I sat down with theoretical physicist Dr. Steven Koonin, author of “Unsettled” and former Under Secretary of Energy for Science under President Obama, to discuss what he calls the “consensus trap.” He argues that the 2008 financial crisis, COVID policies, and climate alarmism all followed the same template, and the people who got it wrong faced no accountability while the costs fell on the poor. Institutions built policy on flawed models, manufactured an elite consensus, and punished the scientists who dissented.
We get into:
Why Fauci saying “I represent science” was a betrayal of science
How the RCP 8.5 climate scenario was used for propaganda
Working as BP’s chief scientist and inside the Department of Energy
Why the global energy transition hasn’t moved the needle on fossil fuel use
Why wind and solar can’t be the backbone of the electric grid
The real risks of EMP attacks and solar storms
The state of nuclear power and small modular reactors
How AI is reshaping energy reliability, affordability, and emissions
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Outline:
[0:00] Can science be “settled”?
[12:39] What is a scientific model?
[20:25] Human behavior is hard to predict
[25:36] Cause and effect in complex systems
[28:33] Why are scientists swayed by “consensus”?
[33:47] Working in the Obama administration
[42:59] Insane climate models were treated as sane
[53:41] Fossil fuels and power grids are life-saving
[1:03:38] The risk of an EMP attack
[1:12:38] AI data centers and energy reliability
[1:18:05] “But we need climate action!”
[1:26:53] The incentives inside scientific institutions
[1:31:56] How the military drives scientific research
[1:39:25] Should we worry about the Skynet timeline?
[1:51:27] Always check your opinions against real data
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