BREAKING Iran fires air defence batteries in provinces as sound of explosions heard near Isfahan
Iran fired air defence batteries early Friday morning after reports of explosions near the city of Isfahan, the state-run IRNA news agency reported.
As podcaster Joe Rogan faces condemnation from medical scientists for spreading misinformation about vaccines and COVID-19, another interview by the controversial host this week has become the subject of mockery -- this time among climate scientists.
Canadian clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson appeared on "The Joe Rogan Experience" on Monday, making false and generalized claims that the modeling scientists use to project climate change and its impacts are flawed.
In waffling remarks, Peterson said that "there's no such thing as climate, right?" He then went on to mock "climate types," who he said typically suggest that "climate is about everything."
"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?"
Rogan, whose podcast is hosted on Spotify, did little to challenge the unsubstantiated comments.
Peterson's remarks show a general misunderstanding of how scientific modeling works. Scientists use models, or simulations, to project particular aspects of climate change, such as the rise in global temperatures, changes in rainfall patterns and the likelihood of drought.
Climate scientists are now ridiculing Peterson's claims.
"Such seemingly-comic nihilism would be funny if it weren't so dangerous," Michael E. Mann, a climate scientist at Pennsylvania State University, told CNN.
"Similar anti-science spread by these two individuals about COVID-19 likely has and will continue to lead to fatalities. Even more will perish from extremely dangerous and deadly weather extremes if we fail to act on the climate crisis. So the promotion of misinformation about climate change is in some ways even more dangerous."
Mann said that Peterson's claims were "nonsensical and false," and seems to boil down to the idea that climate science is so complicated that scientists could never model it or understand it.
"Such an absurd argument leads to a dismissal of physics, chemistry, biology, and every other field of science where one formulates (and tests—that's the critical part Peterson seems to fail to understand) conceptual models that attempt to simplify the system and distill the key components and their interactions," Mann said.
"Every great discovery in science has arisen this way. Including the physics of electromagnetism that allowed Peterson and Rogan to record and broadcast this silly and absurd conversation."
Spotify declined to comment on the criticism. CNN has reached out to "The Joe Rogan Experience" for comment.
NASA climate scientist Gavin Schmidt shared similar views on Twitter, pointing out that Peterson didn't appear to understand how climate models work.
Zeke Hausfather, a research scientist at Berkeley Earth, tweeted graph showing how accurate scientists' projections of global warming have been over several decades.
"For what it's worth, we have been projecting future warming since the first climate models in the late 1960s/early 1970s. We can look back to see how well they have performed. It turns out our models generally did a good job," he wrote.
The backlash comes as musician Neil Young told audio streaming giant Spotify he no longer wanted his music to be featured on on the service because of Rogan's frequent false claims around COVID-19 and vaccines.
Spotify announced on Wednesday it would no longer stream the music of Neil Young, according to a Washington Post report.
Iran fired air defence batteries early Friday morning after reports of explosions near the city of Isfahan, the state-run IRNA news agency reported.
American millionaire Jonathan Lehrer, one of two men charged in the killings of a Canadian couple in Dominica, has been denied bail.
Nearly half of China's major cities are suffering 'moderate to severe' levels of subsidence, putting millions at risk of flooding especially as sea levels rise.
Prince Harry, the son of King Charles III and fifth in line to the British throne, has formally confirmed he is now a U.S. resident.
The judge presiding over the trial of a man accused of fatally running over a Toronto police officer is telling jurors the possible verdicts they may reach based on the evidence in the case.
Health Canada will change its longstanding policy restricting gay and bisexual men from donating to sperm banks in Canada, CTV News has learned. The federal health agency has adopted a revised directive removing the ban on gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men, effective May 8.
Colin Jost, who co-anchors Saturday Night Live's 'Weekend Update,' revealed who he thinks is one of the best hosts on the show.
A male columnist has apologized for a cringeworthy moment during former University of Iowa superstar and college basketball's highest scorer Caitlin Clark's first news conference as an Indiana Fever player.
Sophie Kinsella, the best-selling author behind the 'Shopaholic' book series, has revealed that she is receiving treatment for brain cancer.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.
Molly Knight, a grade four student in Nova Scotia, noticed her school library did not have many books on female athletes, so she started her own book drive in hopes of changing that.
Almost 7,000 bars of pure gold were stolen from Pearson International Airport exactly one year ago during an elaborate heist, but so far only a tiny fraction of that stolen loot has been found.
When Les Robertson was walking home from the gym in North Vancouver's Lower Lonsdale neighbourhood three weeks ago, he did a double take. Standing near a burrow it had dug in a vacant lot near East 1st Street and St. Georges Avenue was a yellow-bellied marmot.
A moulting seal who was relocated after drawing daily crowds of onlookers in Greater Victoria has made a surprise return, after what officials described as an 'astonishing' six-day journey.
Just steps from Parliament Hill is a barber shop that for the last 100 years has catered to everyone from prime ministers to tourists.
A high score on a Foo Fighters pinball machine has Edmonton player Dave Formenti on a high.
A compound used to treat sour gas that's been linked to fertility issues in cattle has been found throughout groundwater in the Prairies, according to a new study.
While many people choose to keep their medical appointments private, four longtime friends decided to undergo vasectomies as a group in B.C.'s Lower Mainland.