Traitors to the Human Species

The Three Body Problem is a gripping science fiction novel by Liu Cixin, which contains a wealth of information about ancient and modern Chinese history. But I fear it distorts science. And my first golden rule of good science fiction is not to distort science. I think distortions are dangerous because uninformed readers can be led to believe that certain false things are true.

I’m not worried about the assumption that string theory is true. It could be, although it has lost a lot of backing in recent years. But the description in the novel of the three-star system Alpha Centauri has nothing to do with reality, even though that description is crucial to the plot.

The ecological ignorance of ecologists

Ernst Haeckel, usually considered
the founder of Ecology

Ecology is the science that studies the mutual relationships between living beings that inhabit a given territory. Scientists who practice and research in this science are called ecologists.

As its name suggests (the -ism ending is very clear) ecologism is not a science, but an ideology. The people who practice this ideology (also called ecologists in English) are not scientists, but socio-political activists. Why did the creators of this ideology choose a name that can lead to confusion with that of a science, especially in English? No doubt they did it on purpose, to take advantage of the social prestige of science; so that ill-informed people would believe that ecologism is scientific; in short, to win votes.

Obviously there always are honorable exceptions, but it is not difficult to see that many socio-political ecologists are quite ignorant about the ecological science that they are supposed to apply in their practical policies, whenever they reach power positions. As a result, such policies are often counterproductive and even tragic.

Let us look at an example: