survey of g... by peteretep on Thursday January 16, 2020 @12:04AM (#22061807)
> My guess is that very few "global leaders" are scientists

Often more than you'd think. Merkel is a Physicist (where Thatcher was a Chemist), Ursula von der Leyen is a licensed doctor (which almost counts?), and Abe Shinzō has a political science degree (which probably doesn't count :-D). That's 2.5 members of the G8ish.

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Re:Climate threats now dominate long-term risks, survey of g... by MiroF on Thursday January 16, 2020 @04:00AM (#22062784)
All have been out of academia for long enough that calling them "scientists" is a stretch
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Re:Climate threats now dominate long-term risks, survey of g... by tremon on Thursday January 16, 2020 @05:52AM (#22063381)
By that definition, not a single politician is a scientist because they all works in politics, not in academia.
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Re:Climate threats now dominate long-term risks, survey of g... by EForEndeavour on Thursday January 16, 2020 @08:54AM (#22064484)
No: GP said "out of academia long enough." Recent newcomers to politics with extensive backgrounds in professional science (for some definition of "recent" and "extensive") could still count.
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Re:Climate threats now dominate long-term risks, survey of g... by mlang23 on Thursday January 16, 2020 @04:17AM (#22062862)
The question is, were they any good in their original profession, and why did they move away from it and go to politics?
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Re:Climate threats now dominate long-term risks, survey of g... by ekianjo on Thursday January 16, 2020 @04:25AM (#22062915)
I think the point of their comment is that they had exposure to Science, which is almost as important as being a good scientist, because it alters how you think.
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Re:Climate threats now dominate long-term risks, survey of g... by mlang23 on Thursday January 16, 2020 @04:50AM (#22063044)
I disagree that plain "exposure" is worth anything. Let me bring up a sort of unrelated example. Whenever I meet someone that claims they have "some" experience with people with disabilities, it turns out they are worse then those people that dont claim that.
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Re:Climate threats now dominate long-term risks, survey of g... by EForEndeavour on Thursday January 16, 2020 @08:57AM (#22064517)
"Some experience with people with disabilities" implies a far lower level of commitment and immersion than the "exposure to science" that's being discussed in this thread.

If a politician claims they have a scientific background, but it turns out all they did was take gen bio in first year and follow a dozen popular scientists on Twitter, they'd be derided.

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Re:Climate threats now dominate long-term risks, survey of g... by lake99 on Thursday January 16, 2020 @09:30AM (#22064817)
I don't know the specifics of the people in the article, but examples like Cédric Villani demonstrate that it's not OK to be rash in one's judgment.
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