Scientists are not happy after hearing Joe Rogan and Jordan Peterson's wide-ranging interview.
During their four-hour chat, the topic of climate and climate change came up when the author asked the podcaster how he prepares for an interview on his show.
Rogan revealed he puts in a lot of groundwork for his guests, especially those who are coming from scientific or specialist backgrounds.
But he explained how an upcoming interview has been burdensome because he's having to read the researcher's book about climate change.
"It's requiring a lot of thinking, and then I have to like look at the criticisms of this guy and criticisms of the work," the podcaster said.
"Who believes in 10 years that Miami is going to be underwater, who believes that this is probably hyperbole and that it's a gross exaggeration and the reality is the world sort of always goes through these cycles of change but human beings are definitely having an effect on it, but a small effect compared to cows and other things ... the climate change one is a weird one."
Even though a large consensus of scientific data and modelling contradicts Rogan's belief, Peterson then went even further.
He claimed that 'there's no such thing as climate'. *Record scratch*. Yep - he said climate, as a concept, doesn't exist because of its scope.
When asked to elaborate, Peterson said: "Climate and everything are the same word, and that's what bothers me about the climate change types.
"It's like, this is something that bothers me about it, technically. It's like climate is about everything. OK. But your models aren't based on everything. Your models are based on a set number of variables."
"So that means you've reduced the variables - which are everything - to that set. Well, how did you decide which set of variables to include in the equation if it's about everything?... Because your models do not and cannot model everything."
He even went as far as saying (without evidence mind you) that 'more people die every year from solar energy than die from nuclear' because he thinks people fall off roofs trying to install the technology.
However, it wasn't long before scientists hit back at Rogan's and Peterson's claims and they certainly didn't mince their words.
Dr Michael Mann, Professor of Atmospheric Science and Director of Earth System Science Center at Penn State University and a National Academy of Sciences member, said (via The Independent) that the 'bit that I heard made me dumber'.
"As I understand Jordan Peterson's argument, it's 'the climate is complicated. It's got lots of components. So we can never model it or understand it,'" Dr Mann wrote in an email.
"The argument betrays either a total lack of understanding of how science works (or, more likely, a total disdain for his audience and an intention to disinform).
"It could be used to dismiss physics, chemistry, biology, and every other field of science where one formulates (and rigorously tests - the part Peterson conveniently ignores) conceptual models that attempt to distill the key components of a particular system and the interactions between those components.
Dr Mann said Rogan and Peterson have 'essentially dismissed the very notion of scientific discovery'.
Dr Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick, a climate scientist at the University of New South Wales Canberra, added: "He seems to think we model the future climate the same way we do the weather. He sounds intelligent, but he's completely wrong.
"He has no frickin' idea."
Dr Gavin Schmidt, a climate modeller and senior adviser at NASA, said on Twitter: "Guys, for the love of everything holy, please, please, have somebody on who knows what the heck a climate model is!!!"
Peterson and Rogan's back-and-forth has also been labelled 'whackadoo', 'stunningly ignorant' and 'pathetic' for ignoring scientific models as well as the scientific evidence that supports humans being the main driver of climate change.
Topics: climate change, Celebrity, News, joe rogan, Jordan Peterson
Stewart Perrie