In the U.K., two members of the direct action climate group Just Stop Oil were arrested after they spray-painted the words “1.5 is dead” on the grave of Charles Darwin at London’s Westminster Abbey Monday. The protest follows the news last week that 2024 was the hottest year in human history, with the average global temperature rising by 1.6 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels. This is one of the activists.
Alyson Lee: “2024 was the hottest year on record. We have already passed through the 1.5 degree that was supposed to keep us safe. Millions are being displaced. California is on fire. And three-quarters of all wildlife has disappeared since the 1970s.”
The activist later said she believed Charles Darwin would approve of their protest “because he would be following the science, and he would be as upset as us with the government for ignoring the science.”
I tried it. It produces reasonably accurate results a meaningful fraction of the time. The problem is that when it’s wrong, it still uses authoritative language, and you can’t tell the difference without underlying knowledge.
There does need to be a mechanism to keep the human in the loop to correct the knowledge base by people who have the underlying knowledge. Perhaps notification needs to be sent to people who have previously viewed the incorrect information when a correction is made.