Are Doomers Really the Bad Guys? with Eliot Jacobson

In this Climate Chat episode, we interview returning guest Prof. Eliot Jacobson about his response to a recent paper claiming "doomerism" is harmful and suggesting people can be "inoculated" from "doomer" messages. Prof. Jacobson responded on his Substack blog with an article titled "The Fundamental Theorem of Doomism". Dr. Eliot Jacobson is a retired academic, former casino gaming consultant, and prominent climate science commentator. He earned his Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Arizona in 1983 and spent over two decades in academia, serving as a mathematics professor at Ohio University before teaching computer science at UC Santa Barbara until his retirement in 2009. Following his academic career, Jacobson transitioned into the casino industry and founded Jacobson Gaming, LLC, where he became a leading expert on table game design, mathematical certification, and advantage play, authoring several books including the industry best-seller Advanced Advantage Play. Today, he is widely recognized for his advocacy and data analysis regarding the climate crisis, utilizing his blog Climate Casino and social media to discuss extreme weather anomalies, ecological overshoot, and the realities of climate change from a self-described "doomer" perspective. Eliot's Substack blog: https://climatecasino.substack.com PNAS article on doomerism: "Psychological inoculation against climate doom": https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2609074123 Eliot's response titled "The Fundamental Theorem of Doomism": https://climatecasino.substack.com/p/the-fundamental-theorem-of-doomism Follow Eliot on X/Twitter: @EliotJacobson Follow Eliot on Bluesky: @climatecasino.net Please Like and Subscribe! Listen to Climate Chat on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/climate-chat/id1893162516 Listen to Climate Chat on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1m0OSLWRPPcyOddErvxJ1e Dan Miller has been giving talks around the world on the need for urgent climate action for over 20 years. He is co-founder of The Roda Group, a climate-tech venture capital group, and he serves as an advisor for other climate funds and climate-focused non-profit groups. He started Climate Chat in 2021 on Clubhouse and added YouTube in 2023. Follow Dan Miller on X/Twitter: @danmiller999 Follow Dan Miller on Bluesky: @danmiller999.bsky.social and @climatechat.bsky.social Leon Simons is a climate scientist based in the Netherlands. He was a co-author with James Hansen on the 2023 "Global Warming in the Pipeline" paper that discussed the recent acceleration in global warming. Leon's work has focused recently on changes in aerosol emissions from ships and the impact of those changes on climate change. You can access Leon's research writings here: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Leon-Simons Follow Leon on X/Twitter: @LeonSimons8 and Bluesky: ‪@leonsimons.bsky.social‬ Follow Leon on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/LeonSimons/home Follow Stacey Randecker on X/Twitter: @DrivingMzStacey and Bluesky: @bikingmzstacey.bsky.social Follow Eli Rabani on X/Twitter: @radsci and Bluesky: @radsci.bsky.social You can leave a question in the YouTube Live chat. Please begin your question with "Question:" to make it easy for our mods to spot it. For more Climate Chat episodes, see our YouTube home page: https://www.youtube.com/@climatechat For recent YouTube Live Climate Chat programs: https://www.youtube.com/@climatechat/streams