Leonardo DiCaprio Raises the Issue of Belief in Climate Change to Hold Public Office

October 6, 2016 – When the actor, Leonardo DiCaprio met President Barack Obama on the Whitehouse lawn on Monday of this week he proposed to the President that public office requires a commitment to science and empirical truths. He proposed that “if you do not believe in climate change, you….should not be allowed to hold public office.”

DiCaprio’s suggestion could mean that current congressmen and senators serving in the House and Senate would lose the right to run for government. According to a March 8, 2016 article, 34% of the current Congress are climate change deniers. The count is 144 in the House and 38 in the Senate. And this includes Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senator Marco Rubio (who tried to beat Donald Trump for the Republican Presidential nomination), and Senator James Inhofe, Chair of the Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works. The climate deniers’ ridings are where 60% of the American people live.

I would argue that as sincere as DiCaprio’s wish may be, it runs counter to freedom of thought and speech. And I would also argue that the word belief and believe should not be part of the conversation.

Climate change is evidence based. It is not a faith and therefore doesn’t qualify as something to believe in. The overwhelming scientific evidence points to a significant influence on current and future climate by our explosive growth as a species on this planet and our use of energy technologies that have increased carbon content in the atmosphere while reducing it from the ground.

This is creating a re-balancing of carbon throughout the planet brought on by something. Now there are natural shifts in carbon that we can trace back through the geological record. We hypothesize that these are related to changes in solar radiation levels over the Sun’s nearly 5 billion years of existence. They are also related to changes in the tilt of the axis which causes our seasons and contributes to how the planet breathes out carbon dioxide in winter in the northern hemisphere with the reverse happening in the summer. We monitor these breaths at places like the observatory perched at the peak of Mauna Loa in Hawaii. And what we observe is this. Current atmospheric carbon levels have been following an acceleration curve upward. Ground and ocean monitoring stations show an accelerating rise in mean average atmospheric and marine temperatures.

Our observations are based on principles attributed to William of Occam, a 14th century English Franciscan friar. We call these principles Occam’s Razor.

Occam (seen in the image below) is credited with establishing two principles, one of plurality and the other of parsimony. He said:

“Pluralitas non est ponenda sine neccesitate”
Roughly translated “Plurality should not be posited without necessity.”

“Frustra fit per plura quod potest fieri per pauciora” and “it is pointless to do with more what is done with less.”

William also stated “Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem” or “entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily.”

In other words when combined what William was stating was “keep things simple” when seeking an explanation of the observed, that the simplest explanation for evidence is usually the right one.

It is interesting that a man of faith, a Franciscan friar, William of Occam (depicted above), is the person who created this line of reasoning which is the basis of modern scientific method.

Einstein created his thought pictures using Occam’s principles leading to his breakthrough theory of relativity.

Our understanding of quantum mechanics and the Heisenberg uncertainty principle are all derived from observation using Occam’s principles.

Stephen Hawking in “A Brief History of Time” references Occam’s Razor in this quote:

“We could still imagine that there is a set of laws that determines events completely for some supernatural being, who could observe the present state of the universe without disturbing it.  However, such models of the universe are not of much interest to us mortals.  It seems better to employ the principle known as Occam’s razor and cut out all the features of the theory that cannot be observed.”

Ernst Mach’s Principles of Economy derive from Occam stating “scientists must use the simplest means of arriving at their results and exclude everything not perceived by the senses.”

And what we cannot see and measure bu our natural senses is supplemented by technological means. We have invented satellites that fly over head, and sensors that record Earth’s every breath from atop Mauna Loa to the oceans to the forests, farmlands and cities. This has given us supernatural perception based on facts, not belief.

That’s why I wish DiCaprio had not used “belief” in his declaration. Because belief is what fuels climate science denial, that and greed, and has nothing to do with climate science evidence. If DiCaprio stated that those who believe in supernatural beings should not serve in elected office he would have been addressing much of what fuels the current inaction on the climate file. He would have excluded almost everyone serving in the U.S. Congress, the members of the Supreme Court, and the President. So as much as I appreciate DiCaprio’s touting of the climate file, and the need to have those elected recognize that decisions be evidence based using Occam’s famous principles, the reality of our times and the Constitutional guarantees given all Americans makes his declaration no more than a wishful thought.