Scientists Slam Jordan Peterson and Joe Rogan for Peddling Lies about Climate Crisis

Canadian clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson and American podcaster Joe Rogan have landed themselves in yet another controversy after their recent comments on climate change. In the recent episode of The Joe Rogan Experience that aired earlier this month, the two were heard making false and generalised claims that the modelling scientists use to project climate change and its impacts is flawed. Too much of climate scientists’ anger, Peterson said, “there’s no such thing as climate, right?” The Canadian psychologist who is known to discredit the feminist movement as well went on to mock “climate types,” and described them as people who “typically suggest that climate is about everything.” Peterson added, “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. But how did you decide which set of variables to include in the equation if it’s about everything?” Peterson went on to expand on his logic as he claimed without much evidence that more people die every year from solar energy than die from nuclear blasts because he thinks people fall off roofs trying to install the technology.

Podcast host Rogan was not seen arguing with Peterson’s logic during the episode. However, real scientists were quite livid at the absurdity displayed by Peterson and Rogan. Michael E. Mann, a climate scientist at Pennsylvania State University, told CNN, “Such seemingly-comic nihilism would be funny if it weren’t so dangerous.” Slamming Peterson’s comments as “nonsensical and false,” Mann told CNN that a similar “anti-science" information was spread by Peterson along with Rogan about COVID-19 which will most likely continue to lead to fatalities. Stating facts about the climate crisis Mann added that more people perish from extremely dangerous and deadly weather extremes if people fail to act on the climate crisis. “The promotion of misinformation about climate change is in some ways even more dangerous,” Mann said. Science Twitter was also unhappy with Peterson’s latest problematic take on such a serious issue. One of the users tweeted, “Holy moly. I don’t think I can do this. The first words out of Peterson’s mouth in the Joe Rogan interview are complete self-parody. I can’t even dunk on it.”

Another user tweeted, “A classic example of Jordan Peterson asking a question that has an answer, presuming there is no answer, and posturing as if this not having an answer is some sort of deep insight. It’s ignorance pretending to be wise.”