Internet Censorship and Propaganda
There is an information war happening on the internet. It is easy to spot when a voice is silenced by being deplatformed, what is much harder to see is the effect of machine learning algorithms, when the algorithms hide important news from us, or push incorrect information. To illustrate the problem, I will provide recent information about climate change disasters, and information from scientists I trust as to what is going to happen next. You will see for yourself, how much censorship and propaganda you have been subject to. Let us consider the recent floods in Pakistan.
I was amazed at how few people at a recent software conference knew what just happened in Pakistan. 1/3 of Pakistan was recently flooded. A million uninhabitable homes. At least 33 million people displaced.
You may also be suprised to learn how much you do not know about recent disasters, about climate victories, and how much misinformation you have received about future predictions.
It is really easy it is to use an RSS reader to circumvent both censorship and propaganda.
Detailed Description
The first part of the talk will cover the state of world today. The disastrous floods in Pakistan, the worst drought in 500 years in Europe, the worse drought in Chinese history, the lowest levels in Lake Meade, in the US, the disappearance of arctic ice, and of the the Larsen A and C ice shelves in Antarctica, the unexpected rainfall on the top of Green Land, the unprecedented global forest fires and the rapidly rising methane levels.
The second part of the talk will cover what scientists expect to happen. "The last time there was this much CO2 in the atmosphere, there were trees on the South Pole". CO2 is rising rapidly, Methane levels are accelerating. When all the ice melts there will be a sea level rise of 80 meters. How soon will that happen? The evidence is that the IPCC reports are way too conservative. Reality is much worse than expected.
The third part of the talk will cover what we can do about it. There have already been numerous climate change victories. For example, the G7 countries to end overseas funding for fossil fuel development ,
I will cover the legal victories, the oil company retreats, insurance and loan cancellations, and even the Exxon/Mobile shareholder proposal victory
We all need to avoid the algorithms, get your news from RSS or Mastodon, educate our friends and communities off line, and then get politically active. "It is worth fighting for every tenth of a degree." And fighting is much much healthier than being depressed.
The actual talk will present more recent news items.
Prior Knowledge Expected –
No previous knowledge expected
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